Greek Life officials consider adding new fraternity to campus

Greek Life has an open spot for a new fraternity after the disbanding of Phi Gamma Delta.

Last spring, the OCU chapter of Phi Gamma Delta dissolved due to low membership.

Phi Gamma Delta was part of the Greek Life community as a colony since 2010 and was officially chartered in 2015.

At the end of fall semester in 2018, Fiji had 10 members.  Other fraternities such as Lambda Chi Alpha and Kappa Sigma had 53 and 45 members, respectively.

Phi Gamma Delta members struggled to fill cabinet positions and agreed they could not provide a fraternity experience to new pledges with such low membership.

Levi Harrel, dean of students, said OCU may add another fraternity on campus.

“It’s absolutely a possibility for our campus community,” said Harrel. “I fundamentally believe competition builds a fantastic fraternity system that makes us all better.”

OCU currently has two Interfraternity Council organizations, Kappa Sigma and Lambda Chi Alpha.

An additional fraternity would introduce more opportunities for incoming students to get involved, said Cooper Clack, music sophomore and Kappa Sigma member.

“If we had more good, healthy competition, it would loosen up the tension between the two existing fraternities and would definitely bring more diversity to campus,” Clack said. “We would think more outside of the box, especially for events like Homecoming.”

Erik Rangel, finance and economics junior and member of Lambda Chi Alpha, said another organization would benefit student life.

“Having another option would allow the young men of this campus to grow as individuals and have a brotherhood,” Rangel said. “Greek Life has given me more opportunities to lead and an organization I’m really passionate about.”

There are no current plans set to add a specific fraternity; however, the decision lies with students and their interest in founding a new chapter.

“We do have the campus population to support three IFC fraternities,” Harrel said.

If interested in founding an IFC chapter on campus, contact Harrel at ljharrel@okcu.edu for more information.