The Theta Nu Epsilon Society.

History of Theta Nu Epsilon.

Overview.

We will attempt to outline a history of Theta Nu Epsilon as a national organization, and we shall try to confine the discussion here to the “national” picture of Theta Nu Epsilon from it’s first Beta chapter to today. For the history of the Alpha Chapter at Wesleyan itself, (which includes the founding of the Society), or the history of college Class Societies, go to those articles. There is also available a separate outline of each national.

By “national” we mean, in the parlance of college societies, any organizations that exist at more than one college, whether in a small area, a region, or across the nation, (even Canada.) Organizationally, a smaller society can be run by the original chapter, but most societies eventually grow to a point where a separate national organizing structure needs to be created. Anything with two chapters is ‘national’ in scope, and any formal interchapter organization is the ‘national organization.’

For the sake of having a comprehensible history, we have assigned names to all these nationals, in almost all cases after their main presiding officer. This may seem unfamiliar to some, inappropriate to others. However, we were confronted with a dozen organizations for the most part all calling themselves the “Theta Nu Epsilon Society.” A number of them had slightly different legal names, but that makes a distinction too fine to hold up in an article. Numbering them does not work, as new numbers appear and disappear with as research continues. Forcing names on the past that the participants did not recognize is poor history. However, since taxonomy must indeed come first, we have made use of these names. The reader should bear in mind where names like the ‘Smull National’ come from.

Theta Nu Epsilon’s history of ‘nationals’ is probably the most complex one there is. On the other hand, a close look at the history of most all college societies will reveal contests, battles, and struggles for control. Theta Nu Epsilon is unique in that it has usually had two or three ‘nationals’ at any given time, all battling each other.

1870.

Theta Nu Epsilon was founded at The Wesleyan University on December 11, 1870, by Olin L. Livesey, then a Sophomore, and eleven other members of the class of 1873. The founding meeting took place at Room Seven of South College on the Wesleyan campus. The Society was founded as a Sophomore Society; that is, a society which one joined in the Sophomore year. Typically, the officers are Sophomores, and in their junior and senior years the members attend and enjoy the meetings, but do not bother themselves with the administration of the chapter. It followed the pattern set by the Yale societies; and in fact, was established at Wesleyan by the Skull & Bones, a Yale senior society.

A typical early yearbook engraving, this one for the Lambda Chapter at Rensselaer.

The Society operated from 1870 to 1872 under the Skull & Bones Constitution, and existed happily as such as a chapter of that organization. It is not known what caused the break between Yale & Wesleyan; there are a number of possibilities, and a number of them may have contributed together to the separation. One of the most likely explanations is that Wesleyan sought to create more chapters, and Yale sought to stop the process. One thing is clear. Immediately after a constitution was adopted for the independent Theta Nu Epsilon in 1872, the first thing done was to issue a charter to a group of students at Syracuse. One can also note that the chartering process outlined in the constitution of 1872 was extremely short, and wholly under the control of the Alpha at Wesleyan.

1872.

In 1872, a Constitution was adopted which provided for additional chapters, and that year a chapter was chartered at Syracuse University. The spread of the society to Syracuse was a natural one, since there had always been very close ties between Wesleyan and Genessee College, a precursor to Syracuse. Much of the faculty and students of Genessee and Syracuse were former Wesleyan students, and there were extensive official and family ties besides.

The Beta chapter was key to the future growth of the society, and the next chapters established were primarily in New York. However, starting with a rift among the chapters in 1892-3, there have been several separately operating groups of chapters in the society’s history, and many times there were multiple competing national organizations.

The first chapters chartered by the Alpha were in New York, and the society grew at a regular and steady pace. In fifteen or twenty years, Theta Nu Epsilon was represented in most of the best colleges and universities in the country. These chapters were, with some significant exceptions, (like Berkeley), in New York and New England, and also in Pennsylvania.

Until the establishment of the United National in 1907, all authority for the national affairs of the society was in the hands of the Alpha, and it must be said that the affairs were handled justly, fairly, and accurately. The Alpha had an exact running tally of initiations and other clerical matters perfectly adjusted. This is not a bad feat for a Society of men who almost all had college duties, their college fraternities, and all kinds of other obligations. The chapters they established were longer-lived than many of the hundreds of chapters established since.

Altogether, the Alpha Chapter chartered 47 chapters, including a handful that were created by illegitimate authorities and legitimized by action of the Alpha. These were all at very good schools, and many of these chapters continue in one form or another to exist today.

1885 - 1892.

On May 8, 1885, the first Convention of the society was held at the Delevan House in Albany, New York, and eleven of fifteen chapters responded to the call. The Wesleyan Argus carried a fairly detailed write up of the convention on May 26th :

The annual convention of the T.N.E. was held at Delevan House, Albany, N.Y. on May 8. There were present twenty delegates from Wesleyan, Syracuse, Union, Cornell, Hamilton, Stevens, and Rensellaer(sic); while Kenyon and Adelbert were represented by proxy. The afternoon session was chiefly taken up with organization, receipt of petitions, et c. Mr. Stephens of Wesleyan was elected president of the Convention.

At the evening session important changes were made tending to a consolidation of the interests of the fraternity. The next convention will be held with the Troy, N. Y. chapter in May, 1886.

The officers for 1885-6 are president Chas. B. Templeton of Union; Vice-president S. N. Sanderson of Rensellaer; Secretary, J. M. Stevens of Wesleyan; Treasurer, F. A. Gardner of Hamilton.

The convention adjourned at a late hour with the customary T.N.E. social exercises. There were present from Wesleyan―J. M. Stevens, delegate from the ‘A’ chapter and E. A. Welch, proxy delegate from Kenyon. E. Blaine also made a flying call late Friday night. To conclude, the first Convention of T.N.E. was a great success, and we felt sure that the fraternity has entered on a new and prosperous career.

We now call these the ‘Original Conventions,’ and they were the first plan to expand government of the society beyond the parent chapter acting alone. In addition to increasing the size of the group of people with input in the direction of affairs, the Original Conventions acted to govern the society, to standardize affairs, and most of all to process applications for charters. When the conventions acted on charter applications, they were then were presented to the Alpha Chapter for approval. The Alpha Chapter was still the sole authority capable of granting charters.

They were also great meetings for social purposes. But just so people don't misconstrue the above phrase “the customary T.N.E. social exercises,” it should be noted that the Delevan House was famous across America as being a being dedicated to the temperance movement. In other words, the first convention of Theta Nu Epsilon was in a temperance hotel.

