In a ceremony last night, six College undergraduates were inducted into Alpha Epsilon Pi, a national Jewish fraternity looking to start a chapter at Dartmouth. The inductees are members of a larger AEPi interest group that has approached the College for recognition as a Greek organization, but has yet to receive official approval.
The group began meeting approximately two weeks ago and elected officers last week. A group representative had previously told The Dartmouth he hoped to induct members by the end of the year.
AEPi Master Matthew Feinstein '04 described the act of induction as "basically akin to sinking a bid." However, the initial group of inductees are not pledges and are responsible for establishing a chapter, according to Feinstein.
Dean of Residential Life Martin Redman, however, had called induction at this stage "surprising" and "out of the norm" in an interview with The Dartmouth last week. Redman said his office had made limited contact with the national AEPi organization, but had not yet spoken with College undergraduates about the possibility of starting a fraternity.
Greek organizations typically have their new member procedures approved by the Office of Residential Life before induction, according to administrators.
"We need to approve the new member process before the group begins," Assistant Dean of Residential Life Cassie Barnhardt said.
As of yesterday, the full group of students interested in AEPi consisted of roughly one junior, one sophomore and 8 freshmen, according to BlitzMail messages acquired by The Dartmouth. However, Feinstein emphasized that the membership was far from final, however.
"We're still developing our initial group," Feinstein said.
As such, no interest group members have been initiated into AEPi, a process which would mark a final commitment to the fraternity. In established fraternities, initiation denotes the end of a member's pledge period.
Achieving recognition from the College as a Greek organization is an involved procedure that takes a minimum of a year, according to Redman and Barnhardt. Groups begin as a provisional colony and must "demonstrate [to ORL] that they can perform consistently" to win full fraternity or sorority status, Barnhardt said.
A new AEPi chapter would presumably conform to restrictions imposed by the College's Student Life Initiative, instituted by the Trustees in 1999. The SLI set a moratorium on traditional, housed Greek organizations, according to representative of the Office of Residential Life.
"The moratorium says we can't have any new chapters that are single-sex, selective and residential," Redman said. "Take out any one of those, and theoretically it's possible for them to start up.
If provisionally recognized by the College, the group would be the fourth Greek organization on campus with colony status, joining the Phi Delta Alpha fraternity and the Alpha Pi Omega and Sigma Lambda Upsilon sororities.
AEPi, founded in 1913, is the only Jewish-affiliated fraternity in the United States, with 108 active chapters according to the national organization's website. Local group officials noted that the purpose of the organization is social rather than spiritual.
"It's not a religious organization in the sense that we go to temple. A lot of our philanthropy and a large part of our community service will just go to Jewish causes," Feinstein said.
Feinstein told The Dartmouth that an AEPi chapter at Dartmouth would devote substantial effort to volunteering in the Upper Valley area.
"One of my personal goals is philanthropy and community service," Feinstein said. "I want to show the Dartmouth community that we can contribute substantively here."
AEPi interest group members said they heard about the fraternity from their friends and from involvement in Hillel, the College's Jewish student organization. Some students also said they were first contacted by a chapter consultant from the national AEPi organization.
