Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia fraternity was re-chartered in spring at the University of Maryland.
After being re-chartered in the spring, the University of Maryland’s Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia fraternity wants to double its membership and augment its campus presence before the end of the academic year.
The Eta Psi chapter of Sinfonia was founded on this campus in 1958 and lasted until 1976, said chapter historian Drew Pascoe, a junior music performance major. After years of failed re-chartering attempts and some time spent as a colony, this semester marks the music fraternity’s official return as a recognized chapter.
“To become a chapter took a tremendous amount of work, since we weren’t even recognized by the national fraternity,” Pascoe said. “We’ve really built things from the ground up.”
Finally back on campus, the fraternity has plans to bolster its presence in the university community and gain new members. As part of an established chapter, the members of Eta Psi will be able to host their own rush week and recruitment events — something they couldn’t do in past semesters, said chapter President Dan Janis, a junior jazz studies and music education major.
“We’re so new here, the last 18 months have been mostly business and administrative,” Janis said. “Now that we have the foundation, we can get to the fun part.”
The fun part, Janis said, includes giving one another nicknames and wearing their letters proudly around campus.
The fraternity is also excited to begin big brother-little brother relationships with a new class of brothers, Pascoe said, in the hopes that new members will play a large role in forming new chapter traditions.
“We really want other people to be involved in starting these traditions,” Pascoe said. “If they join now, they have a part in forming the chapter’s history for many years to come.”
The fraternity is already well-known in the school of music, said chapter social chair Matt Rosenfeld, a junior electrical engineering major. However, getting the rest of the campus community’s attention might be the biggest challenge this semester.
Although they are still brainstorming ideas to increase publicity, the fraternity members have already planned activities around the holidays, including campuswide Christmas caroling in December and singing valentines in February, Rosenfeld said.
“A lot of fraternities do Christmas caroling,” Rosenfeld said. “But we should have a slight edge because most of us have pretty good voices.”
The chapter’s membership remains at 12, said Rosenfeld. Their goal is to at least double that number by next spring.
As they work to attract new members, the brothers of Eta Psi have made it clear that the fraternity is not exclusive to instrumentalists.
“It may sound like you have to be a music major or a musician to join this fraternity,” said Pascoe. “But really all that anyone would need would be a love for music, any type of music at all.”
The members said they hope anyone who wants to express their love and joy of music will consider joining the Eta Psi fraternity, Pascoe said.
The chapter’s fall rush week begins on Sept. 21, which is later than other fraternities’, Rosenfeld said. This is because it was scheduled around the first look fair, which will be the chapter’s primary method of recruitment.
Many students, especially freshmen, have already shown an interest in joining, Janis said.
“Everyone loves music in some way, no matter what type of music that may be,” Pascoe said. Phi Mu Alpha “gives us a chance to express our love and joy of music with people who share similar values.”
