The GW chapter of Delta Tau Delta fraternity celebrated its reinstallation Saturday evening, after functioning as a colony on campus since November 2008.

The organization was suspended from the University in 2004, after facing allegations of hazing and serving alcohol to minors. After returning to campus in 2008 to recruit members and reestablish their chapter, the Gamma Eta chapter of the fraternity is now officially recognized by both its national headquarters and the Interfraternity Council.

“Six years ago things happened that shouldn’t have,” said Jeremy Rohen, a 1997 School of Business graduate and Gamma Eta house corporation president. “We’re here tonight because the system worked.”

In addition to being recognized on campus, the brothers of Delta Tau Delta completed their initiations when inducted into the national charter.

“Because values and principles are so much the core of modern Greek life, particularly here at GW, being fully privy to what are the principles and traditions of the national fraternity is a very important milestone, even if we’ve been functioning as a member of the Greek community for the past 15 months,” sophomore Erik Ashida said.

The ceremony, in addition to hosting approximately 48 brothers of Delta Tau Delta, also welcomed Rosario Palmieri, southern division president, and James Garboden, international treasurer. The two presented the mission, values and charter.

“This is only the beginning of your journey,” Garboden said to the brothers. “You have a lot more responsibility now.”

The Chi Omega sorority experienced a similar reinstallation into the GW Greek-letter life community when the women rejoined their national charter last year. Dean Harwood, director of Greek life, said these two groups reveal much about the role of Greek organizations at GW.

“There’s a very supportive environment for Greek life at GW these days,” Harwood said. “We’ve grown to be a significant part of the campus.”

Sophomore and chapter president Patrick Cox, who joined the fraternity at the beginning of his freshman year, said watching Delta Tau Delta progress has been a long journey.

“We lost a lot of guys in the beginning,” Cox said. “It was hard because there wasn’t a brotherhood right away.”

Before becoming an official Greek-letter organization, Delta Tau Delta worked to gain recognition and legitimacy by participating in different Greek-letter life competitions.

“We won diamond heist with ADPi,” Cox said of Alpha Delta Pi’s philanthropy competition last semester. “It was our first and we really wanted to win something, get a trophy, so we went all out. We really try to work hard and end up on top.”

Cox said that being acknowledged by the national charter will help strengthen their role at GW.

“It definitely helps to be more recognized in the IFC,” he said. “Before, we were kind of just left in the dark, but today we’re official.”