The Fraternity and the College (collection)/Extra-fraternity Organizations
One of the most vivid impressions I received at the first fraternity Congress I attended was connected with the reports which the individual chapters made to Congress with reference to the conduct, progress, and achievement of the chapter. No facts were stated more eagerly and with more evident pride than those which recounted the successes of the "joiners," and which gave in detail the number of members in each chapter who in one way or another had become allied with an external or extra-fraternity organization. In the eyes of the fraternity man, it seemed to me, there was no honor so great as being bid something else, and nothing so much to be desired as to belong to an organization outside of the fraternity, unless it were to belong to a number of such groups of men. No matter what the organization was, the simple announcement that some brother had made it was enough to call out rounds of applause. Even the announcement by one of the chapters that two of the brothers had broken into the mystic circle of Theta Nu Epsilon was considered a matter for general rejoicing.
In reading the various fraternity journals which come to my table I am impressed again with this same attitude of mind as seen in the chapter letters in which are recounted the various social and intellectual honors which have been carried away by individual brothers. Among the numerous things which a man may do that will make him worthy of mention in the chapter letter none seemed to be seized upon with more eagerness nor told with more conscious pride than the fact that one of the brothers has joined something or has been offered a chance to do so. From a recent number of a widely circulated fraternity journal I quote the following from one letter with only the names of the men veiled:
"Blain has just been elected to the Red Headed men's Club; Barlow is an Alpha Delta Sigma; Lane has made Psi Mu; Thompson was recently pledged by Tau Beta Pi. We have at present a representative in almost every club on the campus."
I have wondered if this fraternity ever took the time to compute the amount of energy dissipated by this general scattering of the fraternity's forces.
I have never been opposed to these organizations to which I refer; on the contrary I think I may say with confidence that I have in most instances approved of them, and in some cases have gone so far as to encourage them. The fact that we have so many at the University of Illinois may in a large measure be attributed to this encouragement, since I am placed officially in the strategic position of being able usually to secure the approval or the denial of the request of various groups of men to organize as seems in each case best. I have, however, never been quite sure that many of these organizations are of any positive advantage to the fraternity as an organization, though they may at times help to broaden the individual member and to bring him into more general prominence. Though it may help Smith to join Helmet and Jones to become a member of the Egyptian club by broadening their view point and bringing them into contact with a larger number of fellows, and throwing added responsibility upon them, yet the time which each must give to the outside organization may so divide his interests and take him away from the important duties of his fraternity that his influence and his effectiveness may on the whole be seriously decreased.
I know any number of fellows at the University of Illinois who belong to so many things that they have little time to give to the management and best interests of their fraternities. If there is company at the house Joe can not help entertain them after dinner because he must go to a called meeting of Scabbard and Blade; if a party is being planned or the matter of the house fund being discussed, he must be excused because it is the night when Klu Klux meets or Arcus has its initiation. And so it goes; when he is needed he is not to be found, and when he does appear at the deliberation, he is an irritation and a nuisance because someone must explain to him what happened while he was absent. This might not be so bad if the absent member brought back the fraternity something gained from his outside alliance, but this is seldom true. One of the most popular men I know in college has this year ruined his scholarship and been worse than useless in helping to run the affairs of his fraternity because he has belonged to so many things that his outside interests have taken all his time. He has been unable to do any work himself, and he has been supercritical of those who have had to bear the burden of running the fraternity.
Most of these extra-fraternities are secret; their activities and their legislation touch only the individual and seldom react to the benefit of the various fraternities from which the members come. We have at the University of Illinois, for example, a sophomore and a junior intra-fraternity organization. The members are not selected by the fraternities from which they are recruited, but by the members of these class organizations themselves. That is, most of the extra-fraternity organizations are self-supporting. It is not the purpose of a sophomore fraternity to help all the other sophomores in the various fraternities from which they come, but simply to have a selfishly good or helpful time among themselves.
