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Ask Dr. Ross
What's the Real Fraternity Experience? Exploring Greek Life at UT Tyler
The stereotypical fraternity experience is well-known, negative, and (unsurprisingly) not true of every chapter. Most people think they know what Greek life is like - but what do the insiders say?
This week, Dr. Ross and student producer Ashley Worley explore Greek life within UT Tyler's Kappa Sigma chapter. Joining the discussion are Kappa Sigma's alumni advisor Jared Daniels and chapter member Erick Zamarron to share the impact of brotherhood on their college journeys. Together, they dive into the history of fraternities, misconceptions of Greek life, and the personal growth opportunities they've encountered. For curious students, the stories may not be what you expect.
Have more questions about life inside a fraternity? Email us at ADRquestions@gmail.com or leave a comment below. We'd love to hear from you!
Want to learn more or connect with UT Tyler's Greek Life? Click the links below!
-UT Tyler Greek Life webpage: https://www.uttyler.edu/student-life/greek-life/
-Kappa Sigma Instagram: @UTTKAPPASIGMA
Stay tuned to the Ask Dr. Ross Podcast. It's created to give you info to succeed at college. Our hosts are highly qualified. Dr. Katherine Ross is a member of the University of Texas Systems Academy of Distinguished Teachers. She's also a popular professor of 19th century English literature. Ask Dr. Ross is a community service of the University of Texas at Tiger.
SPEAKER_04:So today we're going to be talking to two gentlemen from the world of fraternities. We've already done an episode, by the way, on sororities, and they have prepared us to expect great things from you all. Our two guests are Eric Zamaron, who is a junior education major and an active brother in the Kappa Sigma fraternity. And we have Jared Daniels here, who's had an interesting career. He is a volunteer alumni advisor, although recently he was a paid fraternity recruiter, what did they call you? Area recruitment manager. So I guess the first thing we want to know about is just generally what's the history of fraternities in the U.S. universities?
SPEAKER_03:We, as Captain Simon, started in 1869 in Charlesville, Virginia at UVA. But we date even further back than that, a little more history in Bologna, Italy in 1400.
SPEAKER_02:In Bologna back then, there was this guy called Bolisera Casa, and he was kind of this really evil entity, I guess. He had a bunch of soldiers that would kind of take over the land. And there's this guy, Manuel Christolores, and he really wanted to bring the history back to Bologna. And Greek, the language, like the Greek alphabet and everything, was kind of a dying language. The history was being erased. And what Manuel Christolores did, he gathered a bunch of students that were going to the school, and he was trying to teach these teachings to them. And while they would go to school, they would actually get beat up, like stoned on the way to school by Casa and his people, his soldiers. What Manuel Cristolores did was he kind of banded a group of members and they kind of stuck together for protection to go back and forth to school so they could learn about the history and everything.
SPEAKER_03:So the reason why we became Cap Sigma is because they needed a sign to show like who are these guys coming to the city without getting beaten up, their books taken away, or things like that. So the Greek alphabet, we were given Cappa Sigma. A lot of our beliefs with Cappa Sigma, scholarship, leadership, service, and fellowship. So all the principles of being a good student, giving back to the community, the same principles that we live today, I mean, starts back at 1400.
SPEAKER_04:So you all are sort of proud of this history as you should be. And so what happened between 1400 and 2025 to get Kappa Sigma here at UT Tyler?
SPEAKER_03:Well, the area recruitment manager does, our headquarters supplies this job for any college student that has a Capua Sigma on their university. So this guy named Matt Griffiths, who came from McNeese State University, he uh applied for this job at headquarters, he got trained, you know, on how to sell the fraternity. And he showed up to campus one day at UT Tyler and just started talking to students, you know, going left and right. I came in, are you interested in fraternity? Would you be interested not alone being in one, but starting one? There was one back here in 2010, but unfortunately we got shut down. So for 2010 to I think 2015 to 2016 is when all that kind of we got shut down. So we had to wait our time period out. Spring of 2021 is when Matthew Griffiths came down and then started recruiting again for the fraternity.
