UC Establishes First Veterans Fraternity on Campus

Anthony Louderback calls himself an 80-year senior. 

He’s certainly not a traditional student. Louderback, an organizational leadership major, enrolled at University of Cincinnati in 2004. After several educational interruptions in 2005, 2008 and 2010 because of military deployments, he is still working on his degree. 

But he recently helped create an organization on campus that has made his college experience feel a little more ordinary. 

Buck Clay, founding president, and Louderback, current president, along with Gail Stocker, a program director in the McMicken College of Arts and Sciences, developed the first and only branch of the national veterans fraternity Omega Delta Sigma on UC’s campus called Omega Delta Sigma – Ohio Beta

When veterans return to school after deployment, they typically have a hard time adjusting to campus life because they have families, full-time jobs and an ongoing commitment to the military. 

Stocker calls them over-achievers. Louderback himself has a full-time job, a major, two minors, and he’s involved in Sigma Alpha Pi, the National Society of Leadership and Success. He is also seeking graduate study at UC once his undergraduate degree is complete.

Omega Delta Sigma aims to make the transition from the battleground to campus a little easier by creating bonds of friendship and brotherhood between the members.

And Louderback says the organization has enhanced his productivity in the classroom. 

“You’re more likely to go to class when you know you’re accountable to other people,” he says. 

Stocker has also seen the difference it has made in the lives of the veterans. UC currently has between 1,200 and 1,500 veterans on campus. Before the development of the fraternity, she was concerned that many of them didn’t know each other and that it was hard for them to make friends. 

"I want them to have a great social experience that college offers as well," she says. “They weren’t going to football games, they weren’t going to basketball games."

But now she has started to see that change. 

“I see friendships that are building and the support system,” she says. “I think those bonds will stay for life.”

That also has to do with the social aspect they have built into the fraternity. Rather than just attending meetings every two weeks, the group also participates in social events, giving the students a chance to interact and make connections. 

Stocker was recently given a Veterans Integration to Academic Leadership (VITAL) award for her work in support of military veterans. The award was presented to her at a VITAL veteran’s conference by the director of the Cincinnati VA Medical Center, Dr. Linda Smith, and the program coordinator for the VITAL initiative, Jessica Thiede. 

“[The award] meant a great deal to me,” she says. 

And she knows that the fraternity means a great deal to the veterans. In fact, she expects that veterans from other schools will transfer to UC because of this new brotherhood. 

“I think it’s giving them a better success rate and a better experience to stay here. And they want to stay here,” says Stocker.

Louderback has seen the impact the fraternity has had on the veterans as well. 

“I know we’ve had a few [students] that have had maybe some issues or relapses for service-connected events before, and it’s been helpful to them because there’s a network, there is someone to talk to who has had similar experiences,” he says. 

Veterans interested in joining the fraternity can email pres.ohb@omegadeltasigma.com