Usually not more than two or three members at the most from each fraternity are eligible to membership in these organizations. When these members come back to the chapter house from the weekly or fortnightly or monthly meetings there are often private references between them to what has gone on or subtle and unintelligible allusions which not infrequently arouse the interest of the brother classmen, even if they do not go so far as to develop petty jealousies. The fact that one brother knows something that he can not discuss with all the others, that he laughs uproariously over a joke which he does not feel at liberty to explain, or that he belongs to something that the others of the same class'and attainment can not get into, even if these things are in themselves trifling, will often prevent that unity of feeling—and action which would otherwise be easily possible. I have known frequent instances of the development of factions and cliques in fraternities, which have tended seriously to the disruption of the organizations, caused entirely by the misunderstandings and jealousies incident to the membership of some of the brothers in organizations outside of the fraternity. I said to a man not long ago, "What is the matter with your fellows this year? You do not seem to be working together." "Three of our boys expected to get into 'Crescent' and only two made it," he replied. "They have been a little supercilious and self-satisfied all year, and it has stirred up a feeling that has made harmony of action impossible."
The fact that the fraternity has no voice in the selection of the members which shall represent it in those outside organizations seems to be a source of trouble. "Do you think we ought to let Allen go into Yoxan?" a fraternity president asked me recently. "He is not logically the man for the organization, he already shirks obligations, the new organization will do him no good and is likely to do us harm." I realized that everything he said was correct, but Allen did not care to take advice and went into Yoxan just the same. If the chapter were consulted as to whether or not Brown is its most representative sophomore or Adkins should be elected to Keys, it might be different. The real facts are that it is not the fitness of either for the place but his intimacy with the brother who last year represented the chapter that determines his election. It is this fact which so frequently causes dissension, for even to the so-called "honorary" fraternity as well as to those which lay no claim to such honorary standing, it is often the weaker brother who is elected, since the fellow who spends most time away from his chapter and neglects his studies the most is not infrequently the most popular among his fellows and so most likely of election. It is the good fellows they all want.
The election of such men is an evil in two ways. It tends usually still further to weaken their scholarship and their influence in their own chapter, and it tends, as I have said, to arouse ill feeling and jealousy among the other men who recognize the injustice of such an election and are annoyed at their own failure to attain the so-called honor. The weak man who should have been strengthened by being given responsibility in his own chapter is able to dodge it often by pleading as an excuse the duty and obligation he owes to his extra-fraternity organization. He can find time to go to a meeting of the "Lambs," but he is too busy to study English or to look after the particular fraternity duty for which he is responsible.
It is argued by a good many men that these extra-fraternity organizations bring into prominence the fraternity from which members are chosen, and since those members come pretty generally from all fraternities, help to break down the fraternity lines, to reduce friction, and to harmonize intra-fraternity disputes and differences. I am not at all convinced that this is true. At the University of Illinois intra-fraternity organizations and organizations which are composed largely of fraternity men have multiplied materially within the last few years, and yet I can not find that our fraternities have more political and social unity than they formerly had. Political lines are still sharply drawn, and it seldom matters if two rival fraternities each do have members in the same intra-fraternity organizations; that fact does not keep the fraternities from lining up with the special interests which have attracted them for the last decade. A few evenings ago I was taking dinner with a fraternity which has for years been the political enemy of a second one with whom I had dined the previous evening. A junior in each belonged to the same extra-fraternity organization. It was interesting to me to see that although these two juniors were apparently warm friends, the general feeling of antagonism of those two fraternities as groups was as strongly marked as it had been ten years ago and before the intra-fraternity group had been thought of. In truth I am not at all convinced that this fact is to be deplored, and that complete unity would be an unmixed good. I believe that a healthy rivalry is a help, and that it would be a bad thing utterly to eliminate fraternity divisions. If the time should come when, in any institution, all the fraternity men should be on one side of a question, and all the "barbs" on the other, I should fear for the future and the influence of fraternities in that institution. A certain amount of disagreement and a certain difference of action is likely to continue and is really necessary, I believe, in order that fraternities may have their best and safest development. These outside organizations really do not bring about this general unity of feeling which they claim to attain, and if they did I am convinced would not have accomplished the worthy end that they think.
