Astute readers may have noticed an atypical advertisement in the classified section of The Dartmouth at the beginning of the term: brothers wanted.
Zeta Beta Tau, a historically Jewish fraternity, is offering male students the opportunity to start a chapter at Dartmouth, but as members of other campus Greek-affinity organizations can attest, the path from vision to reality can be a struggle.
Dartmouth is one of about 75 schools where ZBT is advertising, based on criteria such as the quality of the Greek system and the Jewish population at the school, ZBT executive director John Yulish said. The more than 70 existing chapters of the organization are primarily located on the East Coast.
Yulish said that he has not had any interested contacts at Dartmouth as yet, although the organization may run another ad. That another predominately Jewish fraternity, Alpha Epsilon Pi, met with limited success on campus in Spring 2003, did not seem to obscure Yulish's objectives.
"I don't know why AEPi wasn't successful," Yulish said, "but we won't take that into consideration. ZBT's non-pledging aspect and Jewish past make it an attractive option."
As a non-pledging brotherhood, ZBT considers anyone who accepts his bid to be a brother with "full rights, privileges and responsibility of a brother," Yulish said.
But it is much more difficult to begin a fraternity or a sorority at Dartmouth than simply advertising for members.
While Yulish said that ZBT had not spoken with any authorities at Dartmouth about beginning a fraternity on campus, he did say that a letter had been sent to College officials expressing the organization's desire to explore the starting a chapter on campus.
Other affinity Greek organizations on campus know the difficulty of obtaining sorority or fraternity status on campus. Both Alpha Pi Omega, a historically Native American sorority, and Sigma Lambda Upsilon, a Latina-based sorority, currently hold colony status in the eyes of the College.
Founded in Spring term 2003, SLU has completed the requirements of the provisional year the College requires of new organizations but lacks the necessary membership to move beyond colony status, said Betty Baez-Melo '05, the organization's only member currently on campus.
Ginger Jacobs '06, one of APiO's two members on campus, said that the organization is currently fulfilling its requirements.
Even gaining colony status on campus was difficult, Baez-Melo said.
"It took a couple of years to form a chapter on campus," Baez-Melo said. "It was a lot of paper work for Dartmouth and for the national organization. They both want to make sure starting a chapter is in their best interest."
Baez-Melo emphasized that the most successful efforts to begin new organizations on campus come from students themselves, not from widespread recruitment.
"It was an internally motivated and student-driven effort that eventually resulted in a chapter on campus," she said.
These two affinity Greek organizations are distinguished from the other national and local Greek organizations on campus in more ways than just their colony status. Both sororities are part of the umbrella organization of the National Organization of Latino Fraternal Organizations on campus. As a result, the sororities rely primarily on applications and guidance from their national organizations in recruiting new members, as opposed to rush activities as other organizations under Panhellenic Council do.
Events such as "Raices," which Baez-Melo is currently holding on campus, provide SLU with exposure to students that can lead to new members. Spanish for "roots," Raices is a week-long program planned by the national organization and implemented by the chapters on various campuses, said Baez -Melo. This year's theme, Tipping the Scales: the Power of Our Vote, is meant to motivate students to vote, and is not a show of support of a particular candidate, she said.
"We've always been a small chapter," said Baez-Melo, "but I get a lot of support from the national [organization]. Alumni relations are very strong, even though there are fewer of us."