Fraternity Scholarship

Old time fraternity men will perhaps feel a painful interest in the recently published scholastic standing (published at all events in the mimeographed bulletins sent to class secretaries and other alumni) of the various Greek letter societies at Dartmouth. There are 26 of these at present and the standing gives their average scholastic rank figured on the scale of 4. Without specifying unduly, to the discomfort of alumni who remember the day when Dartmouth boasted only eight such societies, it may be mentioned that of the eight which then existed the highest standing recorded is only ninth in the entire list, while the three oldest fraternities of all, and notoriously the proudest of their heritage, are shameless tail-enders. Of the remaining four, one occupies a secure position exactly in the centre of the list—not fit ..for heaven nor bad enough for hell—and the others figure as 20th, 21st and 22d.

How comes it that the older organizations fall so far behind the much younger ones ? One might expect it of two or three, but here come the whole eight, whose symbols were familiar 30 years ago, almost in a body at the wrong end of the list! Something is wrong, one may safely suspect, with the aspirations of these more venerable fraternities. Can it be they are resting on ancient laurels alone ? Is mere antiquity regarded as sufficient especially by Dekes, Psi U's and Alpha Delts ? Is there a pose involved which makes men in more ancient societies rather proud than ashamed to figure so heavily in the rear guard ?

Now and then some national organization threatens to apply discipline when the local chapters here and there fall hopelessly behind in the scholastic march. If that were to be done seriously at Hanover, there might be no occasion to urge secession, as the present undergraduate committee is quoted as doing, from the national affiliations. Three or four well known fraternities would be in grave danger of being made to walk the plank, by reason of averaging lower in scholarship than the average for the college!