These extra-fraternity organizations are not infrequently careless as to their finances. The period of membership is seldom for more than a year or two, the officers of the organization are usually burdened with other duties, and the extra financial tax is sometime difficult to bear. The reason is evident, in a middle west institution at least! The average young fellow who comes from a home of moderate means has an allowance only sufficient adequately to cover his normal expenses. If he belongs to one or more organizations outside of his fraternity, this fact will considerably increase his expenses. There are pins to be bought and initiation fees to be paid and smokers and feeds and dances to be provided for. Cabs and cigars and flowers and candy which are incident to these gatherings run the bills up quickly, and it is not strange that the boy gets behind with his chapter account and that the extra-fraternity bills are frequently delayed or entirely forgotten. I am constantly having complaints from merchants all over town that the bills of these organizations are not regularly met, and I have no doubt that if I were privileged to examine the books at the various chapter houses I should find that in many cases the house accounts of these members are sadly in arrears. The boy who "joins" easily generally feels that by some Midas necromancy he will have more money next month than this and he spends accordingly. Only this fall I called up the treasurer of an organization which had been reported to me as impossible to get money from and his explanation of the situation was "It costs more to run the bunch than it is worth. I'll agree to get the fellows together and pay the bill, but we're going out of business." As I have been engaged in the writing of this article I have been interviewed by representatives of a dozen business firms—liverymen, managers of orchestras, dance hall managers, florists—all who have bills against officers or individuals of these organizations. When I see the men concerned they say, "Well, we have so many bills this year that we simply haven't the money, and the fellows want to put off payment until next fall." All this in the vain hope that next fall they will have more money and more than twenty-four hours a day.
I do not wish to be understood as opposed to these organizations; I simply do not look upon them as so unreservedly good as they are frequently made out to be in chapter letters to fraternity journals and in reports of chapters to fraternity congresses. I recognize the fact, as I have said, that they may have a distinctly broadening effect in that they may bring the members in contact with interests and individuals which they might not otherwise know, but these benefits are not without dangers. It is not impossible to meet the obligations entailed by membership in such an outside organization and at the same time be entirely loyal to one's fraternity obligations. My observation, however, leads me to the conclusion that the fellows I have known frequently are of little value to their fraternity because they have so many of these obligations outside.
Naturally, too, the character of the organization will materially affect the result. I believe that the fraternity man who goes into organizations other than his fraternity will be benefited most by affiliation with those which select their membership from the general student body rather than by confining his interests strictly to intra-fraternity groups. As fraternity men we cannot afford to be considered exclusive, undemocratic, unsympathetic with general student interests and general student thought. Our associations outside the fraternity, therefore, will be quite as helpful to us and to fraternity interests in general if we cultivate our friendships with men who have no fraternity alliances as well as with those who are so connected. The exclusive fraternity man if he would broaden his associations would be surprised to find how slight the difference is between the two classes of men, if, indeed, there is any difference at all. For this same general reason I have argued in my own case as a member of a college faculty that it was better for me to become a member of a few organizations composed largely of business men and men whose interests are outside of academic life rather than to confine my energies entirely to organizations of faculty men. The fraternity man who knows and associates only with members of the fraternities is likely to be narrow and bigoted, and to have the wrong perspective as to college men in general. He is likely to get the idea that the only men in college, or in the world perhaps, are fraternity men, and that the only fraternity men are those with whom he is personally and intimately acquainted.
In this discussion I have meant to exclude from consideration those organizations of undergraduates whose main object is alleged to be educational rather than social, such as department clubs, dramatic clubs, musical clubs, and clubs or fraternities interested in a special subject or line of work, though many of these are educational in name only, and are of use only as time killers. It is the distinctly social organization which I have had in mind whose only averred object is to promote good-fellowship, to furnish the members an opportunity to buy another pin, and to encourage regular getting together. I have a dozen organizations in mind at the University of Illinois which have no more serious purposes than these.
Besides the dangers, then, which I have detailed there comes with such organizations the danger of a lack of serious purpose. "What is the object of your organization?" I asked a group of young men only a few, weeks ago. "Well, I can't say," their spokesman answered. "We meet every two weeks to smoke, we have a feed every once in a while, we give two dances a year, to get the fellows acquainted." He said this with an assurance that would carry the conviction that young fellows always gave dances with the avowed intention of getting acquainted with each other rather than of paying attention to the young ladies they brought with them. There was nothing serious or worth while that this organization had in mind to accomplish, and so it had degenerated into a smoke fest; there was drinking at initiations and at other times; usually some one got too much; and frequently the talk grew careless. The organization helped no one, injured some, and wasted the time of all.