The first president of the society, Charles B. Templeton, had just received his A.B. and C.E. degrees from Union College, and was in 1885 a law student at Albany Law School. He later became a prominent Albany attorney, and a recurring, but never successful, Republican candidate for public office.

Delevan House, Albany, New York, was the site for the first convention of Theta Nu Epsilon on May 8, 1885. (Delevan House was on Broadway at Steuben, later the site of Union Station.)

The second convention of the society was held in Troy, New York, with the Rensselaer chapter acting as host.

For the Alpha, these conventions relieved it of some burdens, and they were seen as a benefit to the Society. No constitutional or other institutional changes came from these conventions, but they did go far to creating a stable core for the society.

It seems that Wesleyan, Syracuse, Union, Cornell, Rochester, Colgate, Hamilton, Rensselaer, and Stevens were the dominant chapters behind these conventions.

However, some chapter in Pennsylvania felt unrepresented by the Original Conventions, (for six years they met in upstate New York), but more than anything else, they felt restrained in their desire to create chapters beyond the purview of New York.

1893.

The former Pi Chapter at Dickinson, and the Omicron Chapter at Lehigh seem to have decided to break with the Alpha Chapter and the Original Conventions. (The Dickinson Chapter and the Penn State Chapter were both seen as candidates for the Pi designation, ultimately Penn state was Pi, for reasons that become obvious.) Dickinson seems to have made itself a parent chapter, and began issuing charters with Penn State and Lehigh as allies. The Pennsylvanians had broken with the New Yorkers, and the Society was torn in half. Their first charter was to the “Psi” chapter at The University of North Carolina. A good choice, but quite illegitimate.

The Omicron at Lehigh and the Pi prime at Dickinson were abolished by the Alpha in the controversy over the two chapters’ aggressive determination to create their own chapters at other colleges. The Constitution of the society, adopted in 1872, explicitly stated that only the Alpha chapter could create new chapters.

From this incident though, came two nationals. The Pi-Omicron National continued to create chapters at its will across the country, but especially in Ohio, Illinois, and points West. The other national born out of this was distinctly Southern, and is for convenience here designated the Alpha-beta National.

Several authors have commented on the fantastically rapid growth of Theta Nu Epsilon between 1890 and 1920. This is true, perhaps 200 chapters were created in 30 years, a fast pace kept up for a long time. One reason for this was that there were three ‘nationals’ all chartering new chapters, (if not more than three). This competition made this kind of speed possible. From 1880 to 1893, Theta Nu Epsilon was growing by about three chapters a year, after 1893, it was growing at a rate of five chapters a year, and accelerating.

This rendition of the emblem is from the Lambda' Chapter at Williams College.

It is also possible to see Theta Nu Epsilon as a very different kind of organization. The ‘standard’ model is for a unitary organization to develop branches at other colleges. Instead, this was a situation where the chapters were growing on their own and allying themselves as they saw fit into groups and ‘nationals’.

The battle with Pennsylvania seems to have stopped the Original Conventions, although there are some signs of work done by New York chapters as a group after 1894. There still seems to have been an informal group that prepared applications for charters for Wesleyan’s approval. By this time, Alpha Chapter alumni and those from other Northeastern institutions had crossed professional paths enough to provide a network of relations. For the most part, all authority reverted back to the Alpha at Wesleyan for another fourteen years.

The Alpha adopted a policy intended to bring back into one society as many chapters as possible, and the Alpha did so on liberal terms. Many chapters created by illegitimate nationals later contacted the Alpha at Wesleyan and were made legitimate. This happened, for example, to the chapters originally created at Bowdoin, Virginia, Chicago, Harvard, and Vermont. Unfortunately, the burden of managing a society with two or more competing nationals, and with an ever-expanding circle of chapters, needed to be managed by a permanent oversight organization, not just one chapter on its own, and that organization came later in 1907.

1890 - 1900’s.

The Alpha-beta chapters are known to have constituted a kind of national, one that could not at the time, nor even now, be technically considered a legitimate part of Theta Nu Epsilon. However, with their consistency of organization, they must have had some means of central control and organization, yet about which there is not much information available at this time.

As noted above, several chapters of the Alpha-beta National, (as well as Pi-Omicron chapters), “defected” back to the Alpha Chapter, and many other of these various illegitimate chapters began separate, independent existences, but the Alpha-beta chapters together continued as a strong force for quite some time. It is not known when this false national stopped operation, but the creation of the United National in 1907 was probably a contributing cause.

As only a very general suggestion of the chapters that existed under the Pi-Omicron and Alpha-beta Nationals, we include this list. The institution name has often been modernized, the chapter-letter designations cannot be certain, (they were changed from time to time, and the year given is either of the founding, the first mention, or, (for any of a number of very good reasons), the best possible guess. The same will be true of other lists given here. Refer to the chapter list on this site, or e-mail for the most up to date information.

When illegitimate nationals collapsed and left independent chapters continuing, (starting sometime before 1910), this created an ongoing situation of chapters unaffiliated with any national. This was exacerbated by events that followed. If there were about 300 chapters altogether, there were likely never more than 80 in any of the three major nationals at any given time, and often far less. (These numbers are from the peak in activity in the 1920’s, but the proportions hold true generally speaking throughout.) It is important to remember that below, when we speak of a decision reached by a national of 15 chapters, that means a majority of perhaps 5% of the total chapters reached a decision.

It is safe to say that most living chapters were independent most of the time. Some might from time to time send delegates to a convention that they had heard of. Further, a number of chapters seem to have been satellites of chapters at more major nearby universities, and all they knew of the rest of the society came through that larger chapter. They also probably had close but informal ties to other chapters at neighboring schools, or at schools they played against in sports rivalries.

1907.

The United National, or officially, the “Theta Nu Epsilon Society,” was organized at the Hotel Astor in New York City in 1907. At the convention were several representatives of the Alpha chapter, including three of the founders. Twenty-three chapters total were represented, perhaps more than at any subsequent convention. The United National was organized to put the organization generally on a firm footing.

Gordon Case, the Editor of The Sophomore later, in flowing prose, described the portents of the event :

“The day will come when we will be able to hold up our heads and say that Theta Nu Epsilon, since its reorganization in 1907, has never been like the creeping child, but has grown with leaps and bounds, till it is second to no fraternal or inter-fraternal organization in this country.”

