Alfred Hitchcock, George Lucas, Julie Andrews and Steven Spielberg are well-known for their contributions to the film industry, but they have something else in common. All four, along with numerous other entertainment giants, are members of Delta Kappa Alpha, the national professional cinema fraternity.

Now, four Syracuse University television, radio and film students are trying to open a chapter on campus.

“It feels like the film community on campus is very fragmented and specialized in certain areas, and we don’t really connect with each other so we want this to be a way to connect everyone,” said Losa Meru, a sophomore TRF major and one of the students attempting to start the chapter.

Meru, along with fellow sophomore TRF majors Juan Rangel, Iara Rogers Benchoam and freshman Sarah Grabman, is pushing to start the chapter. So far, they’ve contacted the national president of DKA, Andy Dulman, and have set up two general interest meetings on campus, but the chapter has not been founded yet.

Any student who wants to be a part of the Syracuse chapter’s founding class has to go through an application process and do an individual Skype interview with Dulman. He will then choose a founding class who will go through a training process next fall.

The Syracuse organization will recruit its first pledge class in the spring semester of 2015, Dulman said.

“What we look for first and foremost is someone who has an interest in the purpose in the organization,” he said. “We have an application and an interview simply to make sure that they understand what DKA is.”

Once it has a founding class, SU’s DKA will then become an official colony and, eventually, an official chapter. Each chapter’s house is called the “cinemanor,” which includes editing and screening rooms, as well as facilities to hold costumes and equipment and serves as a place to socialize, Meru said.

Like other greek organizations, DKA has a focus on philanthropy, sponsoring a month of service in March to honor its founders and a national service partner, according to the fraternity’s webpage. Unlike other greek organizations, however, DKA chapters must put together at least one film a semester to stay active, Benchoam said.

“Artists or film students and greek organizations typically don’t overlap a great deal from my experience,” Dulman said. “It’s a very unique thing that I think a lot of students will hopefully be piqued enough by the premise of it to find out more in person.”

Syracuse students can find out more in person at the general interest meetings on Thursday at 6 p.m. and Friday at 2 p.m. Benchoam, Meru, Rangel and Grabman said that the general interest meeting isn’t just for TRF or film majors. They said they are looking for people with a wide range of interests from improvisation to marketing.

“We expect people from so many different majors to join, that things that we’re not learning right now we expect them to teach us and vice versa,” Rangel said.

Grabman said that this collaboration is helpful in an industry that so often has a reputation for competitiveness, but is highly reliant on cooperation.

“You can’t make a film by yourself,” Grabman said. “You always have to be able to work with people.”

Published on March 31, 2014 at 1:19 am

Contact: clmoran@syr.edu