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CHEMICAL FRATERNITIES* JOHNH GARDNER, WEST VIRGINIA UNIVERSITY, MORGANTOWN, W. VA It has been said that a group of four college students suddenly stranded on a desert island, within the first half hour would choose a name of three Greek letters, and elect a president, vice-president, secretary, and treasurer. That this statement of the tendency of students to organize is not greatly exaggerated can be judged by a cursory examination of the number of badges seen on the students of any American university or college. In recent years there has been an increasing tendency to organize honorary and semi-honorary societies according to the students' major subjects. There are fraternities in agriculture, engineering, journalism, medicine, law, and almost every other university department. Needless to say, chemistry is no exception. The chemistry teacher can safely conclude that sooner or later his students will form some sort of organization, and that his best plan will be to lead them in the best path to follow. Departmental organizations may be divided into two principal types, clubs and fraternities. A departmental club, in general, automatically takes into its memhership all students majoring in the department regardless of their scholastic standing or character, while a fraternity is limited in its memhership to those chosen by the members on a basis of scholastic standing or personality or, preferably, both. The club merely appeals to the student's interest in his chosen field, often very slight in undergraduate days, hut the fraternity adds the appeal of its exclusiveness and the mystery of its supposed secrets (which are usually non-existent). Furthermore, because of its exclusiveness, students regard memhership in any kind of a fraternity as an honor. As a consequence, a fraternity can be eminently successful in a department which will fail utterly to support a club. Chemical fraternities are generally classed as honorary or professional. The memhership of the former type is selected primarily on a basis of scholastic standing, ordinarily the highest fourth of a class heing eligible, personality being a secondary consideration, and frequently heing entirely neglected. In the professional fraternity, on the other hand, character is the principal factor in the selection of members, with better thanaverage scholarship as a second requirement. An honorary society is ordinarily limited in its membership to students in the junior year and beyond, while a professional fraternity may extend to the sophomore class. It is obvious that the honorary fraternity has a much more limited number of students to choose from in selecting its members than does the professional.
* Prom a paper presented a t the Symposium on Chcrnical Education a t the University of Maryland, July. 1925.
I t can safely be said that a fraternity of any kind can only be successful in an institution large enough to maintain a chapter of a t least ten members. Consequently, it is scarcely practical for a small college to attempt the organization of an h o n o r a j society, unless the standards are to he so loose as to make the term "honorary" a mere farce. However, a school graduating an average of ten students a year in chemistry or chemical engineering can readily support a professional fraternity if the students and faculty take a real interest in the project. Faculty support and encouragement is, in the writer's experience, always essential for the welfare of a departmental fraternity. One unfamiliar with the purposes and methods of chemical fraternities may well ask if there is any reason for encouraging them; if it would not be better to organize clubs which are merely undergraduate seminars. Any member of a chemical fraternity will answer these questions without hesitation, and there are few, who, knowing the nature of fraternities, will ever prefer the departmental club. The principal argument in favor of the fraternity is that members of the chemical profession, as of any other, are human beings first, and chemists, students, and teachers afterwards. Consequently, they can do better work if their natural desire for the society of people with common interests and congenial natures is first satisfied. The primary function of a fraternity is to fill this need. The fraternity provides what the departmental club never can, an entirely informal meeting ground for students, faculty, alumni, and visitors from the outside. I t makes an astonishing difference in attitude when the students call the gray-haired department head "Brother" instead of "Professor." In many institutions, chemical fraternities are doing much for the benefit of the department, and the institution, in general. They give open meetings a t which speakers from the outside bring in a broadening influence; they present moving pictures on chemical subjects; they give smokers, dances, and other social affairs, and, in general, help to produce a spirit of good fellowship by bringing together members of the department away from the formal atmosphere of the class-room. Opponents of fraternities charge them with producing a spirit of snobbishness among the members. It is claimed that fraternities divide the student body into cliques, the members of which consider themselves too good to associate with those who do not belong. The writer, however, has found chemical fraternities, and others as well, with very few exceptions, t o exert just the opposite influence. The intimate association of the fraternity forces the member to recognize the good points of men who differ with him on many subjects. The result is a broadening of his ideas concerning his fellow men and a greater tolerance of other opinions. The college student is nearly always snobbish and intolerant of those
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who differ with him. A properly functioning fraternity helps greatly in making him realize that others have ideas as reasonable as his own. Up to this point, the discussion has been confined entirely to the local aspects of the fraternity. However, a local fraternity will rarely be regarded as satisfactory by a group of students. They wish to be closely connected with other institutions by virtue of membership in a national organization, and to belong to a fraternity which will mean something to them after graduation, as well as before. These aims are well met by existing national fraternities, as is witnessed by the loyalty and interest shown by many members after graduation. Our national fraternities are to an increasing extent organizing alumni or professional chapters in the larger cities, extending their influence into the groups of members in the industries and in business. Every meeting of the American Chemical Society includes among the social events, meetings of several chemical fraternities, in which the main aim is not chemistry but the good fellowship of chemists. Upon visiting either his own or any other chapter of his fraternity, the alumnus is assured of a hearty welcome. The fraternity man leaving his college to go to another in which his organization is represented will find a group of friends ready to receive him, and, if a chapter house is maintained, usually to provide him with a room and a place to eat and to spend his spare time in congenial surroundings. From the standpoint of student, instructor, and alumnus, a national fraternity is to he preferred to a local. However, national fraternities of high standing are not willing to consider applications for charters from any but well-established local societies which uphold as high a standard of membership as do the nationals themselves. Consequently, if it is desired to establish a chapter of a national fraternity, the first step is to build up a strong local organization, with high standards of membership, and then to apply to the national society which has been selected. There are several national chemical fraternities of both types in successful existence, but information is only available on two, one of each class, the others not being listed in the standard fraternity handbooks. Of those listed, Phi Lambda Upsilon is the older, being established in 189s). It is an honorary society, and, according to the directory of June, 1025, has 19 chapters and about 3000 members. The other, Alpha Chi Sigma, is a professional chemical fraternity, a n d i s younger and larger. I t was founded in 1902, and now has 38 chapters and over 5000 members. These organizations include in their chapter lists most of the larger colleges and universities. The other chemical fraternities have only come to the writer's attention through occasional news items, but no definite information regarding any of them is available. They all appear to be primarily small college
organizations, if one may judge by the occasional brief notes appearing in the chemical press regarding them. I t is to be hoped that the officials of these societies will see to i t that notices are placed in the newer editions of the fraternity manuals, as there is a real demand for chapters of chemical fraternities, honorary especially, in the smaller colleges, particularly those unable to maintain chapters of sufficient size to meet the requirements of the larger organizations.