SPEAKER_04:So originally it was a society to protect students from evil thugs of private armies of Italians so they could go to the great university of Bologna and get an education. And then somehow we got all the way to UVA in 1869. Those five gentlemen at UVA, what did they want?
SPEAKER_03:To promote brotherhood. I've got a great story. I want to hear the story. Okay, sweet. So before I became part of UT Tyler on this campus, I was taking community college classes before then. And I decided to come, you know, to UT Tyler. He's close to home, that kind of thing. I did all online classes that spring of 2021 when Matt came down. And had a buddy. We went to summer camp together, found out that we're both going to UT Tyler. He's like, awesome, man, that's great. That's cool. We should we should hang out sometime. I drove up here, we're sitting down at the Chick-fil-A on campus. Next thing I know, Matt Griffiths and Adam Sherman, who were both a recruit manager at the time, came up to me and they're like, hey man, how are you doing? I'm like, doing good, just kind of having lunch or whatever. And I asked, I was like, Are you guys students here? You know, because we kind of started having a conversation. He's like, no, we're actually trying to start a fraternity. And I was like, no, thanks. Why? Yeah, the speculation of you know, hazing, and they're like, no, man, it's different. You get to start one. I'm like, my buddy's just like absolutely not. He's like, no, I'm not into it. But they kind of got me in, like, I was I was a little curious, you know. I was a little curious. I was like, all right, here, I'll I'll do you one better. Let's have lunch later this week. So I go back home, tell my parents got, you know, about this fraternity thing, they're like freaking out. They're like, no, no, please don't. Yeah. So go back up there and we had this a great in-depth conversation about what CAPE Sigma stands for, the benefits that it could provide, and why I should do it. And I went home that evening and I really thought about it. The end of the semester comes. It's like, I think April. And I'm at home, you know, and they mind you, Matt and Adam are both actively recruiting on campus day in, day out. And I'm at home, kind of think nothing much of it. They call me and I'm like, hey man, what's going on? Like, hey, dude, we need one more guy to join. And I'm like, no, man, I just I don't know. And mind you, this is like a 30-minute conversation, 40-minute conversation we're having over the phone. And what Adam Sherman told me was, don't miss out on the greatest opportunity. I know that sounds so cliche, but he said that. And I said, Man, what do I got to lose? So next thing I know, we all got pledged in there. I was number 41. I was the last guy. And so I'm sitting there in my polo and khakis, and there's 40 of the guys I never met before. Mind you, I'm online students, I didn't meet any of these guys, so I've already felt left out. And this guy from headquarters going over the details of Kappa Sigma, what it means to be Capua Sigma, and I'm like, man, what did I get myself into? I have no idea what he's saying right now. But it was awesome. I mean, we were all pledged together. It was just, it was a little, I'll be honest, it was it was awful. We didn't know organization, we didn't know what we were doing.
SPEAKER_04:So Matt and Adam just said start it and then left, or they did they help you organize?
SPEAKER_03:That's kind of the whole job of the area recruitment manager. Essentially, what they do is they go to a campus, they're only there for a lot of amount of time. So when I was doing it, I allotted myself a month's time to find the X amount of guys I needed, and then we were shipped to the next campus the very next day. We had other volunteers at the time that were helping us, that kind of thing. But yeah, so they just kind of they left. So that first 41, did all 41 stay in the fraternity? No, unfortunately not. When you get 41 guys together who are 18, 19, 20, have no idea what they're doing, and they had to understand you have meetings and pay dues and organize, it's kind of falls apart pretty quickly. So who was the leader of that 41? Well, it was this guy, Casey Mudo, at first. He got nominated for president, and reluctantly I got nominated for the third highest position, which we call our Grandmaster Ceremonies. And I kind of took it upon myself. I was like, man, like this could be something really great. It sounds like it's an opportunity for leadership and for creating something from the ground up. For me, it was it was legacy and building up the next class. In the fall, when we dropped down to I think like 15 guys, I talked to Casey and I was like, hey man, listen. How would you feel about just swapping positions? He's like, Man, let's do it. So you took over. I did. I just I saw it as like, man, we could really make a name for ourselves on this campus.
SPEAKER_04:So the leadership aspect of the fraternity really grabbed your heart and was something you knew you could do and you started doing.
