Tag Archives: Beta Theta Pi

Fraternity houses built (p. 307)

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organized in 1923, became Gamma Omicron of Sigma Chi in 1930 and Delta Pi Sigma, a local founded in 1928, which became Alpha Upsilon of Phi Kappa Tau in 1937. Thanks to the loyalty of alumni brothers and mortgages, nine of the original eleven fraternities constructed new houses during the period-Beta Theta Pi, 1923; Phi Gamma Delta, 1924; Theta Chi, 1926;  Nu, 1927; Phi Delta Theta, 1927; Alpha Tau Omega, 1928; Lambda Chi Alpha, 1930; Kappa Delta Rho, 1930; and Delta Upsilon, 1931. The Theta Chi house has the distinction of having been the old Hamilton Female Seminary building until that school closed in 1891; it was subsequently used as a summer boarding house and in its later years stood abandoned.

Non-fraternity men had formed various loosely knit organizations to meet their social needs and had been given the use of the social room in West Hall. It was not until 1927, however, that, under the leadership of Edward M. Vinten, ’28, they succeeded in establishing a permanent group, the Colgate Commons Club. It had exclusive use of the West Hall lounge and provided fellowship and recreation for many students who could not afford fraternity membership or for other reasons had not joined the Greek letter societies.

To assist the local chapters in dealing with their problems, several alumni in 1928 formed the Fraternity Alumni Council of Colgate University (Interfraternity Alumni Council) with Frank M. Williams, ’95, as president and Carlton O. Miller, ’14, as secretary. They sought through a sharing of ideas and experience to encourage scholarship among the undergraduate brothers, to assist in constructing fraternity houses and improving business practices, to bring about a more satisfactory tax policy on their real estate, to improve communication and relations among fraternity alumni, parents, faculty, administration and local residents, to aid bringing new fraternities to the campus, and to promote good fellowship among alumni of all the fraternity groups. Their work was to be most helpful.

Dissatisfaction with rushing and pledging procedures eventually led, in 1934, to an investigation by a Trustee Committee headed by William M. Parke, ’00. The committee concluded that the problem stemmed primarily from the inability of fraternities, through lack of facilities, to accommodate more than 60 percent of the student body though a great many more wanted the advantages of fraternity life. Drawing on the experience of Dartmouth they recommended that the rushing and pledging be deferred until the end of the freshman year,

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Posted in Chapter 14, p. 307, The Cutten Period 1922-1942

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‘Colgate Thirteen’ is organized (p. 306)

Posted on June 21, 2012 by | Comments Off on ‘Colgate Thirteen’ is organized (p. 306)

of the English Department and coach. Despite the limited facilities of the Little Theater in the Administration Building and later in Lawrence Hall, Masque and Triangle, the dramatic society, staged some notable productions under his direction. The actual performances were usually given in the village “opera house” or movie theater.

Under the leadership of Professor Hoerrner and, after his retirement in 1934, Professor Thomas Roberts, the Glee Club received wide support and held to its customary high standards. Its quartet made the first commercial recording of Colgate songs in 1926 and in 1929 for the first time the Club gave a joint concert with a girls’ chorus, the Skidmore Glee Club. A smaller and more informal singing group, the Colgate Thirteen, was organized in July, 1942, “to spread Colgate spirit through song.” Beta Theta Pi inaugurated its annual intrafraternity song contest in the spring of 1930. The first of a series of student musical comedies was produced in 1935.

The highlight of the debating program was probably the team’s successful trip to English universities in 1924. Cambridge and Oxford teams visited the campus on their American trips. Able students and effective coaches-Carl A. Kallgren, ’17, Ralph E. Kharas, Lawrence A. Appley, and Jasper (Jack) V. Garland-combined to make excellent records.

The YMCA, renamed successively Colgate University Christian Union and Colgate Christian Association, played an active part in student religious life, especially under the sponsorship of Dr. Alton and Secretaries Shotts and Gregory. After the latter’s resignation in 1933 students with some faculty assistance took greater responsibilities. The Association arranged in 1936 for the first of the all-campus Mother’s Day weekend programs which Beta Theta Pi had inaugurated in 1933.

The two honorary senior societies, Skull and Scroll and Gorgon’s Head, in 1925 vainly attempted to merge as the Mercurius Society in an effort to eliminate campus politics in selecting members. Seven years later, however, they succeeded in consolidating as Konosioni which emphasized service to Colgate as well as recognition for athletic and other attainments. Acknowledgment of freshman and sophomore campus leaders came with the formation of the Maroon Key Club, a junior honorary society, in 1931.

Fraternity life was in its heyday in the 1920’s and ’30’s. Two were added to those already on campus-Theta Pi Delta, a local group

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p. 280 – The Bryan Period, 1908-1922

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PHI GAMMA DELTA HOUSE, C. 1900
PHI GAMMA DELTA HOUSE, C. 1900

the Delta Upsilon, until 1912 when Delta Kappa Epsilon completed its building to be followed in 1914 by Phi Kappa Psi; both the DKE and Phi Psi houses are still in use though much enlarged. Fire destroyed the Beta Theta Pi house in 1921 and plans to rebuild were made and carried out almost before the embers were cold. To deal with common problems of rushing and pledging, the six fraternities on the campus in 1914 had organized a Pan-Hellenic Council to which they admitted the other organizations as they became chartered.

