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

THE SCROLL 545outside help they do not seem to be able to eradicate their present evils, or attainto the usefulness of which they are capable.The regulations adopted are intended primarily to improve the present lowscholarship of fraternities. But they are expected indirectly to reduce, if not tocure, the other evils of the fraternity system, it being probable that most of theabuses cited are due to the presence in fraternities of members who do not taketheir university work seriously.Justice and fair play demand that active opposition to the fraternities shouldcease so that they may have every opportunity to correct the abuses which havegrown up among them. Those who do not refrain from such opposition while thefraternities are attempting to reform, will justly be held responsible, in a largemeasure at least for any failure which may result.The faculty hopes that the assistance given by these regulations will enable theri^ht thinking members of the fraternities and sororities largely to remedy presentevils, and thus to prevent abolition which otherwise may become imperative.Doubtless the agitation against fraternities will be continued in Texas, Ohio,Wisconsin and Minnesota, and there are indications that war will soon beactively waged on fraternities in Missouri, Kansas, Alabama and other states.An editorial in the K S Caduceus says that when the editor visited Tuscaloosain March, he had scarcely landed there before he was apprised of the fact thatthere was "grave cause for apprehension over the present bitter feeling at theUniversity of Alabama." The chancellor and the dean warned him "that thefraternities had best be careful'" The fraternity opponents have "aggressiveand capable leadership", and "one of the leaders declares that he has consecratedhis life to the work of abolishing fraternities in Alabama." The editorsays:Fraternities have been having a fairly smooth time at Alabama for some twodecades or more. The students, male and female, for the greater part housed inthe barracks, and with from 33 to 40 per cent of the student body, the fraternitiesfor twelve years past held 92 per cent of the honors (figures by the antis.) Therehas been no decided anti-fraternity feeling until comparatively recently. Within thelast two or three years the fraternities began to move out of the barracks (Alabamawas formerly a military school) into chapter houses off the college grounds. Out ofthis resultant isolation there, of course, grew a feeling of resentment, and charges ofexclusiveness and snobbery began to be made. The fraternities as a whole failed torealize the importance of counteracting such sentiment, and the feeling grew apace.It is the declared purpose of the Alabama University authorities to require allchapter houses to be upon the college grounds by next fall. It is likewise the declaredpurpose of the antis to see that no chapter house is ever built upon the universitygrounds. It is this question, perhaps, upon which the issue will be drawnand the fight made.The University of Michigan senate has adopted the recommendations of afaculty committee which reported that the average scholarship of members ofgeneral fraternites for men was below the passing grade. Hereafter scholarshipstatistics will be published annually and the fraternities will be requiredto institute reforms in regard to rushing, pledging and social activities.The seriousness of the war on fraternities is indicated by a speech of DeanLinn to University of Chicago students on April 23. He is quoted in theChicago American as saying:I believe fraternities are a good thing. I am convinced, however, that the feelingagainst them is becoming so strong in some of the state universities in the MiddleWest that soon there will be no fraternities. I have never heard the slightestsuggestion at the University of Chicago of the abolition of fraternities, but undoubtedlythe situation will become such that they will go out of existence here. Itwill spread from the state to the denominational schools by force of imitation.The following significant editorial appeared in the Chicago Post of April 23:The fight against fraternities is the conspicuous thing in the college world atpresent. From Connecticut to Texas the fight is on. At Yale the sophomores aremaking a fight against the senior societies. The grounds for dissatisfaction are twoat least: excessive secrecy and inadvisable choice of members. In Texas, Ohio,Wisconsin, Minnesota and Oklahoma the battlefield is the state legislature. In manyother states sentiment is astir and is slowly crystallizing. The progressive movementwhich has been so influential in American political life is reflected in the proposedsentiment and measures against college fraternities. The members of these societiesare charged with extravagance, intemperance, immorality, defective scholarship, narrownessof outlook and general narrowness.In many instances the charges have substantial basis, even at the present time;in more they have been true only in the past. As shown in the more aggressive