The Delta Tau Delta fraternity is in the process of re-organizing its brotherhood after 70 members were asked to leave last semester.
Following a freshman orientation party broken up by the police, the Alumni Support Committee from the Delta Tau Delta National Headquarters visited the fraternity during fall 2010 and “”saw the way things were going and didn’t like it,”” according to Jack Donohue, the fraternity president and a pre-business sophomore.
The Delta Tau Delta alumni interviewed all 110 members and decided to keep 24.
“”A lot of us didn’t even wat to go through the process to stay in because of the hassle and most of our friends were getting dropped,”” said Scott Cunningham, a mining engineering junior.
The committee reviewed the members based on two rubrics: the chapter assessment and the National Fraternal Award and Accreditation Report. The majority of the members did not score well, and many members who lived in the house had to move out.
Donohue said he has mixed emotions about what happened.
“”It’s a good opportunity to start fresh, be in charge and run things how they should be,”” he said.
Donohue also said he is working on getting a good executive and administrative board to follow rules. This includes completing the required hours of community service, hosting philanthropies and registering social events.
“”It’s a responsibility issue,”” said Oliver Soleiman, the vice president of Delta Tau Delta and a pre-business sophomore. “”The old executive board stopped caring and got off track. Now people are more intelligent and responsible.””
The fraternity was on probation with either the UA or its national chapter for eight consecutive semesters since spring 2006, and sometimes both at the same time. The probation ended in spring 2010, and some of the fraternity members held a party for students participating in freshman orientation during the summer. Police broke up the party and an attendee received a minor in possession citation.
The party was 46 days after the fraternity’s probation ended. It alarmed the alumni, who were already frustrated with the fraternity‘s behavior, according to Soleiman.
“”I was freaking out after I got the call about the party,”” he said. “”We were all so frustrated that it happened.””
The new executive board is planning many events for this semester including a booth at Spring Fling with the Chi Omega sorority, date dashes and a Greek-wide philanthropy event.
“”It should be a pretty fun time,”” Donohue said. “”We are trying to do a bunch of new things around here.””
Delta Tau Delta now has about 60 members, according to Donohue. They gave out 14 bids during Spring Rush and all 14 men accepted their bids.
Some of the old members, such as Cunningham, miss being a part of the fraternity.
“”It (Delta Tau Delta) really made me feel like I was connected to the university somehow besides class,”” he said. “”It was too bad that this small incident over the summer when nobody was here was what basically killed our fraternity.””
Cunningham said one of the many good memories he had was Anchorsplash, Delta Gamma’s annual weeklong philanthropy event.
Since the membership review began, there were many rumors circling the fraternity about their loss of members.
“”Most of the rumors aren’t true, the fraternity getting kicked off never actually happened,”” Soleiman said. “”Greek Life is like a high school when it comes to rumors.””