SPEAKER_03:Absolutely. So I became the president that very next spring, we went from fifteen, I think, to like twenty-eight, and that's when we got Eric and a bunch of other great, amazing guys that really stuck around through a lot of hard times and really saw the vision.
SPEAKER_04:What was it like starting a fraternity from nothing, going from 41 to 15? That must have been kind of disheartening. What motivated you to go to the president and say, I think I need to be president?
SPEAKER_03:Passion. I think a lot of it was passion and seeing the future, you know, I saw greatness, I saw legacy, I saw the future. I wanted something more than just coming to school and being a student. And when the attorney provided an opportunity, at first I was like, no. But once I got to hang out with Eric, hang out with some of these other guys, like the best memories I have are just hanging out in the dorms and hanging out after. And just show like there's there's more to life than just going to school and going home. Absolutely.
SPEAKER_04:Uh the college experience is yes, it's courses and things to prepare you for a a profession, but it's also learning how to be you, it's learning how to negotiate emotional relationships, it's learning how to solve problems, it's learning what your values are.
SPEAKER_03:I think that's something a lot of it too was going to community college, I was like, There's gotta be more to life. I want more for myself. And I came to Tyler and the fraternity provided itself and I was like, Man, I gotta do something with this.
SPEAKER_04:That's one thing I always say is that you know, the three or four years, sometimes five years you spend in college, they never come again. And if you don't use that time to doing something like this, creating something, following a vision, experimenting with different ways of doing things, you probably won't get another chance. Apparently Eric happened along in this w Eric, what was he like when he was being the president? What attracted you to joining up with his particular group?
SPEAKER_02:I don't know. I think I kind of just made a commitment up in my head very early on, and I just really stuck with it. I saw Jared come along and how kind of passionate he was, and it speaks now. I mean, you can see the legacy that he's left, you can see the growth with not only him, but a lot of the leaders that we have now still in the fraternity. We have a little bit more structure than I guess how we did in those earlier days. I don't know how we honestly did it back then with very little structure. You will see why people, I guess, leave, but now we see the retention has actually gone up a little bit more. I think it's really just due to pouring into these guys, making sure they're gonna be leaders, kind of like Jared has kind of set for us.
SPEAKER_04:How did you get together? Did you have weekly meetings, monthly meetings?
SPEAKER_02:We would have a weekly meeting every Sunday, typically around six. Sometimes we like to throw a little theme in there, like PJs or like Halloween costumes or something. But yeah, we usually have if we don't have like a little event or thing going on, we'll let uh everyone know the whole curriculum for the week, things to be looking forward throughout the month. And then if we have any big events coming on.
SPEAKER_04:So Jared here had taken the mighty 15 remnants and turned it into a powerful growing group. And then you had Rush in January.
SPEAKER_03:So that spring we started, that fall we lost all those guys, and then we got Eric's class in that spring. And essentially what we did was I pushed motion. I was like, listen, guys, if we want this thing to work, we gotta talk to every guy we can. And we started with the guys in the room. Like, if anybody knows anyone, bring him to the meeting, we'll talk to him, get him excited, we'll get him a joint. Hey man, do you want to start a attorney and leave your name? Leave legacy? You gonna be something greater than yourself?
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, legacy was always something he always hit on. And then opportunity, because uh that's what I would say would be more than anything. It's giving me not only an opportunity to step up and lead, but I really want to set an example like Jerry did for us.
SPEAKER_04:Now, when you do rush, what do you do? You and do all the other fraternities start at the same time and you all have like some sort of event.
SPEAKER_02:Kinda ish. Ours is continuously open bid. So throughout the year you see us contacting, hanging out, reaching out to all these guys. We would like for them to come to our rush week, kind of similar to how the girls have theirs. The way ours work, we just have usually uh a set week for men's council. So that first week we put a bunch of events. Typically, the first day is kind of more something that's one-on-one.
SPEAKER_04:Sounds kind of like speed dating or something. Kinda.
SPEAKER_02:We usually do that one more on like Thursdays, so we'll take them out to eat in a big group. And then we had slip and slide kickball this year. One of the days we did out at the lake, just a good little lake day with the guys. We also cook, so we'll bring the meats as well.
