Phi Delta Theta chapter loses house, charter for 2010-2011
Amy Sandquist
Issue date: 2/5/10 Section: News
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Lawrence University lost its charter
Jan. 22, meaning the fraternity
will no longer be recognized as a
part of Lawrence's Greek system.
Rumors that the Lawrence administration
had a say in the fraternity's
undoing circulated around campus,
but in a letter to the editor in
last week's Lawrentian, former Phi
Delta Theta president, Marc Casati,
highlighted the administration's
innocence in the charter loss.
Casati, a senior biology major,
joined Phi Delta Theta during his
sophomore year and elaborated
this week that the Phi Delts had
their charter taken away due to low
member numbers and insufficient
grade point averages among those
members.
According to Casati, Phi Delta
Theta's official charter guidelines
require that the "minimum size
of each chapter ... as of May 1 of
each year must be 35 or greater,
or must be of size at least equal to
the average fraternity chapter size
off all fraternities on the campus
at which the charter is located."
When its charter was revoked,
Phi Delta Theta only had eight
members. The fraternity has
struggled over the past couple of
years to attract new pledges. Casati
believes Phi Delta Theta's decreasing
membership correlates with
Lawrence's now defunct wrestling
program.
"As the wrestling program
started getting smaller and smaller
and was then suspended last year
due to low interest ... that hurt
us a lot," Casati said. Similarly,
Phi Delta Theta used to recruit from the football team, but that source "dried up" as well, Casati added.
Phi Delta Theta members also struggled to maintain the grade point average required by the national chapter. Difficulty with transfer credits and members withdrawing from classes are among the reasons that Casati believes the group was having difficulty maintaining the necessary 2.5 GPA.
Fraternity members did not receive any warning about their chapter's potential dissolution until it was too late. "All our members were really shocked by the decision," Casati explained. "Although we knew we were a small chapter, we thought we were at least making progress and heading in the right direction."
Viewing Comments 1 - 2 of 2
BAW
posted 2/06/10 @ 9:23 AM CST
How are the mighty fallen! Back when I was an undergraduate, they were the largest chapter on campus.
How viable is the Greek system at Lawrence any more?
Ted Beranis '57
posted 2/12/10 @ 9:58 PM CST
I look back fondly on my years as a Sig Ep (Class of '57). The cameraderie, chapter governance, study sessions for rushees, big brothers, the house kitchen and dinners, a house mother living in, respect for civility, manners of gentlemen, pride in the chapter's campus achievements, house governance meetings, et al. (Continued…)
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