Page 75 - Kappa Eta 40th Anniversary History Book

Biggest Challenge: won undergraduate Omegaman of the year in 1987.
We were able to grow the chapter from just two
members in the fall of 85 to 15 members when I
graduated in spring or 89. Back then we were a chapter
that had influence on 7 area schools (Seton Hall,
Upsala, Rutgers-Newark, Montclair State, Jersey City
State, Bloomfield College, and St. Peters College.) We
were also very instrumental with assisting with the
pledge process of Rho Zeta’s (Kean College) Spring 89
line. In a sense we truly “Ran the yard” during my time.
We had a few challenges:

1. The white community at SHU. Colleges all
around the country were having race issuses. SHU was
no stranger to this issues. We had our own race riot in
1986, and Omega was in the center of it.
2. We at odds with those students of Color that felt
that all we did was have parties and chase women.
They felt we were not relevant.

We overcame the race issues but taking it on head first.
We started participating in social events around the
campus such as “University Day” Seton Hall’s
homecoming of sorts. I not only became our

representative on the interfraternal council, but I was
elected the vice-president of the IFC and Chief Justice.
We were instrumental in handing down sanctions to
some of the white fraternity’s members. I think that
may have been a “first” in the SHU community. These
activities got our name and face out “there”.

We overcame the issue of relevance to our community
by simply increasing our face in the community. We
had a daily community project with a community center
in the Valesburg section of Newark. We tutored children

from 1st grade to12th grade. We also invited some of
the black students from SHU to join us in the tutoring
projects. This gave them a chance to join us in our
community endeavors just like they would join us when
we would party. It was very impressive. We also would
take the children on trips to the campus. They got to
hang out with the bruhs up on the yard. See our dorm

Kappa Eta 1975-2015 ver June-25-2016 Page 74