Located in the University Center, the Schatz Dining Hall almost always bustles with activity-students coming and going as they balance trays while talking on smartphones; others seated at tables animatedly chatting about their challenging class projects; still others working intently on laptops, their combined keyboard action sounding like a background percussion soundtrack.
But when Neel Nadkarni, a sophomore business major, walks in one night, he finds the place transformed. The ambiance is more like a private club, complete with elegant lighting and catered food befitting a posh country club. Around him are students mingling with older gentlemen, most dressed in suits, some more casually attired in sports jackets, and even a few wearing jeans.
What the guests have in common-whether they're attorneys, artists, bankers, or professors-is that they're all graduates of Carnegie Mellon, and they all belonged to Delta Upsilon fraternity, which had a presence on the Pittsburgh campus from 1917-2005. The fraternity hopes to reestablish itself at CMU through pledges like Nadkarni.
Grabbing a plateful of food, Nadkarni strikes up a conversation with Jim Walters (TPR'79, S'79), who flew in from Chicago for the occasion. Walters reminisces about the good times he had during college and the lifelong friends he made. Nadkarni can see how Greek life impacted Walters' life. It solidifies his choice to become an active pledge.
Nadkarni has been joined by about 20 freshmen, sophomores, and juniors who hold weekly meetings. They're not yet a fraternity. To earn a charter, the colony must prove a commitment to good citizenship through volunteer work and benevolent causes university-wide and in the community.
This spring, the pledges plan to go door-to-door in the dorm halls throughout campus, collecting paper for recycling. They want to recover and recycle bagfuls of paper that otherwise might go in dorm-room trash bins. And, as they pursue a host of other initiatives, too, they hope to pique campus interest in DU and expand membership. The goal, says Nadkarni, is to have a house on the Greek quad, which requires a minimum of 60 brothers. It may not happen during Nadkarni's years here, but he says that perhaps when he returns to campus years from now, he'll visit the DU house knowing that he was in on the ground floor.
-Kevin Trobaugh
