Provided

Pi Kappa Alpha's fraternity house, at 17 South Ave.

Cornell men have another fraternity choice this spring: a new and improved Pi Kappa Alpha.

After the university withdrew its recognition in 2010, the fraternity's Beta Theta chapter is back. Also known as "Pike," Pi Kappa Alpha is the first fraternity at Cornell to have had recognition withdrawn and then provisionally reinstated since President David Skorton issued his August 2011 challenge to "end hazing as we know it."

The provisional recognition allows the chapter to "recolonize." Beta Theta now has no members, so about 50 fraternity alumni and staff from international fraternity headquarters are spearheading the recolonization effort. They will recruit members this spring who will move into the fraternity house in fall 2014, and, in turn, recruit other members, based on the fraternity's core values. The house will then apply for full recognition in fall 2015.

Starting Jan. 28, recruitment specialists from headquarters will spend six weeks on campus, asking administrators, student leaders and faculty members to recommend candidates who are academically oriented "scholars, leaders, athletes and gentlemen," said Joe Wegelin, the fraternity's director of expansion. "Most importantly we look for men who treat the campus community with the respect and dignity that we know they deserve," he said.

Like all fraternities and sororities at Cornell, Pi Kappa Alpha has submitted a plan for a new member orientation that includes participation, leadership, oversight, key events and timetables with important milestones. A value-based education program for new and ongoing members is at the core of the plan.

The fraternity will have the full support of an alumni supervisory board, which is committed to the chapter's success and will offer advice and mentoring, said Ed Catto '85, president of the fraternity's alumni. "We've put in a great amount of thinking and planning into it all and feel this will manifest itself in very positive ways once we get to the stage of recruitment and pledging," Catto said.

"To create the kind of Pike chapter that we all think is valuable and worthwhile for these young gentlemen, we wanted to get back to a strong foundation," added Bob Forness '87, vice president of the fraternity's alumni and co-chair of the Recruitment, Acceptance, Retention and Education (RARE) task force that helped form recommendations in 2012 on how to meet Skorton's challenge.

The university withdrew Pi Kappa Alpha's recognition due to its history of alcohol and hazing-related infractions over several years, which culminated in a Jan. 22, 2010, incident involving underage and high-risk drinking. The loss of recognition was to have remained in effect for four years.

However, the university stipulated that if, after January 2012, the fraternity completed a plan to gain provisional recognition, the university would consider allowing it to begin to recolonize.

The fraternity's return offers a model for other fraternities and sororities that have lost recognition for hazing and alcohol-related judicial infractions, said Travis Apgar, the Robert G. Engel Associate Dean of Students. During the week of Jan. 7, two fraternities -- Tau Epsilon Phi and Phi Sigma Kappa -- lost recognition, while Pi Kappa Phi was placed on provisional recognition and Acacia on social probation.

"This is an example of an ideal process," Apgar said. "It sets Pi Kappa Alpha up to move forward with activities that pertain to the fraternity's founding principles, which is what we're asking all our fraternities and sororities to refocus on: living up to what, at their foundation, they say they are about."