“We never have been ashamed of the wine leaves which occasionally some of us wear in our hair. Little foibles make better matured men. But although we go to the Grove of Daphne, we still have some of the Jovian in us : We are immortal. Our chapter list has less dead chapters than any college fraternity of our size in the United States.”

“In the years before the reorganization, when chapters had no communication with each other, they still managed to perpetuate themselves, and today when they are under the eye and jurisdiction of a central organization, they will become more closely welded and united with each other.”

“This shows we are imbued with the spirit of Mars. We are never afraid to fight.”

“So, we can go through each one of our characteristics and show that we deserve to be called by the name, Theta Nu Epsilon, because we have all the attributes of the Greek Gods, and live up to them nobly with the profundity of the Ancients and the zeal of the Moderns.”

When United National was established, the Alpha chapter was a full participant, and it readily transferred all of its authority to grant charters to the United National. This special relationship was recognized in the Constitution. That authority then remained with the United National until its breakup.

The United National was organized under the assumption that Theta Nu Epsilon was a Sophomore Class society, and would remain that way. The majority of the chapters that participated came from Northeastern schools. The older chapters were at schools that naturally accepted the class-society concept on their campuses. Class societies were a part of the norm of college life there.

As far as the independent chapters, splinter groups, and rival nationals were concerned, the United National maintained a policy open to reconciliation, and many chapters of the United National were brought in “from the cold.” This was a continuation of the Alpha chapter’s policy in this regard: that the exact origins of a chapter were not as important as the dedication of the members to the traditions of the Society. Several chapters were brought in from the Pi-Omicron or Alpha-beta Nationals.

1910.

In 1907, the Society had made an auspicious beginning. The success of the open door policy had brought the attention of various chapters from the rest of the country. At this time, there were generally speaking two types of chapters. The first kind were true class-year societies, where members were considered ‘active’ only in their Sophomore year, and chapters that operated as three year societies. Both kinds of chapters drew members from the college fraternities or from non-fraternity men, (this was not seen as a conflict, as the nature of a Theta Nu Epsilon and a college fraternity were so different). The chapters that operated on a three-year basis generally did so at colleges and universities that had no class-year society system, (for the most part, this meant outside the Northeast.) However, there was no real functional difference between the class-year chapters and the three-year chapters;—in a class-year society, upperclassmen always participated anyway.

An early view of a class society initiation—and surprisingly accurate.

By 1910, it was deemed advisable to return to some of the hastily executed work of the first convention in 1907, and a more systematic constitution was produced. This constitution explicitly recognized the ceremonial precedence of the Alpha Chapter and gave the Alpha a permanent veto in deliberations. Various versions of the initiation were compared, and there was little difference among them. The constitution also explicitly reaffirmed the Sophomore class-year nature of the Society. Lastly, the constitution affirmed the generous terms offered to all chapters not in the national to join in fraternal ties with the rest of the chapters. This ‘open-door policy’ was made even more generous by action of the chapters on the convention floor.

There are also suggestive political overtones in some of the articles produced by the United National. There are often theme of “progressiveness” and “democratization of the college campus” in the speeches and articles of The Sophomore. The “democratization” referred to the way that Theta Nu Epsilon, by the nature of its membership, cut across the social lines in colleges marked by the fraternities. In this way, Theta Nu Epsilon would be a “broadening” influence, rather than “narrowing.” Taken together, there is something of a reformist or egalitarian spirit that recurs throughout.

In this year also, William Howard Taft, the President of the United States, was initiated as a member of Theta Nu Epsilon by the Omicron Omicron chapter at Ohio Northern University. President Taft was on a visit to that university for their commencement exercises. Since Taft had been a member of Skull & Bones at Yale when an undergraduate, this action was seen as a recognition by Taft of the ancestry of Theta Nu Epsilon in Skull & Bones.

At the same time, this was a period where one finds some illegitimate chapters were exercising a negative influence over their campuses, and even over their own members. There was a line between mirth and destructiveness, and these chapters were crossing that line; this was having a unfortunate effect across the society. The United National spent a great deal of its efforts trying to root out the spurious chapters, and apologizing for them before the world at large.

1912 - 1916, Interfraternity Conflict.

By 1912, the subtle humor of being a ‘Sophomore’ society, which was never well understood outside its class society context, began to be challenged by members who wanted to remake Theta Nu Epsilon as a more serious institution;—they no longer saw it as quaint or funny,—and wholesale changes were made. But this was just the tip of much deeper problems. There were two related issues dividing the society: geography, and the new idea of making Theta Nu Epsilon an ‘Interfraternity Society.’ Geographically, the United National was being torn apart between Midwest and Southern chapters on one hand and Northeast chapters on the other. The United National had definitely been headquartered in New York City, and the strongest adherents of the Society were there. The chapters further away began to resent this. The second point of contention was the dispute over the extent to which Theta Nu Epsilon was a Sophomore class society or a three-year interfraternity society. The distinction is a hard one today to see as meaningful, but it was a critical distinction, and the conflict would tear Theta Nu Epsilon apart.

First, the simpler matter of geography. The Smull National’s National Secretary was John T. Finnegan, who wrote in the November, 1912, Quarterly, “Throughout the South and West there are many illegal chapters. These groups are anxious to know what is going on and in almost every case they are trying to settle matters satisfactorily to the national organization. ... As a member of the chapter at Tulane University said, ‘The Southerners and Westerners are distrustful of Easterners and have hesitated to take any steps to affiliate their groups with the national organization.’” Finnegan continues, “As most of the chapters at the time of reorganization were located in the East it was found convenient to elect a governing body from the East....” But, Finnegan promises, times have changed, and cites that in 1909, a member from Berkeley, Lorraine Langstroth, was elected as the National Secretary that year. Finnegan’s account shows that the national leadership of 1912 was trying to put together a Society out of the pre-existing national and the wide patchwork of regional ‘nationals’ and independents.

