Oscar Bautista
Staff Writer
With the help of some third parties, Francisco Martinez ’19 and Anthony Cisneros ’19 are currently in the process of founding a new fraternity on campus: Delta Gamma Tau. The new fraternity strives to gather men from all cultures and faiths and unify them with a doctrine of multicultural social activism and strong brotherhood.
“We really wanted to differentiate ourselves from the three current main fraternities,” said Martinez, current president of Delta Gamma Tau. “We wanted to fill a niche on campus that we felt there was a void on campus for people with multicultural backgrounds.”
The idea started two weeks into the 2016-17 school year when Martinez and Cisneros were thinking of rushing a frat this year and felt that none of the current fraternities on campus provided what they were looking for.
“It’s not necessarily [the current fraternities’] fault,” Martinez said. “They’re just providing for the type of people they’re looking for.”
One thing that would be different between Delta Gamma Tau and Men of Harambee (MOH), a fraternal organization geared towards African American males and those from developing nations, would be that the fraternity is seeking recognition from the College as a Greek fraternity and a charter, as well as inviting people of all walks of life.
“We draw a lot of inspiration from Delta Phi Alpha,” said Cisneros, vice president of Delta Gamma Tau. “They have helped us immensely. We aren’t trying to replicate their image but a lot of ideas have been stemmed from them.”
After creating the idea of Delta Gamma Tau, the two began trying to find people that would be able to uphold their philosophy and, then, interviewed them before becoming members. Ashley Casey ’17, vice president of Delta Phi Alpha, and Joe Kirk, director of Greek life, have been helping the two students further develop their group and guiding them through the steps of becoming a fully fledged fraternity.
“Right now we’re trying to bring our members together,” said Cisneros. “We want to make the strongest foundation between our nine members before we write our mission statement and constitution.”
The fraternity is currently capped at nine members and is not looking to promote outreach at this time. For now, they will be going through the necessary paperwork and steps in order to be recognized by the College with the goal of having their first pledge class next fall.
“We ask for general support from the community,” said Cisneros. “It’s going to be a tough road ahead of us.”