Photo courtesy of Sean Zimmerman
A relatively new Greek Organization at Seton Hall, Alpha Chi Rho, has been recognized by their Nationals as a full-fledged fraternity.
At noon last Saturday, Nov. 15, the fraternity was officially chartered on campus. According to Sean Zimmerman, senior and president of Alpha Chi Rho, the brothers could finally participate in a private, traditional ritual.
Zimmerman explained that the fraternity had been a “colony” on campus since 2013, meaning that Seton Hall recognized them as a fraternity, but their national headquarters did not yet do so.
“We could take pledge classes and do the exoteric stuff, but the esoteric (secret stuff) ritual material was not shown to us. Saturday was the first time we have ever truly seen ritual,” Zimmerman said in an email.
Rebecca Davison, assistant director of Leadership Development and the Greek liaison, said in an email statement: “Student Life is very proud and excited that Alpha Chi Rho received their charter this past weekend. The members have worked very hard to get to this point and it has been exciting to watch their achievements. The chapter has already made significant contributions to the Greek Community through philanthropy, leadership and service. Alpha Chi Rho is setting a great example for fraternity life here at Seton Hall, and I know they will only continue to succeed.”
Drew Holden ‘14, 22, was one of the original brothers involved in the formation of AXP when he was a student at Seton Hall. He was committed to the process since 2010, when the endeavor started off as a goal shared between friends who would eventually become brothers.
“At first we were a group of guys, all of whom were on the same floor freshman year and had an existing friendship, and we’ve been able to broaden that to encompass a litany of other students - transfers, in-staters, out-of-staters, international students - many of whom would never have otherwise inter- acted (nonetheless become friends) but for joining,” Holden said in an email.
He reunited with the fraternity to attend the event.
“It felt great to come back as an alum,” he said. “Being able to finally be fully welcomed into the fraternity capped off a lot of hard work and effort from all the founders and served as a great conclusion to the work we started.”
According to Zimmerman, there are currently 24 brothers in the fraternity and 28 brothers on the charter; 24 brothers are currently at Seton Hall and four are alumni. Three new brothers were not initiated yet this past weekend but will bring the number of current members on campus to 27 when they are initiated.
Now that the fraternity is official and has a stronger relationship with Nationals, Zimmerman said the brothers plan to turn their attention fully to the Seton Hall Greek Community.
“Since we are the newest fraternity on campus, we have slowly been welcomed into the SHU Greek community. This year we have especially been getting more involved with Greek unity events, so I am really excited to see what happens in the spring,” he said in an email.
The brothers held elections this week and plan to transition officer positions after Thanksgiving.
Mary Marshall can be reached at mary.marshall@student.shu.edu.