The second issue was mush less amenable to a quick solution, and had several side issues associated with it. For the sake of simplicity, we can say there were two kinds of chapters, traditional chapters that grew out of the Sophomore class society system, (although they could function the same outside of it), and interfraternity ones, which operated on a new and different basis. There was actually chapters that were somewhere between these two points as well. The traditional chapter operated on a plan derived from its original class society roots, where one joined in one’s second or Sophomore year, was an active member that year, and after that year was considered technically only an honorary member, but could continue to participate without any real obligation thereafter. That was the basic plan of a traditional chapter. A chapter could instead operate as a three year society, where members would be expected to actively participate for three years. A chapter could also take a further step and divide up open positions in the next year’s class among the four-year fraternities. And then a chapter could take a third step and transform the chapter into a group to coordinate policies among the fraternities. If a chapter took these three steps, (and especially the last), the character of the society would drastically change. Instead of a Theta Nu Epsilon chapter operating for its own purposes and entertainment, the chapter would become a vehicle for other interests; involved in the welfare of other organizations, and become a secretive means to conduct possibly public affairs, (it also would become a benefit unequally distributed within the fraternities). Although the distortions introduced by making a Theta Nu Epsilon chapter an interfraternity were serious and unfavorable for almost all parties, (the chapter, the fraternities, the university administration, and the university community), the lure to fraternity members of trying to establish a secret organization to promote their own agenda was almost irresistable, (especially in social environments where there was so little proscriptions against such behavior, and so many tangible rewards for those who could control real student government budgets with real dollars).

The members of the Alpha Pi Chapter at the University of North Carolina in 1892.

We should reiterate here that the present National Organization of Theta Nu Epsilon strictly prohibits chapters being used as an interfraternity society; our grounds for that prohibition are twofold, in the first place, it distracts chapters from conducting their own affairs on their own terms, and in the second, it needlessly ties our society's affairs to other outside organizations.

In older institutions that had older Theta Nu Epsilon chapters, to attempt that kind of behind-the-scenes manipulation of events would have been seen as dishonorable behavior. In addition, the older institutions were generally smaller, and where there was little financial temptation to try to control campus affairs. Even today at an older institution, to try to control campus elections, for example, is unthinkable; you cannot even explain to students at a New England college why one would want to control campus elections. But at the larger public universities elsewhere in the country, where there are significant monetary rewards to being able to exercise that kind of control, where there isn’t the social prohibitions against it, and where there were no older, long-entrenched institutions to counterbalance that kind of activity, then the chances of trying for that kind of control multiply.

There were further differences between the traditional chapters and the interfraternity chapters that affected the very character of the society. The traditional chapters operated as class-societies in that the main event of the chapter year was a large banquet and a large-scale initiation. Many, if not most of them, had as a primary practical function of hosting an annual formal dance. They were also largely based on light-hearted, pleasant, sociable fun, nor were they especially secret, (most memberships were announced in the local or college newspaper). The interfraternity chapters in the South and Midwest tended to be much more secret, those acting as political cabals could not publish member names, and hosting social events becomes impossible if they have to be conducted in secret. Ultimately, everything that made Theta Nu Epsilon enjoyable had to be sacrificed for the goals of secrecy and furthering the fraternities interest. But since the members of the interfraternity chapters did not see Theta Nu Epsilon as an organization existing in its own right, that was an easy sacrifice to make.

A well-known example of this is the Alabama chapter. When it was founded, the memberships appeared in the annual yearbook, and the biggest chapter activity of the year was an annual promenade. After the chapter was reorganized in 1914 as The Machiene, and was engaged in trying to control campus politics, the membership had to be kept secret, and for the group as it has since been operated, holding dances would be almost insanely unthinkable.

The newer, interfraternity wing of the Society had grown quickly over a period of a decade, and the events they held were larger and more elaborate, and ambitious plans were developed. In the Fall of 1911, a particular plan went forward and on January 12, 1912, alumni from several chapters worked together and formed “The Alumni Club of Theta Nu Epsilon”, which met at the Hof-Brau House in Manhattan. The Alumni Club of Theta Nu Epsilon was introduced to the world in a fine champagne banquet, and had extensive write-ups in the right newspapers. The establishment of the Alumni Club was taken by other chapters as a threat of centralization of influence in Manhattan. The Alumni Club also planted second chapter (Upsilon Upsilon) on the NYU campus virtually supplanting the traditional Sigma Chapter already there. The group was quite powerful, at least in that it began to make extensive plans for a building of its own in Manhattan, and raise the $12,000 necessary to build it. But this organizational bulwark was going to come to nothing.

A curious side matter for the interfraternity chapters was that often the members saw themselves on a particular mission, a progressive ‘democratization of college campuses’. It is a paradoxical idea, that the introduction of a pervasive secret interfraternity order would somehow foster democracy, but it was not impossible for people to justify themselves on that basis.

The democratization element was also associated with the New York Alumni Club. The issues of The Sophomore were increasingly filled with articles in support of the democratization ideal. When the Alumni Club was organized on January 12th, the speakers at the dinner affirmed that Theta Nu Epsilon “has always stood on a firm basis of sound principles of broad democracy both toward the college and the outside world. ... Those who personally attended...realized to what an extreme extent this is true among our members and chapters throughout the country.” The Sophomore (March, 1912), reprinted, with enthusiastic praise, an article by a commentator in The New York Sun which came out at the same time of the meeting that “It is pretty generally realized that there is something wrong with our colleges. ...I am a fraternity man; but I think one of the great evils of the day is the lack of true democracy in the colleges. Fellows are not permitted to know one another. They never have a chance to choose for themselves,—assert their individuality. Early in the game they are chosen and thence forward must direct their aims, ambitions, zeal and spirit along the lines pointed out.” The Alumni Club became a way to organize a group within Theta Nu Epsilon that would push harder for these aims. This largely came to an end in 1912.

We suspect that there was something of a marriage of convenience here, between those who sought to make Theta Nu Epsilon a secretive interfraternal organization, and hence more powerful, for purposes of solidifying established institutions and norms, and those who sought to make Theta Nu Epsilon a more secretive interfraternity organization for reforming established institutions and norms. The greater New York group, with their emphasis on democratization seem to have been reformers. But that takes matters beyond anything available in the record.

Given these divisions as outlined above, in 1912, the balance of power between the traditional chapters and the interfraternity chapters began to shift, and all the momentum and goodwill that the older Northeastern chapters had built up to make the United National was overturned. In April 12 & 13, 1912, during the fifth Annual Convention, there was a coup d’etat, and Thomas Smull was put up for President. (No disrespect is intended to Thomas Smull here, but he was fresh out of college, from a chapter just a few years old, and he had never held any kind of office before; this does make him look suspiciously like a straw candidate.) A new constitution was pushed through which effectively eliminated Sophomore class-society chapters, and the whole class-society basis of Theta Nu Epsilon. The Alpha Chapter was stripped of its ceremonial status, and the publication of the society was changed from The Sophmore of Theta Nu Epsilon to The Theta Nu Epsilon Quarterly, and the general Sophomoric nature of the society was edited out of existence. Thus, the Smull National was born, the successor to the United National.

