Pi Kappa Phi Fraternity
Overview of the Case
In 1776, on certain evening, a group of young men gathered in an upstairs room to talk, joke, and socialize, over a bowl of punch. After denying membership from it, John Heath, a student at William and Mary, gathered four of his friends and formed Phi Beta Kappa. Its members believed that students would enjoy secret fraternal societies; they formed a second chapter at Yale University in 1780 and then a third at Harvard in 1781. In 1825, students of Union College formed the Kappa Alpha (KA) Society. In 1847 Alpha Delta Phi and Beta Theta Pi had formed at Miami University of Oxford, Ohio.
The first women’s Greek-letter fraternity was Kappa Alpha Theta, founded in 1870 at DePauw University. The word sorority was created in 1874 when Gamma Phi Beta was founded. In the first half of the 20th century, fraternities continued to grow and prosper. The 1960s and 1970s were an adjustment period for fraternities. However, its membership rebounded, growing rather briskly at most U.S. college campuses during the 1980s. But under the healthy membership gains and popularity of its system, there were some distressing signs. Problems regarding alcohol abuse, drug use, overemphasis on partying, and low academic performance were mounting at many chapters on many campuses. During the 1990s the membership declines of as much as 30 percent by 2001. In 2001, on a number of campuses across the United States, ethnic and multicultural fraternities were booming.
The rise in the number of dry fraternities began in 1997 when the national leadership of Sigma Nu and Phi Delta Theta made the decision to become alcohol-free by 2000. Nine fraternities of 11 of Emory University had elected to participate in the plan in 2000, but ...