Though Ithaca College does not officially host Greek life on campus, a few organizations continue to thrive without direct affiliation to the college. Delta Kappa Epsilon is one of these groups. Only two years old, DKE has grown immensely since its start at IC. The Odyssey sat down with DKE’s President Michael Morra and Vice President Brandon Velez, to discuss the fraternity’s past, present and seemingly bright future.
Odyssey: Tell me about how DKE came to be and what the fraternity is all about.
Morra: We were founded 2013-2014, and it was founded by Brandt Shatlan, me, Andrew D’Alessandro. There were 10 of us that founded it, and we’ve been working with nationals DKE since then just trying to start up our fraternity. We’re a nationally recognized fraternity, just not school affiliated. I would say Brent really took the reins on this and started it. He really pushed it to where it is, and now we’re really strong. We ran two pledge classes through our fraternity and we’re hoping to do a third this semester.
Odyssey: How do you become a nationally recognized fraternity without being affiliated with a college?
Morra: So right now we are a colony, and probably by next year we’ll be a full-blown chapter. When you are with nationals, you don’t need to be recognized by a college because we’re under their organization.
Odyssey: What inspired you to start a new fraternity at Ithaca College?
Morra: I’ve always loved fraternity culture, and the whole aspect of having a team or a brotherhood that you bond with. I felt as though we were lacking that at Ithaca College. When you have a fraternity you really go through a lot with them. You really build trust with them. You can honestly say it’s like a real brotherhood. It’s an experience you’ll never get anywhere else.
Odyssey: What’s important about having a fraternity brotherhood?
Velez: Just to have guys to go through parts of life with you. The guys I pledged with, they’re my best friends. It’s just about building connections and being able to look back in 15 years and say these are my brothers still to this day. The great thing about it is, if you look at our fraternity, we’re so diverse, but when it comes to the brotherhood none of that matters. We have people who are different races, religions. things like that. It’s about coexisting with one another and being brothers
Morra: We’re big on accepting everyone in our fraternity. I know how the old culture was, of fraternities, and we’re like the new face of fraternities. I’ve talked to nationals and they’re saying, “You guys are not going to be like the traditional fraternities.” We’re totally different. We’re down to earth. We’re not like those typical frat guys who are all about partying. We’re doing community service. We’re working with Wounded Warriors. We’re working at the soup kitchen. We’re working at the nature preserve in Ithaca. We’re really trying to get involved and really trying to support our school and the students in the school, but we have a good time too. Everybody wants to have a good time, but it’s not just about parties with us. It’s more about having a connection with the brothers and being able to do stuff with them that you wouldn’t normally be able to do with other people.
Odyssey: What are you guys trying to do for the greater Ithaca community and the campus community?
Morra: The big thing with us is Wounded Warriors. We support our troops, and we really want to help out those who have served. That’s our big push for this semester. Also, just helping out around the community, like with trash or with just helping the homeless, because we have a huge homeless population here in Ithaca that most people don’t even know about. We’re going to try to push to help those people out. We can help out on campus, but we have to do it with a team or something because, [the college is] trying to suppress the fraternity culture, but they don’t see that the new culture that were bringing is different than what they’ve had in the past.
Velez: At the activities fair I talked to the Gay/Straight Alliance, the Feminists United Club, the Environmental Club just trying to find ways in which we can coexist with these groups on campus and be like, we represent the new fraternity culture. We’re trying to offer a new, progressive sort of way in which Ithaca College can say, “Wow, the fraternities are not overpowering these groups,” or things like that. Obviously a lot of people come here because there is no Greek life, so we’re trying to go into the community and to these different organizations and show that we have things to learn from them and they have things to learn from us.
Odyssey: Are there any specific events or outreach that you have planned for the upcoming year?
Morra: We are working at the soup kitchen Sept. 10 and Oct. 12. Half the fraternity is going the first time, and then half is going the second time. We’re going for a full day and helping, serving and preparing food, which is going to be a lot of fun just being able to give back.
Velez: There are some tentative things. We may do a blood drive in October. Also, we’re doing a new thing this year where we’re going to adopt a sports team, and we’re going to like show up for their games, wear our letters and support them to foster school spirit.
Odyssey: How do you think your fraternity has grown from its founding to today?
Morra: I feel like we’ve grown significantly, just in the strength of our numbers and our passion for it. When we started it was hard. There were a lot of points where we were like, is this going to happen? Are we going to fail? But you know what, the founding fathers just really pulled together with the new guys, and we just really pushed for a new level of expectation. I feel like we reached a really good point where we’re just moving forward and making such good progress that it’s just insane.
Odyssey: Where would you like to see the fraternity go in the future?
Morra: Well, we want to be able to be more affiliated with school. Just things like being at the organization fair, that would be nice. Also, we want to throw a lot of fundraisers on campus, but right now we’re at a standstill. We have to do things off campus, which makes it a little harder to reach the younger generation. We’re trying to reach people and show them that we care. We’re here, and we’re not going to be quiet about it