From then to 1913, from 15 to 25 of the older chapters were ousted, including the Alpha Chapter at Wesleyan. In the next few years, more than half of all chapters were driven out of their own Society. In so doing, the interfraternity younger chapters from outside the Northeast gained a numerical advantage and a free hand in national society affairs. The younger chapters from the South and Midwest drove almost all the older chapters out of the society. Among those chapters driven from the Society were Wesleyan, Union, Cornell, California, Hamilton, Lafayette, Amherst, Wooster, Michigan, Dartmouth, Northwestern, Rutgers, Ohio Wesleyan, Swarthmore, Harvard, Trinity (Hartford), Duke, Nebraska, Virginia, C.U.N.Y., Alabama, Boston University, University of Maryland at Baltimore, Medical, Auburn, and Stanford. An impressive list of schools.

The Sophomore class society chapters that fell victim to the 1913 - 1916 Interfraternity Conflict mostly continued on, and represent the best traditions of Theta Nu Epsilon. Some of them function independently today as Duke’s Theta Rho, Lafayette’s Calumet Society, Rutgers’ Cap & Skull Society, Hamilton’s D. T. Society, Harvard’s Phoenix S/K, California’s Skull & Keys, Stanford’s Skull & Snakes, and Alabama’s Theta Nu Epsilon. And, of course, the Alpha Chapter at Wesleyan. It cannot be doubted that these chapters probably offer some of the best and purest perpetuation of the traditions of the society. When many chapters had changed in their character as chapters of T.N.E., these chapters maintained a vigilant guard over the customs and traditions of the society.

1914 - 1916.

Thomas Smull did not long remain President of the Society, and although the changes in the structure of the Society were significant, some things were retained, and the two factions did not burn the bridges between them. After a few years, Moss was returned to office, and some officers, such as the Treasurer, Michael L. Casey, were kept in office throughout. Although the class-year society nature had been abandoned, many members on both sides still rallied to the idea of Theta Nu Epsilon as a separate kind of institution. It was to be a society one joined one’s Sophomore year, and irrespective of four-year fraternity affiliation. In this way, Theta Nu Epsilon could stretch across the whole of the academic community, regardless of petty competition. This was still a noble ideal, and from beginnings of the Society to the War, members of Theta Nu Epsilon met under these principles. The sentiment of the Society was expressed by Gordon Case in 1912, “T.N.E. does not desire to enter into the field with the fraternities. Her role is not so serious. Her aim is one to supplement, not to compete with them. Membership in T.N.E., then, means congeniality and a uniting of prominent men in the Sophomore class, irrespective of fraternity affiliations.”

Banquet of the Upsilon Upsilon—New York University Chapter in 1919.

By 1914, the National Interfraternity Conference began to take a stand against Theta Nu Epsilon, for the obvious reason that T.N.E. as it transformed itself into an interfraternity society, was cutting into the organizational structures, and monopoly, of the N.I.C. It is not known if the N.I.C. was dragged into this matter by the Midwest faction for their own purposes. (There are suggestions to lend credence to this idea.) If so, it was a long term mistake, because negative attitudes from the N.I.C. continued to dog the society for another two decades. Starting in 1915, several of the member fraternities of the N.I.C. had reports prepared on T.N.E., all negative in tone.

It is also possible that without the protection afforded by the older chapters, (the ones that had been purged from the society)the N.I.C. felt it could take a freer hand with Theta Nu Epsilon.

But the net effect of the N.I.C. pressure was the opposite of what it intended. The N.I.C.’s actions against Theta Nu Epsilon only had an influence on places with the innocuous traditional chapters, (such as at UMass). What the N.I.C.’s real concern was the chapters that acted as interfraternity societies, those were the ones designed to influence campus elections, that upset the tranquility of the fraternities, or that subverted the N.I.C.’s own plans for interfraternity cooperation. The actions of the N.I.C., though, only gave those interfraternity Theta Nu Epsilon chapters control over the whole society, and took the successive nationals on an ongoing collision course with the N.I.C.

The onset of war shut down most of the scheming and plotting that tore apart the United National and which had created the Smull National. By the end of the war, there was no interest in revisiting old issues, and the national organization was seen as having expired in the war.

Nevertheless, the period before the war was probably the most productive period in the Society’s history. Between 1908 and 1918, there were some 27 new chapters, and almost all of them were very solid. Another dozen chapters were rescued from the illegitimacy of their founding. The new chapters tended to be at second-tier institutions in the Midwest, (a fact which made possible the Smull coup). Although the annual number of chapters meeting in convention remained steady, there would only be a dozen or so chapters actually represented by undergraduates, and another ten to twenty chapters of varying status.

The insane policy of outlawing the original chapters, however, is hard to reconcile with such good feeling and growth. The reputation of the society began to falter as those who handle affairs of college societies for a living began to look towards Theta Nu Epsilon and saw only more and more of a mess. As the break up of chapters continued through 1915 and 1916, and it seems that college undergraduates, administrators, and alumni became more and more confused by here-today-gone-tomorrow lists of chapters.

It has not been confirmed, but it seems that both the national President and the Secretary both enlisted for war service, effectively closing the national for the duration. In a sense, the war killed the Smull National, but the war also kept Theta Nu Epsilon from collapsing outright. In coming years, there would be continued growth, but in stranger patterns.

1919.

The Madden National was officially the “Theta Nu Epsilon Society, Incorporated,” and was formed by some of the officers of the Smull National meeting in convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin on December 11 - 13, 1919, (far away from the old nemesis, New York City). This organization was entirely new kind of Theta Nu Epsilon.

The Smull National was moribund. Clarence J. Hand, the historian of the society, noted “for approximately two years past, no work at all has been done,” and that even he, “had lost touch with the members of the active chapters and even some of the members of the Grand Council.” Herman Kolmann was the last officer from before the war still serving. His letters at this time indicate his trepidation, pleading to his fellow officers, “...I am desirous of ascertaining whether I can rely on you for assistance.” This kind of suspension of activity was normal in any college society in a national emergency; the difference is that in Theta Nu Epsilon, this interruption allowed for an entirely different national to be created.

