This year the Tulane chapter of Alpha Kappa Psi, the largest business fraternity in the country, broke two campus records. The fraternity had the distinction having both the most people register for rush in the chapter’s history and the largest number of potential pledges visit the chapter’s information session.

Alpha Kappa Psi, or AKPsi, is a business fraternity that prides itself on being an open fraternity to students of all majors, genders and backgrounds. As an open fraternity, the chapter’s leadership hopes to attract a wider pool of applicants from which they can draw talented individuals. 

“AKPsi is a unique organization on Tulane’s campus because we connect students from all backgrounds and all majors,” chapter president Kyle McIntyre said. “As a result, we are a brotherhood of unique individuals with varying passions and different areas of involvement on our campus. Because we don’t narrow our selection pool to one school or department, we occupy a unique position on Tulane’s campus as a hub for leaders in all fields of study.” 

Like most fraternities, the main focus of AKPsi is centered on a support structure. The open nature of the business fraternity, however, allows its brothers to come from from all majors. 

In the past, the primary methods of increasing membership were through reaching out to potential pledges through Instagram and Facebook. But the success of this year’s efforts has also been attributed to the enthusiasm of the AKPsi brothers themselves. 

“Rush is one of our favorite parts of the year, so organizing our brothers for rush has never been difficult,” McIntyre said. “We all remember how much we loved our own rush process, and we want to pay that experience forward. Rush is about people meeting people, our brothers understand that and try to bring as many people they like into the brotherhood as they can.” 

As for the size of the new member pool, McIntyre said he views it as an addition to a small, close community. 

“Whenever I’m asked to describe our brotherhood to a potential new member, I explain that AKPsi is a family of 130 people on a campus of over 8,000,” McIntyre said.

This sentiment is reflected by the large number of applicants who were turned away when only a select 41 of the initial 219 were finally accepted. 

“Due to this exceptionally high turnout, our most recent rush was uniquely competitive,” McIntyre said.

Upon further interviews with the president, however, there is hope that such numbers do not dissuade new applicants for the frat. Instead, broadening the field of potential candidates is seen as a benefit to the organization and members as a whole. 

“Although we recognize our process is competitive, we never want someone to feel discouraged from rushing simply due to numbers. We really value the time people put in to our rush process, and we make sure that everyone who attends rush has a valuable experience, even if their week doesn’t end with a bid to AKPsi.”