Delta Sigma Phi

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Template:Infobox Fraternity

Delta Sigma Phi (ΔΣΦ, also known as DSP, Delta Sig or in Michigan, Delt Sig) is a fraternity established at the City College of New York in 1899 and is a charter member of the North-American Interfraternity Conference. The headquarters of the fraternity is the Taggart Mansion located in Indianapolis, Indiana. The mansion was once the home of former Indianapolis mayor and congressman Thomas Taggart and is on the National Register of Historic Places.

1 Symbols
2 History
3 Active Chapters and Colonies
4 Famous alumni
5 External links
6 References

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Symbols

In addition to the Sphinx, the lamp, lute (depicted as a lyre), the Gordian Knot and the Egyptian Pyramids are symbols of Delta Sigma Phi. The White Carnation was chosen as the fraternity's official flower because it contains the fraternity's colors; green and white. The publications of the fraternity are often named after its symbols: Image:Dspflag.gif

The Sphinx - an esoteric publication
The Gordian Knot - the pledge manualImage:Dsppledge.gif
The Lute - the fraternity songbook
The Carnation - the fraternity magazine
In addition, chapter houses are often referred to as pyramids

The pledge emblem is a white circle with a green equilateral triangle set inside of it. Gold lines radiate from the center of the emblem to the three points of the triangle in addition to outlining the circle and triangle. The pledge emblem is very prevalent in the symbology of the fraternity, not only is the emblem on the pledge pin, but the emblem also graces the flag, the membership badge and the basic design is also the basis of the fraternity's seal.

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History

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The Beginnings

Image:Meyer boskey.jpg At the end of the nineteenth century, fraternities were exclusively Christian or Jewish and barred membership to individuals on the basis of religion. When a group of friends at the City College of New York tried to join a fraternity, they were denied membership because the group was composed of Christians and Jews, in response they organized the first chapter of Delta Sigma Phi on December 10, 1899. The chapter was called Insula due to the chapter's location in Manhattan. In late 1902, with five members from Insula signing incorpration papers, Delta Sigma Phi was incorporated with the purpose to spread "the principles of friendship and brotherhood among college men, without respect to race or creed." By 1903 the fraternity had established chapters at Columbia University and New York University.

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The Founders

Image:Charles tonsor.jpg Delta Sigma Phi considers Meyer Boskey and Charles A. Tonsor, Jr. to be its founders; Boskey was one of the founding members at Insula and Tonsor was a member at University Chapter at NYU. The pair were insturmental in steering the fraternity through the early days starting with the events that occurred in 1905.

In early 1905 the fraternity was growing rapidly, receiving petitions for membership from groups at MIT, Penn State and Washington and Lee University. A conference was called for the purpose of writing a constitution with a subsequent convention to elect national officers. At the 1905 Convention Tonsor was elected as National President and Boskey as National Secretary. It was also during this time that Boskey and Tonsor codified the ritual and symbols of the fraternity.

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Early Troubles

The convention that laid much of the groundwork for the fraternity's growth almost proved to be its undoing. The convention was held at the lavish Park Avenue Hotel and the cost of the convention was to be defrayed by the selling of tickets to the attendees. However, few members outside of the New York City chapters bought tickets and the resulting deficit was large. It was through extraordinary fundraising efforts that the debt was paid but afterwards hard feelings would persist between members and chapters.

At this time many chapters were founded but many others closed or dis-affiliated and the fraternity changed from a New York fraternity to a fraternity with many chapters in the Midwest and South. Unfortunately, the feeling of good will between Christian and Jewish brothers had eroded despite the efforts of Boskey and Tonsor. Some chapters would blackball Jewish pledges before initiation, essentially going against the ideals of the founders. Those chapters would not get along with others and this led to a few chapters withdrawing their affiliation with Delta Sigma Phi.

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The 1914 Convention

The 1914 Convention was held at the Iota Chapter house at University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia with only half of the chapters sending delegates despite the efforts of John C. Harris, the National President at the time. At the convention, it was decided that it was in the best interests of the fraternity to become more like the other fraternities and restrict membership to men of Christian faith. This was done in hopes of restoring unity on a national level and to stem the tide of chapter defections.

A new consitiution was soon drawn up to express that the belief in the triune Christian God as told in the New Testament was a prerequisite for membership and changes were made to the fraternity ritual. The changes were quickly ratified by the convention on the condition that the requirements were binding only to those who joined the fraternity after the adoption of the 1914 Constitution. Although their place in the fraternity was secure, many Jewish members left the organization; Meyer Boskey did not, although he withdrew from active participation in fraternity.

Upon Meyer Boskey's death in 1969, Tonsor commented that, "Meyer was not bitter. He understood and never gave up his loyalty to Delta Sigma Phi, knowing, as he told me, that time would prove the founders right."

In addition to the Christian clause, the 1914 Convention also saw the adoption of the current versions pledge pin, fraternity badge, coat of arms and ritual. It was also the first convention to end without a defecit, as many of the older members contributed generously to the fraternity's general fund.

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Growth and World War I

In the two years after the 1914 Convention Delta Sigma Phi almost doubled in size with the addition of ten chapters. In 1915, the first West Coast chapter, Hilgard Chapter at UC Berkeley was installed. Hilgard Chapter was named after a Dean at University and is the only chapter in the fraternity without a Greek letter designation, taking the place of Xi Chapter.

