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

and sororities. The Council however was short-lived, mostly as the fraternities fearedthat participation would jeopardize their spot in the National Interfraternity Council, thegoverning body of all fraternities.At the end of the 1920's, in October of 1929, America, the universities and theGreek system suffered a crushing blow with the onset of the Great Depression. Theeconomic hardships brought on by the crash of the New York Stock Exchange resulted inthe loss of thousands of potential students from the university system. Those who couldafford to attend college did so with meager wages, often forcing them to leave theirbeloved fraternities. The Jewish fraternities, only in existence for less than thirty years,maintained smaller endowments and a smaller alumni base than their Gentilecounterparts. Fraternity houses cut costs, no longer providing laundry service, servedmeals and lawn maintenance. Even with these adjustments, fraternities such as OmicronAlpha Tau found themselves unable to survive the economic hard times and wereabsorbed by Tau Delta Phi, Phi Epsilon Pi, and Phi Beta Delta. 108Despite the setbacks caused by the Depression, this low period forced some to seethe true meaning of fraternity membership. Brothers were forced to rely on one anotherto find jobs and aid the similarly impoverished general community. The Sammy chapterat Indiana University pooled together funds to pay a woman from the local Jewishcommunity to cook them meals, despite the dismissal of employees assigned to fraternityhouses by the University President. During the Depression, they paid Mrs. Barton $27weekly for her services, providing her with a source of income. 109108 Sanua, 177109 Sanua, 18428