July 13, 1944.

Mrs. Don Carlos Peete, --
4140 Cembridge, .- --.
Kansas City, Kensas.

My dear Alice: ee ae ce Se,

Your letter just came and 1 Bia anatecing it immediately regard-
ing Jinny Jane. I believe that she would be happy in e sorority and I
am sure she would get plenty of bids from the outstanding sororities.

Virginia Hutson Getto, Mike Getto! s wife, isa very strong Pi.
Phi, as is Milton's wife, Isabel. - Ofcourse, Eleanor. is a Fappa, but
she is away. But I kmow a great many girls in the Kappa sorority that.

I could see and arrange for dates with the Kappas. Dr. Fred Wrightman's
daughter, Rosalie, is a Kappa and she is a very good friend of ours. Dr...
Wrightman was a Missouri Phi Psi. I have lmowm him since his school
days at Columbia. |

And the same for the Thetas. I can not think of the individuals
now, but of course Mrs. Lindley was a Theta, as are a great number of the
wives of men on the faculty. Margaret Stratton, the daughter of Dr. George
Stratton, in the Chemistry Department, is a Theta. Mrs. Malott is a Delta
Gamma. I would be very happy, of course, to make the very necessary can-
tacts to see thet Jinny Jane gets dates with all of these sororities.

Here is my estimate of the fraternities and sororities at the

- University, or, in fact, in the midwest. They are badly, badly overdone

and overstressed. But they do have their place. If a girl can work at

it sensibly, look them all over, and then actually choose from the group

that she thinks she would be most compatible with, if she should get the

bid from this sorority, then I would say that she would be a smrt girl.
But if a girl would look at it from a standpoint that if she doesn't make ‘
this sorority all is lost, then that is the wrong conception.

Now, please understand that I say in the beginning that fraternities
and sororities are overstressed here. They are. The kids in these sorori-
ties think they are more “hot pumpkins" than they are. It is a state of
mind that has not been clarified by the youngsters as yet. At every frater-
nity gathering that I have been I tell them very definitely that in my
opinion are the most badly overstressed thing that I know of. Then, when
I deflate them from that standpoint, I tell them of the benefits of the
fraternities. The sense of belonging, the thought of having close friend-
ships that mean more than just conventional acquaintances, and the respon-
sibility of knowing that this group has to foot the bills and make the
thing go -- something for youngsters that is challenging and at the same
time satisfying. And then the parents get quite a kick out of coming to
the organizations because they are run well, things are done for each