SPEAKER_04:Do you have parties with like dances?
SPEAKER_02:Well, technically we really can't have anything here on campus. They're kind of strict with everything that we do have. We have a Greek formal.
SPEAKER_03:It's kind of where you can dress up and they give us some fun awards, all this royal fraternity of it, that kind of thing.
SPEAKER_02:Most of our actual dance parties, I'd say, were be at the Hamptons. The Hamptons is an assisted living home for military heroes. And we go out there once or twice out of the semester, typically on like Mardi Gras or like Cinco de Mayo or something. Valentine's Day, they always love that one. And we'll just go up, dressed up in a bunch of different outfits for the theme. We'll go up there, have a dance party with the elderly. It's a lot of fun. They enjoy it a lot.
SPEAKER_03:That's one of your service projects, isn't it?
SPEAKER_02:Military Heroes is our philanthropy.
SPEAKER_03:We have an endowment fund for it, and everybody has their own little kick of how they support the veterans. So like they go to the VA, go to the firehouse that like this past 9-11s. Oh, yeah.
SPEAKER_02:On 9-11s, we'll go, we'll give pizza to the first responders, donuts to the police officers.
SPEAKER_04:That's really wonderful. So how do you all keep your scholarship in good shape? What do you all do for that, Jared?
SPEAKER_03:Essentially, we have an academic chair, and we make sure he's structured to follow along with the GPA the requirement to be in the fraternity, and to overall strive to make sure everybody's meeting the grades. So for example, he'll make a spreadsheet of everybody's GPA.
SPEAKER_04:What is the minimum GPA to stay in?
SPEAKER_03:To be in a fraternity, I believe it's a 2.5 still. I think it's 2.6 or 2.7. That's the initial to get in, but we strive our guys to have at least.
SPEAKER_02:3.0 for first year.
SPEAKER_03:We really keep our guys accountable. I mean, again, you're here to be a student first, the fraternity comes second.
SPEAKER_02:And we're not shy to call one out. I know multiple times we have group chats and we'll call each other out if we notice one or another not going to class, skipping, showing out. We really try to hold each other accountable more than anything. Being your brother's keeper is something we always say.
SPEAKER_04:That's sort of part of the fellowship charge. When y'all first came in here, I remember Jared saying proudly, we're the first, we're the best. You want to tell them why you said that, Jared? And then maybe Eric can confirm it.
SPEAKER_03:We have a popular phrase when we go to these conferences every year. It's uh number one, second to none. Statistically, if you look at the charts, uh, we bring in the most pledges every year across all fraternities. Cross country. I think this past year, we're between eight to nine thousand pledges, alone. This is all new pledges across the nation.
SPEAKER_04:What do you do to keep them coming and staying?
SPEAKER_02:I think one thing that has been really good was change, implementing a lot of new things to our bylaws every almost chapter. One thing that we've added was pledged, which would be kind of a one-on-one class with someone that is already a member, a brother, pouring back and teaching the history to the pledges. We try to pour into those guys. I know with my lessons, I make sure that it's very oriented to what we got going on nowadays. The last lesson I really went over was being your brother's keeper, knowing once something might be out of line to not be so in that victim mentality to let something just pass right by, not be a bystander, do something, stand up, be proactive.
SPEAKER_01:These are all some really great stories. Had we asked you yet, like what drew you, Eric, to want to join a fraternity? Was this something you were kind of always interested in?
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, I had only known one person that actually went to U Talet before coming here. My first time coming on campus was my first steps into my classroom. I was a transfer student from AM. It was during COVID time. I came back spring of 23 and I didn't know anybody. And I just met them and it they seemed like a good group of guys. They were still moving along regardless of everything that was going on in the world, and everyone's very different. Being able to see it all kind of come together, see the different aspects and perspectives, and bringing it to something where we're unified. I took an off year 2021 through 2022. I had a loss in my family. It was my grandpa. It was kind of the first loss I really experienced. And then shortly right after, I actually lost one of my really close friends in a car accident. And I didn't really know what I was really doing or kind of where I wanted to go with my life. So I kind of ran away from everything. I went to work at a summer camp, actually, Camp Hawani in Timpson, little old Timpson, the middle of nowhere. But I really enjoyed pouring back into those kids. I think that's when I really decided that I wanted to be a teacher. That's when I kind of came to my senses, especially that next year, they offered me a senior counselor job. And I took it, and being able to see the growth from that first year to that next year. That was my favorite part. And I think that's probably my favorite part about being in the fraternity, being able to see people come in the way they are and then leave differently, you know what I mean?
