In deciding which fraternities are right for them, male students must consider the reason for joining. Is it to find a group of friends who will be there for them through thick and thin? To better understand one’s self? Or to have a positive impact on the community around them?
One fraternity in particular claims to have the answers to all of these questions.
According to their mission statement, Delta Tau Delta is a place for leaders to hone their skills, youths to grow, students to find support and guidance and men to find their paths to a life of excellence.
President Tyson Cowart described the values of the fraternity as truth, courage, faith and power. Delta Tau Delta is heavily involved in community service and Cowart explained that the fraternity attempts to spread its message through acts of philanthropy.
Cowart said, “We try to get involved in the community where we can positively impact everybody. We do community service, and we do philanthropy for JDRF, which is the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation. We try to uphold the utmost values as we can by getting involved with events such as Chef’s Evening, which will be an upcoming event with the university where we try and portray our values to the community as a whole and help Southeastern.”
Other events that Delta had hosted or participated in include: canned food drives, cleaning up Hammond, intramural softball, a virtual 5k and a Super Bowl board that raised them $1,000.
Kade Despino, junior business administration major, talked about his involvement with the organization.
“My experience in Delta Tau Delta so far has been all it was hyped up to be and more. It’s great to be a part of an organization that cares so much about you. I couldn’t ask for a better group of guys and organization,” Despino said.
However, COVID-19 had limited what Delta and other student organizations can do on campus.
For Delta in particular, this had caused their meetings to be conducted through Zoom, but the members are taking it well, according to Cowart.
He said, “The big challenge due to COVID is trying to keep members interested because you can’t really do many of the fun aspects of a fraternity. It is hard to plan events and get the ROA approved, which we haven’t been able to do, so it is really hard to keep the morale up sometimes throughout COVID. However, the guys are taking it pretty well because we do our best to hang out when we can and to have a good time whenever we can.”
According to Cowart, the process of joining is fairly simple. Delta has formal recruitments typically held in the fall semester and other events where anyone interested in joining is welcome to participate.
The main word of advice Cowart gives is to reach out to a member and ask if there are any upcoming events and they will most likely send those interested an invite.
