CHAPTER NEWS

an annual fundraiser.

The brothers of Delta Kappa Epsilon at Kenyon have hosted the Shawn Kelly Memorial Holiday Party every December since 1991 to raise money for Knox County Head Start, a local program with several centers throughout the county that provides child care, early education and health services for children. The memorial honors a DKE and record-setting swimmer who passed away during his freshman year in 1990 in a boating accident.

Brother Muslmani at right.

We hosted our 2nd Annual “Movember Madness Week” just before Thanksgiving, wrapping up our fall philanthropy with several events to benefit the Movember Foundation. We held Donuts with DKE, as well as our CopaDKE 6v6 soccer tournament, each contributing cash to raise awareness about Men’s Health. A special cheer of congrats to our soccer tournament champs, Chi Omega.

and community service. In early November, our chapter co-hosted with Theta Delta Phi sorority a charity 3K turkey trot along part of the Gap Trail, which runs along the Kokosing River and railroad right-of-way through Gambier, Ohio. The trot was open to community members as well as students and drew in 100 registered participants, raising $1,000 for the Shawn Kelly Holiday Party. The annual Shawn Kelly holiday celebration is a fundraiser for underprivileged children in Knox County. It was one of a few events we partner with the sorority which all contribute to the Shawn Kelly fund.

Chapter president Dylan Osimetha, ’23, was quoted in the Kenyon Collegian campus newspaper acknowledging the Turkey Trot’s success at fostering a stronger sense of community. “Anytime you can get the whole community involved in an activity, I think it’s really a huge boost to building our relationships across campus,” he said. He also notes that DKE hopes to work with Theta to make the Turkey Trot

Omega OmegaArizona

The jolly good fellows of DKE at University of Arizona were honored recently as “Most Diverse Chapter” by the university’s lFC – the first time the award has been presented.

Sami Muslmani, our chapter’s previous Brother Beta had also held an officer position in the IFC, as VP of Programming. This year, current Brother Beta Ethan Woodard was elected to succeed him in the same IFC post for the new year – beginning in January. Woodard notes it is “great to have two Dekes on the IFC for back-to-back terms.” The photo left and

Operations have been strengthening since the chapter earned its charter a few years ago, with recruiting improving in each semester. Omega Omega began the 2022-23 academic year with 45 active members and added a 30-man new member class in the fall, one of DKE’s top growth performers.

The chapter picked up where it left off, continuing to do a great job in philanthropy. Among the long-time successful events is Spike It!, a 6v6 tournament that raises funds for Upstate Foundation and the fight against pediatric cancer.

Phi Gamma-Syracuse.

In October, Phi Gamma chapter continued a long and great tradition, welcoming Chancellor Kent Syverud and his wife, along with Fraternity and Sorority Affairs staff to the Deke house for the annual Chancellor’s Dinner. On hand for the festivities was DKE Executive Director Doug Lanpher, who also presented the Lion Trophy to the chapter, which had been announced as the winner at the summer DKE Convention in Charlotte.

The chapter also had a new cause to celebrate recently, when Phi Gamma brother Pedro Mayer, who serves as head manager of the Syracuse Orange men’s soccer team, traveled in mid-December to Cary, N.C. There, the team won the school’s first NCAA Division I soccer title. In the photo, Pedro (at left) shares joy of grasping the national champion trophy with his good friend and team captain Noah Singlemann.

Psi Omega- Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

Brother Beta Jacob Edwards reports: We started the fall 2022 semester with a series of difficult recruiting and financial scenarios. One of our brothers had betrayed us (and has since been de-brothered) and we were left in a financial pit. We entered the semester with just 12 active brothers: two graduate students, three seniors, and seven sophomores.

One of our strongest recruitment strategies beginning in fall 2021 was playing volleyball on Freshman Hill, a hill on the RPI campus surrounded by several freshman dorms. We invited students walking by to join us. One time, we had over 40 people playing volleyball on two nets. The effort helped us grow from nine members to 22 members that semester.

Psi Omega has also devised other rush events to strengthen our recruitment. Besides volleyball, the events included Laser Tag, Chicken Joe Nugget Night, Bowling at Uncle Sam’s, Volunteering at the Food Bank, and Mac’n’Milkshakes. The latter, a new event in fall 2021 that attracted fewer than 10 potential new members (pnms) that year gained some steam and attracted more than 50 pnms at the start of fall 2022 rush. We carried this momentum throughout rush as we shaped our events around the people we liked. We concluded fall rush by extending 24 bids and getting acceptance from 12 new members – doubling our brotherhood from 12 to 24.

A key financial issue has been our inability to afford to pay the $450 initiation fee for each new member. Psi Omega has tried to continue a common practice at RPI of not charging dues to new members. We called on our limited alumni base for support for this cause, and although we have limited alumni pool to draw from (after a 50-year gap in our membership from inactive years), the alums responded phenomenally well. In fact, they responded unlike anything we’ve seen before. In less than two days, we raised enough to cover the new member class and more!

Psi Omega kept its philanthropic efforts steady through the fall. We added a new philanthropic event for Halloween, teaming up with Circle K, an international collegiate service organization that focuses on developing leadership skills of its members. We helped Circle K run a haunted house, scaring tour groups with spooky noises as they walked through our section. That event raised over $6,000 for the American Cancer Society.

In November, we conducted our staple philanthropy event, DKE Diner, where we take orders for night delivery between 9 p.m. and midnight, typically timed during exam periods while most students study late into the night. This year, we chose to sponsor a new organization, Alana for Allergies, a nonprofit that memorializes Alana Uy Tow by sponsoring allergy research. Alana was a sophomore at RPI who died in a fatal accident in September.

Many of our brothers knew her personally, so it was unani- mously decided to run DKE Diner in her honor. We raised over $400 for DKE’s Diner, the most ever for that event.

Phi Mu-Manhattan.

The chapter in the city is confident in its DKE character. Indeed, members proudly reported on its social media pages: “No matter what it is … Dekes do it better.” And, true to their words, Phi Mu supported the bravado by reporting that (1) four brothers had been inducted into Manhattan College’s honorary scholastic society Epsilon Sigma Pi, which requires a cumulative, sustained GPA of 3.5 or higher; (2) the chapter repeated as volleyball intramural league champs, and (3) hosted an inaugural charity softball game that drew crowds to rival the school’s varsity game turnout. That success has Phi Mu planning to establish an annual charity softball game.

Phi Mu has shown strong innovation in its community service as well. It recently helped secure a place in the neighborhood for a refugee family from Afghanistan. This spring semester, Phi Mu gentlemen are seeking to replicate that success by finding a new home for a Ukranian Refugee Family.

In more traditional philanthropy, Phi Mu continued its participation in an annual Walk for Cancer in New York’s Central Park. It also raised additional funds for fighting cancer this past fall semester, with HarvestFest 2022.

“It’s a tradition we’ve had for a while now, says former Philanthropy Chair and newly elected Brother Beta, Joseph Talenti. “We keep growing our efforts each year, and this time out, we raised some big bucks for the American Cancer Society.

Phi Mu’s Rampant Lions repeated as campus intramural champs in volleyball, led by senior Diego Lojano ’23 (top left, white t-shirt flexing); Brother Lojano was on the Ecuadorian National Team Sub 2001 and the USA Youth National Team A1. Crouching at front: Griffin Reische and Andrew Kulp; Pat Brennan (gray sweatshirt), Luis Olano (green tank top), Voshon Alexandre (black sweatshirt), Juan Posada (red t-shirt), and Kevin Corcoran (white tank top).