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Kansas University Weekly.
Phi Beta Kappa.
The Phi Beta Kappa fraternity was founded by students of William and Mary College, Williamsburg, Virginia, the 5th of December, 1776. Its object was the promotion of scholarship and friendship among its members. In 1779 charters were granted for chapters at Harvard and Yale, and gradually the society was established in almost all the older colleges of the eastern states. The feature of secrecy which belonged to it at first, as to the other Greek letter fraternities, was after a while relaxed. Elections to it were not made till the last year of the course, and became a reward of excellence in scholarship. In this way it became an honor fraternity, and election to it was among the coveted distinctions in those colleges where chapters existed. For a long time its oject of promoting friendly relations and a feeling of solidarity among the scholars of the country was in some measure defeated for lack of a central organization, and in the middle of the century the life of the society rather ebbed. But the organization of a senate of the united chapters and of a national council meeting once in three years has remedied the want mentioned, and the last twenty years have seen a renewed activity of the fraternity and many new chapters. At present the chapters number forty, and Bishop H. C. Potter of New York is president of the united chapters. Election to the Phi Beta Kappa is based upon scholarship, though it is not absolutely determined by grades, and not more than a fourth of any class may be chosen.
EXCHANGES.
Chicago University has a glee club consisting of ladies.
"A funny break" is what they call it at Princeton when a man cracks a joke.
An inter-fraternity fight is serving as a diversion in the University of Michigan.
Class spirit is a good thing; so is a locomotive. But if you turn the thing loose and let it go without control, there is no telling where it will stop or what harm it will do. -Ex.
The new management or the WEEKLY have received most gratifying recognition from our exchanges. We have neither the disposition nor the space to publish all of these notices. To remain worthy the confidence of these friends is our chief ambition.
To Trigonometry:
"If there should be another flood,
For refuge hither fly.
Though all the world should be submerged, This book would still be dry."
Cruel, heartless, inconsiderate thrust from the Drury Mirror: "Scientists claim that cigarette smoking leads to idiocy. We do not know how true this is, but we are satisfied that idiocy leads to cigarette smoking." Western statistics seem to confirm the lady editor's conclusion.
Athletic item from Will White's Emporia Gazette: "Emporia's football players are supposed to be very lucky. Yet within the past year there have been two arms broken; two spines strained; one concussion of the brain; one hand mashed; one shoulder sprained; five faces cut; seven eyes injured. In Kansas since football became a fad, there have been five deaths; one leg lost; one face bone broken; nine arms broken; two legs broken; three ribs broken. It costs too much. It is a brutal game. The best people in Kansas are against it. In Emporia, the teachers and fathers and mothers are against it. There should be a law passed against it."
The honor system of examination is a vital one to college students, and anything in regard to it is always of interest. The system is now in vogue in all the southern colleges, and in a great many of the north. From its past history it seems to be destined to spread till its use becomes universal. It is the only true and honorable ground on which the relation of students to professors can be based. Princeton is the chief exponent of the system in the north. It has been in successful operation there now for three years. U.of P. Courier.
Daily papers are published in the following universities: Cornell, Harvard, University of Pennsylvania, University of Michigan, Leland Stanford Jr., Princeton, Brown and Wisconsin.