Louisiana State University LSU Digital Commons LSU Master's Theses Graduate School 2017 How American is the American College Fraternity? Examining the European Legacy Within the U. Greek System Andrew Thomas Bell Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, abell54@lsu.edu Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.edu/gradschool_theses Part of the Education Commons Recommended Citation Bell, Andrew Thomas, "How American is the American College Fraternity? Examining the European Legacy Within the U. LSU Master's Theses.edu/gradschool_theses/4613 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at LSU Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in LSU Master's Theses by an authorized graduate school editor of LSU Digital Commons.
For more information, please contact gradetd@lsu. HOW AMERICAN IS THE AMERICAN COLLEGE FRATERNITY? EXAMINING THE EUROPEAN LEGACY WITHIN THE U. GREEK SYSTEM A Thesis Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of the Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in The School of Education by Andrew T., Christopher Newport University, 2012 May 2017 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS As with any great accomplishment, it truly takes a village, and I would be remiss without acknowledging my fellow villagers. To my mother – you have been a sounding board for so many aspects of this thesis including moments where the entire project seemed to dangle precariously on the ledge.
I know that I would not be in graduate school without your continuous support and I consider this degree, as well as this thesis, equally yours. To my Pi Kappa Phi chapter brothers – Thank you for taking that chance on me all those many years ago and introducing me to a world that would continue to fascinate and enthrall me. Amanda Herbert – Thank you for teaching me the love of history and always being willing to stoke my academic fire. To my supervisor, Kathy – Thank you for allowing me to even say the word “thesis” as many times as I have in the last 2 years and for honestly and truly letting me know when I was, in fact, doing too much.
To Delia, Tori, & Brittany – Thanks for your continuous motivation to get this document written and being cheerleaders along the way. To the Foundation for International Education – Thank you for allowing me the freedom during my internship to experience firsthand the universities I have spent so much time researching. To John Heath- Thanks for realizing that philosophy truly is the guide of life 240 years ago and creating an organization which would reshape the future of American Higher Education. ii TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGMENTS.
ii LIST OF FIGURES. INTRODUCTION TO THE RESEARCH .1 Statement of the Problem .1 Purpose of the Study .2 Research Questions and Design .4 Definition of Key Terms .4 Theoretical and Conceptual Framework .6 Secrecy and the Secret Society .8 Delimitations and Limitations. CULTURAL MARKERS OF FRATERNITIES AND SORORITIES .11 Ritual and Oath of Secrecy .15 Organizational Laws and Constitutions .16 Fraternity and Sorority Housing .17 Recruitment of Members .22 Freemasonry’s International Reach. FRATERNALISM AND THE EUROPEAN UNIVERSITY .27 The Collegiate Model .28 Town Versus Gown .29 English Collegiate Social Life .30 German Collegiate Societies.
FRATERNALISM AND THE AMERICAN UNIVERSITY .34 Foundation for the Colonial Colleges .34 Student Classes at the Colonial Colleges .36 The Rise of Debate at the Colonial Colleges .39 Phi Beta Kappa. SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS .41 The Cultural Dissemination of Fraternalism.79 How American is the American College Fraternity? .91 iv LIST OF FIGURES Figure 6.1: Dissemination of Affiliation .2: Dissemination of Admission .3: Dissemination of Classification.4: Dissemination of Financial Requirement .5: Dissemination of Ritual .6: Dissemination of Camaraderie .7: Dissemination of Structure .8: Dissemination of Regalia .9: Dissemination of Pageantry.10: Dissemination of Proximity.11: Dissemination of Environmental Response .12: Cultural Dissemination Map .86 v ABSTRACT In this study, a cultural dissemination model is used to identify the cultural markers a fraternalism across multiple educational environments all in an attempt to answer the question “How American is the American college fraternity?” Aspects of modern fraternities and sororities were broken down and their historical predecessors were identified in order to track cultural dissemination, or diffusion. “Diffusion is the spread of culture traits and, as Wissler (140,146) and Bartlett (7) have demonstrated, this spread may be either conscious or unconscious” (Willey & Herskovits, 1927, p. Primarily systems the broad European Fraternalism, European Universities (German and English), American Universities were studied alongside the modern fraternity and sorority.
vi CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION TO THE RESEARCH The American College Fraternity is frequently cited as one of the identifying qualities of the American Higher Education System. Since their inception in the early 19th century, Fraternities and Sororities have characterized some of the most infamous aspects of American culture, as well as magnified the most problematic aspects. Despite its prevalence through the American Higher Education and American popular culture, the Fraternity and Sorority system still remains an enigma to many professionals as well as college students who received their education abroad. Considering that the entire American Higher Education system is a direct result of European education models it seems to be counterintuitive that this is a system exclusively associated with the American Higher Education.
