Nearly three years after its suspension, Delta Upsilon has returned to campus with hopes of rebuilding itself into a new kind of fraternity, said Derek Dauel, expansion consultant at Delta Upsilon International Fraternity.

The new DU hopes to reestablish itself on its founding principles of promoting friendship, spreading liberal culture, developing character and advancing justice, Dauel said. In addition, it will stand as a non-secret fraternity, which means allowing open chapter meetings and discouraging secret rituals to promote transparency, he said.

“We have an open door policy,” Dauel said. “We don’t have any hidden secrets. There’s nothing to hide. There’s nothing we’re ashamed to talk about.”

In its re-founding, DU hopes to challenge and to make an impact on the current Northwestern Greek system, Dauel said. Dauel has been working with the new chapter to lay out the groundwork for what the fraternity and its new members want that impact to be.

“One of the advantages of starting the chapter over is that they are able to shape how the chapter looks,” said Colin Finn, director of alumni development for Delta Upsilon International Fraternity. “The (previous) DU experience at Northwestern really drifted away from its original purpose, so now that we have returned we are really able to attract, inspire and educate the next generation of undergraduate leaders.”

DU was suspended from campus in April 2013 after violating the University’s alcohol policy. An investigation revealed the fraternity had provided alcohol to minors, allowed minors to consume alcohol and broke the substance-free housing sanction.

In April 2015, DU’s international headquarters approved the chapter’s return. By the time of its suspension, the fraternity had deviated from its core values, Dauel said.

“We’re starting fresh and looking to move past that history and start a new beginning,” Dauel said. “We want these guys to be much more values-driven, focusing on academics and service and trying to become one of the best DU chapters in the nation.”

Sophomore Dalton Awde is a member of the new DU’s founding class. He said he chose DU because of the opportunity it presented to shape the returning fraternity.

“Having a fresh start and getting to maybe create something, that’s what really drew me to it,” Awde said. “Also being able to shape a frat into something that’s not traditional, because DU’s hoping to be something unlike other frats on campus.”

The fraternity hopes to differentiate itself from other fraternities by promoting inclusivity through its non-secret policy.

Awde said an important part of facilitating this change is bringing in new members and new voices to contribute to what the new DU will look like.

DU began recruiting new members Jan. 11 in accordance with Interfraternity Council guidelines that prohibited the fraternity from recruiting during formal recruitment, which was a week earlier. As of Tuesday, DU had 24 members, Dauel said, and the fraternity hopes to recruit an additional 26 members by the end of the quarter.

Within the next year, DU hopes to reach 85 members, the campus average for Greek fraternities, Dauel said. Reaching the average will allow DU to be a more sustainable organization, he added.

Currently, the DU fraternity house’s only residents are Dauel and his colleague from nationals. DU members will be able to live in the house starting Fall 2016. For the duration of the 2015-2016 academic year, the house will be accessible to DU members and used to host fraternity events.

As part of the fraternity’s return, DU will be hiring a house director to live in the house. The implementation of this position is a requirement for DU’s return to campus, Cynthia Rose, NU’s director of the Office of Fraternity and Sorority Life, wrote in an email to The Daily.

DU will be one of four fraternities to have a live-in House Director beginning Fall 2016.

“This is a larger trend nationally and one that we are exploring for Northwestern,” Rose said.

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