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SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XL. No. 1033 



low; then in one semester it takes a sudden 

 rise, and in the next semester assumes the top 

 place, where it remains for a quite long period. 

 The impetus to scholarship in this chapter was 

 furnished by the planning and activity of one 

 man during the years 1910-1911 and 1911- 

 1912. He worked out an efficient system for 

 improving the scholarship of the active mem- 

 bers of the chapters and insisted upon a care- 

 ful selection of freshmen pledges. He was a 

 determined, energetic type of man and com- 

 pletely and thoroughly ruled his chapter. The 

 impetus which he had given the chapter when 

 he graduated in 1912 enabled it to hold a high 

 position for the four semesters succeeding. 

 He successfully solved one of the two problems 

 of fraternity scholarship, the problem of bring- 

 ing up the average from a very low to a high 

 place. 



The other problem, that of holding the aver- 

 age to a high standard, seems to have been 

 successfully solved by Phi Gamma Delta. 

 During the ten semesters this chapter has held 

 to a consistently high average, always holding 

 one of the first seven places among the fra- 

 ternities. In this case chapter traditions have 

 played an important part. The reputation of 

 the Phi Gams as good students was generally 

 known ; both faculty and students expected any 

 and every member of the chapter to be a 

 " shark." Working with this tradition it was 

 not especially difficult for the strong upper- 

 classmen to start the freshmen and sophomores 

 on the high road. Only occasionally was hard 

 driving necessary; the most effective factor 

 was the good-natured, " everybody-get-into-the- 

 game " attitude which all of the members 

 seemed to have. This chapter has usually had 

 one or two of their faculty members living in 

 the house with the active members. 



The sudden rise of Delta Tau Delta in 1913- 

 1914, after this chapter had trailed most of 

 the others for many semesters, was the result 

 of cyclonic, plunging campaign, in which na- 

 tional officers, faculty members, alumni, as 

 well as every active member, had an energetic 

 part. A dean in the faculty, coming upon the 

 scene at a ripe moment, entered into the spirit 

 of the fight and lent his wise advice, a junior 

 was appointed to be a sort of bookkeeper, 



whose duty it was to keep account of all of the 

 absences taken by the members and to record 

 all of the scholarship reports forwarded; and 

 a senior, a forceful, impulsive football player, 

 forced the fighting. The interesting fact is 

 that this high rank was attained by almost 

 exactly the same type of men who for years 

 had been holding the average down. An 

 alumnus of the chapter stated to me that the 

 reason for their improvement was that the 

 chapter was lucky in getting rid of its flankers, 

 but I was able to point out to him in the 

 present chapter men who under the old condi- 

 tions would have become the laziest of 

 flunkers, filling in the places left by the out- 

 going loafers. The improvement in scholar- 

 ship in this chapter was not primarily due to 

 any careful selection of members; it was due 

 almost entirely to a change of conditions and 

 management within the chapter. I think the 

 experience of Delta Tau Delta offers the most 

 helpful suggestions to chapter officers who 

 have an ambition to seek higher standards of 

 scholarship. 



Cyclonic campaigns of this kind, however, 

 solve only one of the problems to be met 

 by fraternity officers; it is even more difficult 

 to keep the average consistently high than it 

 is to raise it for a semester or two. The graph 

 will show that many of the local chapters do 

 their work by spurts, apparently lacking the 

 ability to keep to any consistent high average. 

 This is so certain that it is not especially diffi- 

 cult to read the signs in any specified chapter 

 and predict that it will go up or down at the 

 next change. 



From my observations of the experience of 

 fraternities in matters of scholarship I have 

 concluded that the one factor which stands 

 out above others as being valuable and impor- 

 tant is chapter management. A brief com- 

 parison of four fraternities. Phi Gamma Delta, 

 Alpha Tau Omega, Sigma Chi and Delta Tau 

 Delta, points to this conclusion rather clearly. 

 These four chapters have been in existence in 

 the university longer than most of the others, 

 and they are remarkably alike in many respects. 

 The chapter living conditions are much the 

 same; each owns a comfortable house of about 

 the same valuation; the expenses of the mem- 