Prominent among the officers meeting in Milwaukee in 1919 were Gordon Case and especially Perry O. Powell. In fact, the whole event seems largely the work of Powell, especially since the convention was held in his hometown. The convention was not attended by many chapters, and only twelve chapters supported the new organization. A new constitution was presented at this time, and there were now attempts to organize chapters as full four-year fraternity chapters. Two chapters, Mu at Stevens Institute and Omicron Omicron at Ohio Northern, were the first such chapters. Because of these and other changes, this national cannot be considered a mere continuation of the United National, or even of the Smull National.

A new organization also called for a new periodical, and one was created called, The Keys. Powell was the editor, and wrote much of the publication. Powell wrote in a very distinctive, overtly peppy style.

The key issue from 1919 to 1925 was whether to make Theta Nu Epsilon a “general academic fraternity,” by which was meant, to turn the society into a regular four-year college fraternity like Sigma Chi or Beta Theta Pi. Three things need to be kept in mind about this issue : 1) many chapters existed at graduate institutions, and could not become undergraduate fraternities, 2) probably nine-tenths of all the members back to 1870 were members already of fraternities, and could not support dividing their own loyalties, 3) the only people pushing for this change were Powell and his immediate friends.

The move toward a four-year college fraternity was definitely on Powell’s mind, but not on the society’s. In Volume 1, Number 2 of The Keys, Powell wrote, “Shall we become a general fraternity? This question has been submitted at three previous conventions and will come up for final action [at the next convention]. The Grand Council has decided upon a policy but does not care to express its opinion until the delegates at [the next convention] discuss it pro and con.” To which one might ask why anyone would discuss something if the decision is already made? It also seems disingenuous for Powell to say the matter has been brought up before three conventions,—as if it were a repressed desire of the membership. Of the “three” conventions, one was very small, one was exceptionally small and was at Powell’s behest, and the third may never have happened at all.

The Madden National granted many charters, and many of them to successful and worthwhile chapters. A number of the chapters were for colleges that already had had chapters, such as Stevens, Lehigh, Kansas, and California, which made the new national seem older and more representative of Theta Nu Epsilon generally than it really was.

1920’s.

Between 1907 and 1919, the Alpha-beta National seems to have been dissolving; eventually leaving isolated, independent chapters. This may have been caused by the United National’s efforts to forge one society and absorb all independent units. Around this time came a new group we call the Milgram National, after its president, for lack of a better name. Its headquarters were in Kansas City, and may have been the surviving Midwest chapters of the Alpha-beta National. The chapter designations did follow the former group’s pattern. It is possible that this was the first national to use the name “Society of 1870” to distinguish itself from the larger Madden National.

Since there has been no direct information found about this national, little information is known about them. It may well have been in amity with many of the now independent Southern chapters of the Alpha-beta National. Few chapters thrived, and it does not figure in the rest of this history.

At this point, we have perhaps two ‘nationals’ that aren’t really national, other independent small ‘nationals,’ and three-quarters of the chapters running independently on their own. In one sense it is chaos of the worst kind. In another, it is a tribute to the undergraduate members that they continued on in a more or less orderly fashion despite the underhanded behavior of much older alumni who were supposed to be serving their interests.

1923.

The Madden National, although nominally headed by others, had John T. Madden as an active Vice-president, and Powell as an Executive Secretary. It seems to actually have been run by the ambitious Perry O. Powell. Powell was determined to convert Theta Nu Epsilon into a college fraternity, and he embarked on a hidden campaign, in effect turning all the chapters into four-year fraternity houses, and making them entirely unlike chapters of Theta Nu Epsilon. The transition had been slow, with the first attempts to reorganize chapters of Theta Nu Epsilon as typical four-year fraternities, (or “general academic fraternities,” or “social fraternities”), starting as early as 1919. In 1923, a constitutional provision was pushed through which stopped chapters from having members who were also members of other fraternities. (That is, making membership exclusive.) For the rest of the society, membership in Theta Nu Epsilon was not seen as incompatible with fraternity membership, but as a potential compliment to it; by eliminating membership in fraternities, the Powell sought to make T.N.E. membership equivalent to membership in any fraternity.

Further, a complex and new ritual was developed. It included three ‘degrees,’ (or entrances), and was loosely based on a the model of Freemasonry, (apparently they did not exhaust themselves trying to find original sources). This ritual was extensive and repetitious. However, it would have seemed to an early 20th century fraternal mind to be a full initiation, appropriate for a full college fraternity.

As an added touch, the Madden National, (like a lot of college fraternities), adopted an exclusionary clause.

The 1923 changes were passed by a rump convention, (called nine months early), and then decried by the chapters of the society. In 1924, there appears to have been an attempt at another convention, but Powell backed out before the combined weight of the chapters could be brought to bear.

In later correspondence, Henry Kelly, himself later a President of the Society and Powell’s successor, described the situation at the time by writing that “Perry Powell committed the society to suicide in 1923.”

1925.

The convention aborted the previous year was finally held in Louisville, Kentucky on December 28 & 29, 1925. At this time, Powell and the four-year or ‘social fraternity’ chapters already created were able to force through an essentially new constitution embracing the changes of 1923, thus creating what we here call the Powell National.

Powell appears to have revoked the charters for enough old-style chapters to tip the scales in the vote count. Thus we have the second great purge of chapters. (He also may have created impossibly weak chapters to up his vote tally.)

Convention Banquet from the 1931 Theta Nu Epsilon Convention.

In the May, 1926, issue of The Keys, Powell himself gives an account of the situation, saying that in 1923, there had been about 40 chapters and that “in the past two years, we have suspended over thirty of our bona fide chapters...” and that he had chartered four new ones that operated under his system. That left fourteen chapters that together formed the Powell National. This makes one ask, what of the thirty that Powell had kicked out of the Society?

Specifically, there were thirty chapters in the Madden National on January 1, 1925. Of these, Syracuse, Penn. State, Illinois Wesleyan, Missouri, Iowa, Rochester, Wisconsin, Baker, Lafayette, South Dakota, Oklahoma State, Illinois, Kansas, Chicago College D.S., Lehigh and Oklahoma; 16 altogether, ‘disappeared’ before or during the convention at the end of the year.

