Phi Delta Theta vs. COVID 19
BOONE, N.C. – A group of college students establishes a new Fraternity at Appalachian State amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We were sitting in my room and just decided to pursue something greater than ourselves,” Keandre Buyna said.
With that, the Appalachian State University Phi Delta Theta chapter was born. Jordan Tucker, along with others contacted headquarters to get a chapter started. It was a “difficult” process getting established, they relied on great resources and found “lifelong friendships,” Tucker recalled.
According to Shaleeah Smith, associate director of campus activities at Appalachian State, it's more challenging to start a Fraternity or Sorority on campus.
“You need a solid group of 20 to 30 people who are willing to put in the work,” Smith said.
A major part of getting new members and growing a Greek organization is putting on events and rush week. Rush week, or recruitment week as it is more professionally known, is a period when Greek organizations recruit new members to join their fraternity.
“Currently, we have 53 members, it's definitely a strenuous process but you really get to meet a great group of guys,” Buyna said.
Buyna went on to mention that they would love to have a lot of members but, the point of recruitment is finding the best fit, someone that will thrive in Phi Delta Theta.
“We say it's more quality over quantity,” Buyna said.
When COVID-19 struck campuses around the country and classes went online, Phi Delta Theta also had to move their events online.
“A lot of Zoom calls were done, especially meeting with nationals,” Tucker said. It was hard for their chapter to get to know their brothers through a computer screen but this chapter made it work.
According to Phi Delta Theta President Jordan Tucker, the fraternity even set up small in-person group events and stayed consistent with it during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Brotherhood is one of the strongest elements of Phi Delta Theta and they take recruitment very seriously. “There are many ways you can get involved in a fraternity, reach out to people you already know,” Buyna said.
As rush chair, Buyna takes recruitment seriously, it’s a group effort in the fraternity, and you want more interest, and more involvement.
“I made it very important for our guys to reach out to people like at the gym, at the store, especially in class since you see people all the time, especially the younger guys,” Buyna said.
Another major aspect of the fraternity is its philanthropic involvement in the community. Every Greek organization has a charity organization they are involved with, helping raise awareness and funds for their particular organization.
“Our philanthropy deals around ALS, Lou Gehrig’s disease, Lou Gehrig was a baseball player who played for the Yankees, he actually had ALS and was even a Phi himself,” Tucker said.
The fraternity centers different events on and off campus for their philanthropy. On one occasion, Phi Delta Theta had an event called “Pie a Phi” where students could pay to throw a pie in one of the members' faces.
They are currently in the process of getting a 5k together for their philanthropy in the next couple of weeks.
At the heart of Phi Delta Theta is a group of people who have built strong bonds and a strong brotherhood. The mission of the fraternity is to shape these students into leaders and prepare them for professional careers and lives, all while having fun.
Phi Delta Theta went through the struggle of COVID-19 and came out stronger than ever. Building a chapter on campus from a national organization has its own set of challenges but these students came together to build their own college experience.
“We reached out to headquarters and when we heard back, we kind of got the ball rolling from there. We started recruiting a ton of guys from App state that we thought would be a good fit and went from there,” Buyna said.
