Phi Mu Alpha fraternity members sing around a piano.
The Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia fraternity initiated nine men to this university’s chapter last Sunday, re-chartering the music fraternity that hasn’t been on this campus since the 1970s.
The Eta Psi Colony now has 12 members — including three men who joined the fraternity at other universities and now attend this university — and is working to advance music in America through their group.
“For the flagship university of the state, and one of the well respected music programs in the region, to not have a chapter of Phi Mu Alpha was very strange, so to re-charter was really significant,” said the fraternity’s music director Scott AuCoin, a 2014 alumnus.
AuCoin said he watched the re-charting process fall short every year of his undergraduate career until the spring semester of 2014. He said through better leadership and greater involvement, students this year were able to complete the requirements to form their own chapter.
“To finally go all the way this fourth time is so great,” he said. “Last Sunday was just a really emotional day, and to finally be on our own is really awesome.”
After going through a pledging process, which was aided by visits from the Xi Epsilon chapter at Shepherd University, the fraternity is working on next year’s recruitment with a goal of almost doubling their size, AuCoin said.
They are looking for men with good will and a love of music, AuCoin said, but there is no requirement to be studying or majoring in music.
“We have something really cool for non-music majors that want to stay involved in music,” said the fraternity’s alumni relations chair Matt Rosenfeld, a sophomore electrical engineering and jazz studies major.
While the group receives many traditions from their national organization — which is the largest and oldest music fraternity in the nation — they also hope to establish chapter-specific traditions, said the fraternity’s historian Drew Pascoe.
“It’s a little stressful, because these traditions will be carried throughout the rest of the chapter’s history here,” said Pascoe, a sophomore saxophone performance major. “Hopefully these are traditions we’ll be able to come back to even after we’ve graduated.”
The men have already started some traditions since beginning the re-chartering process last year, like putting on recitals on the campus and going on a biannual trip to a nursing home, where they perform.
“Through the power of music, we are enriching their lives and also enriching our own brotherhood,” AuCoin said. “Everything we do, there’s music attached to it.”
The men will hold weekly meetings next semester, which always open and close with the group singing together, as well as host events to bolster their presence on the campus.
Beyond the music, some fraternity members said they have benefited most from the relationships formed within the group.
“The 12 of us, we’re very different,” said Nick Obrigewitch, a junior tuba performance major. “It’s not like my other friends at all, but I really appreciate that.”
For Pascoe, the group has become his home on the campus, something he said he didn’t find until joining the fraternity.
“This is where I found my niche,” he said. “Now I feel like I’m so connected to all of these guys and the university, and it’s really been a fabulous opportunity.”
