It seems only appropriate that Timothy Dunn, Union’s new director of Fraternity and Sorority Affairs, began his career with Greek groups as a result of talking with a fraternity brother.
“Fraternities and sororities are about having lifelong relationships, building real bonds among brothers and sisters,” he says.
Dunn earned a bachelor’s degree in speech communications at Northeastern State University in Oklahoma and went on to get a law degree from the University of Oklahoma, where he was a member of Kappa Alpha Psi. He was working in social services in California when his KAPsi brother hired him as an assistant director of residential life at the University of Hartford. In that position, he began co-advising for Greek organizations.
“Greek advising gave me a great understanding of the challenges faced on the academic side when dealing with problems created by an unhealthy Greek system, which is why I worked so hard to make it healthy and an asset to the university,” said Dunn, who also was an adjunct professor of ethics.
A native of Abilene, Texas, Dunn had a brief stint as an advisor to fraternities at the University of Georgia before settling into the close-knit Union community in the fall.
Speaking recently from his office on the fourth floor of Reamer Campus Center, Dunn reflected that he faces “a lot of the same challenges I’ve seen before. One is to broadcast the positive aspects of the Greek experience to the campus. The only thing people see is the quite visible social life, but there are lots of good things going on.”
Greek life at Union dates to 1825, with the founding of the nation’s first fraternity, Kappa Alpha. Over the next few years, two more fraternities were founded; Sigma Phi, which is still active, and Delta Phi. They comprised the well-known Union triad.
Currently, about a third of all Union students belong to Union's 12 fraternities and five sororities.
“I want them to be one unified Greek community,” Dunn said. Recently, members of the three governing bodies volunteered together on the Habitat House on Barrett Street, and “to my knowledge, it was the first joint community council endeavor,” he said.
He aims to formalize several aspects of the Greek system, including the accreditation process, annual awards and recognition ceremonies, and academic success and rehabilitation programs. He would like to enhance new member education as well as membership recruitment and retention efforts.
“Lifelong relationships are among the core values that the organization builds,” Dunn says. “At their core, Greek organizations stand for the very principles that our country was founded on – brotherhood, service to the community and living lives of integrity.”