As seen in the Washington Square News.
Four new pledges were inducted Saturday night into NYU’s colony of Delta Lambda Phi — a fraternity intended for gay and bisexual students. The group is vying to become a nationally recognized chapter of the fraternity on campus.
Delta Lambda Phi President Matt Maggiacomo, a CAS junior, said the colony is currently in its second semester of a three-semester trial phase that all fraternities and sororities must undergo to prove themselves to both the national Inter-Greek Council and NYU.
“It’s an honorary, traditional thing,” Maggiacomo said. “You can’t go ahead until you’ve gained your stars.”
Delta Lambda Phi currently holds 22 chapters and approximately 11 colonies nationwide, and is one of the country’s fastest growing fraternities, Maggiacomo said. A colony is a three-semester trial phase for a group in hopes that they will then become a chapter.
“It’s seen amazing growth,” he said. “[The IGC] are only accepting five requests for a colony per semester. They’re totally maxed out.”
Maggiacomo said the colony will not be eligible for national recognition until the end of Fall 2006, when it will have admitted three pledge classes. After drafting a constitution and inducting its third pledge class, the group must design a petition that includes a history of its community involvement to submit to a national board of directors for review next spring, he said.
“It took me forever to get [things together],” Maggiacomo said. “We hope the whole process will cap off by next spring.”
Maggiacomo said the colony has a number of public service projects in the works to bolster its portfolio, including co-sponsoring an event with LGBT for Greek Week from April 20 to 27, volunteering at GLAAD media awards as Delta Lambda Phi representatives, participating in Relay for Life on April 8 and 9, and tutoring in an afterschool program at the Harvey Milk School.
“People are showing interest,” said Tisch sophomore Andrew Griffin, the colony’s philanthropy and social chairman. “Since [NYU is] such a predominant school, I feel like we’ll definitely inspire others.”
Maggiacomo said he’s happy about the publicity, and even wrote a piece in the April edition of Instinct Magazine, a national publication geared toward gay men, about the fraternity. The members of the group were then photographed for the article’s spread.
“They dressed us in Calvin Klein and we had a photo shoot,” Maggiacomo said. “We got to keep the clothes; it was pretty sweet.”
Although NYU supported the idea, there are no current plans for the members to move in together in a single residence on campus, Maggiacomo said.
“We couldn’t make the commitment to say, ‘maybe we’ll have enough guys to fill a house,’ ” he said. “We’re looking to double our numbers — next year, 25.”
Maggiacomo said he came up with the idea to start the chapter at NYU in 2004, with a vision to create an on-campus support system for gay and bisexual men.
“Those bonds of brotherhood that everyone talk about — in my true opinion, some of these guys are incredible friends that I couldn’t find anywhere else,” he said. “This fraternity provides that for every member.”
Maggiacomo said he sees no obstacles in the colony’s attempt to become a more powerful and positive force on campus as it moves forward in becoming a full-fledged national chapter.
“It’s been nothing but a success,” he said. “Everything’s been incredibly special for all of the guys.”
Luke Carlisle, a sophomore in the College of Nursing, is a beta class member of the colony.
“I think initially it was an interesting concept [that] brings together the gay and greek community together, just because it seems contradictory for what each seems to stand for,” he said. “I thought it would be very interesting to become a part of — the specific nature of what they’re targeting.”
Though he’s never participated in any gay-themed community activities, he was interested in joining this group because of the issues and ideas it is interested in promoting in the community.
“I liked what their ideas were to work in the gay community and bring to light different issues,” he said. “[It's interesting] to do some kind of activist-type things and also raise awareness about gay health issues.”
Delta Lambda Phi was founded by Vernon L. Strickland III in 1986 as the first social fraternity to not discriminate by sexual orientation, according to the fraternity’s website.
–With Cathy Ma