While the University of Detroit Mercy only has a total undergraduate enrollment of 3,156, its rich history of almost 150 years of students have preserved traditions and made long standing impacts on this university. UDM currently offers over 100 student organizations. These offer students an abundance of ways to get connected on campus and meet students and faculty with similar interests.
The most traditional way these connections are made at a university is through Greek Life. These organizations are unique extensions of national fraternities and sororities with decades if not centuries of history behind them. Everyone who joins a Greek organization becomes a member nationally and follows its values just like the thousands that have before them, while maintaining different responsibility in their respective local chapter at their university.
Detroit Mercy has 17 Greek Organizations on campus, which includes five social fraternities and sororities (three of which are sororities), as well as historically black fraternities and sororities, a Latin fraternity and service/professional fraternities. While this makeup of organizations is smaller than a large university like Michigan State, it is incredibly unique and robust, and the smaller proximity of these chapters makes it easier to establish meaningful friendships and experiences which in turn makes your time in Greek Life better.
Sigma Pi Fraternity International Gamma-Alpha chapter at the University of Detroit Mercy is one of the two social fraternities on campus and was founded May 2, 1962. This was the 49th school that Sigma Pi (founded nationally at Vincennes University in Indiana Feb. 26, 1897) chartered or established. In over 60 years on campus, they have had over 600 brothers, adding an average of 10 new members per year. The chapter currently has 17 brothers from three different states and a wide assortment of different ethnicities and backgrounds that make up their demographic.
The brothers of Sigma Pi are very active on campus in both athletics (one member on the soccer team and one on the track team) and academics (10 different majors among the 17 members) largely due to this variety described. The chapters long history also spans outside the fence as they have their own lettered house on Fairfield St, which they have had for 40 years. This houses any brothers who want to live there as well as being the main location for organizational tasks like chapter meetings, study halls and social gatherings.
The brothers are also in touch with Detroit Mercy’s mission statement and commitment to service. While Sigma Pi’s national charitable efforts are largely to suicide awareness, the Gamma-Alpha chapter holds this close while also focusing on immersing themselves in their own area and have been involved in several community service efforts around Detroit this year.
The brothers of this organization are extremely proud of not only their organization's accomplishments, but the great bond they have made with those in the chapter. When asked what being in Sigma Pi had done to enhance their Detroit Mercy experience the brothers doubled down on what this meant to them.
Student Government and Student Advisory Board president Mark Formosa, who joined his sophomore year, said, “Sigma Pi has helped me learn how to communicate and hold more meaningful conversations with people.”
Junior cybersecurity major Preston Duller extended Formosa’s thoughts and said, “There’s so much I learned from being in the fraternity. Dealing with people, balancing time, I could make a whole list. But being able to be a part of something bigger than myself and being able to leave an imprint/legacy made my experience at Detroit Mercy worth more than just my degree.”
Isaiah Bonner, a junior who’s also on the track team and will serve as the organization’s next president spoke more on the activities side of things, saying, “Being a brother in Sigma Pi has made my campus experience so much more fun because we are the ones that bring the energy and motion to having a wonderful campus life in the years that we have at Detroit Mercy.”
If you were to ask any member of a Greek organization on this campus you would hear a variety of answers on how it has changed their experience for the better at UDM and they are all right. However, Sigma Pi is clearly unique in so many ways and in a time of consistent negative energy from Greek life across the country, they are doing things the right way and making a substantial positive impact on young men every year.
