After several years of absence, Phi Delta Theta Fraternity is coming back to Southeast Missouri State University. With more than 50 new members already recruited, the fraternity has big plans for the upcoming school year.

By stressing the importance of academics and service in the community, the fraternity was able to recruit some of the most qualified and involved students on campus as re-founding fathers.

"We were really looking for the people who truly wanted to help out in the community and not just those who were looking for the all the stigmas typically associated with fraternities," Phi Delta Theta president and Southeast senior Mitchell Baalman said. "It's essentially a group that would raise some standards at SEMO."

The fraternity stressed that Phi Delta Theta was more of a leadership group than fraternity with an ultimate goal of becoming a leader through academics and service during the recruitment process last spring.

With these qualifications, the men that were recruited have the same morals and ethics, yet many of them are from different cultures.

"We have a lot of different guys from all over the world, and I like that this experience is bringing us all together," junior Joe Reynolds said.

With such a diverse group, the fraternity would like to take the time to get to know each other before it adds many more members.

"We're going to worry about the brotherhood aspect of the fraternity and bringing everyone closer together. Then once we keep the guys we have, we can really focus on adding new ones," Baalman said.

The fraternity has several events planned this semester to fulfill their goals of service and brotherhood by volunteering in the community for their national philanthropy the ALS Association, which is a non-profit organization fighting Lou Gehrig's Disease.

"We're essentially going from house to house in our community and assisting people who have Lou Gehrig's Disease. We'll do yard work and household chores for them since they are unable to," Baalman said. "We are directly going into the community and we're helping first hand, so I'm really looking forward to it."

The fraternity wishes to have a centralized meeting location on campus. Without access to a Greek on-campus house due to lack of space on Greek Hill, the members are in the process of asking permission to temporarily designate a floor of one of the residence halls on campus specifically for Phi Delta Theta members until a more permanent residence is available. Baalman hopes that this helps bring the members closer together and helps them get to know each other.

"I can't wait for this semester to begin, to get to know everyone, and to ultimately become the greatest version of myself that I can be," Reynolds said.