Colgate’s athletic program of the Bryan period was in the most spectacular and widely known phase of its development and the fortunes of its teams, especially football, often seemed to outweigh all other University concerns. The President came to recognize this as a dangerous situation and at the instigation of alumni leaders an Alumni Athletic Council and an Athletic Governing Board were set up in 1921 which provided representation for graduates, faculty and students and which were to insure that the athletic policies and practices were in harmony with the University’s educational interests. The immediate responsibility, of course, rested with “Doc” Huntington who was assisted by Graduate Managers, Asa King Leonard, ’07 (1911-14); Edwin W. Leary, ’14 (1914-1915); Frederick M. Jones, ’09, Assistant Professor of Romance Languages (1915-19); and William A. Reid, ’18 (1919-36).

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Posted in Chapter 13, p. 280, The Bryan Period 1908-1922

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p. 237 – Colgate in the 1890’s

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minister and teacher. He wrote that he entered college “a very simple-minded boy-appreciative faculties wide awake, critical faculties asleep” and that he found at Colgate what he needed most, “stimulating personalities,” especially among the faculty. Despite his struggle over religion as part of his intellectual development, he enjoyed college life, “was in on all the fun the campus afforded,” and was one of the best dancers on the campus. He was a D.U., edited the Salmagundi and was on the Madisonensis staff but public speaking was his major activity and here he excelled, foreshadowing his subsequent eminent pulpit reputation.*

The students’ response to the outbreak of the Spanish-American War was prompt and enthusiastic. They joined the faculty and villagers in patriotic rallies and several from the Seminary and Academy, as well as the College, organized into four companies which drilled throughout the spring of 1898, Harry Fosdick serving as a first lieutenant. At the celebration the next year in honor of Admiral George Dewey, it was Fosdick, as President of the Students Association, who represented the undergraduates with a forceful and polished address, “College Students and American Life.”

The ’90’s saw fraternity life quickened and enriched. By 1894 each group was living in its own house. The D.U.’s already had theirs which had been completed in 1882. The D.K.E.’s acquired the Kern residence on the site of their present house in 1891. The Phi Psi’s built a house in 1892 on the corner of Charles and East Pleasant Streets which later became the University Infirmary. The Betas rented the old President’s House in 1893 and the Phi Gams took over the G.O.C. Lawrence residence on Madison Street. James C. Colgate pointed out to the alumni that all who contributed to the chapter house building funds helped the University in providing student accommodations; approximately half the college students were living in fraternity houses by 1894. Though there were some who questioned the value of fraternities, especially because of the bitter rivalry among them which was occasionally to be found, they were generally held to be a highly desirable feature of campus life. Many of the professors took an active part as helpful “older brothers” to the undergraduates. Among them was William Newton Clarke, ’61, a D.K.E. who believed fraternities could serve the aims of the University effectively by encouraging

*Harry Emerson Fosdick, The Living of These Days (New York, 1956), 48ff

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p. 212 – Student Life, 1869-1890

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Brown, could state in 1886 that college presidents and professors who actively opposed them made a serious blunder. The part they played in campus life can be appreciated when the proportion of students in fraternities is noted. Of the 136 students in the college in 1890 there were 117 belonging to the five fraternities.

The oldest, Delta Kappa Epsilon (1856), chiefly through the physical efforts of undergraduate members, in 1877 completed its red brick
“temple” as a hall for meetings and fellowship. Its rival, Delta Upsilon (1866) rented a “hall” in a village business block until 1882 when it became the first fraternity on campus to have a house which was built for its special use as living quarters and eating club.

Three new Greek letter social and literary societies came into existence in the 1880’s and, like Delta Upsilon, took rooms in business blocks in the center of the village-Beta Theta Pi in 1880, and both Phi Kappa Psi and Phi Gamma Delta in 1887. Beta Theta Pi was the transformed Adelphian Society. Its most valuable tangible asset was the Adelphian Society library of about 1,000 volumes. Phi Kappa Psi grew out of the revived Aeonian Society, some of whose members had been in the same boarding club. Phi Gamma Delta owes its origin to the efforts of Isaac D. Moore, ’90, who had been a member of the chapter at Bucknell University prior to his transfer to Madison. He induced members of the “Union Debating Club” to join him in forming the Madison group. From 1874 to 1876 Delta Phi had a chapter at Madison but for some reason not now known disappeared.

Two underclass honorary national fraternities, whose purpose seems to have been primarily staging initiation ceremonies, also claimed student loyalty-Eta of Theta Nu Epsilon for sophomores, founded in 1882, and Beta of Beta Delta Beta for freshmen, established in 1889. Lurid accounts of Theta Nu Epsilon’s initiation in 1883, held in a cemetery vault and in a nearby village, nearly led to the society’s dissolution but it survived until 1913. Its companion expired in 1905.

Academy students, too, had their fraternities which resembled those of the college and had as their aims the promotion of literary efforts and “public exhibitions” as well as social life. They were: Theta Zeta (1867), Alpha Phi (1870), Epsilon Kappa (1881), and Theta Phi (1889); all subsequently became chapters of national organizations.

Editors of the Madisonensis repeatedly called attention to the need for physical training, gymnastics and instruction in hygiene. For stu-

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Posted in Chapter 10, p. 212, Student Life, 1869-1890

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