First there were five, then there were fifty... Just as the tale of Los Amigos and the beginning of Alpha Kappa Lambda, there is a story of The Fab Five and the beginning of the Gamma Gamma Chapter. Five men were brought together to build a chapter built on diversity and friendship. They built a foundation to accommodate and follow the Five Ideals that help to fashion a better man. Then, it became “history”… In 1993, five young men became very good friends. Bill Faucett, Casey Mathews, Mitch Matias, Matt McAleer, and John Morytko had a common bond—they were all transfer students. Their bond helped them to become friends with each other in Quad 2, House 28 (Livingston Campus, RU). They wanted to start something that would attract men like them who looked for camaraderie and diversity. John’s brother, Brian Morytko, was part of the Kappa Chapter of AKL at Purdue University. The Fab Five became curious with the idea and contacted the National Headquarters of Alpha Kappa Lambda. Shawn Walters was a roving representative of Nationals that checked up on chapters. He came to Rutgers University and answered any questions that the young men had. Then he indicated to them that if they wanted to continue, they had to gather more men. So, the pursuit to find more men began. An interviewing process was used to find ideal men and through this, 11 men were gathered. Nationals indicated to the pioneers that they needed more numbers. Thus, the hunt proceeded and the difficulty came in convincing men to join something that didn’t really exist yet. But through determination and a vision, a colony was born of 31 men known as the Alpha Class. If you put 31 young men together, you get a lot of different point of views. Meetings were held in House 28 and House 36. The innovative men held different functions and events. The first social was held in a club known as the Roxy (which ironically was part owned by Gary Sommers, owner of 6 Union). The first mixer was with Alpha Chi Omega on the volleyball courts of Sony Werblin, Busch Campus. And then came the first set of pledges. The 2 men of the Beta Class became the guinea pigs of pledging. Casey Mathews pledged the Betas for 13 weeks during the fall semester of 1993. At this time, there was no solid structure; therefore Morytko was the first president. The first e-board was a trying time in pursuit to build something out of nothing. There were no committees and no chairs—pretty much 31 guys doing random things. From experimenting with the Beta Class, Casey started to create a structure for the Gammas. Things were moving slow, but also in an upward notion. A new base was located at 12 Prosper and meetings were held in the attic. “Truth and the Word” became a guideline for the seven pledges. Executive positions were becoming more apparent and structure was growing. Then elections came and the Steve Alessandrini administration began. Andy Chonofsky was elected Vice-President, but Len Parisi was the first official V.P. under Alessandrini. As, the fall semester began, the Delta Class was added to the structural experiment. The men started to become more familiar to the community by performing service acts. Nationals summoned Eric Jencusky to be an advisor to the young men, but Parisi jumped in to motivate and add more determination with the self-support. Shawn Walters, and National’s President William Porter, checked up on the colony and set a challenge to the young men—obtain a high number pledge class. So, in the spring of 1995, the Epsilon Class was formed. The Epsilon Class included 15 more creative young men to the growing colony. A big number pledge class helped the colony with the loss of numbers through graduation. Kevin Fine pledged this motley crew of young men, which helped to obtain two goals that semester: obtain the charter and gain Rutgers University recognition. This whole time, from the Fab Five till now, the young men were fighting for recognition and difficulty came when requirements had to be met. Structure within the business aspect of a fraternity was becoming more solid and procedure was being conducted. Therefore, through hard work and persistance, on April 1, 1995, a banquot was held in Villa Liberty to induct these young men into Alpha Kappa Lambda as the Gamma Gamma Chapter. “First there were five, then there were fifty…” As written by Jonald Reyes