Fraternities are a body of people grouped bonded into one large organization who live out the values established by their founders, their creed and their governing body. As one of these values-based organizations, Delta Kappa Epsilon prides itself on searching for and creating a membership that reflects our core qualities: the gentleman, the scholar and the jolly good fellow. In summary, Delta Kappa Epsilon feels that the best man is not only one who excels in one aspect of life, but rather one who combines a balance of all ideal qualities in a man.

There is no quicker way of meeting new people on campus than through the Fraternity. In addition to building lifelong bonds with your Deke brothers, a new member is also opening himself up to campus involvement opportunities, community involvement opportunities and more importantly, career networking opportunities. Delta Kappa Epsilon consistently offers alumni networking events at numerous metropolitan areas. These events are usually tailored towards a specific discipline or industry to encourage our undergraduates currently enrolled in the major in question to participate.

Nearly every interaction that your son will have as a member of Delta Kappa Epsilon will be one that helps him grow in some way. Whether its through the hundreds of alumni that he will be meeting and connecting with, the campus and community professionals that he will be working with or the philanthropic organizations that he will be doing charitable work for, every bit will help him grow into a better man.

Joining a Fraternity can in fact improve your son’s academics! Schools everywhere constantly report a higher average GPA among those in Greek organizations compared to the all-student average. In addition to this, those in Greek organizations are much more likely to graduate than those who don’t. It is up to your son to make use of the many scholastic resources available to him upon joining. We at DKE International, on the other hand, will work hard to ensure he is being made aware of them.

Joining Delta Kappa Epsilon is an investment. Like any other investment, it is one that requires time. The most basic time commitment of a Fraternity is its weekly meeting. All of our members, upon discovering the satisfaction that they get out of DKE, find that they want to contribute more time, get more involved as time goes on. Most college research has actually shown that involved college students are more likely to graduate and they report greater satisfaction with their college experience. Delta Kappa Epsilon can play a vital role in teaching your son one of the ultimate lessons of college in time management through the balance of academics, work, campus, community, and social involvement.

Delta Kappa Epsilon’s financial commitments can be divided into membership, dues, risk management, a pledge fee and one-time initiation fee upon initiation. Membership dues are those paid each term per active member. These funds are returned to members through Chapter Consultant visits, International Conventions, electronic and written programming materials, access to online resources and personal resources at Delta Kappa Epsilon International among the many other resources counted in the operational costs of the Fraternity. Dues at the local level are those that maintain the chapter’s budget at the campus level. These often go towards events, generally those within the brotherhood or related to the chapter. Risk management fees are those assessed per member each year. This insurance covers a variety of activities associated to all undergraduate Brothers and pledges but are not designed to supplement personal health insurance. The insurance paid for protects the member, the chapter and the entire Fraternity. These fees also cover the cost of Risk Management educational programs developed by the Fraternity. The small pledge fee charged is representative of a prospective member’s commitment to beginning his pledge program at DKE. It goes towards covering the cost of all educational materials needed during his pledgeship. The one-time initiation fee is assessed prior to initiation into active membership. The fee covers the administrative costs of creating a member’s unique pin and scroll in addition to enrolling a Deke into lifetime membership in Delta Kappa Epsilon.

Membership in Delta Kappa Epsilon is a privilege and every man who has or will take the oath of membership is bound by our code of conduct, part of which includes a strict ban against hazing. Hazing is illegal and Delta Kappa Epsilon has an absolute zero-tolerance policy on it. The Fraternity takes any actions that put any member or any pledge in danger extremely seriously. DKE International has been working hard to drastically decrease the number of these incidents to ensure that our undergraduates have a positive experience as a Deke.

This depends on the chapter in question. If the chapter does have a house, it is likely that your son would like to live in the house to take advantage of the opportunities that being in close proximity to the house presents. Local chapter presidents are more than happy to give parents tours of the house to dispel any myths (he will do laundry somewhere!) that they may have. We encourage you to talk to the current active members that live in the house to really see life will be like for your son if he moves in. Many Dekes look back on their years as ex-tenants of the DKE house and regard those as some of the best years of their lives.