Most people don’t associate fraternities with academics, but the University’s four Greek business societies are less concerned with parties and more focused on the skills and connections they can give to members.
The University’s business fraternities– Alpha Kappa Psi, Beta Alpha Psi, Delta Sigma Pi and Pi Sigma Epsilon– have Greek-inspired names, but serve mainly as professional business organizations. Since they are co-ed and not affiliated with the Interfraternity Council or the National Panhellenic Conference, anyone who is in a social fraternity or sorority is welcome to join.
Some groups, like Alpha Kappa Psi, are open to everyone regardless of major. Others, like Delta Sigma Pi, are open only to business students. Beta Alpha Psi and Pi Sigma Epsilon are for accounting majors and marketing and management majors respectively. The one thing they have in common is the networking they provide to members.
Computer science and entrepreneurship senior Walter Scott is the president of Delta Sigma pi. He said one of the major benefits of his fraternity is making friends and getting to know people who will be in business classes.
“The benefit really comes from when you can talk to people about the people that you know also and the different things that you’ve gone through and have the same experiences as them,” Scott said.
Scott said the fraternities also help students get jobs. One of his friends is now an accountant at Walk-On’s, thanks to a connection she made in the fraternity’s Facebook group.
“In our Facebook group that we have someone posted, ‘Hey I got this job, and I’m leaving town. Does anyone want this accounting job?’” Scott said. “So now she works at Walk-On’s corporate headquarters.”
Sociology sophomore and Pi Sigma Epsilon president Audrey Graves said she learned a lot of leadership skills in her position.
“One meeting out of the month is always designated to either a corporate sponsor or just some local business around here coming to talk to us, offering us jobs, doing like professional training and also telling us what they can do for us,” Graves said.
The groups also attend conferences where they are able to meet people in other chapters of their fraternity. Accounting senior and Beta Alpha Psi events manager Chandler Ramsak said getting to form relationships with business majors across the country was instrumental in her job-search process.
“Honestly, I would have not known how to get a job like how the whole accounting recruiting process works without this organization so I think that’s my favorite part,” Ramsak said.
Information systems & decision sciences junior Grace Hebermehl said her fraternity, Alpha Kappa Psi, gave her a family in Louisiana and a reason to love LSU.
This year, Alpha Kappa Psi added a diversity and inclusivity committee. One of the organization’s missions is to “make the world a better place” and “improve the standard of living for current and future generations,” according to the LSU Alpha Kappa Psi website. Human resource management senior Calkin Bond said it is important to create a comfortable atmosphere within the brotherhood.
“We create a safe environment so that if you fail you are still able to get that experience,” Bond said. “And that failure is also a really great experience.”
