IFC hoping to lure new fraternities

NOTE: The following correction appeared the next day - An article in yesterday's DP erroneously reported that seven new fraternity houses may be coming to campus soon. The InterFraternity Council currently has a list of six fraternities which are candidates for one spot to be added in the fall. After three IFC chapters end their respective porbabtions, the IFC will again seek to expand. The Interfraternity Council is looking to expand again. After introducing the Delta Tau Delta fraternity to the University just one and a half years ago, the IFC's Expansion Committee is back at work trying to lure a new house to campus by next fall. And according to Wharton sophomore Carl Forsling, the committee's co-chairperson, five additional chapters may follow in the future. One fraternity, Lambda Chi Alpha, has already contacted the University expressing interest. Five other fraternities -- Phi Kappa Tau, Pi Kappa Phi, Sigma Phi, Theta Chi and Theta Delta Chi -- have been or will be contacted by the expansion committee. According to Forsling, the five have been chosen as candidates either because they have been on the University's campus before, or because there are other chapters of the same fraternity in the Philadelphia area. "The reason we want one that's in the area at the present time is that it lets people our age come and do some recruiting for the fraternity instead of people who graduated [years ago]," the Wharton sophomore said. "The ones that were here previously . . . have some sort of alumni backing from Penn and some of the fraternities do have endowments that are still in effect and can be tapped for chapter purposes when they eventually come back on," he added. IFC President and Alpha Chi Rho brother Morris Massel said yesterday that if a new fraternity is added to the system next fall, they would begin an alternative rush after the IFC's formal rush period, just as DTD did in the fall of 1991. "The precedent we're following is what DTD did," Massel, a College senior, said. "A lot of people who ended up rushing DTD were either dissatisfied with some of the houses or wanted to be a founding member of the fraternity. The Delts have built a strong and great chapter now and we feel that if a new fraternity had to compete during rush it would be kind of difficult." Forsling said the IFC's tentative schedule is to add one fraternity next fall, and then to wait for the Pi Kappa Alpha, Theta Xi and Psi Upsilon fraternities to return from their respective probations. After that, Forsling said, the expansion committee will once again seek "entirely new fraternities" to join the IFC. According to Massel, after the expansion committee and the IFC choose a new fraternity, they will recommend the chapter to the Greek Advisor's Council and the Office of Fraternity and Sorority Affairs so that a formal recognition process can begin.