Greek community to gain another member – The Volante – News

Greek community to gain another member – The Volante – News.

Greek community to gain another member

For the first time in 16 years, a new Greek house, Phi Kappa Theta, will become chartered and officially recognized as a University of South Dakota fraternity.

Phi Kappa Theta started the colonization process three years ago with five founding members. Despite being an upstart without a permanent chapter house, the fraternity has grown to 13 members and hopes to continue the trend.

Bryan Palmer, founding member and former president of Phi Kappa Theta, said the decision to start the fraternity stemmed from the closeness of the original members and the guidance of former St. Thomas Moore Newman Center director Rev. Joe Forcelle.

“We all were close friends who spent time at the Newman Center every week,” Palmer said. “The other four original members came from O’Gorman High School and we all felt that we were kind of missing something in terms of spirituality. After all the time we spent there, Father Forcelle brought up the idea of starting a fraternity that focuses on that spiritual element we all were looking for.”

While Phi Kappa Theta is founded on Christian – specifically Catholic – principles, freshman member John Buchkoski said the fraternity welcomes all.

“The first Phi Kappa Theta chapters were founded by Catholics who were being discriminated against, so it would go against the fraternity’s values to discriminate against others,” Buchkoski said. “However, there is definitely a focus on religion and spirituality.”

Palmer admits there was an initial period of anxiety about whether or not the fraternity would be able to make it at USD.

“During the first couple of months before we had been approved by the greek houses, I was a little unsure of how our proposal would go over,” Palmer said. “Fortunately, they approved us by a unanimous vote and we really haven’t met any sort of resistance.”

In fact, Palmer said they have been welcomed to the Greek community with open arms.

“We’ve had multiple social events with sororities and even had a couple combined formals with Pi Kappa Alpha and Lambda Chi Alpha,” Palmer said. “It’s been nice getting to know more of the members of the Greek community.”

Interfraternity Council president Josh VanLaecken said he is happy to see USD’s greek community expand.

“The addition of another fraternity means to me that potentially even more students will get the chance to take part in the great experiences greek life has to offer,” VanLaecken said.

Before the fraternity could be chartered, it first had to meet several requirements laid out by the national fraternity. These requirements included the drafting of bylaws, a minimum cumulative Grade Point Average, a minimum number of members and the existence of functioning subcommittees.

Phi Kappa Theta will have a formal banquet for their chartering ceremony on February 26 at noon. Prior to the banquet there will be an initiation ceremony for their newest members with representatives from the national fraternity present, as well as their sponsor chapter from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln

assisting in the initiation.

Reach reporter Will Erstad at Will.Erstad@usd.edu.

 

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