The Silhouette, McMaster University's Student Newspaper - Sept 29, 2005
Fraternities, sorority make news in the neighbourhood
By OLGA KIRGIDIS, The Silhouette
"Despite persistent rumours that director Ivan Reitman based his wildly popular frat comedy Animal House on his experiences at McMaster, most members of the Greek organizations you’ll find around campus these days don’t fit the Hollywood stereotype of beer-guzzling, toga-wearing party animals.
“We certainly do have social gatherings,” said Michael Wilson, president of the McMaster chapter of Phi Delta Theta, “but it’s not to the degree of Animal House.
“We get out and have fun nights at the pub just like any other university student would,” he continued. “The difference is that is not all we do. We have that extra element of community service and community involvement.”
Although McMaster rules do not allow fraternities and sororities to be officially recognized by the University, the Phi Delta Theta fraternity has been active in Hamilton for the last 15 years. The fraternity boasts 250,000 brothers across North America and dates back to 1848.
Some of the fraternity’s celebrated alumni include astronaut Neil Armstrong, former U.S. president Benjamin Harrison, famed architect Frank Lloyd Wright, and even film star Burt Reynolds.
For a long time Phi Delta Theta was the only fraternity linked to Mac, but the arrival of a not-so-wellbehaved brotherhood this fall may signal the end of the genteel Greeks’ exclusive hold on Hamilton.
The brothers of Lambda Epsilon Omega seem to have stepped right off the silver screen.
The boys boldly announced their arrival in the neighbourhood by displaying the frat’s letters on their Forsyth Avenue house and hosting a party last Friday that included a front-lawn pig roast.
According to a fraternity member who did not want to be named, last week’s festivities were shut down early by the police. And unlike Phi Delta Theta, which seems to be trying to build its oncampus presence, the brothers of Lambda Epsilon Omega prefer to maintain an air of mystery about their association.
According to the anonymous member, this secrecy is necessary, in the name of research.
“This is an ongoing experiment in sociology, specifically in communal perception,” he said.
He added that he could not disclose any more information because he didn’t want to bias the test’s results.
Lambda Epsilon Omega has no other known chapters and shares its name with the fraternity founded by Will Ferrell in Old School.
For now, Lambda Epsilon Omega is the exception to the rule at Mac.
Sigma Delta Rho, a sorority founded by McMaster humanities student Stephanie Pitts, is also new to Hamilton this year.
Pitts transferred to Mac from Wilfred Laurier University in Waterloo where she was a member of the Delta Gamma sorority, another large international Greek organization.
Sigma Delta Rho, like Phi Delta Theta, focuses on community service, philanthropy, developing leadership skills, and building bonds between members.
The two organizations have even paired up to host a charity concert at the Underground nightclub in November to raise money for Camp Trillium, a nonprofit group that provides recreational services for children with cancer and their families.
Although Bruce Frank, McMaster’s secretariat, did not explain the University’s reluctance to recognize Greek organizations in great detail, he cited the exclusive nature of these organizations as well as liability issues as two of the main reasons for McMaster’s policy.
Still, as the popularity of Greek culture grows at Mac, Frank did not rule out the possibility that things may some day change if the Senate decides to review its policy toward fraternities and sororities.
But with the bedlam some communities near other Canadian universities experience, it is easy to see why McMaster is in no rush to jump aboard.
On Monday, the Toronto Star reported that neighbours of the Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity located in the University of Toronto Annex regard September and the partying that accompanies it as “a little slice of hell".