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Hard work and brotherhood pay off for suspended Delt Chapter
Thanks to PinkyPhiMu for posting this in the Delt Forum.
Here is an example of how a good chapter who made a serious mistake hung together and proved their worth to a university administration and the Delt Central Office.
It's a good example of owning up, taking your punishment and working hard to regain respect.
I'm proud of these guys.
DTD charter to return after shortened suspension
By Lauren Wiesner
After a summer of letter writing and meetings, former members of Delta Tau Delta (DTD) fraternity from the class of 2004 may soon be able to call themselves recognized fraternity brothers once again. Despite the original suspension sentence set to end in the fall of 2004, the former brothers worked throughout last spring semester and into the summer to bring the fraternity back prior to the graduation of the last brothers.
Two representatives from the National DTD Fraternity Headquarters will be meeting with the former brothers, DTD area alumni and College administration to discuss the reinstatement process this weekend and the possibility of returning the charter to the brothers as early as Monday.
Steve DeMeo '04, Secretary of DTD, began a letter writing campaign to National Headquarters last year.
Each former brother wrote about "why they joined DTD and why they felt we should be a part of our recolonization," explained DeMeo. The former brothers also asked several faculty and organizations on campus to write letters to National Headquarters, "showing them that we had some reason to be on campus," said Tony Trimboli '04, President of DTD.
The letters were necessary to inform the National Headquarters about how the fraternity had interacted with campus in the past. "All they knew basically was that we had hazed and we lied about it," said DeMeo.
The brothers explained to National Headquarters that, "we realize we made a mistake and we want to correct it in some way," said DeMeo.
After receiving the letters, a representative from the National Headquarters was sent to visit the former fraternity brothers in mid-August. "Twelve out of fourteen [former brothers] showed up. [The representative] was completely shocked that more than one or two showed up," said Chris Palmese '04, Vice President of DTD.
The representative was curious as to why the former brothers were interested in spending their senior year recolonizing their fraternity. "The reason that we joined DTD is because it's different than all of the other organizations on campus. With all the work we've put into [the fraternity], we did not want to let it go," said Palmese.
The brothers were concerned about having involvement in the recolonization process because "the identity of the people that make up the group was more important. We wanted to preserve the identity of our brotherhood," said Trimboli.
After the meeting with the representative, a Chapter Leader Association meeting was held where members voted to reinstate the DTD chapter at Muhlenberg. The reinstatement was considered effective immediately. Since then, the former brothers have been working to fulfill requirements dictated by the College and National Headquarters prior to receiving the charter and official recognition by the College.
A draft of an agreement between the fraternity and the College has been drawn up, and the National fraternity representatives will train the undergraduates and alumni this weekend. An alumni board made up of members from local DTD chapters will be trained to offer guidance to the fraternity throughout the recolonization process. Dr. Jeffrey Rudski, Associate Professor of Psychology will resume his position as faculty advisor to the fraternity. "I think the students have done everything that could be asked of them," explained Rudy Ehrenberg, Dean of Students.
Becky Grace, Acting Director of Greek Affairs has been working hand-in-hand with the former fraternity brothers. "The guys are great. I'm very supportive of them. They've been working very hard," said Grace.
The College administration has an overall positive outlook for the return of the DTD chapter to campus. "I don't think we would allow them to return if we didn't expect them to flourish," explained Ehrenberg. "They had a strong community service program, and that is expected to continue."
The brothers will be participating in a program at a center city daycare center for underprivileged children. Each brother will work with one child for an hour each week. In previous years, the brothers worked at Muhlenberg Elementary School. According to Palmese, "The brothers felt they weren't spending enough time with the kids [one-on-one]. Now we'll actually get to deal with one kid through the whole year."
Trimboli commented that throughout the suspension and reinstatement processes, "We kept ourselves together even better than I imagined. We didn't fall apart. I realized how hard it was for the brothers to stay together when I saw other [suspended] houses."
The brotherhood dynamic has seen some changes since their suspension. "Each of us grew up. It taught us responsibility for our actions. After that, it brought us a lot closer. We realized we screwed up as a group and we had to fix this as a group," said Palmese.
"The interesting thing about DTD is that...we've been friends before everything. Even though we lost our house and lost our charter, we are friends. In that sense, our dynamic hasn't changed," said DeMeo. "The brotherhood is very close."
Isn't this a better way to deal with adversity than to trash a house and badmouth the university?
Way to go, brothers!
__________________
Fraternally,
DeltAlum
DTD
The above is the opinion of the poster which may or may not be based in known facts and does not necessarily reflect the views of Delta Tau Delta or Greek Chat -- but it might.
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