| Zeta Psi (ΖΨ) |
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| Founded | June 1, 1847 New York University |
| Type | Social |
| Scope | International |
| Motto | ΤΚΦ (Tau Kappa Phi) |
| Colors | White |
| Flower | White Carnation |
| Publication | The Circle |
| Philanthropy | ZeteKidz |
| Chapters | 52 |
| Free label | Zetes (“zates”) |
| Headquarters | 15 South Henry St Pearl River, New York, USA |
| Homepage | http://www.zetapsi.org |
The Zeta Psi Fraternity of North America was founded June 1st, 1847 as a social college fraternity. Events 193 - Roman Emperor Didius Julianus is Assassinated 987 - Hugh Capet is elected Year 1847 ( MDCCCXLVII) was a Common year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian Calendar (or a Common New York University ( NYU) is a private, Nonsectarian, Coeducational Research University in New York City. Pearl River is a hamlet (and Census-designated place) in the Town of Orangetown Rockland County, New York, United States New York ( is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States and is the nation's third most populous The United States of America —commonly referred to as the Fraternities and sororities (from the Latin words la frater and la soror, meaning "brother" and "sister" respectively are fraternal The organization now comprises about fifty active chapters and twenty-five inactive chapters, encompassing roughly twenty thousand brothers, and is a member of the North-American Interfraternity Conference. Membership requirements Member The NIC membership requirements are detailed in the By-Laws of the North-American Interfraternity Conference It has historically been selective about the campuses at which it establishes chapters, focusing on forging new territory and maintaining a presence at prestigious institutions: it was the first Fraternity on the West Coast at the University of California at Berkeley June 10th, 1870, the first Fraternity in Canada at the University of Toronto, March 27th, 1879, the only Fraternity to have chapters simultaneously at all eight Ivy League schools with the chartering of Eta at Yale University in 1889 (though this claim lasted only a few years, owing to burgeoning faculty opposition to the Princeton chapter), and the first Fraternity to become bi-continental, with the chartering of Iota Omicron at the University of Oxford on May 3, 2008. The University of California Berkeley (also referred to as Cal, Berkeley and UC Berkeley) is a major research university located in Berkeley Country to "Dominion of Canada" or "Canadian Federation" or anything else please read the Talk Page This article is about the University of Toronto's St George Campus The Ivy League is an Athletic conference comprising eight private institutions of higher education in the Northeastern United States. Princeton University is a private Coeducational research university located in Princeton, New Jersey. The University of Oxford (informally "Oxford University" or simply "Oxford" located in the city of Oxford, Oxfordshire, England is the
The Greek letters of the Fraternity are the capital letters Zeta and Psi: ΖΨ.
It's considered by many scholars to be one of the most secretive Fraternities.
Its international headquarters is located in Pearl River, New York. Pearl River is a hamlet (and Census-designated place) in the Town of Orangetown Rockland County, New York, United States New York ( is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States and is the nation's third most populous Its current Phi Alpha, or president, is Greg McElroy, as of 2008.
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On the first of June in 1847, three young men gathered in a New York City home with a single purpose in mind: the constitution of a new Greek-letter society. The City of New York Their names were John Bradt Yates Sommers, William Henry Dayton, and John Moon Skillman; the Fraternity they founded that day was Zeta Psi.
Then students at New York University (itself a young campus, only founded in 1831), the three men formed the core of the first chapter, Phi. New York University ( NYU) is a private, Nonsectarian, Coeducational Research University in New York City. But William Dayton was stricken with poor health, and departed New York shortly afterwards for more temperate climes. He retired to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where the warm weather was expected to improve his humors, intending to begin a chapter there. The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill ( UNC, North Carolina, or simply Carolina) is a public, Coeducational Research But the move was inauspicious: Dayton died within the year, and the University of North Carolina was without a chapter of Zeta Psi for over a decade.
The Phi chapter at NYU persisted in his absence, and graduated its first member the next year with George S Woodhull (Φ '48). The second chapter was established as Zeta at Williams College in Massachusetts, but it was active only four years because of faculty suppression. Williams College is a highly selective private liberal arts college located in Williamstown, Massachusetts. The Commonwealth of Massachusetts ( is a state located in the New England region of the northeastern United States. The Delta chapter was founded at Rutgers University later that year, and remains the most longevous continuously active chapter of the fraternity (the Phi chapter was briefly inactive in the 1970s). Rutgers The State University of New Jersey (also known as Rutgers University) is the largest institution for higher education in the state of New Jersey
3 chapters followed in 1850: Omicron (now Omicron Epsilon) at Princeton University, Sigma at the University of Pennsylvania, and Chi at Colby College in Waterville, Maine. Princeton University is a private Coeducational research university located in Princeton, New Jersey. The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn) is a private University located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. Colby College, founded in 1813, is an American private liberal arts college located on Mayflower Hill in Waterville Maine. Waterville is a city in Kennebec County, Maine, United States, on the west bank of the Kennebec River. The first two are still active, as was the Chi Chapter until 1988. But in the early 1980s Colby College prohibited Fraternities on campus, despite the long and storied tradition they had enjoyed there. By 1988, ejected from campus and banned from any formal rush, the chapter quietly expired after over 130 years of existence. Problems beset other early chapters as well. The first Alpha chapter was founded in 1852 at Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. Dickinson College is a private residential liberal arts college in Carlisle Pennsylvania. Carlisle (pronounced CARLYLE(emphasis on the first syllable is a City in northern England the largest settlement in Cumbria. The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania ( often colloquially referred to as PA (its abbreviation by natives and Northeasterners is a state located in the Northeastern But immediate resistance from the administration slowly wore upon the brothers there, and that chapter became inactive in 1872, permitting its letter to be used for the later chapter founded at Columbia.
