Being ugly is not a requirement to enter as a contestant into Alpha Phi Omega’s service project, but looking a little funky is strongly advised.

For the first time in years, service fraternity Alpha Phi Omega is holding the Ugly Man on Campus beauty pageant to raise money for charity.

Contestants selected by Alpha Phi Omega will compete to be voted the “ugly man on campus” by collecting votes in the form of money in collection jars on the Quad.

The contestant with the most money at the end of one week will get to donate half of the donations received by all contestants to a charity of his or her choice, and the other half will go to a charity chosen by Alpha Phi Omega.

“(The contestants) don’t actually have to be ugly,” said Ashlee Ford, Ugly Man on Campus chairwoman and graduate student. “It’s just a spoof on a beauty pageant. It’s more fun than just canning on the Quad for an organization. It’s just funny and silly.”

Each contestant will have their picture taken and submitted with a biography that will be put on a collection jar on the Quad during Halloween week.

“People can vote by donating money to the contestant they find the funniest or who they know,” Ford said.

Nicole Amato, a pledge trainer for Alpha Phi Omega, hopes that Ugly Man on Campus will serve as publicity for the fraternity.

“We are a really big organization, but a lot of people still haven’t heard of us,” said Amato, junior in AHS.

Alpha Phi Omega is a coed fraternity that participates in more than 4,000 community service hours between its members.

Service opportunities are offered every day and members are asked to participate in 20 hours every semester.

Nell Keith, vice president of service and graduate student, said she was attracted to Alpha Phi Omega because members are not committed to the same project every week.

“When you sign up, you’re only committing once,” Keith said. “We encourage pledges to try several different projects so they can experience different things.”

There is a pledging process which takes about 10 weeks and pledging can be done every semester.

“We don’t play up the fact that we are a fraternity too much, but we are more than a club,” Keith said. “We do a lot of community service, but we have social events.”

Keith said that Alpha Phi Omega is very welcoming, even though joining might be intimidating at first because of the size of the fraternity.

“We’re really not exclusive,” Keith said.

Amato compared the fraternity to being on a sports team.

“You get really close to everybody, but once practice is over you (can) do your own thing,” said Amato. “You’re sitting in a meeting and you have to discuss chapter business, but you’re sitting with your friends. And you take it seriously during the meetings and the service projects, but then once the service project is over, people still hang out outside of (Alpha Phi Omega).”

Keith added that one of the biggest things she has gained from Alpha Phi Omega is in fact good friends.

“If you think about the kind of person who is willing to get up at seven on Saturday morning after partying all night for someone they don’t know, you think about how far they would go for someone who is their friend,” Keith said. “Those are the kind of really caring people you meet in (Alpha Phi Omega).”