1912–13 Volume 37 No 1–5 - Phi Delta Theta Scroll Archive

TLIE SCROLL 359AVERAGES OF MEN IN COLLEGE ACTIVITIES, igio-iiMen's literary societiesDebating teams84-5786.62Glee and mandolin clubUniversity band80.5581.74lllio staff80.38 Illinois union officers 80.80Magazine staff84.00 Chess and checker club 82.88Agriculturist staff85.86 Military field and staff officers 83.22Illini staffTechnograph board82.9384.82Y. M. C. A. cabinetDancing clubs82.3579-34These figures reveal the fact that the men who engaged in collegeactivities other than athletics had better grades as a whole than thegeneral average of men in the university. Among such men onlythose on the UHo staff, those who were officers in the union and thosein the band and dancing clubs had an average below 81.78. DoctorClark says:The fraternity man often excuses the low scholarship of his organization onthe ground that fraternity men have more to do, and that they get into morecollege activities than do students not members of such organizations. Thismay or may not be true, but it can be easily shown that the fraternity menwho are engaged in the general activities of college are in the large majorityof cases not the men who pull down the scholastic average. The real factsare that they pull up the average; and it is the loafer and the "fusser" whopull it down. There is one college activity, at least, which can not be said tobe helpful to a man's scholarship, and that is the sentimentally social one.The man who spends his evenings at the sorority houses, or who early in hiscollege course develops a "case" is almost invariably a worthless student.The "merry, merry ring time" is generally for him not far from the time whenhe gets out of college, either by request or through having deferred it untilnear his graduation.Of the twenty men that received the lowest grades in each of theyears 1909-10 and 1910-11, not one was engaged in any collegeactivity. Among this number, "Three were lazy fraternity men,interested in nothing but passing away the time painlessly, and theywere of no benefit either to the fraternities to which they belonged orto the college." Of the twenty men that received the highest gradesin each of the two years, only two were fraternity men, and only onewas engaged in any activity outside of his studies. Doctor Clark'sfinal conclusion is as follows:The result of my investigation convinces me that the poorest students at theUniversity of Illinois have little to do with college activities; they are misfitsand hangers on. The very best students, also, are interested in little outsideof their college work, and so miss much of the benefits of the broadest collegetraining. The man who engages sanely in outside activities in college keepshis studies above the average and gets the most out of college life.INSTALLATION ARRANGEMENTS.No doubt there are a great number of Phis who have been wantingto know when the three new chapters, to whom charters weregranted by the Chicago convention, would be formally installed. Immediatelyafter the convention the general council decided to placein the hands of Brother Charles F. Lamkin, past president of the