Pi Kappa Phi re-establishes a chapter on Hawk Hill
The social fraternity Pi Kappa Phi is re-establishing their Epsilon Tau chapter at Saint Joseph’s University and accepted its first five members on Jan. 17.
Pi Kappa Phi is different from the other fraternities on Hawk Hill because it is the only national fraternity that created and financially supports its own philanthropy.
“We found there were men that were not finding their fit, they were looking for a different type of fraternity that we offer that were different from the three we already have, so our inter fraternity council had a lot of conversations about it and decided the time was right to add a fourth,” said Stacey Sottung, associate director of Student Leadership and Activities.
The fraternity was part of the St. Joe’s Greek Life about 10 to 12 years ago and left in good standing, so when the interfraternity council wanted to bring a new fraternity back, they thought of Pi Kappa Phi.
“[It was] just numbers,” Sottung said. “They left in good standing; they just had declining membership and they just got too small to be a sustainable organization.”
Erik Blakney, the leadership consultant for Pi Kappa Phi, along with his colleague Connor Burk hold one-on-one meetings and interest presentations on campus to recruit re-founding members for the fraternity.
“Once we get a wave of 15-20 bids, we get them all hanging out together,” Blakney said. “We have our own brotherhood events, our own semi-formal recruit events where they invite their friends who they think might be interested and we start building that chapter.”
Pi Kappa Phi is focused on service events and hopes to have the new chapter work with the Kinney Center.
“On the local level, we challenge our chapters to come up with something creative and unique,” Blakney said. “Especially being founding fathers, they have a lot of freedom and St Joe’s has a disability center on campus—we are hoping to partner with them. It is not just about the St. Joe’s community, it is about the community as a whole surrounding the campus.”
Jeff Maziarz, ’19, was the first re-founding member and is eager to have the opportunity to meet the other new members.
“I get to meet and bond better with the other brothers that will be coming into the initial class and help make an impact on campus, help build better friendships between us, and hopefully host some different events and do some things around the Saint Joseph’s community,” Maziarz said.
The process of creating a new chapter on campus will take around 15 to 16 months. Blakney said it starts with the establishment of an executive board and then the fraternity will become a “chapter in training” where a system of checks and balances is put in place.
“By this time next year, if all goes well, it will be a fully chartered chapter,” Blakney said.
The new chapter will then have to compile all that they have done, give the information to the headquarters, then the headquarters will check them off, and the fraternity will receive their charter.
The re-establishment of Pi Kappa Phi gives students the opportunity to find a leadership role on campus, which is something Maziarz is very interested in.
“Hopefully I will be going for some type of leadership within the fraternity, when that gets decided because that is still an ongoing thing,” Maziarz said.
Since this is a new chapter on campus, it allows for more creativity and a chance to brainstorm new events for the fraternity and plan innovative service events to give back to the community.
“I think it is that creative freedom,” Blakney said. “They get to plan their own events and create the identity of this chapter and a lot of guys look at other chapters on campus and maybe they don’t see themselves fitting in with those organizations, so they think ‘let me make my mark somewhere else, let me go make my legacy with a group of guys that more fit my college experience.’”
