Celina Oseguera
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Daniel Marquez, Grant Campanelli and Cole Uhland have a common goal: keeping the legacy of Kappa Sigma alive.
According to Marquez, a history senior and current president of the fraternity, Kappa Sigma was originally on campus from 1989 to 2005. The fraternity lost its charter in the summer of 2005, Marquez said.
Christopher Cooley, president of all Kappa Sigma chapters in Central California, said the Cal Poly chapter lost its charter because of several factors, including parties where minors obtained and drank alcohol.
Campanelli, a computer science sophomore and the fraternity’s public relations chair, did not want the revived chapter to have that kind of reputation.
“We wanted to make a different type of fraternity. Fraternities have a bad stigma in general,” Campanelli said.
Marquez and a small group of students decided to bring back the fraternity in 2012. They started from scratch and went through the chartering process all over again to become an official chapter.
The process required them to first contact the national Kappa Sigma group and register as a colony. Nationals recognized the group as the Nu Alpha colony in May 2012. They were recognized as a chapter under that name by the Cal Poly Interfraternity Council (IFC) in October 2012.
There were many requirements to meet to obtain the charter. They needed to gather at least 60 members, having each member register to vote and have all members’ GPAs be higher than the overall male GPA at Cal Poly.
Two years later, the charter requirements have been met. Both Cal Poly and nationals now recognize the Nu Alpha colony as a Kappa Sigma chapter, officially receiving its charter on May 24.
A few days before the chartering ceremony, Marquez, Campanelli and Uhland — a biomedical junior and the fraternity’s vice president — reminisced about the early days of the colony and why they got involved in Kappa Sigma.
Marquez, being one of the students who first decided to revive the fraternity, had a lot of memories from the early days of the colony.
During these days, the group wasn’t allowed to reserve conference rooms on campus because the school didn’t officially recognize the colony yet. This forced them to have meetings elsewhere.
“I was a part of it (the fraternity) when we were meeting in garages and living rooms and sneaking into Chumash to have a meeting,” Marquez said.
Campanelli got involved in the colony later down the road, during Spring 2013. One of his motives for joining the group was that they were essentially a startup, a concept he appreciated.
“I’m a big person who’s a supporter of startups in general,” Campanelli said. “I like taking something that needs help and making it better.”
Campanelli said he never saw himself in a fraternity, but seeing the maturity of the group of men persuaded him to join.
Uhland joined in Winter 2013. His decision to get involved was relatively simple — he saw a poster advertising the colony outside one of his classrooms and decided to rush. Uhland rushed other fraternities, but decided to stick with the colony.
With the charter now under their belt, Marquez sees a bright future for the chapter.
“I look forward to seeing the Nu Alpha chapter becoming one of the more successful chapters on campus,” he said.