Of the fourteen that approved of the change, Harvard had been inactive for years, six were at medical or law schools, (Dickinson Law, Jefferson Medical, Marquette Law, Kansas City Western Dental, Rush Medical, Baltimore College of Dental Surgery), and therefore were ineligible to become chapters of Powell’s undergraduate society, Rensselaer was indeed an old chapter, Louisville was founded in 1911, N.Y.U. in 1912, and Ohio Northern, California, Stevens and Buffalo were less than two years old, (they were either new or were replacements for older shapters). These fourteen chapters were portrayed as representing the sentiments of the Society.

Sometimes the efforts of Powell and his associates was clearly dishonest. One of the chapters that supported him, at the University of Louisville, (and which even volunteered to host the 1925 convention), was misled by him in the clever use of words. Louisville operated keeping the identities of the Sophomore members of the society ‘secret’. This, the Louisville chapter understood, (as is clear in their writings), made them a ‘sub rosa’ society. The alternative was to make membership in all three years public, (which Louisville would have called ‘open’). The Louisville chapter had no problem being an ‘open’ chapter,—as they understood it. So Louisville supported Powell.

However, Powell understood ‘open’ to mean a fully functioning four-year college fraternity. He would take Louisville’s supportive vote, but say that it was a vote for four-year college fraternity status. (Which it certainly was not, as is clear in a chapter article in the 1925 University of Louisville Thoroughbred.) Powell also was fully aware that he was misinterpreting Louisville’s acquiescence. Right after the 1925 convention, the Louisville chapter realized what Powell had done, that Powell had Louisville’s support and twisted it to serve his college fraternity agenda. Powell kept on fighting the chapter. When they continued to resist, he went to the reprehensible step of establishing a second chapter there, composed of new, compliant members. The two chapters continued side by side on the Louisville campus.

Several of the disenfranchised chapters eventually organized their own national, operating on the true basis and plan of the original society. The historian of the new organization, Cecil Rhodes Whalley, was more explicit than Powell about the events of the period. In his account he saw no need to minimize the events of the previous years, and said of Powell that “a certain national officer literally sold out our Society for the purpose of forming a social fraternity, using the name, prestige, and alumni as a background and the causing of dual memberships”, by which Whalley meant that Powell was literally selling out to the complex of the National Interfraternity Conference, Banta Publishing, and the recognized pin sellers, the whole Theta Nu Epsilon society, and doing so in hopes of a reliable salary for himself as a national secretary. Whalley then continued with his view of his side’s origins: “MacDonald Leech instituted a movement in a regularly called convention of December 29, 1925, which had as a purpose the expulsion of the alleged perpetrators of the social fraternity...” The Leech and Whalley faction must have lost the floor fight since they ended up declaring that convention illegal, and reconvening on April 2 and 3, 1926, (in Memphis, Tennessee ?), and organizing “The Theta Nu Epsilon Society of 1870.” It is not clear which of the sixteen ‘disappeared’ chapters set up the new organization.

Powell, though, had succeeded in this way in forcing through his changes and thereby creating the Powell National. The official name of the society was also changed to “The Theta Nu Epsilon Society of 1870, Incorporated.” That both the Powell National and his main schismatic group added “of 1870” to their names suggests that there already was a fourth minor national called “The Society of 1870”.

The subsequent issues of The Keys gave some hints as to the nature of what had been going on previously. An article was reprinted by George Banta where he said that this change in Theta Nu Epsilon had been actively planned by a small group within the Society since 1915, and later another article dated the movement toward a four-year social fraternity to 1919. This means that from at least 1919 to 1925, the Madden National, led mostly by Powell, had adopted a policy prejudicial to the interests and express wishes of a majority of chapters.

Some chapters were created under this system. It should be noted that there had been earlier chapters at many of these schools. The Union College chapter, formed in 1926 from a fraternity called Phi Nu Theta, gave Powell’s chapter list the appearance of having the third oldest chapter in the Society represented in his national.

Powell also confronted the problem of illegitimate or ‘clandestine’ chapters operating across the country. However, since the Smull, the Madden, and then the Powell Nationals had forced so many chapters out of the society, many of the illegitimate chapters he fought hardest against were ones he had, in effect, created by the relentless imposition of his four-year fraternity policy.

For example, the Buffalo, Penn State, Louisville, Illinois, and Maryland chapters chartered by him under the four-year college fraternity system appear to have been at colleges where he had pulled the charters of the established chapters. At Buffalo, the disenfranchised reorganized themselves as The Skulls and continued on. By forcing so many chapters out of the Society, Powell created more ‘illegitimate’ chapters then ‘legitimate’ ones.

A number of these new chapters were short-lived anyway, so that by 1930, the Powell National had perhaps a dozen chapters, all but one or two were less than five years old. The Society under Powell was so divorced from its own roots, that the editor of The Keys had to justify keeping the name Theta Nu Epsilon in an article “Why We Retain the Name ‘Theta Nu Epsilon,’” in the May, 1931, issue.

This was, though, the Theta Nu Epsilon that the National Interfraternity Conference approved of. Theta Nu Epsilon was admitted to a junior level status, and an entry for Theta Nu Epsilon was allowed to be printed in Baird’s Manual of American College Fraternities, (of course, wholly inaccurate). And it is this demolished society that soon had to face the Great Depression and WWII.

1930.

However, things were not fine outside Powell’s fifedom. The seceeding “Theta Nu Epsilon Society of 1870” could have succeeded if it brought in those former Alpha-beta, now independent Southern chapters. There may have been more than 100 independent chapters to make a national out of. But it seems they could not run their own affairs properly either. For some reason, a seperate schismatic “N. P. of Theta Nu Epsilon” was organized, (out of the Leech-Whalley “Theta Nu Epsilon Society of 1870”?). And again, sometime in 1930, a branch of the N. P. of Theta Nu Epsilon rebelled against the main body, and accused the national officers of using the funds of the society for personal expenses. Meeting in Omaha, Nebraska, they organized the Members Order, N. P. of Theta Nu Epsilon. It is not known what chapters they had or what became of them.

They did seem honest and concerned.

1930’s.

This period saw several illegitimate nationals. The Society of 1870 was one of the most successful of the splintering nationals, and may be the same as a national run by a man named Milgram. The Society of 1870 still used the name Theta Nu Epsilon, and existed primarily in the West. It was in at least the third, maybe the fourth, generation of illegitimate descent. It will probably never be possible to track all the nationals and their chapters in the mid-century.

