Delta Sigma Pi, a professional fraternity focused on business, held a meeting this past Saturday to evaluate interest in creating a Dartmouth chapter for students majoring in economics and planning to pursue a career in the field.
"We're trying to get everything organized this term and get going fall term," Chelsea Jia '08 said.
Currently, there are over 250 chapters of DSP throughout the country, notably at Berkeley, Georgetown, John Hopkins and the University of California at Los Angeles.
"[DSP] is a good idea but I don't know if it will have a place at Dartmouth," Darya Fuks '07 said. "The administration isn't supportive of being pre-professional oriented."
The meeting attracted about twenty students.
"It wasn't a great time to have a meeting so I'm not surprised a lot of people didn't turn out," Jia said.
Before establishing a DSP chapter at Dartmouth, other business fraternities will be invited to visit campus for students to consider. Alpha Kappa Psi, which has chapters at schools including Harvard and Stanford, will hold an information session in the near future for interested students.
Jia inquired about bringing a college business fraternity to campus after visiting the DSP chapter at the University of Pennsylvania and noticing the countless opportunities it afforded students.
"I have friends at UPenn's Wharton School chapter and I felt there was a void here at Dartmouth in business. We have a lot of big, but not cohesive groups that provide support," Jia said.
Delta Sigma Pi is a co-ed organization that allows members to belong to other fraternities or sororities on campus. The prerequisite for many chapters is that members declare themselves as economics majors.
"The national chapter recommends we take only economics majors but at several chapters they take engineers so we're not sure yet, but I think a strong interest in business is what's important," Jia said.
DSP provides students with the benefits of a tight-knit community that fraternities prize, while simultaneously providing a connection to the business community. The goal of the fraternity is to provide members with opportunities to work with alumni brothers and sisters who work at financial and consulting firms such as Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and McKinsey, according to Jia.
"Seniors and juniors who put time into helping bring DSP to campus may not get much out of it but it will be beneficial to sophomores and freshmen," Fuks said.
The invitation of Delta Sigma Pi to campus was co-sponsored by Dartmouth Society of Investment and Economics, Consulting Club, Women in Business and Women in Leadership.
