Kappa Sigma Denied Recognition as Campus Fraternity

St. Norbert's Interfraternity Council (IFC) recently denied members of the local Kappa Sigma (KS) colony endorsement to be recognized as a fraternity on campus, thus bringing KS's monthly strides to become an integral part of SNC's Greek Life less promising.According to Jeffrey Dahlke '13, current KS public relations chair, a group of male students headed by Andrew Burrows '13 approached the IFC during spring semester of 2010 and expressed interest in forming the new fraternity on campus.

"We selected this particular fraternity since we thought that its strong emphasis on leadership, brotherhood and service would align well with the school and its philosophies," said Dahlke.

Jim Stamatakos, associate director of admission, one of the founding members of Marquette University's KS chapter and adviser to KS colony at SNC felt that the fraternity was a good fit for this campus as well because of KS's emphasis on fellowship, scholarship, leadership and service.

Recent constitutional revisions by the IFC have complicated the process and raised various points of contention on both sides.

Spring 2010: Initial Contact

The IFC denied KS the initial endorsement at their spring 2010 meeting because the IFC considered their process to appear "rushed," a term used by both John Seifert '11, president of the IFC and treasurer of Phi Delta Theta (PDT) and Michael Poradek '11, president of Alpha Delta Gamma (ADG).

According to Seifert, KS presented a list of "about 30 members" and brought in a national KS representative, but Poradek added that KS "approached the IFC two weeks after coming up with the initial idea and they [the IFC] worried that they [KS] rushed into it."

Dahlke pointed out that KS "did not get any written feedback as to why we were declined."

This is not surprising to many as Seifert himself acknowledged, "in the last couple of years the IFC has been a joke; people have laughed at it."

However, in May 2010 Seifert - with the help of Dr. Corday Goddard, assistant dean for student development - revised and updated the 1997 Constitution and dedicated an entire paragraph to a process on establishing a fraternity on campus, non-existent before.

Prior to these revisions, when Poradek was reviving ADG fraternity on campus, Seifert acknowledged the process went according to "basically unknown principles and guidelines."

The role of IFC endorsement for KS remains rather ambiguous.

While Dahlke claimed, "it is not necessary for the IFC to endorse us," he is continuing to pursue IFC endorsement to participate in homecoming festivities and use the bid process of already recognized fraternities.

Poradek also pointed out that a KS national representative brought to their attention that "this group [at St. Norbert College] will have to get approved by the IFC in order to get support by their nationals."

Points of Contention

KS was again denied the IFC's endorsement earlier this fall.

Offical reasoning for lack of endorsement included: lack of a member base that would be sustainable over a longer period of time, fraternity oversaturation on campus, recruitment standards, high national chapter requirements, weak motivation for becoming a fraternity and a lack of brotherhood aspects.

Addressing sustainability and membership issues, Seifert said: "we were told that they need 35 men to be recognized by their nationals on campus," and due to current meager interest in Greek Life, Seifert emphasized the need to "avoid giving them a false hope."

Seifert also noted that a "majority" of KS members are upperclassman who will graduate before the fraternity is established at St. Norbert, but Stamatakos argued that KS is comprised primarily of sophomores.

Dahlke pointed out large interest in KS and emphasized that with more fraternities on campus, Greek community will be more visible to a higher number of potential members.

Abandonment of the other fraternities' bidding process by some of the current KS members also raised red flags among the IFC members.

While Seifert noted this was not an issue since he has encouraged the IFC members to set personal biases aside, Poradek did indeed point out that other fraternity organizations were "worried about the personnel of the group [KS]."

Doug Cassel '12, vice president of Tau Kappa Epsilon (TKE) and vice president of the IFC, said that while there are some fantastic guys in KS, "we were worried some of the individuals may represent Greek Life poorly," since SNC Greek Life prides itself with being "pretty clean cut."

Dahlke responded by saying: "We feel that a vast majority of our guys have outstanding character," and "we feel we are looked through lenses of our members' broken pledges for other fraternities in the past and we want them to move on from there."

The IFC found questionable motivation for KS by its members to be recognized as a fraternity.

Poradek noted that there was a concern that KS's presentation "sounded like a proposal for a service organization." Additionally, he added that a lack of professionalism and clear level of committed individuals led to frustration among other recognized Greek fraternities.

Stamatakos found the emphasis on service to be an odd obstacle to endorsement.

"If Kappa Sigma at St. Norbert College chooses to put a premium on service, how can that be a bad thing...especially at a Catholic college?" he asked.

Dahlke acknowledged the brotherhood aspects of KS were not strictly emphasized; however he considered it to be redundant since brotherhood is a core principle for every fraternity group.