Consul - Jessie Hart
Senior Tribune - Rich Haefner
Junior Tribune -Eric McGrath
Praetor - Nick Erber
Quaestor - Evans Bantios
Propraetor - (Vacant)
Pontifex - Pat Lamie
Centurion - Eric Steiner
Social Chair - Dan Palazzolo
Historian - Steven Singson
During the summer of 1998, Charles Pankratz II graduated from the University of Detroit Mercy. Also, Nick Erber and Pat Lamie left UDM to pursue other interests. In July, Chuck’s annual camping trip with his friends also became the First Annual KDR Camping Excursion. Then in August, Frank, J Hart, and Eric attended the Kappa Delta Rho National Convention in Pittsburgh, PA. There they met a lot of brothers from around the country and were thoroughly impressed by the starched jeans worn by some of the brothers from Tarleton State University, Texas (Zeta Beta chapter).
In the fall of 1998, the Kappa Delta Rho Group of Intent participated in their first formal rush period at UDM, gaining 9 pledges from their efforts. As the pledge program began, Bill Paris, Director of the KDR Foundation and former Executive Director visited UDM to meet and talk with the members of the KDR Group of Intent. Later, Scott Johnson, from the KDR national office, also came to visit and meet the group at Detroit Mercy.
After the new pledge class had established itself as members of the group, elections were held to fill some vacant offices. Robert Jennison became Praetor, Brad Brzuchalski became Propraetor, and Chris Arendoski became Pontifex.
Needing an excuse to get off campus and bond as a group, the brothers of the KDR Group of Intent went on a road trip to Ball State, Indiana (Beta Beta chapter). Everybody was excited to see another chapter of Kappa Delta Rho, but was disappointed to find a chapter that was in shambles. The Beta Beta KDR house was a disgrace and there were only a handful of brothers in the chapter. The KDR Group of Intent made the best of the experience, seeing first hand what can happen to a group that loses focus.
Soon after the road trip, on November 12, 1998, Kappa Delta Rho participated in their first Union Hours at UDM. Union Hours being the weekly tradition of campus Greek fraternities and sororities singing their songs during pledging. This was a momentous occasion because it was the first time the KDR Group of Intent really made itself public as a group among all of the other campus Greek organizations.
On November 15, 1998, the KDR Group of Intent became a Provisional Chapter of Kappa Delta Rho with 16 members. Executive Director Chris Miller, Director of Programming and Member Services Scott Johnson, and Dominic Schirripa from Cornell University (Beta chapter) along with Frank Hattula performed the ceremony. One of the original 9 pledges dropped out, so the first completed pledge class consisted of 8 first year founders and 8 new members, thus a total of 16.
