Fraternity Returns to Campus

Just months after final clubs began restricting guests' access to their facilities, the Harvard social scene will be expanding in a different direction when the Delta Upsilon fraternity opens a campus chapter later this month.

The fraternity, which met informally as a chapter for the first time Sunday night, is likely to be reinstated on April 24 in New York, when the national chapter convenes for its annual meeting, Delta Upsilon members said.

"The main thing that they want to see is that we're a functioning fraternity at Harvard before they grant the national charter," said Jeremiah B. Mann '01, one of the students involved in the planning.

In early March, Justin E. Porter '99 began the push to bring Delta Upsilon back to campus, and the core group of six has since grown in size substantially.

"We've been having sort of personalized rushes, interviewing guys and bringing them in one at a time," Mann said. "There are probably about 35 guys by now."

There were about 30 people at Sunday night's meeting, Porter said.

Because Porter will be graduating in June, Michael A. Tringe '01 has taken the reins of the group.

Delta Upsilon wants to work on building "deeper friendships," Tringe said.

"We really are going to be focusing on the fraternity, and working on friendship and brothership," said J. Alejandro Longoria '01, who is also a Crimson business executive.

Mann, Longoria and Tringe said that there is a need for new social venues at Harvard, citing campus media coverage of student complaints.

"There's a void on campus," Tringe said.

Delta Upsilon will join Sigma Chi, Harvard's only fraternity with a chapter house, as well as several other ethnically based fraternities at Harvard.

"Sigma Chi has been fairly successful, so that shows that people are needing this. There's a want out there," Longoria said.

Affiliating with a national fraternity is the first step to creating a new social outlet on campus, Tringe said.

He said he feels the affiliation will give the group credibility, provide information on getting started and restore the Delta Upsilon tradition at the College.

The fraternity's history at Harvard began with its establishment in the 1890s. The group later occupied a house at 45 Dunster St., now occupied by Nantucket Nectars and J. Press. Before the Second World War the group disaffiliated with the national chapter and became the D.U. final club, which was absorbed into the Fly Club in 1995.

The men organizing the fraternity said they chose to affiliate with Delta Upsilon for its non-secrecy policy and its openness to diversity.

Longoria said the group is looking into obtaining a fraternity house.

"The national people that we've spoken to have told us that [getting a house] would be one of their number one priorities for us. And there are a couple of houses in the Square that we've all been looking at," Longoria said.

Although the national chapter fraternity charges its members dues, they will be significantly lower than those of final clubs, Tringe said.

"We don't want money to be a reason for people not to join," Mann said.