Alpha Sigma Phi, a nationwide fraternity, was recently established at Seton Hall. It is the second fraternity to gain recognition this year; the first was Alpha Phi Alpha, which was formed during the fall semester.
"A group of about 15 freshmen, about four months ago, started an interest group," Kyle Norwood, the fraternity's recruitment chair said. "My friend got an e-mail telling him about it and we got a group of our friends together to start a fraternity."
In order to be recognized as a new Greek Life organization on campus, groups must complete a three step expansion process.
Step one requires at least 20 students form an interest group, provide a letter of intent to the administration as well as a letter of support from the national office of the organization. The completion of step one is due by Thanksgiving.
Step two requires an application for recognition, which outlines how the fraternity or sorority will be run and the plans for the following year, as well as information from the national office about the group's constitution and by-laws. Step two is due before Spring Break.
The final part, step three, is the review of the application. Members of the interest group, along with the faculty advisor give a presentation to the Greek Life Expansion Committee. The committee then makes a recommendation to the Dean of Students, who makes the final decision, on whether or not to recognize the organization.
According to Norwood, Alpha Sigma Phi is very popular in the Midwest and is now beginning to spread to the East and West coasts. There are only three chapters in the state of New Jersey.
"We have 40 members right now and are looking to make Greek Life bigger on campus," Norwood said. According to Mariel Pagan, assistant director for Greek Life and clubs and organizations on campus, this number makes Alpha Sigma Phi the largest of the 14 fraternities on campus.
"I think anytime we have an expansion on campus we are meeting a niche and making Greek Life larger and stronger," Pagan said. She added that she is excited to work with the fraternity.
Alpha Sigma Phi is interested in going green and promoting the green movement.
"All of the guys in [Alpha Sigma Phi] have the same interests and didn't feel any of the other frats fit who they were," Norwood said. He added that one of the new fraternity's goals was to make Greek Life bigger on campus.
In addition to enlarging Greek Life, another of Alpha Sigma Phi's goals is to hold an event that the whole university can look forward to every year.
"At other schools they hold a spring fling or a concert and we want to be the frat that everyone wants to be in," Norwood said.
Alpha Sigma Phi is "a typical social fraternity" according to Norwood and its recruiting mostly freshman and sophomores as juniors and seniors will not be around long enough to properly join.
Jenna Berg can be reached at jenna.berg@student.shu.edu.
