MySpace ?” a popular online community ?” may be the new recruiting tool of choice for Sacramento State fraternity Omega Phi Zeta.

The multicultural Greek organization is hoping to gain more exposure and new rushees through way of recruiting potential members.

Their Myspace address, www.myspace.com/csusfrat, can be seen scrawled on various campus sidewalks in chalk and will soon make its way to other places around Sac State.

The fraternity’s decision to use the website came about as a way to compete with larger, national fraternities

“Since we don’t have professional marketing help as other fraternities, MySpace is a way we can get our name out and communicate with our future members,”

Omega Phi Zeta President Ozzie Muñoz said.

Since Omega Phi Zeta is a local fraternity, they don’t have support from a larger organization, like many other fraternities on campus do.

“It’s a David and Goliath battle,” said Vice President Aaron Delgadillo of the competition between local and national fraternities.

And this small fraternity might have an uphill battle ahead of it.

“The future of Omega Phi Zeta may depend on this semester,” said Delgadillo, adding that while the fraternity has 10 active members and still meets the Sac State requirement of eight, they would like to gain more members before they can be comfortable.

Their goal for this semester is 20 new pledges, and they plan to gain them through a variety of methods.

In addition to the traditional flyers and stakes that line many of the pathways around campus, Omega Phi Zeta plans to promote their new online marketing tool by placing their MySpace address on water bottles, t-shirts and even the sides of their cars, according to Delgadillo.

This campaign will be complimented by a series of free events to entice potential members, such as a social mixer with the Sigma Omicron Pi sorority, a barbeque, games nights and various other activities. These events will begin the week of Sept. 17.

The fraternity is trying to make this push for new members successfully without draining their budget, so MySpace seemed like a logical first step for them.

“We tried to find something people were already using,” said Lou Saelee, an undeclared sophomore and Omega Phi Zeta member. “We’re just a click away, per se,” he said.

So far, it seems to be working.

Before, we would usually get two to three hits on our website (www.omegaphizeta.com) a day, now we are getting around 38 a day,” Delgadillo said.

Though it may seem like an effective marketing tool, there are reasons why other fraternities do not use the method.

“[National fraternities] have more rules we have to follow,” said Senior and Kappa Sigma member Ed Fertuna. The mathematics major explained that they have to always be cautious of how their actions will reflect on the national organization and that inappropriate pictures or posts online might tarnish their reputation, or lead to trouble with the campus.

The punishment for any inappropriate content appearing on a fraternity’s MySpace “would be the same as if they were passing out flyers in the Quad with inappropriate material on them,” said Tom Carroll, program adviser for Student Activities.

Carroll explained that questionable material posted on the Internet is usually quickly reported by other Greek organizations.

“Since our Greek system is relatively small, you’re representing all Greek groups,” Carroll said, pointing out that to someone unfamiliar with the various groups, one inappropriate act could give all of them a bad name.

“Things [like MySpace] can be used appropriately, and they can be the demise of you,” Carroll said.

Cody Kitaura can be reached at [email protected]