This weekend, Phi Gamma Delta, also known as Fiji, received a charter to be reinstated as an official Penn fraternity. Brothers will move into their house on 3619 Locust Walk this September.
“It’s very rewarding to be back,” said Fiji President and College junior Kit Neuman.
Phi Gamma Delta members surrendered the chapter in 1999, following the death of an alumnus who fell several stories at the fraternity house, where he had been drinking heavily.
While Neuman recognizes the incident was “upsetting and tragic,” he believes Fiji is ready to move on.
“Fiji now is not the Fiji of 10 years ago,” he said.
The fraternity began colonizing on Penn’s campus in fall 2008 and currently has 59 members.
Over the weekend, colony members were joined by Fiji’s executive director and alumni in a series of events to initiate members and celebrate the fraternity’s return to campus.
“They have worked tirelessly to get us back on campus,” said College junior and Fiji Historian Vaughn Stewart. Stewart, a former Daily Pennsylvanian opinion blogger, added that the chapter house will be a “huge selling point for recruiting new members.”
A graduate advisor will be living in the Fiji house next year, according to Neuman. This policy was a stipulation of the fraternity’s return to campus.
Neuman said the fraternity hopes to find a Fiji alumnus to serve as its GA, since it is important to have “someone who understands fraternity life and can also be an authority figure if needed.”
“It’s the lesser of two evils,” Wharton junior and Interfraternity Council President Christian Lunoe said of having a Fiji GA. He added that the IFC is against any general GA policy in fraternities.
