Students at Grand Valley State University are going to start seeing a new set of Greek letters around campus. The Delta Tau Delta fraternity is recruiting men to participate in the founding of the newest Greek colony on campus.

“Recruitment is a way to always make your organization better,” said Jake Johnson, a chapter leadership consultant for Delta Tau Delta. “There is a great Greek system here, and we just want to fit in.”

But like every Greek organization, there is more to this fraternity than just letters. Delta Tau Delta’s mission statement is “committed to lives of excellence,” which means members commit to living lives that reflect themselves, the fraternity and every part of their being to a level of excellence.

“An exciting aspect of Delt joining campus is their leadership development program: The Road,” said Tom Coy, the assistant director of fraternity and sorority life. “The Road is exciting, innovative and introduces concepts applicable to all areas of a Delt’s life: career development, personal leadership, financial security, health and wellness, and life skills are the five key elements of The Road.”

There are four main principles of Delta Tau Delta: truth, courage, faith and power. In addition to the four principles, five phrases complete the fraternity’s system of values: Integrity is essential, accountability is fundamental to all commitments, life-long learning and growth are vital, strengthening community is essential to our vitality, and brotherhood sustains us.

“Delta Tau Delta is truly a strong National Organization,” Coy said. “Delta Tau Delta has a strong history of academic excellence with the overall national organization having a GPA just under 3.0. Delt is also a strong values driven organization that fits extremely well in with the current culture of the GVSU Fraternity and Sorority community.”

GVSU is the 130th campus to start a chapter of Delta Tau Delta. In Michigan, University of Michigan, Albion, Eastern Michigan, Kettering and Hillsdale also have chapters. The Fraternity was founded in 1858 at Bethany College in West Virginia.

In total, the fraternity has more than 7,400 undergraduate members, 100,000 living alumni and 150,000 initiates, Johnson said.

GVSU’s Greek community is growing at a rapid rate. Coy said, the Greek community doubled in size from four years ago and now has more than 1,200 members.

“The Interfraternity Council established an aggressive expansion plan four years ago,” Coy said. “Four fraternities were selected to expand to GVSU, and Delta Tau Delta is the third group to expand to campus. In this case, the Interfraternity Council sent an invitation to the membership of the North American Interfraternity Conference. The GVSU IFC received over 30 applications, which they selected Delta Tau Delta as a group they would like to see expand to the campus. Delta Tau Delta was offered the opportunity to expand and agreed to the established IFC time line.”

Delta Tau Delta will initiate their new members at 7 p.m. on Feb. 25 in the Cook DeWitt Center.

“The response when we came was fantastic,” Johnson said. “This is the most welcoming campus I’ve ever been on. Everybody is so happy for us to be here and excited, and it is really refreshing. We know this is a good place for us to be.”

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