The “Big Red Barn,” located on Packard Avenue, is home to the Tufts brothers of Theta Chi. I interviewed President Leo Greenberg to gain some insight into the group of students that the fraternity houses. What I found was a guy who loves his fraternity, brothers who truly exemplify the diversity of the Tufts campus, and a house that was much cleaner than expected.
Name: Theta Chi
House Colors: Military red and white
Founded: 1856
Established at Tufts: 1957
Name: Leo Greenberg
Hometown: Stamford, CT
Major(s): Poliscience & Anthropology
Class: Senior
Why did you decide to join a fraternity? For me, it was just meeting the people in the various houses. I wasn’t doing a whole lot of extracurricular activities my first semester of freshman year, so when fraternity rush rolled around I figured I’d check it out. I met a bunch of people, different houses…
Why did you choose Theta Chi? It was just the people who I felt were the most like me and the easiest to get along with.
What was the pledging process like? It’s a lot of fun, to be perfectly honest. A lot of really good time spent is with pledges.
Why did you decide to become President? I almost immediately fell in love with the house with the house and everyone in it. They’re my best friends and the people that I’m closest to in the world, so I wanted to become President because I felt like I wanted to do as much as I possibly could do to give back to the house. Becoming President was the best way to do that.
How do you feel about presence of Theta Chi and how it’s perceived on campus? It’s hard for me to know how its perceived because, you know, no one will ever really say to me “Honestly, I feel like there’s a negative perception.” But, from my own standpoint, I am very proud of us. I think we are a really diverse house in a lot of different ways. Demographically, racially, ethnically. But also in terms of the clubs we’re involved in and our interests. I think we represent a good portion of Tufts. One thing we have in common is our desire to not be homogeneous. Some houses recruit from specific sports teams, but we don’t. We really like that we have some athletes, but also some computer science geeks, and some people who are really into community service… just a little bit of everything.
Is there tension between the fraternities on campus? I sort of go back and forth with this myself. We had a President’s Retreat recently, so all the (fraternity) presidents were in the same room. We have nothing to be fighting about. I think there’s a “perceived tension” that people should be rivals because some pranks have been pulled, but I don’t that it’s anything that we really preoccupy ourselves with.
How many guys currently live in the house? Right now we only have 6 guys living in the house.
What’s it like to live with 5 other dudes? It’s a lot of fun. People think, “Oh, you live in a frat house, it must be really disgusting,” but it’s not like that. When there’s not a party, we’re probably just as clean as any other place on campus. Everyone goes through the issues of “who didn’t wash the dishes,” so it’s really just like living anywhere else.
Could you explain your philanthropic project? Over last few years we’ve had a few different projects. We focus on changing projects a lot. For instance, after the earthquake in Haiti almost 2 years ago… We had a brother of Haitian descent, an alum, with family in Haiti. So we took that cause under our wing for a while. We’ve also been involved in many small projects. We worked with the Japanese Red Cross after the earthquake. We’re collecting eyeglasses for a foundation that provides vision care and corrective eyewear to impoverished children in India. We’re also going to start working with the Eagle Eye Institute, an institute right here in Somerville, that takes urban youth and introduces them to nature and outdoor programs to foster a sense of caring about the environment.
Is there anything special about Theta Chi’s history at Tufts? Before we were founded at Tufts, brothers who were there initially refused to be installed into the national organization because, at that time, African-Americans weren’t allowed to be members. I’m really proud of the strength they showed in that situation.
What’s your advice for someone looking to join a fraternity? The best advice I can give is to not preoccupy yourself with stereotypes and rumors. There’s a lot that gets said about different house and who’s in them, but don’t worry about that. You should join a house where you can find the people that you get along with the best.