Friday evening in the Moot Courtroom of the MSU-Detroit College of Law Building, 43 MSU students were initiated into the pre-law fraternity Phi Alpha Delta.

The fraternity, open to students of all majors who are considering law school, had been dormant on campus for the past three years.

Natalie Gonder, a Spanish and journalism sophomore, was among the students initiated into the organization.

“The ceremony went really well,” Gonder said. “We had a great turnout of friends and family.”

The ceremony was very formal, Gonder said. The courtroom was dimly lit with candles burning as the pre-law students were initiated by the MSU-DCL law fraternity’s hierarchy.

Vanessa Madrazo, an international studies senior, said being a part of this organization hasn’t sunk in yet.

“I haven’t really even begun my legal education, but I have an opportunity to become part of an organization with a list of very distinguished alumni members,” Madrazo said. “It’s crunch time for us because we’re concerned about not only staying on campus but with putting on activities and recruiting for next semester.

“I don’t think we’ve even scratched the surface of possible new members.”

Gonder agrees if the fraternity is to stay active at MSU, members will have to work just as hard as they did to get it off the ground.

“I’m really proud to be a part of this fraternity,” she said. “I hope we can keep this (momentum) going.

“Every year we want to be able to recruit new members because it would be tragic to go inactive after all the work we have done.”

Madrazo was one of the leading advocates for reactivating the fraternity, but she doesn’t really feel like she deserves the lion’s share of the credit.

“I really don’t feel as if I deserve all the credit,” she said. “There are more than 30 other students who put in a lot of effort to get us where we are now.”

Madrazo said she’d like to congratulate everyone who helped her bring the organization back to MSU.