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Director of Greek Life Bryan VanOsdale hopes to add a few more letters to the Baker University greek alphabet.
VanOsdale, along with seniors Jason Mock and Ryan Smith, plan to expand the university’s greek community with the addition of the Phi Delta Theta fraternity.
“Obviously, I felt there was something missing in our community, and I thought this was another option,” Mock said. “I think we’ve got three very good national fraternities on campus right now and a local with a lot of history here, but there’s something to be said for having a new make and model come into a community.”
Although Baker has four fraternities already – Delta Tau Delta, Kappa Sigma, Zeta Chi and Sigma Phi Epsilon – Smith said none of them appeal to him as much as Phi Delta Theta.
“I heard about (the fraternity) through some people, some friends, and we talked about it and about the values, and I got interested because it’s something new on campus,” Smith said. “It could be a good thing.”
VanOsdale said another reason the group became interested in this particular fraternity was its policy on alcohol.
“One of the things that (the fraternity) was a leader in is back in the ’90s, they started the movement of substance-free housing as a way of combating the high-risk drinking that was going on in greek life and is kind of prevalent today,” he said.
Even though Phi Delta Theta would be the only fraternity house on campus with a substance-free policy, Smith said he doesn’t think it will negatively affect the organization.
“We have to get enough men interested to reach colony status and then get more to meet chapter standards,” Mock said. “I hope to have our charter by next year, and I hope to be one of the stronger, if not the strongest fraternities on campus.”
Smith said he’s spoken to many people on campus who are interested in the fraternity, but so far only four people have made the decision to join. With Smith and Mock accounted for, the other two potential members are sophomore Donnie Gardner and junior Kyle Paul.
Although both VanOsdale and Mock said adding another fraternity to Baker will benefit all fraternities, senior Lawrence Wilson said he thinks it would do more harm than good.
“I think that because all of the fraternities are having trouble with our membership already, I don’t think we should let another fraternity join this campus since we’re already having trouble with our numbers,” he said.