Delta Upsilon welcomes newest members

Delta Upsilon welcomed its 16 newest members to its fraternity Saturday afternoon during an initiation ceremony. The event, held in the Linus Pauling Science Center auditorium, was attended by fraternity members, family, friends and others in the Greek community.

The initiation was open to the public, a unique aspect of the fraternity’s ceremony, as many fraternities hold their initiation ceremonies in secret.

“Everyone else does it behind closed doors, we don’t do that,” said Andrew Riley, Delta Upsilon’s vice president of associate member education. “It’s cool to be able to say your parent’s came to your initiation.”

Riley said he was happy with this year’s class, saying they came from diverse backgrounds and not all from a specific side of the spectrum.

The ceremony included reading from the Delta Upsilon ritual book, a guest speaker, and then members taking an oath and then signing the roll book.

Brandon Arceneaux, a business major and the pledge class president, felt good about the initiation.

“It feels great [to be initiated]. We put in a lot of hard work and it’s nice to feel a part of the guys,” Arceneaux said. “It feels great to be on a level playing field with the rest of the members now.”

The initiation is the culmination of a term’s worth of work by the pledges. During rush week in the fall, prospective members are given a card that says they would like to formally pledge to a fraternity. Then during jump day, the prospective members jump in to waiting arms of the members of the fraternity.

From there, the pledges start an 8-10 week process of becoming an associate member, learning about the house, its history, rules, community service and etiquette.

“[Initiation is] nice to go through. I didn’t realize the power of it until I went to a D.U. leadership conference this summer,” Riley said.

Wayne Hoyt, a sophomore studying pre-therapy, was one of the associate members initiated on Saturday.

“It’s a satisfying feeling to be a part of something this great,” Hoyt said.

Don Iler, editor-in-chief
On Twitter: @doniler
editor@dailybarometer.com