Tag Archives: Fraternities

p. 340 – The Barnett Period, 1962-1969

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Colgate undergraduates and their friends from other colleges an opportunity to meet with leading artists to observe their work, listen to their lectures and engage in discussions. Among new student publications appearing on campus was the Colgate News, a competitor of the Maroon.

Though the official University policy on fraternities since 1955 adhered to the principle that there be no discrimination based on race, creed, color or national origin in the selection of members, there were suspicions that some Greek letter groups were ignoring it. Aware of the problem, the Trustees created in October, 1967, a joint Committee on Fraternities which included faculty, administration, students (fraternity and non-fraternity), alumni, and Trustees to study Colgate’s fraternities and make recommendations. In the spring of 1968 occurred a series of events growing out of the fraternity problem which led to a sit-in demonstration in the Administration Building of some 400 students and 40 faculty members who felt no other methods remained to eliminate discrimination practices. The immediate consequences of the events were the suspension of one fraternity’s charter and the revocation of a second. At their May, 1968, meeting the Trustees reaffirmed the University’s basic policy against discrimination and also approved the Joint Committee’s recommendations: that University rules must supersede fraternity chapter rules and procedures; that election to membership be by affirmative vote of a simple majority; that the University have ultimate supervision of housing and food services and conditions relating to health and safety; that the President appoint a continuing committee on fraternity affairs, consisting of an Assistant Dean of Students for Fraternities and student, faculty, administration, and alumni representatives to work with the Board and its committees; and that fraternity hazing be abolished at once.

Related to the question of fraternities were other issues concerning University government to which faculty and students had called attention. In response the Trustees established an ad hoc Committee on University Organization made up of Trustees, faculty, administration, and students to examine the responsibilities of each group and make recommendations for improvements. A second ad hoc committee, this one to review policies on admissions and scholarship aid and to have a membership from the same constituencies as the first, was also appointed. In October 1968, the Trustees provided that one

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WRCU starts broadcasting (p. 328)

Posted on June 21, 2012 by | Comments Off on WRCU starts broadcasting (p. 328)

peace in 1943 came a series of annual summer conferences on this topic from 1944 to 1946, sponsored by the University and the New York State Citizens’ Council, in charge of Dr. Raymond O. Rockwood of the History Department. From this enterprise developed the Colgate Foreign Policy Conference, with Professor Charles R. Wilson, Chairman of the History Department as Director; it was held each summer, 1949-59 and 1961.

Though the war broke the continuity of campus life the returning veterans and new students quickly picked up its strands. To assist them Lloyd L. Huntley, ’24, was appointed Director of Student Activities in 1947. From his office in the Student Union he coordinated all student extra-curricular activities except publications and athletics. New enterprises included the Campus Fund Drive, in support of the Red Cross, March of Dimes, and other charitable organizations, which was established in 1947; and the radio station WRCU which began broadcasting in 1951.

With standards of admission rising after the war freshmen were better prepared than formerly. By 1962 enrollment seemed stabilized at approximately 1,400. Tuition, which reflected price increases and inflation, more than tripled, going from $400 in 1942 to $1,375 in 1962. George W. Cobb, ’94, established the awards bearing his name to be given to undergraduates who demonstrated outstanding leadership and devotion to the University and who were especially effective in developing among prospective students an interest in Colgate. The War Memorial Scholarships, maintained by the Alumni Fund, were instituted in 1946 and enabled many students of high leadership and academic qualifications to come to Colgate.

Swollen enrollment after 1945 created serious student housing problems, particularly since many of the returning veterans were married and often had families. To accommodate them the University and the Federal Public Housing Authority provided converted barracks which met their needs quite satisfactorily.