SPEAKER_04:That's really quite touching. Jared, you graduated two years ago? Spring of 24, I think. So you've been out of college for a while, but your heart is still with the Kappa Sigs.
SPEAKER_03:Absolutely. I mean, right as soon as I graduated, I applied to be a recruitment manager. Essentially, what my sole job was to travel to campuses across the United States and start Kappa Sigma if it wasn't there already. So you were like Matt Griffiths and Adam Sherman. That is correct. It was great. It was phenomenal. I mean, I went all the way up to the East Coast. One place I really enjoyed was Landard University in South Carolina. Seven of us originally as area recruitment managers. And we all trained for to get together for a month in Virginia. We got to live in a hotel together. It was kind of like a bachelor pad. This is where our headquarters is. So we got to go through every day, like eight to five. It was really cool. It was an awesome experience. And got to meet some very famous alumni like Mick Wilson, Leo Brown, Nick Hawk, a bunch of other guys. Mick Wilson was our previous executive director for the fraternity. But, anyways, we trained for that month in July or June. Sent us out on the road, we go visit chapters, things like that during that time, and then they stationed us at different places. So the reason why I bring this up is we originally tried to start at Atlanta University, and the guy who was there was having some trouble, and then that hurricane hit. They shut everything down. So they sent him somewhere else. So December comes, we're in Georgia at the time. My boss, Nick Hawk, is like, hey, I know where you're going next. And he loves this game of not telling us until. And so I finally got and I was like, hey man, like I just I want to know where I'm going. Can you just tell me? He said, We're going to send you to South Carolina. I said, Why on earth are you doing that? I said, There's a million, I can find a campus right now that I would love to go to. He's like, Jared, I just think you can get it done. I said, I don't believe you. So I drove up to Lanard University after visiting all my chapters, met with the dean of students and the president of the university. They're like, Jared, we're excited to have you, but you know, the guy here before, we, you know, he didn't do a good job, but we we expect more of you. So I met with the alumni from the chapter that was there previously. We got to talk to them. They're both on the board for Lanar University. But man, once I found those first few guys, I mean it was kind of picked up and started rolling. They're awesome dudes. They're amazing, they're amazing guys. I think they'll be great Cap Six one day.
SPEAKER_04:So I believe we better talk about the fact that there may be a few other fraternities on campus. Just to give them their moment. I know that you all are number one, second to none.
SPEAKER_02:We have ATO on campus and SAE on campus.
SPEAKER_04:Now let me ask you this. When a young man starts to think about joining a fraternity at UT Tyler, and they stand back and they look at Kappa Sigma, ATO, SAE, what is the kind of character of each one of those?
SPEAKER_02:A lot of people have been speaking for us, I would say, I guess. Uh a lot of people have been saying I guess we're for everyone. And I don't necessarily see that as a bad thing. We're accepting of all kinds. And we like that, honestly. We we like to see the different perspectives and we always take that into consideration with everything we do. When they see us, I think they'll see just a great variety of just about everything. But that's how we, you know, sharpen iron with iron. We make each other better with everything we do.
SPEAKER_01:I think it would maybe be a good final note to someone who's considering joining a fraternity on their way into college, what your advice to them would be to have a better college experience.
SPEAKER_03:I got a story that's fine. I was gonna talk about initiation. So kind of what we talked about before, being a colony, you've got to do all these things to become a chapter. So you gotta raise some money, you gotta get the guys, you gotta have a certain amount of community service hours, you gotta get recommendation letters, you gotta do all these workshops, like all these all these things.
SPEAKER_02:And that's per person. Like everyone has to do their own hours, their own money donated, everyone has to do all their checkoffs.
