Fraternities at NMU help students get involved on campus and in the Marquette community. Some students may join to gain experience of how to work in groups and also to build their resume for future employers. However, fraternities often get stuck with the stigma of becoming those who only drink and party.
One fraternity many students have grown to know is Tau Kappa Epsilon (TKE), a men’s social fraternity that aims to shape students into better men. Misconceptions the TKE has struggled with on campus include that students must drink to join, or that there are parties students must attend to become members. TKE explains how it fights this stigma and what the organization does instead.
“We don’t care about the party and drinking, we don’t do all that kind of stuff,” New Member Educator Kegan Lyonnais said. “We just focus on getting our job done, promoting better men for a better world and helping each other develop everywhere we can.”
Lyonnais also said the fraternity focuses more on services and donations, especially since many contributions are needed to meet a goal their nationals give to the organization.
TKE members said they provide services to the community and on campus. For example, members participate in a tub push event every winter to raise money for St. Jude’s Children’s Hospital and participate in Make A Difference Day, where its members rake leaves for those who struggle to do so in the fall.
TKE is also part of the Greek Life Council at NMU, where sororities and fraternities come together to discuss what they are doing in their organizations. To recruit members, TKE promotes on campus to showcase rush events, which are two-week events where students can get to know the organization and feel comfortable.
Melvin Garcia, president of TKE, said, “A lot of [promotion] comes through social media and having posters through campus, but a lot of it has to do with our image outside of that too, being able to represent what we do with philanthropy with St. Jude and brotherhood outside of that as well.”
Some students said TKE’s reputation was questionable in the past.
For example, one student said, “I know they used to have a house here in Marquette but got kicked out because they completely destroyed the house. These events happened years ago, when TKE was not allowed to rush on NMU’s campus.”
The same student, however, said TKE has made progress in recent years in changing its image for the better.
Jo Jen LaBarge, a recent graduate of NMU, said, “I think it got better because we stopped hearing about them being so bad.”
Students join TKE for several reasons, some of which are to fight loneliness and develop their social network.
When freshmen join campus, it is common to feel fearful of what is going to happen in a new environment. For some students, joining a fraternity can be an opportunity to form friendships.
Ben Brock, secretary of TKE, said, “[I was attracted to] the whole diverse genuine nature of people and it’s something I wanted to be a part of, and I knew that it would be another recipe for success at college and it definitely has been.”
