Waking up, reporting to Army cadet training, studying, making a monthly phone call with the AVC President, putting two dozen brothers through Ritual, and then finding some time to celebrate afterward. Over the past semester, Brother Matt Ucci ’25 found himself having more than one jam-packed weekend like this. Since joining the chapter in fall 2022, Matt has demonstrated a thing or two about staying on top of a very busy schedule. Matt, a senior urban-studies major, hails from Albany, New York and serves as a cadet in the Connecticut Army National Guard and UConn ROTC program. This past semester, he also left his mark on the Connecticut Alpha chapter.

This past weekend, Matt completed his term as the chapter’s Chaplain, the officer responsible for enforcing chapter membership standards and coordinating Ritual ceremonies. Matt’s tenure in the role was short but monumentally effective. He assumed the role at the end of the spring semester to take over for the incumbent, who was traveling abroad this fall. Matt had his work cut out for him: SigEp has started a nationwide roll-out of updates to the Fraternity’s Ritual. As part of the rollout, Matt had to ensure the entire chapter had experienced the full ceremony by the end of the semester. This was no small task. Some thirty-plus members had not yet been through, and the chapter recruited another twenty-seven members this fall. The task facing Matt was staggering, and on a scale that no Chaplain had previously faced. Undeterred, Matt and his Ritual team got to work. Over the course of a couple weekends, Matt oversaw the Ritual initiation ceremony of some fifty-plus members of Connecticut Alpha, ensuring that his team performed the Ritual with the decorum and focus that this special ceremony demands. Within a month of his term as Chaplain, Matt had performed more Ritual ceremonies than any of his predecessors had in an entire year. 

But Matt did not stop there. Later that fall, when our chapter recruited its first Renaissance member since returning to campus, Matt was ready to answer the call. Without missing a beat, Matt packed up the Ritual equipment and hauled it down to Northford where a mix of Connecticut Alpha and New Jersey Alpha brothers helped initiate brother Alex DeFrancesco in a historic dairy barn. 

Matt still was not done! With the end of his term in sight and his legacy well-cemented, he answered the call of service one last time. Earlier this month, the colonizing members of Quinnipiac’s Connecticut Epsilon chapter, wrapping up their first semester back on campus, reached out in search of a chapter that could initiate their first set of executive and standards board officers. Without thinking twice, Matt invited them up to Storrs and performed another twenty-seven Ritual ceremonies.

Thanks to Matt’s ceaseless commitment, dozens of SigEps in Connecticut Alpha and Epsilon, across multiple generations, now share a special experience through our Fraternity’s Ritual. We hail thee, Brother Ucci!