New Fraternity On The Block

Maya Hatch
Pi Beta Phi

Jason Han, a fine young man I work with at Urban Market in the Union, told me that he is now one of the founding fathers of a new fraternity on campus, Sigma Tau Gamma. This fraternity hadn’t been on campus since 1998 but now is being reestablished with 64 men strong for the Beta Theta chapter at Purdue.

Paul Manly and Derek Kalmann were expansion counselors who had a mission to revamp the long lost fraternity, “All of the men in this founding class were recruited based on their mental maturity, passion to leave a legacy at Purdue, and drive to make a difference in their own lives and in the lives of others,” said Manly on the Sigma Tau Gamma website. “We spoke with faculty and staff, school administrators, and sorority women about what type of fraternity was missing at Purdue, and the response we received overwhelmingly indicated that there was a need for a fraternity comprised exclusively of gentlemen and leaders.” Who doesn’t love gentlemen? Here a few words from my co-worker and friend, Jason:

What do you see in the future for the fraternity?

I expect to see this fraternity make a name for itself and to become a leader within the Greek community.  We want to set high expectations for ourselves.  We want to become the fraternity that holds true to its core principles that laid the foundation for this fraternity such as the principles of value, learning, leadership, excellence, benefit and integrity.  

What ways are you going to get to know your brothers?

With the addition of 64 new members, it is a lot of brothers to get to know.  We have had about four weeks now to get to know each other, and we still are in the process of doing that.  We take time out of chapter every Sunday to do a brotherhood bonding exercise to get familiar with one another.  We try to go to various Greek events and activities together as a group as much as possible.  We have random brotherhood activities on the weekend where we have bowling night or a grill-out.  

What are your philanthropic plans?

As for our philanthropic plans, we are still in the process of deciding on what exactly we want to do.  We have a couple ideas, but none set in stone yet.  We do plan to have a lot for the next upcoming semester.  One of our big philanthropic activities is going to be with the Special Olympics, but we have yet to plan it out.  

What do you think sets your house apart from the rest of the houses already on campus?

All of us were recruited on our values as gentlemen and our leadership qualities.  We were all recommended to join this fraternity by sororities, school staff members and the local community at large.  We are all tied together and came together as a group defined by our core values, and I think today in society a lot of negative attention has been put on the Greek fraternity by some of their actions.  We hold ourselves to a higher standard and to lead by example.  

All the new members will be initiated within the next coming week, so let’s all wish them well and watch as they thrive as a newfound fraternity.