SPEAKER_03:And it shows, like, hey, these guys are ready to be a chapter. And I'll never forget we did all those things. And I think I think it's a week before we get like our set date for initiation, and I get a phone call from Leo Brown. He's like, hey, I heard you guys are ready. You send your petition. I'm like, Yeah, man, we're we're so excited. He's like, Do you guys have your initiation fees? I'm like, excuse me. He's like, it's$150 per person. And we had, I think 45, 49 guys. We had$9,000 or$46,000? What was it? I forget. We were broke.
SPEAKER_02:We had no money. We spent the rest of our money for everything that we needed for initiation.
SPEAKER_03:The banquet and the chartering fee. And so he's like, you have to get this money, or like you we're gonna have to wait. Mind you, it's like December 2nd. Finals are about to start, they're over, or whatever. So I'm like, and I'm I'm panicking. I started pulling all my heads together. Like, Eric was a part of that group. I'm like, hey, we gotta figure something out. Empty out your pockets, guys. So we're making phone calls, we're doing something, and so finally we get a hold of I think a local guy, I think you knew, right? And he's like, hey man, here's a check for like$2,000. And we were like, thank you.
SPEAKER_02:It was a lawyer that used to be my baseball coach when I was young.
SPEAKER_03:And so I called Leo Brown the next day and I said, Hey, Leo, we just uh got$2,000. Like, I don't know how you did it, but you better pull this off. I hung up. And so what's funny is like with leading up to that, that Saturday for initiation, we got up early. Mind you, we have no idea what's about to happen.
SPEAKER_02:Everyone's scared. People are like not wanting to come in because they don't know if they're ready enough.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, it's like 7 a.m. Like we if they I think we stayed the night before, just like kind of practicing with each other, like the Greek alphabet and some other stuff. Man, when I tell you, after the whole day went through, which is actually funny too, is like I was the last guy to get initiated. And so they stuck me outside the UC theater, and everybody else is like coming through. Everybody that got initiated. Eric was walking by, some of the other guys, and all the volunteers that are there to help with us are like, don't talk to Jared, like, don't say anything. And we have a group chat together, and no one is saying anything. So I lead on with so we go through the whole process, and man, the the the greatest moment I have to this day, and like it's a lot of volunteers bring it up there from Texas because they all helped us out was when it was all said and done. All our guys are in the UC Theater and they rush the stage and they all started throwing me in the air and lifted me up and throwing me because we we had just accomplished one of the hardest things I think everybody in that room had done. After the trials and tribulations, after not getting enough guys, being down from 18 now to 45.
SPEAKER_02:On top of that, we were nominated for a first year face award.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, for yeah. So face award is a founder's award of chapter excellence, which you have to meet all these requirements, you know, throughout the year. So community service, a number of guys, right? All these other things.
SPEAKER_02:We were actually the only chapter in Texas to get that award.
SPEAKER_04:Whoa, what an honor. That alone is something that can carry you along, isn't it? That's an awesome launch.
SPEAKER_02:That's legacy right there, Jaron.
SPEAKER_03:I'll end it with this. The advice I give is give it a chance. You never know what you're gonna get out of it. I wish I would have joined sooner. Give it a shot. It's gonna be one of the best decisions you make in your life. Whether you don't see it immediately, but once you get down to that first year, and by the time you're senior, you're like, man, I wish I can go back and do it all over again.
SPEAKER_04:Friends and brothers is the word yeah, I heard you say earlier.
SPEAKER_02:It just feels like open arms all the time. I can call anyone whenever. Literally, if I have a flat tire in the middle of the road, countless times a brother has had a flat tire that doesn't have a jack or an extra something to help, you know, fix you you know you can count on someone. It's freeing. I can trust them with just about anything, it feels like.
SPEAKER_04:Sounds like you all have a lot of fun, but you've also been doing a lot of growing up and have indeed launched a legacy, and I wish you all the very best as you continue. Keep on winning awards and having a good time. Thank you. Thank you. It's been a pleasure.
SPEAKER_01:And we just want to take a minute to thank our listeners as well. If you have any questions about fraternities, about campus life, we can direct them to Jared and to Eric. You can always leave a comment under our YouTube video or email us at ADR Questions at gmail.com.
