Monday night, the Interfraternity Council hosted a gathering over coffee and cannolis in Irvine Auditorium to promote Penn’s newest all-male social fraternity, Alpha Phi Delta, a traditional Italian-American heritage fraternity.
IFC leaders, along with representatives from the National Italian American Foundation and Alpha Phi Delta officials, organized the event in order to generate student interest in the new chapter.
According to Alpha Phi Delta National Secretary James Lentini, the event served as the first step toward laying the groundwork for the spring, which is when the chapter is scheduled to officially open.
Lentini said the group is trying to “assemble” the founding members of the fraternity and provide them with the resources, training and support they need in order to hold a successful spring rush.
According to Wharton senior and IFC president Christian Lunoe, the IFC voted March 3 to allow a new fraternity chapter on campus and to change its expansion policy in order to make it easier for fraternities to join Penn’s Greek system.
IFC approves groups for expansion based on a number of criteria, Lunoe said, adding that preference is given to groups who have been previously chartered on campus.
According to Lentini, Alpha Phi Delta has a very long history at Penn. The group originally colonized at Penn in the early 1920s and disbanded in the wake of World War II. In 1992, Alpha Phi Delta returned to campus and received official recognition from the Office of Student Affairs/Fraternity and Sorority Life (then the Office of Fraternity and Sorority Affairs) in spring 1995. But between 1998 and 2000, due to declining membership, Lentini said, the chapter was forced to close again.
Lentini said that in the interest of keeping membership up in the coming years, the group is planning to assemble an alumni chapter, which he said will hopefully provide the support the Penn chapter was missing in the 1990s.
An alumni chapter would serve to “provide structure,” he said, adding that the development of alumni support is something that has helped other chapters in New York.
Lentini stressed further that he expects the new chapter’s success will also depend on support from other collegiate chapters in the Delaware Valley.