Statement of the Problem The history of Higher Education institutions is one that has been heavily researched. Higher Education researchers have spent large portions of their careers exploring the founding stories and importance of Higher Education institutions. While researchers such as John Thelin (2011) have written extensively on the development of the university system within a fledgling United States, their research often neglects important cultural and societal factors in favor of more quantifiable data, such as economics or politics. Separate historians have found a penchant for writing about the specific histories of individual fraternities and sororities.
While many of these authors are limited in their reach as their research is frequently limited to the stories of their particular organization or of their undergraduate campuses. Those restrictions led to that research being highly biased and largely unusable by most researchers of both Higher 1 Education and American History. Research has been exceedingly wanton in the areas of examining the cultural influences which developed within the American Fraternity and Sorority System. Purpose of the Study With knowledge of this problem and a desire to expand existing understanding of the history of Higher Education, texts were selected to highlight possible influences of European institutions on the American Higher Education system, the symbiotic relationship between the American college and the fraternity and sorority system, and texts which highlight student life in both European and American universities.
Additionally, this study seeks to add to existing research surrounding the application of “the scientific method in an analysis of esoteric fraternalism” (Gist, 1940, p.10) by looking into the cultural markers of these collegiate fraternal organizations. Research Questions and Design The purpose of this research study is to explain the presence of American college fraternities and discern any potential European legacy in their structure, operations, continued existence, or future trajectories. This question arises as many consider Greek Life to be a unique experience on the American college campus, and it has quickly become a hallmark of a typical collegiate experience. By using comparative research juxtaposed against historical research models, the hope is to be able to examine existing literature and identify characteristics of these fraternal organizations which will then allow for a more in depth search for European influences and even potential counterparts.
As with any historical topics, there are a number of sources from which a perspective may be developed and study might be conducted. In order to present the most 2 comprehensive study of these collegiate organizations a variety of primary and secondary texts from a number of nations will be analyzed. To address the full breadth of the research questions, the study will take on a linear approach beginning with the most accessible question and becoming successively deeper in analysis. Through analytic comparison of historical texts, this research seeks to answer the following questions: 1.
What characterizes an “American college fraternity” and what differentiates it from other social organizations? 2. What aspects of the American college contributed to the formation of these organizations? 3. In what ways did European models of Higher Education shape the American university? 4. How did the transmutation of Fraternalism across these environments shape American fraternities and sororities? In order to address these questions, a qualitative research design was necessary.
Qualitative research methodology is but one method used in historical inquiry, but allows for a greater weight to be given to historical accounts which make up a majority of source documents. Due to the historical and retrospective aspects of the research questions a quantitative study would not have been useful in isolating cultural markers or their importance to their respective organizations. The researcher made an intentional choice to position the fraternity and sorority at the center of this study and methodically examine layers of influence upon that system. 3 Significance While the history of these organizations has been researched independently, the greater context of their formation and the cultural markers inherent in their existence has been neglected.
Seeing that the foundation of Higher Education throughout the United States is based off of a European system of education, the idea that certain European structures may be embedded with the organizations themselves is not farfetched. Research into historical, cultural and societal markers assists in not only gaining a more holistic understanding of the history of the American colleges and universities and the social fraternity and sororities which exist on those campuses, but allows for historians and educators to identify trends which may impact their operation. Definition of Key Terms Due to the complex and often interchangeable uses of terminology within the fraternity and sorority system and across years of research, it is important to establish set definitions for the terms used in this study. Fraternalism – A cultural concept characterized by “a symbolic relationship, sustained by ritual and imagery as well as by the more concrete realities of everyday interactions, interactions which it, through its ritual, undertakes to interpret as well as create for its members.689) American - Since the term American can mean a variety of things depending on one’s geographic location, for the purpose of this study it will refer to the United States of America.
Since this term is used by a majority of historical sources, the author has made the decision to use it in this study despite its ambiguous nomenclature. 4 Fraternity – A secret social organization for collegiate men. These organizations, with a few notable exceptions, are represented by letters of the Greek alphabet. These Greek letters represent secret words, revealed to members at some stage of the initiation process.
This term was first used with the establishment of the first fraternity, Phi Beta Kappa, in 1776 at the College of William & Mary (Phi Beta Kappa, 2017). Sorority – A secret social organization for women. The term was coined in 1874 by Gamma Phi Beta Sorority by Syracuse Latin professor Frank Smalley. Prior to this point, existing women’s collegiate secret societies were simply referred to as “women’s fraternities” (Barbee, 1921).
North-American Interfraternity Conference (NIC)- This conference was established in 1910 to govern the national member fraternities. Since then the conference has grown to represent 69 national and international fraternities. National Panhellenic Conference (NPC) - This governing conference represents all national sororities, of which there are 26 member organizations. National Pan-Hellenic Council (NPHC) - This council represents the five historically black fraternities and four historically black sororities, despite four of the five member fraternities also being members of the NIC.
This council advocates for the interests of its member organizations and collective initiatives. Chapter - An individual fraternity or sorority group comprised of students from a particular Higher Education institution.