Fraternities reestablished themselves quickly. Two new ones were added-Tau Kappa Epsilon in 1952 and Alpha Chi Epsilon, a local, in 1959-making the total 15. Phi Kappa Tau built a new house in 1951 and Sigma Chi in 1959. In response to faculty and undergraduate pressures, the Board of Trustees took a stand in January, 1955, against membership clauses which discriminated on the basis of race, creed, or

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Posted in Chapter 15, p. 328, The Case Administration 1942-1962, timeline

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‘Colgate Thirteen’ is organized (p. 306)

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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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Posted in Chapter 14, p. 306, The Cutten Period 1922-1942, timeline

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p. 277 – The Bryan Period, 1908-1922

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tradition, one of its most violent aspects, lasted until 1919 when the faculty abolished the institution because of increasing intensity of the conflict, the dangers involved, and the money and time squandered. After a freshman accidentally drowned in the “proc” rush in 1919 this contest was replaced the next year by a frosh-soph tug-of-war. Under-classmen faithfully observed the pre-Moving-Up Day customs such as
burying the hatchet in Taylor Lake and smoking the peace pipe. On occasion their exuberance got out of bounds as when some of them in 1915 sheared the “flowing locks” of a villager and were hailed into court, or in 1921 when they burned the Whitnall Field grandstand and in 1922 the horse sheds behind St. Mary’s Church. The behavior of a minority reflected to a degree a relaxed attitude to law and order found throughout the country following World War 1.

Campus leaders wrestled with disciplinary and other problems in the Student Association and the senior honorary societies. The latter, in imitation of those established in American colleges as early as the 1890’s, were composed of those students who were outstanding primarily for extracurricular achievements and service to the University. The first, Skull and Scroll, was organized in 1908 for “the guardianship and promotion of the fair name of the college” with Professors Hoerrner and Whitnall as honorary members. The second, a rival, was Gorgon’s Head, founded in 1912 “to encourage the growth of manly character, scholarship, and College spirit”; Professors Alton, Allen, and Brigham were its sponsors. Distinguished off-campus recognition came to a Colgate undergraduate when Whitney H. Shepardson, ’10, son of the Academy Principal, and member of Skull and Scroll, was named the University’s first Rhodes Scholar in 1909.

To the five existing Greek letter fraternities six were added to meet the needs for social life, dormitory accommodations, and eating facilities brought about by the increased size of the student body. The Iota Chapter of Theta Chi was chartered in 1912 and Alpha Zeta Zeta of Lambda Chi Alpha in 1916. In 1917 three received charters-New York Delta Gamma of Alpha Tau Omega, founded as the Madison Club in 1902; Delta Upsilon of Sigma Nu, founded as Theta Delta Sigma in 1914; and Delta of Kappa Delta Rho. The last of the six, New York Zeta of Phi Delta Theta, originated in 1907 as the “Owl Club” which became Sigma Alpha in 1908 and was chartered in 1918. There had been only one house on the campus constructed for a fraternity,

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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. 162 – Recovery and expansion, 1850-1869

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gallery with his classmates he grew so absorbed in Dr. Brooks’s sermons as completely to lose consciousness of his surroundings.

The missionary spirit which had vitalized the activities of the Society for Inquiry and the Eastern and Western Associations waned after 1850. Furthermore, the Removal Controversy had carried off many of the leaders whose ardent interest in the objectives of the organizations, students of succeeding generations did not share. Most noteworthy of the Eastern Association’s members was Jonathan Goble, Class of 1859, a Marine from Perry’s expedition to Japan, who returned to the Empire in 1860 as a missionary and subsequently achieved fame for translating the Gospel of Matthew into Japanese; he is also credited with the construction of the first jinrikisha. By 1860 both the Eastern and Western Associations had ceased to exist. The Society for Inquiry, which absorbed their activities, carried on into the 1890’s.

More closely conforming to contemporary interests was the Theological Lyceum which the Seminary students and faculty organized in 1854 to promote the “intellectual, moral, and religious improvement of its members.” Topics for essays and discussions at its meetings included: Christianity and the Crimean War, spiritualism, freemasonry, and the propriety of a minister’s resorting “to firearms or deadly weapons in defense of political rights.” The Lyceum became practically moribund in the 1860’s, but did not expire until 1871.

For many undergraduates the question of secret societies was much more absorbing than participation in those of a religious character. Despite faculty action suppressing fraternities in the 1840’s and a stipulation in the Laws of 1853 that students “shall form no organizations … except with the consent and under the direction of the faculty and … shall not become members of secret societies,” attempts to establish such groups persisted. Partly circumventing the rules, some under- graduates had themselves initiated into Phi Upsilon at Hamilton College, but this ruse was far from satisfactory to those who sought a fraternity on their own campus. Among them was Caleb H. Gallup, Class of 1856, who after discussing the problem during summer vacation with a cousin, then a member of Delta Kappa Epsilon at Kenyon College, returned to Madison fired with the idea of founding a local chapter. Gallup and a few close associates thereupon petitioned for a charter which the parent chapter at Yale granted to them as Mu Chapter, March 1, 1856.

