With hair still damp and several neckties still unknotted, the founding members of SU and SUNY ESF’s Delta Lambda Phi social fraternity beamed with pride and tinges of apprehension.

They trickled in, one at a time, to the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Resource Center the night of Nov. 22, for a reception celebrating their leap to colony status.

‘I’m feeling tons and tons of excitement,’ said Derek Bryant, a sophomore landscape architecture major at the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry. ‘And nervousness. I really don’t know what to expect at the rituals later.’

After more than a month of planning, seven Syracuse University and SUNY ESF students and one community member, Cliff Lyons, raised money, filled out all the paperwork and met all the national requirements to make their interest group a colony. They received their pledge pins and, shortly following the reception, underwent their rituals to become formal pledges.

‘These guys are really pioneers,’ said Adrea Jaehnig, director of the LGBT center. ‘They’re really creating space in part of the university and really creating space for the people after them. They may never know the impact they’ve had on them.’

Smiling and laughing, guests mingled with the members of the interest-group-turned-colony in the small lounge of the center. Short stacks of the group’s signature sugar and chocolate cookies, carefully arranged on a black plate, rested on a table of refreshments.

Jaehnig peered into the eyes of several members around her, questioning the dating policy within the group.

‘There’s a hands-off policy!’ said James Kaechele, president of the group, and tried explaining with his fellow members the circumstances of in-house romances.

‘So could you date him?’ Jaehnig asked, pointing to Scott Huegelmeyer, a junior English major, and a member of the group.

‘No, but I wouldn’t want to!’ Kaechele said, grinning as the group laughed.

As the room filled with people, the SU and SUNY ESF colonists were hardly distinguishable from their fellow brothers and colonists who had arrived from Boston, New York City and other national locations to celebrate the accomplishment.

‘It’s really fun to be hanging out with different people from other chapters,’ Bryant said.

Although they had only met some of their guests that day or the day before, they had already felt like close friends, Bryant added.

‘We can all hang out and have fun with each other when didn’t even know each other,’ Bryant said. ‘We all have this one bond of DLP.’

Several of the guests were amazed by the rapid achievement and brotherhood of the SU and SUNY ESF colony.

‘Everything I see here has been incredibly impressive,’ said Josh Powell, a member of the founding class of the Washington, D.C., chapter. ‘I’ve just kind of seen a sense of how they’ve already formed really close friendships, and that’s very unusual in a brand new colony.’

Howard Waters, an alumnus from the Boston chapter, said that although he has lost close contact with some of his brothers, his attendance at the reception reminded him of how the bonds last a lifetime and never change.

‘What they’re forming here is this incredible kind of friendship that you’ll always have,’ Waters said. ‘Everything is the same coming back.’

Published on December 1, 2003 at 12:00 pm