1964–65 Volume 89 No 1–5 - Phi Delta Theta Scroll Archive

THE SCROLL of Phi Delta Theta for SEPTEMBER, 1964 19Why Should My Son Join A Fraternity?(Continued from Inside Front Cover)ternity.) One of our natural fraternity rivals)ran a nation-wide survey of 110 chapters andlearned that their room-and-board charges wereequal to or above the cost of living in a schoolsupported residence hall in 33.6% of the cases.The converse of this, of course, is that on 66.4%of the campuses it cost less for room and boardin fraternity houses than it did in the residenthalls. Oh certainly, there are costs other thanroom and board. For example, social dues willrun between ten and fifteen dollars a month inthe average chapter. As a social group, this certainlyis not exorbitant, but is a fixed expense.In general, regardless of what school your sonfinally decides to go to, I'm sure you'll find thecosts of a fraternity well within your means.Brother Hoffman, who graduated from Dickinsonas a Phi Beta Kappa scholar, has longbeen active in affairs of the college. He helpedorganize the board of trustees, and served onthe board for ten years. During his long careerhe has also remained an active and loyal PhiHe served on the General Council from 1932through 1938, and was President the last twoyears. He has attended many general conventionsand has been a loyal alumni club boosterwherever he lived. He is also the author of* A 9's beautiful Golden Legion ceremony.DEAN M. HOFFMAN, Dickinson '02•The fraternity system is growing at a rapidrate. As source material to prove this last statementI refer you to Baird's Manual. (This is athick tome that carried all kinds of interesting informationabout the fraternity and sorority system.)The latest edition shows that in the last fiveyears the fraternity and sorority system has showna net gain of 610 chapters. On a 40-week year,that averages out a little better than three newchapters every week. Not only that, but this samesource shows that 88 new campuses have openedtheir doors to fraternities and sororities since1955. In addition to the increase of the numberof chapters, there has been a dramatic growth inthe number of members in most fraternity andtorority undergraduate chapters. Baird's showsthat in 1957 the total of college men and womenwho were members of Greek Letter Societies wasless than Si^ million. By the end of 1963 over 7million were members of fraternities or sororities.I think any group that shows a net gain of a million-and-a-halfin membership in six years isdoing pretty well!•Some more facts: Piu-due University conductedan independent survey among leading universitiesand reported that 176 colleges or universitiesare actively seeking new fraternities in thenext 5 years. This statistic was the result of a pollof the presidents and deans of these various institutions.The above figures are not to say thefraternity and sorority system is growing as fastas the exploding collegiate population. (For onereason, I'm sure that the majority of diose influentialin the fraternity and sorority world wantnot to grow that fast.) In 1939 and 1940 the percentageof fraternity men to male students wastwelve. In 1962-63 it was down to 9.2%. Sourcefor this figure again is Baird's Manual and theWorld Almanac. I repeat, though, I do not thinkthis is in any way a derogatory statement concerningfraternities and sororities. The very natureof the groups calls for close association. IfI may digress for just a moment from my statisticalraison d'etat, the bigger the collegiate systemgrows, the more and more reason there is forfraternities and sororities, so that young men andwomen can maintain their identities, instead ofjust being numbers in the present overwhelminginflux of humanity to higher education.•Fraternities are gaining more and more publicacceptance. I have in front of me an interestingdocument from Arizona State University. As youknow, Arizona State is in a small town, Tempe,Arizona. This, of course, makes for a much