Kansas University Weekly.
211
conduct of the student lies upon the management of an educational institution, and will always lie, no matter to what extent the students grow out of the old clanishness of the middle ages and the tutelage of the academy, and approximate the method of life of ordinary civilized humanity. If unfortunate tendencies are evident, it is plainly the duty of the University authorities to do anything in their power to correct these tendencies. If the tone of student life is not clean and high, the management must feel that it has in some way failed to accomplish one of its chief purposes. If it is within the power of the management of an institution to do anything to counteract the dangers connected with the fraternity system, there can be no hesitation in declaring that this power should be exercised.
Either fraternities should be recognized as of themselves and on the whole, vicious, and accordingly condemned, and all reasonable measures taken for their suppression, or they should be recognized as permanent constituents of University life, their position and standing defined and the principles laid down which should govern the relation of the management to them. So long as it does not seem probable that the first position is to be taken, and I am frank to say that I am not ready to take it myself, the second should be adopted. Every fraternity in the University as well as every other society should be required to keep on file and up to date a list of its members and its officers. New students should be advised against joining any fraternity during their first year of residence at least, and parents and students should be advised to consult with the management of the University regarding the standing of any organization which the student contemplates joining. In the case the standing of a fraternity, or of the members of a fraternity, becomes notoriously low, the national officers of the fraternity should be notified of this fact and requested to recall the charter of the chapter; the local members should be notified of the way in which they are regarded, and forbidden to enroll new members and public warning be given against it to new students.
The officers and older members of each fraternity should be impressed with their responsibility for the behavior and standing of their members, should be admonished whenever their members fall into discredit in conduct or scholarship and warned of the possible consequences to the fraternity. On the other hand, they should be made to feel that the good name and growth of the University depends in a measure on their conduct, and led to direct their energies on occasion to helpful work for the institution. Admonition should not be withheld when needed regarding the over-indulgence in society, and by advice, if not by command, the rule against the admission of Freshmen, and against participation in college elections by the fraternity as such might be secured.
We have had in the University from time to time groups of students who have associated themselves spontaneously for, I venture to say, the same aims as those professed by a fraternity, though the aims have perhaps not always been stated expressly. These groups have had definite and limited membership, meeting privately at the rooms of the members, have taken in new members, and existed past the life of at least one student generation. They have not admitted outsiders to their meetings, and in a few instances at least they have taken part as a group in college political contests. I have asked myself, how, if at all, such a group differs from a fraternity. I can conceive that the members of such a group recognizing the benefit and pleasure that they have derived from it could well wish that it should continue, and as in one case the group did last over into a second generation I do not see any reason, if due care were exercised in the admission of new members, why the group should not have continued its existence. On the other hand, I can conceive that a fraternity, formed at the beginning of members whose tastes and character were thoroughly compatible, should keep free from the feeling that numbers had any significance for their purposes, should continue to select only such members as seem to them thoroughly compatible, continue to act on the