1930–31 Volume 55 No 1–5 - Phi Delta Theta Scroll Archive

THE SCROLLPHI DELTA THETA March, 1931testify to that. In * A ®'s third decade,1868-78, there were thirty-twocharters granted. The fourth decadesaw twenty-seven more. Of thosefifty-nine chapters, sixteen have died.Don't blame it all on loose charteringmethods, insufficient investigation, andall of that. Many of our finest chaptersare to be found among the otherforty-three. It was simply a formativeperiod during which fraternities wereall finding themselves.Phi Delta Theta has granted a totalof 125 charters to different chapters(some have received new charters followinga suspension). The total ofchapters is 126 including the parentchapter at Miami. Subtracting thepresent number of active chapters, ourarithmetic lesson shows us that aneven quarter of a hundred chapters arenot now in existence.Four of these twenty-five have hadtheir identity merged with that ofother chapters. In two instances4> A 0 had bicameral chapters in institutions,the only fraternity ever tohave such unique offspring. Thesewere the original Ohio Beta at Miamiand Kentucky Gamma at Centre, butwithin a year each was absorbed by itssister chapter in the same college. Intwo other cases, colleges have consolidatedand, $ A 0 having a chapterin each, a logical chapter union followed.The first, of these was in thejoining of Central University and CentreCollege which, perforce, joinedKentucky Alpha and Kentucky Deltaas Kentucky Alpha-Delta. The otherwas in the recent union of Lombardwith Knox, resulting in the creation ofIllinois Delta-Zeta.[366]This leaves a total of twenty-onetruly inactive chapters. They are:Ohio Gamma Prime at Wittenberg,Texas Alpha Prime at Austin, KentuckyBeta at Kentucky Military Institute,Kentucky Gamma at Georgetown,Wisconsin Beta at Lawrence,Indiana Eta at the Indiana StateTeachers College, Virginia Alpha atRoanoke, Illinois Gamma at Monmouth,Georgia Alpha Prime at Oglethorpe,Ohio Delta at Wooster, MichiganBeta at Michigan State, VirginiaDelta at Richmond, Missouri BetaPrime at Central, Virginia Epsilon atVirginia Military Institute, IllinoisEpsilon at Illinois Wesleyan, TexasAlpha at Trinity, South Carolina Alphaat Wofford, South Carolina Betaat South Carolina, Michigan Gammaat Hillsdale, New York Gamma atthe College of the City of New York,and Alabama Gamma at Birmingham-Southern.Most of these chapters are probablydeader than the proverbial doornail,however deceased it may be. In severalcases there are still antifraternityrulings, although these have decreasedin number. In other cases it was earlyrecognized that a mistake was made inentering or the subsequent history ofthe institution has not been such as tojustify an attempt at revival of thedormant chapter. In still others, solittle group activity was developedduring the comparatively short life ofthe chapter that there is felt little needof a revival in order to father the"orphans" created by the death of thechapter.The list is not exempt from futureshortening, however. The near-successof the recent effort to re-establishthe South Carolina chapter is too recentto deserve comment. Three chapters,Akron, Mississippi, and Duke,have been reorganized within the pastdecade, after periods of suspension ofrespectively twenty-eight, fourteen,and forty-seven years. But, thoughthere is a perennial and deserving agitationon behalf of a few institutionson the list, the future removals willprobably not be numerous. A coiiservatismbred of respectable age istoo inclined to wipe them off as of thepast and relegate them to the limbo ofliistory pages and catalog statistics.The Founders and those closely associatedwith them had early in mindthe expansion of the "Order" by theestablishment of additional "colleges,"as the chapters then were called. RobertMorrison collected a number of