Alpha Delta Phi establishes local affiliate at U.

The Alpha Delta Phi fraternity, a nationally chartered organization, has established a local affiliate at the University and has 13 members, according to the ADPhi national fraternity website.

Jake Scinto ’16, the president of the fraternity's Princeton affiliate, explained he got the idea to form the organization from visiting his brother, who is a member of the fraternity's chapter at the University of Connecticut.

“I went down and visited him, and I met a lot of different people from all over the country and the whole national organization, and I had always wanted to be a part of it, but I couldn't think of a way to contribute to it,” he explained.

Scinto and his roommate, Henry Pease ’16, whose brother is a member of ADPhi at Dartmouth, then decided to get in touch with the national charter of the organization in late October to look into establishing a local chapter.

Bill Bronson, the director of ADPhi, explained that the fraternity had been at the University in the 19th century, so the creation of the local affiliate was actually a “restart” for the organization.

“[The national organization's board] seemed really excited about the whole thing, and they were really a huge help to us. The whole thing went really smoothly after that,” Scinto said. “They wanted to see a cohesive group of guys who were determined to make an impact in their community in a positive way — not just the school community, but also the surrounding community.”

The national charter monitored the on-campus organization, and after a few months, the local group was given the opportunity to speak to the Board of Governors.

“We would give them feedback after meetings every week, and eventually, they invited us down to give a presentation on why we would make a positive contribution to their organization,” Scinto explained.

After their presentation on April 5, the group of interested students was recognized as an affiliate by the Board.Bronson said the Board was very impressed with the group's presentation.

Bronson explained that while the organization was already recognized as an affiliate, it will not get the chance to be recognized as a chapter until it receives approval by the Convention in August.He added that there were multiple steps the organization had to take in order to become an officially recognized chapter, both internally and externally.

“They have to recruit a certain amount of men, and they have to have bylaws and policy setup within the organization,” he explained. “They also have to know how to run a chapter meeting and social function.”

Bronson said while it wasn't ideal that the local affiliate could not be recognized by the University, the organization does have several chapters that are not recognized by their respective schools. He added the national organization would like to meet with the University, if given the chance.

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“We want to meet with whoever we have to in the future, just to start a dialogue, at least,” he explained.

Scinto added the fraternity has received positive feedback from other fraternities at the University.

“It was really great to have all the other fraternities say, ‘Hey, we welcome you, you guys are doing a great job,’ because that was something we were really nervous about, but they really welcomed us and we were happy about that,” Scinto said.

There are currently 10 fraternities and three sororities on campus, though they are not recognized by the University.