Pi Kappa Alpha (PIKE) came to Kent State in the fall of 2011 after a slight increase in the amount of Greek life members. Since then, PIKE has been attracting new members to the chapter using the motto, “Scholars, Leaders, Athletes and Gentlemen.”

Recently, the fraternity raised its admissions cost by $150 to accommodate for all events, fundraisers and more it plans on doing in the future.

Ryan Cowin, senior political science major and president of PIKE, said the fraternity has free power to do what it wants but also has a lot of responsibility.

“We don’t have alumni breathing down our neck or telling us what to do,” Cowin said. “We have free reign to whatever we want, and we’re using that to it’s full potential. We’re doing new stuff this semester, creating philanthropies and new fundraisers; It’s going to be really great.”

Senior business management major Kyle Grabowski has been a member of PIKE since the fraternity started at Kent State, and he approves of the fee increase full heartedly.

“I’m all for it,” Grabowski said. “You have to spend money to make money — as they always say — and raising the dues is only going to help us. It can’t hurt us in any way.”

Grabowski said the increase might make people skeptical of the fraternity.

“Finances have been an issue in the past and the increase will defer some people,” he said. “If it defers them from sticking with us or joining us, then those aren’t the kind of guys we’re looking for anyway. We’re looking for gentlemen and people who want to stick around for that aspect.”

Sophmore managerial marketing major Robert Janezic said he joined PIKE last year and is fully committed to sticking around through the increase.

“I can’t imagine leaving the PIKE guys over a little fee increase,” Janezic said. “I can see how price would make some people not want to look further into the fraternity, but we want the guys to want to be in the fraternity, not to worry about how much they have to pay compared to somewhere else.”

Since PIKE is new at Kent State, it barely has an alumni base, which gives it a harder time when it comes to funding. Cowin said the fee increase isn’t here to stay, but to get them into a positive future, it’s something the fraternity has to do.

“What we’re preaching right now is that it’s not permanent, but it’s something we have to do,” Cowin said. “We just had a banquet and admission dues for every member of the fraternity, which meant that every guy had to pay that at the same time. It was really daunting financially, but we’re doing what we have to do to stay afloat and have a good time.”

PIKE has many events coming up throughout the semester. Stay up to date about their fundraisers or any other event by checking out their webpage.

Contact Justin Graci at [email protected].