After being denied official recognition last spring, an unofficial fraternity isn’t taking no for an answer.

This past April, Kappa Sigma, a national fraternity that hasn’t been present at Syracuse University for around 20 years, applied, but was not given an invitation to become officially recognized. This has not stopped the “re-founding fathers” of the fraternity, who are still actively acting as a fraternity and wish to re-establish Kappa Sigma on campus, despite the risk of jeopardizing their academic standing.

“Going into this, I think we all understood that there was some chance we could get in trouble, but in my mind there isn’t really,” said Peter Decarlo, a senior accounting major and president of Kappa Sigma. “We have a good group of guys who have a cumulative GPA of 3.22 and I don’t see how we’ve done anything wrong.”

By pretending to be an official fraternity, the SU Interfraternity Council says Kappa Sigma is endangering recognized fraternities and sororities, which face judicial consequences if the organizations associate with Kappa Sigma. The council also says Kappa Sigma broke several rules when it applied for official recognition last April.

Matt Rose, president of the IFC and a senior public relations and sport management dual major, said that the presence of Kappa Sigma will have no influence on fall fraternity rush. Formal recruitment is set to take place from Oct. 5–10.

Eddie Banks-Crosson, director of the Office of Fraternity and Sorority Affairs, referred all questions to Rose.

Bryan Samimi, vice president of Kappa Sigma and a junior accounting major said the group is not actively recruiting people on campus because members know it’s against the rules. But some recruiting is done through word of mouth and prospective members coming up to them, he said.

Kappa Sigma is one of three unofficial Greek life organizations at SU, along with Zeta Psi Fraternity and Theta Delta Chi Fraternity, according to the Office of Fraternity and Sorority Affairs website. SU’s chapter Kappa Sigma was founded in 1906 and was active up to the mid-1970s. It closed down twice since then due to low recruitment.

According to the FASA website, unrecognized organizations that attempt to facilitate member recruitment or member activities may be prohibited from participating in any future expansion process at SU.

Individual students who are determined to be in violation of this policy may be placed on a disciplinary status up to and including suspension or expulsion, according to the website.

Rose said the IFC has informed all of the presidents of Greek organizations that they cannot associate with Kappa Sigma or they too will face judicial consequences.

“They’re trying to participate as if they’re a recognized group and that’s concerning because people don’t know that they can’t interact with them,” he said.

Safety is one of the biggest concerns with the presence of Kappa Sigma, said Panhellenic Council President Ashlee Newman.

“All of our organizations are monitored and advised by the FASA office, so when you have an organization that is unrecognized, we aren’t able to provide the help and the assistance and that puts students at risk,” Newman said.

Rose added that since Kappa Sigma isn’t a recognized fraternity, the organization doesn’t follow the rules that the IFC chapters have established, specifically in terms of security.

In order to become an officially recognized Greek organization on SU’s campus, the president of each of the Greek councils sits on the expansion committee and grades the prospective organizations with a rubric. If an organization hits a certain metric, it is permitted an interview.

First, representatives meet with the expansion committee and do a presentation for all the different Greek councils and anyone who wants to listen. Then the expansion committee votes on whether or not it wants to extend an invitation to come to campus. Organizations are not allowed to bring interest groups, defined as any organized group of prospective members, to the expansion committee.

If an invitation is extended, there is a three-year period before the organization can come to campus, Rose said.

“The point of the three-year process is so we can provide you with all of the resources you need, your alumni can help you prepare and you can come and be contributing members right away,” Rose said.

Rose added that Kappa Sigma broke rules during the application process.

“You can’t have an interest group. You can’t even come for three years so you can’t say, ‘well we have all these kids,’ it’s against Syracuse’s Greek rules and they had all these kids show up in suits and ties on the day of the expansion committee,” he said.

During the expansion committee, Rose said the representatives of Kappa Sigma claimed they had no contact with an interest group and said “they went as far as to say that 60 kids coincidentally showed up in suits and ties at 10:30 a.m. on a Friday.” He said Kappa Sigma changed its story and indicated different levels of contact with the interest group.

Samimi, the vice president of Kappa Sigma, said the group didn’t fully understand the concept of an interest group prior to the expansion committee.

“We thought if we just showed up and explained ourselves, they would totally understand and say, ‘Oh look, there’s so many people who want to join this group, we should let them on campus,’” he said.

Samimi said the group couldn’t wait for the three-year waiting period because most of them would have graduated, so it wanted to make its presence known and immediately become an official organization.

Decarlo, Kappa Sigma’s president, said the group received a letter notifying them that it would not be given an invitation to become an official SU Greek organization, and outlining the basis for that decision.

Any new chapter must be prepared to work with the rest of the community and Kappa Sigma is not a team player, Rose said.

“They said they would consider colonizing at Syracuse, even if they’re not granted permission,” Rose said. “That demonstrates they feel they’re above our rules and regulations. What actions would they take if they were sanctioned and did not agree?”

Decarlo said after Kappa Sigma went through the whole process and received the official decision, it “made the choice to continue forward without the school.”

He added that Kappa Sigma is unlikely to re-apply this year to become a recognized organization because of a mandatory year waiting period.

“I feel like if this was a club sports team or another organization, we would have been up and running, but I guess fraternities are a little different here,” Decarlo said.

Published on September 29, 2014 at 12:01 am

Contact Justin: jmatting@syr.edu | @jmattingly306