Delta Tau Delta recolonized its Beta Pi Chapter at Northwestern on Saturday through a colony initiation ceremony. Since Delt’s recruitment began last fall, membership has grown from the single digits to 73 members, McCormick sophomore and Delt vice president Neeraj Chandra said.
The University Hearing and Appeals System removed Delt from campus in June 2007 because of violations of the Student Code of Conduct, including hazing and providing alcohol during the pledge process, according to a 2007 Daily article.
McCormick junior Griffin Kelly said the fraternity’s previous offenses had no influence on his decision to join Delt. He said he doesn’t know exactly why Delt was removed, but he is fighting against that reputation.
“A lot of the guys in the frat right now don’t want to associate with that,” Kelly said.
Because some students have older siblings who attended NU, they immediately have ideas about the fraternity from earlier years, he said.
“We don’t want it to become anything negative,” Kelly said. “We don’t want to be kicked off again.”
Delt will apply to become a full-fledged chapter soon, said Weinberg senior Jon Green, a founding father of the new Delt colony.
Green said he was contacted by representatives from Delt headquarters last November and was one of the first members in the fall. Representatives from the national fraternity came to campus for formal recruitment of new members in the second week of January and left last weekend. The representatives contacted and met with with interested NU students in Norris.
For a fraternity to become an official chapter, Green said, it has to reach a certain size, GPA and level of involvement on campus before recognition. He said Delt is close to achieving all of these.
“We’re sort of hitting all of our marks, so at this point it’s more of a formality,” Green said.
Now that Delt is an initiated colony, the next step is to become an official chapter at NU. Chandra said the quickest charter in Delt’s history is 85 days and they are all hoping to break that record, starting from Saturday’s ceremony.
“Now the task comes down to us,” Chandra said.
According to Chandra, Delt has already met the two hardest requirements: Delt’s membership and GPA are more than the average fraternity’s on campus, and the members are establishing bylaws and rules for recruitment to set up the fraternity for the future.
Chandra said he and several of his friends contacted Delt last April after hearing about it from Dominic Greene, director of Fraternity and Sorority Life at NU.
“It was our ideal to help bring back something and make it special,” Chandra said. “We wanted to be involved in the process of starting something new, and Delt has a long history at Northwestern.”
Kelly is in training to become Delt’s recruitment chair. Currently, he said, he is learning his responsibilities and preparing for the position.
“I’m still observing to an extent, and hopefully I’ll be taking over soon,” Kelly said.
Kelly said he imagined that would be in the next week or two, when people will start coming to him to get involved with Delt.
Recruitment for the returning fraternity began in the fall, and Kelly was one of the first members. He said Delt is still trying to expand.
“There’s no limit on how many people we can have,” Kelly said. “The more the merrier.”
According to Kelly, Delt had been trying to come back for two or three years, but NU wouldn’t allow the fraternity’s return until every student who had been a pledge from Delt had graduated.
“That was the first green light,” Kelly said. “Then it took them another year to get to full force.”
Weinberg freshman Taylor Alvaro said he was not interested in Greek life when he first came to NU, but he became involved with Delt about three weeks ago. So far he has helped recruit members and attended various fraternity events such as meetings about the group’s organization, a retreat and the colony initiation ceremony.
“I liked what they had to offer and it seemed like a unique opportunity, so I hopped on board,” Alvaro said.
He said he found out about Delt through Kelly, his CA, and he thinks being part of the freshman class of Delt will let him influence the fraternity’s direction.
“I kind of like that idea, being able to start something new,” Alvaro said. “There’s a lot of people that are similar to me, they’re all very nice and they all have a goal.”
Alvaro said Delt is producing responsible men and role models on campus.
“Classy guys, I guess that’s what they are shooting for,” he said.
Kelly said he hopes to create an established fraternity that students would want to join. He said he wants to leave a legacy at NU and thinks being involved with Delt will be a good way to make his mark.
“I feel like it’s an experiment,” Kelly said. “I want to see what it turns out to be in five years when I come back as an alumni.”
He said many fraternities are associated with different stereotypes, but in Delt’s case it is hard to determine a stereotype for a group that includes students from various communities on campus. Kelly also said many of the students currently involved in Delt want to make a splash in Greek life.
“As long as we stick to (our) values, I think Delt will definitely set itself apart,” Kelly said.
