As students filtered back onto the Western Colorado University campus this week, the school’s first fraternity in over 20 years joined the semester’s opening festivities. Delta Upsilon — one of the nations oldest fraternities, and known for its non-secret, non-hazing values — is set to resurrect Greek life at Western.
Inspired by the fraternity’s mission to “Build better men,” Western senior James Christmas led the push to establish a Delta Upsilon chapter on campus last year. Despite pushback from the student body, Christmas and his close circle have worked to dispel rumors, break down Greek life stereotypes and build support. Now, as a new cycle of incoming students flood onto campus, Christmas is optimistic the fraternity will grow into a supportive community for young men.
“Gunnison and Western can feel pretty isolating sometimes, and coming from a tight-knit family, I wanted to bring that same community to campus,” Christmas said. “My push was to build better men, to give back to our community and to give a sense of purpose to young men.”
The idea to reestablish Greek life sparked on an off-season evening in 2024, as Christmas and a group of friends gathered for Sunday Night Football at a dormitory. Gunnison awaited its wintertime metamorphosis, and the friends found themselves in the classic, dead-season paradox: it was too early to ski, but too late in the year to camp or mountain bike.
“All we would do [that time of year] is sit around, or go to school,” Christmas said. “I thought, ‘What if we had a bigger group of guys to watch football with, or to talk about the things that are bugging us or things happening at home, and get other perspectives,”