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p. 137 – The removal controversy, 1847-1850

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ture, Science and Art.”Though disgusted with its style and pretentiousness, the faculty at Ritchie’s suggestion permitted him to continue it on condition that he add as associate editors four students to be chosen by the two literary societies, the Adelphian and the Aeonian. Ritchie had also suggested that no political articles be printed. Matters soon came to a head when Ritchie wrote a controversial editorial on the religious press and the anti-slavery sentiment in New York State which the associate editors rejected, a decision in which the faculty concurred. When Ritchie announced he would run the editorial despite his express agreement to publish nothing without the associate editors’ concurrence, the faculty suspended him for two days with the warning that expulsion would follow if he did not change his mind at the end of that time. Flouting their authority, he published the editorial in the issue of January 15, and immediately left the village to return some days after the suspension period had expired. Expulsion resulted from his defiance and the Students Association promptly repudiated the publication on the ground that its editor had been  expelled and that the University no longer authorized its existence.

Ritchie, however, continued on his own to issue 21 more numbers, the last one appearing on September 15, 1847. Some of the Baptists of the State who advocated many of the radical reforms of the day sought to make him a martyr, but within a few months his case was forgotten because of the rising importance of the Removal controversy.

The Aeonian and Adelphian Societies, to whom the faculty had attempted to transfer the Hamilton Student, apparently had little inclination to sponsor it because neither published a successor. They did maintain, however, their customary programs of private and public meetings for reading, orations and other literary efforts. When several members decided to enter the University of Rochester in the fall of 1850, it became necessary to decide whether the societies and their libraries, which were valued at between $600 and $700 each, should go with them. Thanks to the resistance of William T. Biddle and others, they remained on campus.

The question of establishing fraternities, which the faculty had vetoed in 1843, came up again in 1847. This time it was presented as a matter of forming an anti-secret organization. After careful consideration, the faculty decided that no Secret or anti-secret Society shall be

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p. 90 – Student life, 1833-1846

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should keep their pledges “to labor for God among the heathen.” In 1834 four had gone to the Orient, and in 1835 five went, but thereafter the number declined, and in some years none responded to the “call.” The failure of so many to keep their pledges and a waning interest on the campus in foreign missions led to a sharp decline in membership. Early in 1842 the pledge requirement was removed. A few months later the Eastern Association and the Western Association, the analogous organization for students intending to do missionary work in “the Mississippi Valley, joined the Society for Inquiry in an auxiliary status.

The first literary society, Gamma Phi, seems to have been founded prior to 1833, while the second, Pi Delta, probably originated in 1834. Little trace of their activities remains except the names of their orators on commencement programs. Competition between them for members led to faculty intervention, with the result that both seem to have been dissolved in 1840 when the Adelphian and Aeonian Societies came into existence. For two or three years, amicable relations seem to have prevailed but in 1844 difficulties arose relative to their joint public exercises. The faculty had scarcely restored harmony when rivalry over the selection of members again brought official action. Some Adelphians, refusing to abide by arrangements which had been agreed upon, attempted to form their own society in the village so that they might be free to admit freshmen of their own choosing. Within a week, however, they gave up the plan.

Both societies had rooms in the “attic story” of the present East Hall. The Aeonians devoted their weekly meetings to orations and the reading of original essays, plays and poems. A critic, appointed from their own number, passed judgment on these efforts. The essays and other contributions were collected by three editors who bound them together as the “Aeonian Casket.” The Adelphians occupied themselves in much the same way as the Aeonians. The faculty considered that both groups stimulated the development of oral and written expression, which were phases of the curriculum badly in need of expansion. The Institution, however, was probably no further behind current standards of instruction in speech and rhetoric than other colleges of the day. The Aeonian and Adelphian Societies and their predecessors were following, consciously or not, patterns of earlier and contemporary literary societies on other campuses.

The fraternity movement, a natural outgrowth of literary societies,

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