Sigma Pi Alpha Rho - IDEAL

Explanation of Alpha Rho’s IDEAL Organization

The purpose of this page on our Alpha Rho Website is to answer the following questions. What is IDEAL? How did it come about? What does IDEAL do? What are IDEAL’s activities? 

IDEAL only came about after the re-Founding of Alpha Rho in 2014, so the Chapter’s alumni from before that year have no experience with IDEAL. This page is going to give you the information you need to understand the functions and purpose of IDEAL.

IDEAL, an acronym for the “Institute for the Development of Ethics and Leadership”, was the brainchild of two of our brothers. Mike Compton (a 1970s alum), who in 2013 and 14 was living in the house as a combination Chapter Director and house father as Alpha Rho came back on campus, was having breakfast with fellow Alpha Rho alum Dave Appleby. As they compared notes on their observations of the new Alpha Rho, they concluded that too many young men were coming from homes where they were not being taught ethics and leadership. They felt there was a need to establish an Alpha Rho alumni organization who would teach those things to undergraduates. 

What qualified them to make those observations? Well, Mike was the son of an Air Force Officer. He was elected Student Body President as an undergraduate at MSU and he was the leader of a highly successful international evangelical undertaking. David was the son of a World War II veteran who jumped into Normandy on D-Day in 1944 and later into Holland as part of Operation Market Garden as an 82d Airborne infantryman. In addition, Dave was a commissioned Army Officer and Vietnam Veteran wounded in battle and the elected Prosecuting Attorney for Christian County, Missouri. 

So, Mike took the actions needed to develop the non-profit organization we call IDEAL and Dave, an attorney, did what was necessary to make it a legal organization. IDEAL functions as a standard non-profit organization under a set of By-Laws with a Board of Directors (Including a President, Vice President, Treasurer, Secretary and Directors.) This has turned out to be pure genius on Mike’s part. If you will click on this link, you will be taken to a separate page that shows the originating thoughts behind IDEAL from 2014.

The two main things IDEAL does to teach ethics and leadership are these. IDEAL supports the Public Affairs Mission at Missouri State by conducting an essay contest in support of MSU’s annual Public Affairs Conference. Mike, unfortunately, died before he could see this come to life. But the governing Board of IDEAL has carried on without him. The contest supports MSU’s Public Affairs Mission, honors the memory of Mike Compton and teaches leadership and ethics to the undergraduate brothers. The undergraduate brothers get those lessons by promoting the contest. They promote the contest by making announcements in their classes and to prominent student organizations on campus. We have a page on the MSU website devoted to the contest. Here is the link. If you haven’t looked at this before, the Alumni Association strongly urges you to do so. As of 2024, we have been conducting the contest for 10 consecutive years.

The second thing IDEAL does is to conduct a series of workshops for each new group of officers to prepare them to lead and manage the Chapter. Universities, by necessity, can no longer have a “boys will be boys” attitude towards Greek organizations in the kind of litigious society we find ourselves in today. So, we must, therefore, make the extra effort needed to ensure the Chapter’s elected leadership is ready to meet the significant challenges of today’s MSU campus. 

One of the recommendations Sigma Pi National has for alumni is that they form an Alumni Advisory Board to ensure that Chapters are functioning properly. What IDEAL is doing with our workshops is to dual hat itself as an Advisory Board for the Chapter. IDEAL’s experience is that the young men in the Chapter are worthy and intelligent young men who want to succeed. The difficulty they have is that they are young and inexperienced. They don’t know what they don’t know. Like a coaching staff for a sports team, IDEAL works to give them the training they need to be successful. 

There is one other thing IDEAL has done as alumni you should be aware of. In 2018, as part of Alpha Rho’s 70th Anniversary celebration, IDEAL and the Alpha Rho Housing Corporation solicited donations to make renovations to the house. Brothers made donations to IDEAL which were tax deductible given IDEAL’s non-profit status. Those funds were, in turn, loaned to the Housing Corporation to make renovations at a very favorable rate of interest. In making the donations, those donating stated where the funds were to go upon repayment. Some of the funds were designated to stay with IDEAL for its operations. The rest of the funds went to various destinations under the MO State University Foundation. 

In November of 2024, with the loan repaid, IDEAL made a $50,000 donation to the MSU Foundation. Clearly, this was a great achievement for the alumni of this Chapter to not only have had the financial success to be able to contribute at this level, but also the dedication to the Chapter to be willing to do so. 

One final thing in conclusion. In 2012, Mike Compton made a short little talk at Homecoming. By pure luck, Nancy Winter (Dave’s wife) grabbed her phone and recorded it or we would have lost it forever. Do yourself a favor and go to this link on the website so you can scroll down and play this video where you can hear Mike and his vision for us as a Chapter for yourself