As a testament to the geographic shift of the fraternity, the 1916 Convention was held in Chicago, Illinois. By this time, the fraternity had expanded the number of staff and a national headquarters was created at the Riebold Building at Dayton, Ohio.

When the United States entered World War I in 1917 Delta Sigma Phi had over one thousand initiates and nineteen active chapters. During the course of the war over three quarters of the fraternity's membership served the government in some capacity with half of that number in combat duty overseas. The publication of The Carnation, the fraternity's magazine, and the 1917 and 1918 Conventions were suspended for the duration of the war.

Even though the colleges and universities remained open during the war many chapters suspended their operations when most of their members were called to service. Some chapters never recovered from the disruptions of World War I.

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The Roaring Twenties

Delta Sig went through continued expansion during the 1920's, at this time many local fraternities and other social clubs peitioned for fraternity membership. Among these local fraternites was Phi Nu fraternity at McGill University in Montreal, Quebec, Canada when Phi Nu was chartered as the Alpha Omicron chapter, Delta Sigma Phi became an international fraternity.

It was also during this time the fraternity published its first pledge manual, the Gordian Knot, it was based upon a manual previously published by the Epsilon Chapter at Penn State. The Gordian Knot is considered to be one of the first pledge manuals to be published on a fraternity-wide basis. Other traditions started at this time was the Sailors' Ball, first held at the Alpha Chi cahpter at Stetson University. Today, at many Delta Sig chapters the Sailors' Ball is an annual event that is a semi-formal counterpart to the Carnation Ball, the fraternity's formal banquet.

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Depression and World War II

A scant two months after the Wall Street Crash of 1929 the yearly convention was held in Richmond, Virginia. Despite the financial uncertainties of the time, a travelling secretary was added to the fraternity payroll. During the Great Depression the growth of the fraternity had ground to a halt; college enrollments declined and those who attended college were less likely to afford joining a fraternity. Several chapters became dormant and lost their equitiy in chapter properties. Among them were Alpha and Gamma; the remaining chapters in New York City.

The only chapter that was founded during the years of the Great Depression was Beta Lambda at Wake Forest. It was also during this time that the Executive Director, A.W. Defenderfer, moved the headquarters of the fraternity to his insurance offices in Washington, DC. Delta Sigma Phi was re-incorporated in Washington, DC in 1929.

Although the fraternity was rebounding by the late 1930's, World War II caused a disruption within the fraternity. Many members had joined in on the war effort leaving the chapters weak. It was during this time that the fraternity's only Canadian chapter at McGill University became dormant, with many of its members joining to Commonwealth forces. By 1944 only twelve of the fraternity's forty-three chapters were active.

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Return to the Founders' Vision

After the war, the GI Bill gave many veterans had the chance to attend college. With an influx of new students, many of the dormant chapters of the fraternity were quickly re-activated. Another consequence of the GI Bill was the establishment of many new public universities. With more institutions that were open to fraternities, Delta Sigma Phi, along with many other Greek organizations, experienced their greatest period of growth in the Post-World War II era.

In the late 1940's college administrators across the country began to refuse expansion to fraternities which restrictive rules on membership. In response to the new rules the fraternity leadership amended the constitution of the national fraternity to remove all references to race or religion. However, the line "That the belief in God is essential to our welfare" the preamble was untouched and remains so to this day.

In a compromise to several southern chapters in the 1949 Convention, the amendments to the constitution were approved while language which barred the initiation of non-white and non-christians were inserted into the fraternity ritual. Since the ritual was a private document and the constitution was a public one, this compromise appeased those who resisted integration of the fraternity while allowing it to expand to new universities.

The 1950's were a turbulent time for fraternites and sororities in general. While most of the national greek organizations still had rules restricting membership a few chapters bucked those rules and initiated Jews and African Americans. Some of those chapters were suspended by their national organization while others dis-affilitated from their national organizations and "went local." In 1957 the California Legislature threatened to pass Assembly Bill 758 which prohibited state universities and colleges from recognizing any student organization that "restricts its membership on the basis of either race, color, religion or national origin." Two years later the regents of the University of California passed a regulation that required all fraternities and sororities to sign a certificate stating that the organization does not have any discriminatory policies or face the loss of recognition.

The fraternity faced these issues in the 1959 Convention. While the fraternity was interested in maintaining their California chapters, there was opposition to any plan to integrate the entire fraternity. Several southern chapters passed resolutions against and relaxation of racial and religious restrictions and threatened to withdraw from the fraternity. A compromise was again reached where the current rules were not to be changed but exemptions were granted to chapters in danger to losing their recognition due to fraternity policies. The California chapters were immediately given exemptions.

In 1962, the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education joined the University of California by requiring the integration of its fraternities and sororities. Exemptions were given to the chapters in Pennsylvania. While exemptions were originally granted to chapters in danger of losing recognition with their universities, the Beta Iota Chapter at Wittenberg University proved otherwise. In order to aviod bad publicity by refusing initiation to an African American who was a All-American athlete in addition to being an outstanding scholar, the fraternity granted the chapter an exemption.

The process of integration was slow and awkward in the fraternity. As a result of numerous comprimises the fraternity remained intact on a national level. Civil Rights legislation finished the job that started with the granting of exemptions to certain chapters. Delta Sigma Phi again was universal brotherhoold of man, just as the founders had intended.

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