Theta Chi welcomed 21 pledges to the Beta Phi Colony this weekend. The colonization ceremony was held at 6 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 20, in The Great Room of the Joe Crowley Student Union at the University of Nevada, Reno. National Vice President Bill Palmer presided. Associate Executive Director Jim Powell and LEC Matthew Gillis were in attendance.
Beta Phi had been inactive since 1971. Last year, Kyle Fleury reached out to the International Headquarters saying he was interested in bringing Theta Chi back to the University of Nevada. Fleury, who had gone through formal recruitment during the fall of his freshman year, did not feel any of the fraternities had what he was looking for. Fleury chose Theta Chi because he is a legacy - it was his father’s fraternity as well. His father, Ted Fleury (Delta Pi/Indiana State 1980) provided him with information on how to operate a fraternity and how to recruit new members.
The University of Nevada, Reno was founded in 1874 as the State University of Nevada in Elko, Nev., about 300 miles northeast of the present-day campus. The location proved to be impractical because half of the state's residents lived in the Reno-Carson City area. In 1885, the move of the University from Elko to Reno was approved. Today the university has a student population of more than 18,000, and a Greek population consisting of 15 fraternities and 10 sororities.