Lambda Theta Phi Latin Fraternity Inc. currently has one active member at MU: junior Victor Peralta, who also serves as president of the chapter. 

The fraternity was founded in 1975 at Kean University. It became the first nationally recognized Latin fraternity in the nation, and the Delta Delta chapter was established at MU in 2012. The chapter is the first and only Latin fraternity on campus. 

Despite limited membership today, the fraternity’s alumni network is extensive. Paying respect to former members is important to the fraternity’s culture, especially through the tradition of saluting. Peralta compared saluting to slam poetry or step dance. 

“Basically telling a story with our bodies,” Peralta explained.

The chapter also hosts fundraising events and strives for a positive community impact. Some of their annual events include an elote sale, partner events with nonprofits and community service. They also work with other organizations in the Multicultural Greek Council, which supports identity-based Greek organizations. Peralta serves as vice president on the MGC Executive Board. 

Multicultural Greek chapters like Lambda Theta Phi operate differently than some other Greek organizations on campus, with smaller membership numbers, lower dues and no houses. Pledging the fraternity is also a strictly dry and consensual process. 

“We never make anybody do anything that they don’t want to do,” MU Lambda Theta Phi alumnus Trevor Clay said. “It’s a fully voluntary thing all the way. And we just try to make everything as comfortable as it can be for people that do want to join.” 

Both Peralta and Clay believe that MGC chapters provide safe spaces for people of color on MU’s predominantly white campus.

“I think it’s good to have a home away from home,” said Peralta. “What we like to do is just make sure that brothers feel at home and feel like this is a separate family from actual biological family.”

Clay witnessed firsthand the importance of organizations like Lambda Theta Phi when he transferred to MU from University of Missouri – Kansas City and initially struggled to find a community.

“I kind of felt out of place here,” Clay said. “There was quite a culture shock compared to the city university versus being out here, almost in the middle of nowhere.”

Clay was initially opposed to joining a fraternity, but was recruited to join Lambda Theta Phi by a friend from high school. 

“After continuously going to their events, it quickly became something that I wanted to be a part of, because I wanted to make that change here on campus,” Clay said. “I wanted to create more cultural awareness, more diversity, which in Missouri of all places, is pretty hard.”

Clay went on to serve as chapter president for a year, where he encountered many obstacles.

“Finishing strong was probably the hardest part, because we would have these amazing ideas,” Clay said. “But, then we would hit all these roadblocks, either issues with securing funding from the university or extraneous rules to that funding.” 

Lambda Theta Phi is under the umbrella of the Multicultural Center’s Association of Latin American Students. They are allocated up to $500 each semester for student programming by the Division of Inclusion, Diversity and Equity. The allocation comes from student fees and is consistent with other student organizations under IDE. 

Clay remembered that Lambda Theta Phi often ran into bureaucratic hurdles when trying to get allocations approved. 

“They [ALAS and the Division of Inclusion, Diversity and Equity] are really strict about following where the money goes,” Clay said. 

The chapter’s small membership base also makes the organization difficult to maintain. 

“What it kind of comes down to is a numbers thing,” Clay said. “We simply don’t have the manpower to push everything out. So we have to sometimes do smaller scale ideas.”  

This year, Peralta planned several events for the end of September, including a study hall, cookout and soccer game. Both Peralta and Clay, who still lives in Columbia and attends Lambda Theta Phi events, said the cookout was a success. 

“Cookout Friday was great,” Clay said. “Helped them out on the grill. Had some of our other brothers and sisters from our Multicultural Greek Council come by.” 

However, there were no attendees at the study hall or the soccer game. 

“It’s harder to run an organization that’s supposed to operate on the larger scale when you have two people, three people, each of them in full time classes, each of them with jobs,” Clay said. “And so the flame starts to dwindle a little bit.” 

Clay maintains hope that Peralta will continue to keep the flame burning. 

“I’m still in touch with a few guys from our founding line in 2012,” Clay said. “And it’s always been important for me to carry on with what they started. I don’t want it to go to waste. And I was admittedly very scared before I graduated about us dying out as a chapter.” 

Peralta said that membership looks to be on the uptick this year.

“We do have a couple of very brilliant individuals; they’re basically finishing up the process to become brothers,” Peralta added. 

Peralta has many goals in mind for the next year of the chapter’s work, including expanding their programming into the broader Columbia community. 

The demographics of the city are similar to that of MU: about 76% white. Clay thinks more could be done to promote diversity both within MU and in Columbia.

“I think as far as MU goes, they just don’t try hard enough,” Clay said, referring to university support of programming for marginalized students. He added that he feels the university doesn’t do enough to understand the needs of these communities.  

Lambda Theta Phi remains persistent, even with funding complications and only one member. As the new members are initiated this year, they will assume both the burdens and the legacies of their forebears. 

“My main goal is to keep working on getting our name out there,” Peralta said. 

Edited by Alex Goldstein | agoldstein@themaneater.com

Copy edited by Jackson Cooper and Grace Knight