Alpha Kappa Lambda Grows

By Broadside staff reporter Ethan Vaughan

Alpha Kappa Lambda, the “Freshman Fraternity” that Broadside first wrote about last semester, has continued to grow throughout the 2007-2008 school year.

The group, a local chapter of the national Alpha Kappa Lambda association, was founded in November by Ryan Harty, Joseph Russo and Ray Sami. All three Mason students are freshmen and began the process of building AKL during their first semester at school.

The Mason Alpha Kappa Lambda, currently one of five AKL “colonies” around the nation, will become the national fraternity’s 38th fully-fledged chapter once chartered, a move that Harty, now president of the fledgling brotherhood, says will come on November 11 of this year, one year to the day after Alpha Kappa Lambda was recognized as a colony.

Alpha Kappa Lambda is no longer the newest fraternity on campus—they lost that title to Sigma Alpha Epsilon—but they remain, Harty said, the “youngest.”

He explained that Sigma Alpha Epsilon, like most other Greek organizations on campus, has recruited primarily from the upperclassmen population, including many juniors and seniors.

Of its 27 total brothers, only three in Alpha Kappa Lambda are not freshmen.

“Next year, we’re still only going to be sophomores,” Harty said. “Three years will pass before [most] of us graduate.”
Harty and other high-ranking members of AKL said that they do not feel the aging of their fraternity—the fact that they will no longer be a mostly freshman chapter as of the start of 2008-2009 school year—will have any significant impact on their appeal.

Harty pointed to AKL’s robust recruitment numbers as proof that the brotherhood was more than just a novelty phenomenon.

Counting Alpha Kappa Lambda’s five founding members, referred to within the fraternity as “The Five:” President Ryan Harty, Vice President Ray Sami, Educator Joe Russo, Sentinel Kyle Yen and Social Chair Matthew Casper, the fraternity gained 20 members during the Fall 2008 Rush, which was its first time ever participating.

Harty said he believes that Alpha Kappa Lambda’s achievement during the Spring Rush was even more impressive; during that time, when fraternities usually bring in few new members, AKL netted seven recruits.

On April 18, Alpha Kappa Lambda’s spring 2008 Rush class was initiated into the group; a process that members insist is no rubber stamp.

“[We] came very close in the initiation to not letting one member in,” Harty admitted.

The recruit eventually did pass initiation, largely because, Harty said, he showed signs of potential.
AKL members look to the fall for even more members, and they believe that the first semester of next year will be very good for them.

“If you look at fraternities for spring, rush is pretty small,” said Dustin Tenaglia, freshman and AKL’s Intramural Chair. “During Yard Fest, we got a lot of [accepted] students coming by our booth.”

Tenaglia said that in total, AKL had collected more than 40 names with contact information, and they’ve set their goal for fall recruitment at an ambitious 15 new members.
Last semester, Alpha Kappa Lambda founders worried that their youth would prevent other Greek houses from giving them recognition as legitimate players in the fraternity system.

“Some fraternities don’t take us seriously,” Educator Joe Russo said at the time. “And some worry that we’re taking their people.”

Harty doesn’t believe that’s a problem anymore.

“They accept the fact that we’re here,” he said simply, going on to note that AKL has participated successfully with other fraternities at many events.

Harty and AKL leadership believe that their surprising popularity lies both in their consistent activeness in the community and the fact that they’ve been “doing it another way.”

That other way includes what the ALK founders trump as a more inclusive atmosphere, a decided focus on academics, and a yearly membership fee of $225, easily the lowest rate at a university where the average fraternity brother pays dues of $700 per year.

So far, members have been happy with the occasions that AKL has chosen to associate itself with.

These include National Pillow Fight Day at Dupont Circle in Washington, D.C. the Brewer’s Ball with service fraternity Alpha Phi Omega which AKL helped to prepare for despite the fact that the overwhelming majority of its members are legally unable to drink alcohol, Pi Kappa Alpha’s Wing Bowl, Gamma Phi Beta’s Casino Night, a basketball function at Fairfax Juvenile Detention Center in conjunction with Catholic Campus Ministry, and, of course, Greek Week.

So far, AKL has contributed 80 hours of community service and donated $600 to charity.

In the fall, members say that they would like to visit the Fairfax Juvenile Detention Center more frequently to interact with troubled teens.

AKL has expressed a desire to work with Catholic Campus Ministry in this endeavor, which would entail going to the Center eight times per academic year.

“We’re just trying to establish ourselves,” said Harty. “Interaction is . . . important . . . letting others know, ‘We’re here right now.’”