Rebecca Shapiro Thesis (11 May 2011).pdf - Brandeis Institutional ...

In addition to the anti-secrecy movement, religion found fault with fraternities, asthe Greeks created social status and institutionalized prestige no longer based on theChristian values of humility, equality and morality. 19 They saw the fraternity system as athreat to the pre-existing values and routines inculcated by the colleges. Eating, sleeping,studying and socializing were previously controlled by the university, but the secretsocieties allowed students to diverge from the routine described as "pay, pray, study andaccept." 20 During a speech in which President Humphrey of Amherst College attemptedto rally other college authorities to abolish fraternities, he stated, "the influences havebeen evil...they put men socially in regard to each other into false position...the alienationof feeling and want of cordiality thus created are not favorable to a right moral andreligious state." 21 Many university officials sought to end fraternities, however the systemhad already grown too powerful and the system provided students with the values ofmaterial success and prepared students for sucess in the real world, while the collegesprepared students for proper Christian living. 22Fraternities continued to develop through the 1850's, amounting to 36organizations in total, and 202 chapters. Though the heart of expansion was in the NorthEast, it shifted to the South. 23However, the Civil War brought about the end of theexpansion period. Male students left college to fight in the war, and many enlisted ratherthan enrolling in college. University campus buildings were used for barracks, hospitalsand ammunition depots, leaving little room for Fraternity life. During and following thewar, intra-fraternity conflict arose between Southern and Northern chapters, forcing some19 Rudolph, 14920 Parks, 1721 Rudolph, 14822 Rudolph, 15023 Parks, 317