Tau Delta Psi
TAU DELTA PSI (TΔΨ) or The Buffs, is a fraternity in Kenosha, Wisconsin. Founded at Carthage in 1963, TΔΨ is the oldest Carthage College fraternity.
"Re-activation"
Due to declining numbers on campus in the late 1980s and early 1990s the pledge classes of TΔΨ became increasingly smaller and led to the chapter as being officially listed as "inactive." However, in the spring of 2006, four students: David Boeckx, Michael Johnson, William Crowley, and Joseph Brellenthin began pledging under the guidance of alumni given the absence of actives on campus.
"The A-Team"
The four new pledges quickly made contact with the nearest alumni in order to begin developing the organization and creating new ideas for its future and purpose. By fall of 2006 the four re-founders, dubbed "The A Team" after the popular TV show, had yet to complete their initiation and Michael Johnson, an influential founding member and son of award winning Science Fiction writer Bill Johnson, left Carthage to pursue a career in the United States Air Force. Despite loosing an original member, the new class was able to continue recruiting new students. New recruits Phillip Young and Nathaniel Blazier had joined the initiation process and were formally recognized at a ceremony in downtown Kenosha, Wisconsin that semester beginning the next generation of "Buffs."
The new pledge class was met with mixed reactions from the community. While "Buff" alumni warmly welcomed ambitious new members and Student Administrators were excited to renew an institutional community organization, the obscurity that had befallen the fraternity and the relatively small group of new members, compared to rival "national" fraternities, raised doubts about the return of "the Buff's" to Carthage Greek life.