A RICH HISTORY OF SERVICE
Over the years, Sigma Alpha provided many services and programs to help both Baruch students and the outside community. Its record is simply unparalleled. We recount several here briefly but a lot more can be found in our detailed history.
An early and successful invention started in the early Forties was The Freshman Orientation program to give guidance and help freshman plan their studies and career. As Baruch College’s finances improved, the school took over this program, which had become a perennial success until then.
Sigma Alpha and its evening division Sigma Alpha Delta also took the lead for many decades with The Tutorial Program long before Baruch could afford to offer this service. The program, which assisted students at Baruch in need of academic assistance, was still highly successful in the early Eighties. Eventually, Baruch College followed their example and integrated it into their administration.
Yet another successful operation by Sigma Alpha, which ran from the Fifties to the Eighties, was the Used Book Exchange and The Textbook Fund which helped students to purchase needed textbooks which they otherwise could ill afford.
Sigma Alpha has also provided many charitable services to the community and other charitable organization. Programs have included: Christmas & Easter Parties for Orphans, Help for the Blind, The Blood Bank Drive, The Ronald McDonald House, The Food and Hunger Hotline, The March of the Dimes, The Covenant House (Homeless shelter for woman), help for AIDS sufferers. More recently Sigma Alpha, Delta has contributed to the VITA program which helps low income people file their taxes.
It has also been a tradition of Sigma Alpha and its evening division Sigma Alpha Delta to sponsor intellectual debates, seminars, and business events for Baruch students during each semester to assist their personal development, to help them gain an understanding of the real business world and a clearer vision of career opportunities, and to also provide them a networking facility with their peers and business professionals outside the school.
A lot of credit goes to Sigma Alpha Delta, the evening division that has organized programs to accommodate working, evening students. The majority of the large evening, student body at Baruch work full time and would otherwise be unable to attend social, business, and networking events during regular hours.
