Phi Gamma Delta, usually referred to as Fiji, is starting a new chapter at Seton Hall.This new fraternity works to promote service and build strong leaders.
The five main values of Fiji are friendship, knowledge, service, morality and excellence. Along with these values, Fiji’s mission and current initiative is about creating courageous leaders.
Jake Lueck, director of expansion for Phi Gamma Delta, talked about the importance of this initiative.
“Our mission is to not just to find leaders on campus already but find men who want to be leaders,” Lueck said. “We can build them up around our leadership programming, our institutes, our academies that our men are able to go to around the country.”
Lueck also spoke about why Phi Gamma Delta wanted to start a new chapter at Seton Hall. He said there had already been students on campus that were interested in the fraternity, and upon further research, Lueck saw a lot of similarities with the values of Fiji and the values of Seton Hall.
“I was very interested in the Catholic mission and the values of Seton Hall itself because I saw a lot of similarities with our organization,” Lueck said. “When I first started looking at schools I wanted to see what universities aligned with ours because if the university aligns with ours it means they probably have students that also do.”
Seton Hall’s emphasis on service was also something that made Phi Gamma Delta interested in the University. Service is one of the five core values of the Phi Gamma Delta and it is a big part of the organization. Fiji has two philanthropies and often works with the American Red Cross and encourages members to find a charity that has a lot of significance to them.
“We have two nationally partnered philanthropies: the United Service Organization (USO) and donate life which is the promotion to be an organ and tissue donor,” Lueck said. “The USO helps military and their families but with that, we also have the American Red Cross which a lot of our chapters do blood drives for, give money to, and give their time to. We encourage men to pick one of those nationally partnered philanthropies or both, but also find something that means something to them here in South Orange.”
Fraternities and sororities that want to start new chapters at Seton Hall need to follow the SHU expansion process. This process helps the council and university deem if the fraternity/sorority should be approved. After fraternities have gone through the expansion process, the Dean of students makes the final decision on whether the fraternity should be officially recognized.
“Any time a new fraternity/sorority is recognized at Seton Hall University, they need to apply through our Expansion process,” Colleen Dallavalle, assistant dean of students for leadership development said. “Organizations can only receive recognition if they apply through the expansion process and are approved by the council and University.”
Phi Gamma Delta is already available for students to rush this semester and many students have already been looking into Fiji and getting more information.
“Well I met some of the guys in Fiji at the IC showcase, and they seemed really nice seemed like a good group of guys,” Alex Krukar, a freshman business economics major said. “I think fraternities as bad as a rap as they get on a national level, I think there’s a certain sense of comradery, brotherhood that can come with them that’s good. This school doesn’t have huge Greek population or Greek influence so it couldn’t hurt to have an extra one.”
“We are just excited to give students another home on campus,” Lueck said. “There are already a lot of fantastic fraternities up here but there’s still that need for more. I think there’s still that need for another home. We are super excited to give students that opportunity to just be a part of something bigger than themselves.”
Genevieve Krupcheck can be reached at genevieve.krupcheck@student.shu.edu