"Tell us something to do, Dean," an official of an organization composed of upperclass fraternity men said to me only a few days ago. "We have our meetings, but we do nothing but sit around." Unless it has a definite object which keeps men interested and gives them something to do, the extra-fraternity organization is not only useless but positively harmful. A group of energetic young fellows will not long remain passive. If as an organized body meeting regularly they are not engaged in something active, healthy, and helpful, they will before long drop into the things that are positively harmful and disreputable. If their brains are not busy, their hands must be busy manipulating some sort of gustatory or bibulous contraband or holding the poker deck. Intances and illustrations more than sufficient to justify these statements, but too personal to cite here, come to mind as I write these sentences. The possibilities of the evils which I have suggested multiply and are almost certain to occur when, as in some instances, the membership in such organizations is kept secret. Not having the incentive which publicity gives to such matters there is ultimately the tempation to do nothing or to do those things which might not safely or honestly be done in the light of day. With the membership of an organization secret or even uncertain there is the impossibility to fix responsibility, and the organization may easily become a menace. On the whole the fight that has been waged and is now being waged all over the country against Theta Nu Epsilon and similar organizations is based largely upon the fact that the meeting place and membership of the organization is kept secret for a part or all of the period that the undergraduate is in college. The fact that things may be done under the cover of secrecy leads many a young fellow into indiscretions and foolish escapades which he would otherwise escape. It makes it impossible for authorities to place responsibility where it belongs and tends to encourage license. It is for this reason that most institutions have come to the point of forbidding organizations whose membership is not revealed, and the action of fraternities against such organizations is based very largely upon the same considerations.
The initiation ceremonies of these organizations under consideration are often one of their most objectionable features. Having few traditions and in many cases a ritual hardly worthy of the name, they depend upon impromptu suggestions, and the initiation often degenerates into horse play and a sort of "slap stick" vaudeville. The public or semi-public exhibitions through which they put their initiates tend to bring all fraternities into disrepute in the minds of the general public, who do not discriminate in any way between the methods employed by the various organizations which have the name of fraternity, whether it is the Red-headed man's Club or one of the "Big Three." Having nothing definitely written to constitute a dignified and effective initiation ceremony these initiations are likely to be vulgar and brutal, undignified and bibulous. No organization with a serious or worthy purpose is likely to send its men, dressed like court fools, to trundle doll baby carriages about the campus as a part of their initiation ceremonies or to hunt for a dead rat lying in a fence corner five miles in the country. Such proceedings are discreditable to all fraternities, and fraternity men ought not to allow their brothers to submit to such tomfoolery. The man who has himself never belonged to a fraternity and who is fighting such organizations will be made with difficulty to understand and to approve of such idiocies.
At the University of Illinois no organizations have offended more in the direction of rough house and horse play than the so-called honorary fraternities in engineering and agriculture. The strongest advocates of the practice of beating up the initiate and wearing him out physically and mentally before initiating him are for the most part those men who are least acquainted with any beautiful ritualistic ceremony, and who think the only real way to make an impression upon a man is to beat him to a pulp with a ball bat. They labor under the misconception that the only way to make the initiate love and respect you is to inflict upon him humiliation and physical pain. There is, however, among these organizations, as there should be, a growing sentiment against these relics of barbarism, the only reason for continuing them being the illogical and inane excuse that "we always have done it."
My conclusions, therefore, drawn from pretty wide experience are that fraternity men join too many things and that extra-fraternity organizations are not an unmixed good. I do not believe that they should be black-listed, but I believe that the entrance of men and especially of fraternity men into such organizations should be given more serious consideration than has heretofore been done, especially in large institutions where the number of these organizations is likely to be considerable. Fraternity men should not take on the obligations of outside organizations without thought and consideration as to the obligations involved. Nor should they be allowed by those in charge of the fraternity to go into so many as will injure their college work or their usefulness and effectiveness in the fraternity. Joining these organizations often involves, too, an expense which many fellows can not afford, it imposes added obligation which may not easily be carried, and it frequently turns a man's energies to those things which are not only not helpful but which are positively detrimental. These organizations are best which bring fellows together for a definite purpose, and I am quite willing to grant that this purpose need not be purely intellectual. That organization is best which permits the widest range in its selection of men and which does not confine its selection to a limited class of fraternity men. And with all these limitations I think the fraternity man should be a conservative rather than a chronic "joiner."