UCLA Phi Kappa Sigma admits new members after hiatus

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The brick fraternity house with an ivy-covered front lawn and green shutters still bears its national seal above the main entrance, although it has been unoccupied by brothers for more than a decade.

For the first time since 2003, the Phi Kappa Sigma fraternity, which sits on the corner of Strathmore and Landfair, is admitting new members.

The Phi Kappa Sigma house, originally established at UCLA in 1927, was disbanded by UCLA in 2003. Today, it has reopened and began rushing new members this spring, said Mark Logsdon, a Phi Kappa Sigma International Fraternity expansion consultant.

 

Phi Kappa Sigma became a substance-free house in 2000. Alcohol violations caused the UCLA fraternity to be shut down. There are 45 other chapters of the fraternity around the country, Logsdon said.

Phi Kappa Sigma wants to be associated with a school of high academic integrity such as UCLA, Logsdon said. He added that bringing a substance-free house back to UCLA will create well-rounded individuals and give UCLA something it does not already have.

Though the house has been almost completely devoid of the fraternity’s members for nearly a decade, many alumni still remember their time as brothers vividly.

Al Scates, a Phi Kappa Sigma brother and former UCLA volleyball coach of 50 years, graduated from UCLA in 1961. He said his favorite moments as member of the fraternity were the weekly dinners and the jukebox in the basement that played 35 versions of the The Olympics’ song “Hully Gully.”

Scates also remembered one occasion when he was asked to wrestle for the fraternity in an intramural competition.

“I had never ever participated in a wrestling match. Through some fluke I ended up beating some wrestler from ZBT who was a wrestling champion,” Scates said. “He was so far ahead by points they should have called it a mercy match.”

Other alumni of the fraternity knew they had found a home at UCLA when they toured the house before the school year started.

 

Former UCLA assistant football coach Jim Colletto joined the Phi Kappa Sigma house in the 1960s, when he was recruited to play football at UCLA. He said he had never encountered a more inclusive group than the one he found in the fraternity.

“(The fraternity) gave you a way to fit in, know people, get comfortable and made sure you paid attention to schoolwork,” Colletto said. “I loved the friendships with athletes, ROTC, outstanding students, singers … We got to grow up and associate with different people.”

 

But the most memorable time for Colletto during his years as a Phi Kappa Sigma member was the house’s annual Hawaiian-themed party.

To prepare, fraternity members would bring giant palm fronds and hang them from the third story of the house. Members would also bring truckloads of sand and put them in the parking lot, as well as build a bridge across the swimming pool and create a pond, Colletto said.

Other members also went out of their way to decorate for the fraternity’s big event – almost getting into trouble while doing so.

 

Robert Smiley, retired dean of the UC Davis business school, graduated from UCLA in 1966 and from the Anderson School of Management in 1969. Smiley recalled that, while preparing for the party, his friends loaded their car up with flowers they picked in the Pacific Palisades and other parks around the area.

While driving back to the fraternity, a policeman pulled them over to ask what they were doing. His friend could only think to say that his mom had asked him to pick flowers for her. The officer was doubtful, but let them go, Smiley said.

The annual Hawaiian-themed party was the biggest event for the fraternity every year, but the fraternity’s alumni remember that it was the people who came together from all walks of life in the house that made the most impact.

 

 

“The fraternity had some athletes, more bookish people and fun-loving people from different locations,” Smiley said. “I learned a lot there. I learned a lot at UCLA but I learned a lot more from these people.”

Correction: Colletto is a former UCLA assistant football coach.