Civil rights leaders like Martin Luther King, Jr. were members of Alpha Phi Alpha, which was founded in 1906. (Courtesy of Black History Album)
Many students feel that campus life at SMU is sometimes controlled by Greek life. Indeed, finding a fraternity on campus is not difficult. According to U.S. News, nearly 32 percent of undergraduate men and 43 percent of undergraduate women are Greek at SMU. The challenge for most is finding the right Greek organization.
SMU graduate student Jermaine Mulley researched and read about Alpha Phi Alpha before deciding it was the right brotherhood for him. Formed in 1906, Alpha Phi Alpha was the first African-American fraternity in the nation. Civil rights leaders like Martin Luther King, Jr., Thurgood Marshall, and W. E. B. Dubois were all Alphas.
“I went on the national website discreetly and found out what Alpha Phi Alpha was doing,” Mulley said. “This organization is more grand than any of us could describe. I’m just climbing, trying to make it so that I’m in the same light as the men who have done so much for the nation and the world.”
The international fraternity hopes to return to campus within the next year. Ashley Meredith, SMU coordinator of fraternity and sorority life, said the brotherhood is now recognized on campus as a member of the National Pan-Hellenic Council. All it has left to do is find interested students.
“We’re really excited to have Alpha Phi Alpha on campus,” Meredith said. “NPHC is about making sure everyone supports one another. Alpha Phi Alpha is a contributing member, not only to the NPHC, but to the Greek community and the SMU community as a whole.”
Alpha Phi Alpha was removed from campus in 2005 after a 2003 off-campus hazing incident left SMU junior Brandon Curry in a coma after drinking excessive amounts of water and hot sauce. He and another pledge were told if they stopped drinking, they would be hit with a paddle. Curry eventually recovered from the coma and completed his degree.
Alpha is not the first fraternal organization to be kicked off campus and return after breaking the rules. Kappa Alpha Order returned to campus in fall 2010 after the chapter was closed in 2009 for violating probation. According to the SMU Fraternity and Sorority Life’s webpage. Phi Delta Theta is currently under deferred suspension and Sigma Alpha Epsilon is on disciplinary probation.
Like SMU, Alpha has its own anti-hazing policies. Vice President of the Southwestern Region Roderick Smothers told potential pledges to report to him if they felt they were being hazed at an informational meeting in August.
“The way I look at it is, I take his letters for yours,” Smothers said.
Four “aspirants” attended the session. They were called “aspirants” by members who were reluctant, not only to speak about the history of hazing incidences, but to refer to potential members as “pledges.”
Collete Parker, a Residence Life and Student Housing administrative assistant and member of Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority, remembers what Alpha was like when she was an undergraduate student at SMU. Parker hopes that Upsilon Mu, the new Alpha campus chapter, will live up to the standards set by the organization’s historic past.
“It’s important to know the history of the organization as a whole, and make sure that if you do bring the fraternity back to campus, that you honor that history. Make the pillars a part of what you do every day, and if you make that a part of your focus, you’ll be successful,” she said.
Graduate student and Alpha Phi Alpha member Lewis Keys shared Parker’s sentiment. He hopes Upsilon Mu Chapter is prepared for the long road ahead.
“I want them to understand the magnitude of the task they have ahead of them,” Keys said. “Now you have to work to keep people from rubbing the past in your face. We’re not about the foolery that was done years ago. We’re about business.”
