University of Minnesota Chapter
The brothers in our house had many of their own personal reasons to become a member of Alpha Delta Phi. Some wanted to join for cheap rent. Others liked it as a place to hang out. The social networking in the Greek community appealed to others. But mostly enjoyed friendship, leadership opportunities, and even just for a new experience in life. There is one main reason though, that every member of the Minnesota Chapter of Alpha Delta Phi lists: brotherhood. The word brotherhood can sometimes be overused and lose its meaning. Being an Alpha Delt means you are a part of a special group of men. The members in our fraternity are there and always will be there for each other. If a brother may come across some hardship, they can count on the rest of our fraternity to be there for them. In Alpha Delta Phi, brotherhood is considered a genuine care and concern about every single member of this house. It is a sense of belonging. This is what we strive for in our fraternity, and this is what we share with new members as they go through the membership process.
At Alpha Delta Phi, we have members as diverse as the University itself. We have members from various colleges with various different majors. They participate in different co-curricular and extra-curricular activities, and have individual interests. What we look for in potential members are leaders striving for excellence. In our fraternity, our brothers work to improve themselves everyday and assist each other in any way needed to make every member a better person, socially, morally, and intellectually. We look for those who want to strive for self-improvement.
At the Minnesota Chapter of Alpha Delta Phi, we do not have a formal recruitment process. How we recruit is basically how we make friends. Brothers meet people outside of the house and feel they would fit well into our fraternity. The brother may bring that friend over to the house a time or two to meet other brothers and get them interested in the fraternity.
There is an informal rush period, all houses have them, where we are really focused on having new members join so we plan events to have potential members and friends come to and hang out with the active brothers. Last semester and semesters past we have had pool tournaments, movie nights, Twins games, Gopher games, and a weekly poker night. When we find a member who we really want to join our fraternity, we extend to them a bid card. The potential member will sign the card agreeing that he too is interested in Alpha Delta Phi. There is no immediate commitment involved with the bid cards. You are only allowed to sign one bid card for one house. After that, a few weeks pass and New Member Education starts. No more bid cards are handed out.
Once a week, the men who have signed bid cards will come over and are now considered Pledges. They will spend an hour or so a week learning with the Pledge Educator about our specific Minnesota house and its history along with the history of Alpha Delta Phi International. This typically lasts for a month or month and a half; enough time to learn everything needed, then there is a long weekend set aside for Initiation. Initiation is a secret event which the events that go on not spoken of by any brother who has gone through the process.
We can assure you though that Alpha Delta Phi Minnesota, Alpha Delta Phi International, and the University of Minnesota have set forth strict NO HAZING guidelines and we follow these guidelines very closely. At any time during the initiation process if someone changes their mind about joining, they are welcome — yet not encouraged — to drop out. You do not realize what you get out of the fraternity until you get into it.
The fraternity is a mix of students at different stages of their education and university experience. Older brothers are a great source of advice about almost everything. New members will learn from the experience and mistakes of older members, and might just benefit from some advice or a different perspective. Because we have a smaller fraternity, this happens a lot, and as a result we are a close-knit group that looks out for one another.
Academics are the reason you are at the University of Minnesota, and joining Alpha Delta Phi will help you in this area. There are brothers in their third and fourth years in a wide variety of fields that can help newer students with homework, assignments, test prep, and class selection. We realize that a brother doing poorly in school is not very useful to the fraternity, so it is in the best interest of Alpha Delta Phi to help brothers who may be struggling. Also, brothers have taken most first year classes, so they are further along in their degrees. We keep a central library of old class notes, course books and old exams to help all brothers no matter what year in school they are.
It looks good on a resumé. Being a member of Alpha Delta Phi shows you have a life outside of school, and that you can get along well with others while working as a team. In a lot of ways, a fraternity is like a corporation: a president oversees the entire fraternity, but each man is responsible for a particular area and a specific result. For example, if you were president it shows you communicate well and are able to organize events. If you are a philanthropy chairman, it shows you care about charity and are a giving person, interested in helping others.
Alpha Delta Phi is a great place to network; it’s not what you know, it’s who you know. Alumni can help you get a job or decide on a career. Our Minnesota Alumni Association is eager to help graduating members enter the work force, and take an active role in finding jobs for graduates or pointing them in the right direction. We have alumni from every conceivable field, from authors, to scientists, lawyers, accountants, engineers, politicians, and everything in between. The International Alpha Delta Phi Alumni Association also plays an integral part in assisting brothers upon graduation. Furthermore, all alumni regardless of year and chapter take pride in helping brothers find jobs, because in many cases and alumni helped them years ago and they wish to continue this tradition.
Brothers that decide to stay at the house can do so at lower price than University Housing and surrounding apartments. For out of housers (also called ‘townies’) the house is a home on campus. It is a place where brothers can hang out between classes or come for lunch or dinner. If you don’t want to drive home for whatever reason (bad weather, early morning test, etc.) there will always be a place to stay.
The fraternity offers a leadership experience unlike any other student organization at the university. We have leadership positions that entail large responsibility such as president or vice president and positions that have little time commitment such as public relations and technology chairmen. The fraternity is a great place to learn life long skill that will be used in the workplace. Holding an elected office within the fraternity is above all an honor to know that your peers have the utmost confidence in you.
Our fraternity is based on strong values of a literary society. In keeping with tradition the International fraternity offers multiple academic scholarships and other financial assistance based on grades. There is also an annual literary competition with a cash prize for outstanding writing, poetry and photography. Also, brothers who choose to live in the chapter house are granted a scholarship to subsidize the cost of living which is also based on academic effort.
Philanthropic activity is a core value that that brotherhood shares. Brothers participate in a wide range of volunteer work in their spare time but as a group we plan and participate in one or two charity events sponsored by the fraternity. Brothers take time out of their schedules to assist local charities by donating proceeds from these events.
© 2013 - The Alpha Delta Phi Fraternity — Minnesota Chapter
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