Although the there is a general similarity of chapters of the Society of 1870 type, they seem to have functioned had many distinctive traits unlike the old Theta Nu Epsilon; for example, the very name of the organization, and the numerical designations of the chapters, made for a society with different apparent features. The chapter at Oregon State may have been called Chapter 12, since the dates given below are only the known dates, it is possible that many of the Chapters listed for 1949 were older, and that the eleven chapters below were almost all the Chapters, on the other hand, there many have been many more. This national used fingerprints cards for its members, and it does seem to be much more like the political machine that it has been accused of being than otherwise. This national also involved itself in much more intense disturbances of college campuses than would have been acceptable by even the illegitimate nationals above.

Correspondence within the legitimate national repeatedly refer to illegitimate chapters in the “Midwest, Southwest, and Pacific.” Various national presidents resided in Chicago and Kansas City. Taken together, the references indicate that since the Teens, there had been sporadic activity by a number of chapters and nationals. One group seems to have operated in California and elsewhere up the coast, and another in Texas and some of the central plains states. Another group, perhaps a subset of the Texas group, perhaps independent, made a nuisance of itself in Colorado. These groups seem to have become even more active in the thirties. By the 1940’s, the locus of activity seems to have shifted to Arizona, New Mexico, Nevada, and Southern California. This may or may not be yet another national.

The membership cards of Henry Kelly, who, forty years after his four-year fraternity chapters collapsed, was welcomed as Honorary National President of the society under the national organization of the Alpha Chapter.

None of these groups achieved anything lasting or seem to have had much of a point. Today they are only curiosities in the past.

It is not possible to get a perfect picture of a society by looking at its initiation. There is often a large discrepancy between how an initiation is constructed and what the society is like. However, the initiation ceremony used by the Society of 1870-type chapters is more questionable than many others. The initiation they used could be conducted acceptably, but the text is open to an interpretation that could be made to be the basis of a society seriously unacceptable in any community. It was thought that producing the initiation text on this website might be the best way to expose it and make it impossible for it to be used by any groups now or in the future. For now, the decision has been to not put the text on this website;—it could just as easily encourage imitators.

The depression had struck hard at the few chapters of the Powell National. Most of them had difficulty making rent, and the correspondence of this period is particularly pathetic and desperate. Powell was deposed as incompetent and difficult, and apparently his personal affairs had taken such a turn after 1929 that he could not continue to fight.

Henry Kelly, a relatively recent graduate of Union College was elected to the Presidency, but found after election that many of the chapters were expiring. He found later that Powell had angrily written off a number of chapters that were still trying to get by, but by that time, Kelly had told the others that they had best fend for themselves. A large part of the papers of the society were lost to non-payment of storage charges.

The last convention was held in 1938. The last issue of The Keys was issued in black, and covered the death of the founder, Olin L. Livesey, (May, 1932 issue).

1940 - 1970’s.

Kelly did manage to continue correspondence with a couple of chapters after the war, mostly making arrangement for their acquisition by other college fraternities. His sadness in having to relinquish the ground was still apparent in his voice many years later.

There had been a convention in 1938. The next hurdle was the coming convention of 1940. The Lambda chapter at Rensselaer, the Upsilon Upsilon chapter at New York University, and the Gamma chapter at Union were ready to convene. However, for reasons now left unclear, Powell refused to recognize N.Y.U. and Union as chapters. It is not known if other chapters were willing to convene.

In the Forties there were also newspaper reports from scattered former illegitimate chapters. One surprising notice by Time Magazine was that Fascism was alive on the campus of U.S.C. It appears that the U.S.C chapter, (founded by no known or legitimate authority), had run afoul of the school newspaper, (which had responded by name-calling). The U.S.C. environment was evidently a fruitful one, as the rogue chapter there continued to make news into the 1960’s. Only in the 60’s, it was opposing a conservative wave, leaving one even more confused by the Fascism charge.

Other chapters conducted themselves in a less colorful fashion. Wesleyan’s plodded along admirably, and several independents operated without offense under the Theta Nu Epsilon, or other, name.

1980 - 2000’s.

Another national, officially called the “Theta Nu Epsilon Society of 1870, Incorporated,” is here distinguished from other nationals by the name of its founder, John Louderback of California. He seems to have been initiated in a Society of 1870 chapter in Kansas in the 1960’s, and in 1989 declared himself a national president of Theta Nu Epsilon. After an investigation, it was found that he possessed none of the secrets of the society. He may have contacted several independent chapters which all rebuffed his assertions, and may have chartered two chapters. No other information is forthcoming.

The man in the center is the current National President, Alex Neidell, from Houston, who has since become a rockstar in Sweden. The man on the left was his predecessor as National President, Karl Oberteuffer, who pretended to be a Texan, but was actually from Larchmont, New York.

There appears to be at least one other national operating regionally today, but information on it is very, very sketchy, and does not make for any sort of substantial information worth repeating.

There are also many independent chapters of one kind or another.

The Alpha Chapter at Wesleyan, after resting for a period in the seventies, was ready to meet the world again by the mid-1980’s, and began organizing to that end.

At first under the brilliant leadership of Karl Oberteuffer and then Alex Neidell and Indiana Reay, the society began to conduct itself as according to the days of yore. One of the first people contacted was Henry Kelly. Shortly thereafter Kelly was named an Honorary National Past President, and his letters were enormously helpful in re-establishing the position of the Alpha Chapter.

In doing this, the Alpha Chapter remained true to the old policy of welcoming all members who are sincere about Theta Nu Epsilon regardless of their “legitimacy.” It also reunited a long strand in the complex history of Theta Nu Epsilon, in a desire to restore wholeness to the society.

The Alpha Chapter organized a committee, “The National Organization of the Alpha Chapter of Theta Nu Epsilon,” for the purposes of contacting independent chapters, re-establishing old ones, starting new ones, and organizing a proper Theta Nu Epsilon. A Theta Nu Epsilon that recognizes the prerogatives of the individual chapters as fully functioning, sovereign units. That organization’s work was substantially delayed by the untimely death of Mr. Oberteuffer. However the work of the National Organization of the Alpha Chapter is now proceeding apace.

Since 2006, there are three additional chapters of the society, at Missouri, Virginia, and New Mexico, and others are in planning stages for the 2008-09 academic year. The strength of the Alpha Chapter among the undergraduates of Wesleyan is greater, numerically, than at any period since the 1950’s. Alumni are rallying to the call, and the society has are more auspicious outlook than in many decades.

The National Organization of the Alpha Chapter of Theta Nu Epsilon 1999 - 2008©  All rights reserved.