New fraternity draws minorities

Even though Mu Beta Lambda President Bryce Grimes was impressed by the presentation given during a Kelley School of Business fraternity information session last semester, he was disappointed at the lack of minority students in the room.

“I was thinking ... why aren’t minority students like myself taking advantage of those opportunities like networking and professional skills?” Grimes, a senior, said. 

Grimes saw a need to create Mu Beta Lambda, the first minority business fraternity at IU, which has also been recognized by Kelley.

“If minority students aren’t going to come to these type of opportunities for whatever reason, then I was going to bring them to minority students ... and that’s where it all kind of started,” Grimes said.

Grimes said he modeled the minority business fraternity after Kappa Alpha Psi, of which he is also a member, because it is the first historically black fraternity founded at IU, a predominately white university. 

Grimes collaborated with seven other like-minded students to establish Mu Beta Lambda fraternity on Feb. 17, 2012.

Emma Campbell, a junior who is interested in not only business but law and politics as well, is one of the eight founders of Mu Beta Lambda. Campbell said it is necessary to have a minority business fraternity geared towards domestic minority students in the United States.

“We’re talking about domestic minorities meaning Latinos, African Americans and Native Americans,” Campbell said.

“There is still a need for professional development with us. We’re playing catch up and that’s what has been going on for years. This minority fraternity is for students that want to help themselves but don’t have all the resources, so right now we’re building
resources.”

Campbell said as of right now, Mu Beta Lambda members are concentrating on building a foundation and showing members they care about their success.

“This organization is built on kinship and that’s what we really want other fraternities and other people on campus to know about us,” Campbell said.

“We want to become a really close knit family and build our professional skills at the same time. We are teaching them resume building skills, we are teaching them how to speak publicly in a meeting, we are teaching them how to budget. Those little things will take college students a long way.”

Mu Beta Lambda recently added 11 new members to their Alpha chapter on Dec. 1, including junior Angela Herron. She said she believes Mu Beta Lambda is a support system for minority students at IU.

“It’s really hard to get into Kelley,” Herron said. “It’s great to have someone to tell you which classes to take, which professors. If I hadn’t known the some of other students...I don’t know how I would’ve made it.”

One of the first things the founders of Mu Beta Lambda did was have a four-week-long intake process with interested prospects. The process included skill building workshops and a community service project giving care packages to soldiers.
They have also networked with other organizations such as Iota Phi Theta fraternity for a business etiquette night.

This semester the members of Mu Beta Lambda have many events planned, including a business professional attire fashion show and new members for their Beta class in the Spring.

Grimes said another key aspect in the fraternity is corporate outreach. He hopes to work with a few companies this spring in order to develop relationships with companies and understand what the companies are looking for in applicants.

This would also help members get internships and jobs though the business school, he said.

In the future they hope to branch out to other surrounding schools, like IU-Purdue University Indianapolis, so they can charter their own chapters of Mu Beta Lambda fraternity.

Grimes sees Mu Beta Lambda becoming a premier business fraternity across the Midwest in 10 years.

Campbell said she is excited to see what the fraternity will become.

“We started from nothing,” Campbell said. “This is literally an idea that
blossomed.”