This story originally appeared in the print Oct. 16, 2015 Special Edition of The Eagle.
For some students looking to start a new fraternity or sorority, the rules may seem to be written in Greek.
The process for colonization, the first step in establishing a new chapter at a school, is long and includes juggling the wishes of a national organization with the desires of students at the university. New Greek organizations usually arrive at AU after proposals are approved by the office of Student Activities.
“If all goes well and all are talking to each other, there really is kind of a fourpronged model of undergrads, alumni, [a group’s] national [headquarters], and the University all kind of working together,” Dominic Greene, director of Student Activities, said.
Chartering can be confusing for nontraditional Greek life groups. While social fraternities and sororities (which focus on social events and philanthropy) often have long histories, vast alumni networks and strong national headquarters, professional groups (which center around a theme or specific profession) may not.
The process of colonization was fraught with roadblocks for Delta Kappa Alpha, a national co-ed film arts fraternity and the newest professional group on campus. When interested students brought a proposal to Student Activities, the idea was declined outright, according to David Stout, DKA president.
Stout said one issue was the fact that DKA does not have a very large national presence. It was founded in the 1930s, relatively new compared to some social Greek organizations, and the national fraternity shut down completely from 1979 to 2009 because it had no executive office.
Despite the initial refusal, DKA at AU found a new sponsor halfway through last year: the School of Communication.
“[SOC] had an interest in seeing our fraternity succeed because they saw this film organization and they really wanted it to grow for the student body and the film students,” Stout said.
Members of the national DKA headquarters in Los Angeles helped the first pledge class through the recruitment process during the fall 2014 semester. From there, the members of DKA recruited a beta class, Stout said.
AU’s new chapter is part of a larger national push to resurrect the organization.
“DKA’s been trying to aggressively expand throughout the country, which is very, very good because that builds up our own network and gives us a lot of credibility as well,” Stout said. “Also, it’s just fun to be like, ‘Oh, there’s a brother all the way across the country’ or ‘Oh, there’s a sister across the world,’ just having that kind of network. I’m glad that American can be a part of that network.”
Social colonization
For social Greek organizations that have strong national roots and traditions reaching back to the 19th century, starting a new chapter may be more straightforward.
Students that wish to start a social Greek organization can approach the Student Activities office and declare an interest in starting a new organization, or a national Greek organization can approach Student Activities and express an interest in colonizing a chapter at AU, Greene said.
Since recruitment numbers have gone up dramatically in the past two years, in 2013, the Panhellenic Council’s expansion committee decided that there was a need for more social sororities, The Eagle previously reported. The University has been interviewing national social sorority representatives to fill the demand.
There will be three finalists for sorority expansion. Alpha Xi Delta gained the right to colonize at AU and began recruitment in January 2014. Sigma Kappa is coming to campus in January 2016. The third finalist, which has not yet been selected, Greene said.
After formal recruitment ended in spring 2014, Alpha Xi Delta nationals offered four informational events for girls to learn more about the sorority. These nights were themed around different aspects of founding a sorority, like “sisterhood” or “philanthropy.”
According to AXiD President Sunny Massa, members from the Alpha Xi Delta headquarters staff came to AU and interviewed each girl who applied to be in the sorority during the first round of recruitment. The next round would be the preference round, where only the girls that staff liked were invited back. Bids, or offers of membership, would be given to girls the next day.
“Myself personally, I got through the preference rounds of [two other] sororities; ... who I loved, they’re great chapters,” Massa said. “But I just felt like it wasn’t a fit, and I really wanted to find something new and found something new. My brother had helped found [social fraternity] Sigma Phi Epsilon here, so I kinda wanted to follow in his footsteps and found a sorority.”
In spring 2016, Sigma Kappa will be the next sorority to join AU’s Greek life community.
“I don’t even know when the next time we’re going to have a sorority extension is,” Greene said. “So this is a great opportunity for women.”
Sigma Kappa representatives will be on campus to meet students and will hold an information session in October. From there, founders will form the colony after sorority recruitment in January and launch the first night of formal recruitment.
After that, the recruitment process for Sigma Kappa will be similar to the one that the AXiD founding sisters went through last Spring.
“We always encourage women, ‘Go through the process. If you don’t feel comfortable, if you don’t feel like the current sororities are a home for you, then Sigma Kappa could be a great option for you,’” Greene said. “But it’s not a, ‘Hey, if you don’t like this, drop out now, then Sigma Kappa will take you.’ Just because they need a lot of people doesn’t mean that everyone’s going to get a spot.”
Fraternity expansion
In 2013, around the same time sororities decided to expand, the Inter-Fraternity Council decided to add four more groups to AU’s campus.
Since that time, Beta Theta Pi, Zeta Beta Tau and Sigma Alpha Epsilon colonized and began chapters. Alpha Tau Omega, a fourth fraternity, will come to AU’s campus in January. Spring recruitment for ATO will also occur this academic year.
“The men don’t have a formalized recruitment process in January,” Greene said. “It’s not as formal and it’s not as structured [as other greek recruitment processes].”
ATO previously existed on AU’s campus, but the group lost its charter in 2001 after alcohol violations and hazing incidents. However, its unrecognized members continued to operate and recruit under the chapter name: Epsilon Iota.
Today, EI is still active, though neither the IFC nor the University recognizes it as a legitimate organization. The group briefly thrust AU into the national spotlight after a chain of lurid emails from alleged members of the group surfaced in the first half of 2014, The Eagle previously reported.
ATO’s recruitment process will be much like Sigma Kappa’s recruitment process this spring and AXiD’s recruitment process last spring.
