New fraternities coming to Belmont in spring 2023

Belmont Phi Kappa Tau members pose with their flag in 2017 event. Photo courtesy of Phi Kappa Tau Zeta Alpha.

When Belmont students return from winter break, they’ll be welcomed back with the addition of two new fraternities on campus. After weeks of rumors circling around campus, associate director of student engagement Courtney Heier confirmed that not just one, but two fraternities will be coming to campus in the spring, doubling the number of fraternities at Belmont. While the names of those fraternities were not revealed due to details still being worked out, Heier said what to expect in spring 2023. “We will be expecting one Divine Nine and one Interfraternity Council fraternity in the spring semester.” Heier said. “We hope to get more students involved with Greek life, and this is an amazing opportunity for that.” Prior to this announcement, Belmont hosted a handful of fraternities throughout the years, but only a few have been able to stick around. Currently, Belmont’s two official fraternities are IFC fraternity Phi Kappa Tau and National Pan-Hellenic Council organization Phi Beta Sigma. While it’s not clear on how quickly these chapters will begin making an impact on campus, representatives from Phi Tau and Sigma spoke optimistically regarding what this will mean for Belmont’s rapidly expanding Greek life. Brock Chambers, president of Phi Kappa Tau’s Zeta Alpha chapter, said the new additions will be great for both Greek life and the university. “This is not only a fantastic opportunity for not only fraternity/sorority life on campus, but a great opportunity for Belmont as a whole,” he said. With the addition of a new IFC chapter on campus, Chambers said it will lead to healthy competition. “As time goes on, we’ll start putting on bigger events, giving back more to the community and they’ll see what Phi Tau is doing. They’ll start trying to outdo us,” Chambers said. “Overall, it will be a great addition to the campus.” President of the Gamma Alpha Eta chapter of Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity, Inc. Kavarious Finch is looking forward to welcoming the new organizations on campus. “It’s like bringing a new family member home,” he said. Finch said what the process will look like building up the new NPHC, or Divine Nine, fraternities on campus. “We’ll have an interest meeting, and the people that come to us, we interview them,” Finch said. “We end up taking them and they go through a process to let them know if they are able to become members of our organization.” After this, new members are then hoisted into positions upon crossing, Finch said. “They will go through a process,” Finch explained. “Their advisors and line brothers will learn their strengths and weaknesses. They will be able to see who has those leadership qualities to be a president, who’s good enough at math to be a treasurer, and who is good at taking notes and studying to be the secretary.” This article was written by Seth Thorpe