Впервые в истории: ко-едж fraternity Delta Phi начинает набор на кампусе Pitt

The Omega chapter of Delta Phi, the first-ever co-ed social fraternity at Pitt, will begin recruiting for potential new members this fall. Founded in 1827 at Union College, Delta Phi was originally an all-male fraternity. It first experimented with co-ed status at the University of Pennsylvania in 1980. Delta Phi was previously an all-male social frat on Pitt’s campus before leaving in 2020 due to COVID-19. The fraternity began the process to be reestablished last September and is now making its return, with a new focus on gender inclusivity and community. Vincent Caminneci, a senior political science and international studies major, is the new president of Delta Phi. Caminneci said a national recruiter from Delta Phi reached out to him and his current vice president, Faust De Maldonado-Candide, a senior philosophy major, last year to restore the Pitt chapter. “We were the first two [members],” Caminneci said. “[Then we recruited] the rest of the eight people that became our founding father class.” Delta Phi will recruit new members like other Pitt Greek organizations this fall. Caminneci said recruitment events will include mic nights, move nights, game nights and more. “It’s largely the same,” Caminneci said. “It’s just that there’ll be men and women.” According to Caminneci, being the first and only co-ed social frat on campus makes Delta Phi a special place for people of all gender identities to feel united. “We’re all just people, and it’s very important that we all learn to communicate and talk to each other effectively,” Caminneci said. Maldonado-Candide feels drawn to Delta Phi due to their focus on gender inclusion because he grew up in a household with strictly enforced gender roles. “I grew up in a predominantly Hispanic community, and if you know anything about Latin American culture, it’s very gender rigid — I grew up being told to wear my watch on my left and not right because I was a man,” Maldonado-Candide said. “I grew up around an all-girl house, sister and cousin. I saw the rigid gender lines there.” Maldonado-Candide said he feels a strong pride in the organization and is looking forward to what they will accomplish this year and in the future. “It’s hard to imagine it, but there’s a gender gap in the imagination. For whatever reason, people assume separate but equal when it comes to gender, and I really don’t think it needs to be [that way],” Maldonado-Candide said. “I’m excited to see how this project works out, and I am so proud to call myself Delta Phi.” Joseph DeJeu, a sophomore history major and chapter historian for Delta Phi, said he will have the privilege of educating new members of Delta Phi during their first year on campus. “I am more than thrilled to have the privilege of helping to lay the foundations of a new culture based on universal camaraderie and respect,” DeJeu said. Caminneci believes Delta Phi has gotten through the biggest challenge of getting the frat off the ground in its first year and said they will now have to face the challenge of building a lasting organization. “We’re new on campus again, so we don’t have a lot of the connections and ties that a lot of other fraternities and sororities already have,” Caminneci said. “We don’t have the traditions in terms of, ‘We’re doing the annual event that we always do,’ so we’re inventing and making that up as we go.” Caminneci said they want students to find a sense of belonging and community in Delta Phi while also connecting them with professional resources who can support their careers and lives beyond Pitt. “[We want to] be that third space that people are looking for nowadays,” Caminneci said. Zac Luchette, a Pitt alumnus and president of the Omega chapter alumni organization, said he feels excited about the refounding of Delta Phi at Pitt. “I speak for a great number of alumni in expressing our pride and enthusiasm for the new Omega chapter,” Luchette said. “We wish to see it grow above and beyond what came before, both in scope and in vision, and are throwing our full support behind these young men and women as they build a unique, strong and lasting brotherhood.”