But expansion proceeded apace throughout the 1850s at a rate of several chapters per year: Epsilon was chartered at Brown University and Rho (later re-chartered as Rho Epsilon) at Harvard University in 1852; Psi (later re-chartered as Psi Epsilon) at Dartmouth College in 1853; Kappa at Tufts University in 1855; Theta at Union College in 1856; Tau at Lafayette College in 1857; Xi at University of Michigan in 1858. Brown University is a highly esteemed private University located in Providence, Rhode Island and is a member of the Ivy League. Dartmouth College ( is a private, Coeducational University located in Hanover, New Hampshire, U Union College is a non-denominational independent liberal arts college located in Schenectady New York. Lafayette College is a private Coeducational liberal arts and engineering college located in Easton, Pennsylvania, USA The University of Michigan Ann Arbor ( U of M, U-M, UM or simply Michigan) is a top-ranked Coeducational public research Also in 1858, the Upsilon chapter was finally founded at the University of North Carolina, fulfilling the purpose of Brother Dayton in his last journey south. And in that year an abortive attempt was made to colonize Amherst College with the Pi chapter, which was rechartered at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in 1865 as the war among the several states loomed large. Amherst College is a private liberal arts college in Amherst, Massachusetts, USA. Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, or RPI, is a Nonsectarian private Research University located in Troy, New York
But those chapters were the last before the conflict brewing for nearly a century was unleashed. Causes of the war See also Origins of the American Civil War, Timeline of events leading to the American Civil War The coexistence of a slave-owning South Abraham Lincoln was elected president of the United States in 1860, and South Carolina seceded from the Union, followed shortly thereafter by her fellow Southern states. Abraham Lincoln (February 12 1809 &ndash April 15 1865 the sixteenth President of the United States, successfully led his country through its greatest internal The President of the United States is the Head of state and Head of government of the United States and is the highest political official in United States by South Carolina ( is a state in the southern region ( Deep South) of the United States of America. Expansion of the Fraternity halted as campuses rallied for war and sent companies of their collegemen to battle. Zeta Psi too contributed her men, and many did not return.
At the outbreak of war, the Upsilon chapter at UNC— only chartered three years before--found itself the only chapter of Zeta Psi among all the Southern states, sundered from the North by the sudden lines of enmity. But even as they mustered for war and marched south, the Grand Chapter of Zeta Psi, specially assembled in early July 1862, adopted the resolution of Brother William Cooke (Φ '58) prescribing unity:
And the brothers of Upsilon replied by letter in like fashion:
Nor was the brotherhood among Zetes limited to mere words; the moving tale of Brother Henry Schwerin (Θ '63) illustrates the embodiment of love even in the most trying of circumstance. Schwerin lay gravely wounded after the bloody Battle of Chattanooga; pinned on the breast of his Union uniform was the badge of Zeta Psi. The Third Battle of Chattanooga (popularly known as The Battle of Chattanooga, and including the Battle of Lookout Mountain and the Battle of A passing Confederate soldier, also a Zete, spied the badge and carried the invalid to medical care and safety, ignoring even the imperatives of war for the sake of his brother. The Confederate States of America (also called the Confederacy, the Confederate States, and CSA) formed as the government set up from 1861 The worthy badge later passed into the hands of his brother, Max Schwerin (Θ '70), who would one day serve as international president. After his death, it was donated by his sister to the Fraternity's archives and remains among its treasures. Brother John Day Smith (Ε '72) witnessed the incident on the Chattanooga field, and later related it to Brother Francis Lawton (Ε '69), who would author the poem “The Badge of Zeta Psi,” later set to original music and preserved to this day. The reference to “Chattanooga's bloody field” is not idle hyperbole, but the recollection of a rare triumph among such sorrows.
And amid these sorrows and heroisms, when so many brothers of Zeta Psi perished, so too were even whole chapters swallowed by the War. The Eta (Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, chartered 1861), Psi Epsilon (Dartmouth), Upsilon (UNC), Epsilon (Brown), and Theta (Union) chapters had vanished by the end of battle, decimated by fallen brothers or disheartened campuses returning from the shadow of death. Gettysburg is a borough 38 miles (68 km south by southwest of Harrisburg in Adams County, Pennsylvania, USA, of which it is the The Theta and Eta chapters would never survive the staggering losses they suffered, though the others ultimately recovered and reactivated. And the Gamma chapter—chartered 1861 at the Georgia Military Institute, the only new chapter during the War—was annihilated utterly by General Sherman's march, and existed thus only for those few years of tumult. The Georgia Military Institute was established on 110 acres a mile from the square in Marietta Georgia on July 1, 1851, on Powder Springs Road But out of the shadow of war came regrowth and a time for Zeta Psi to expand once more.
The nation was still young indeed even after the end of the Civil War: California had only recently become a State, committing to the side of the victorious Union and contributing its men though the conflict took place mainly across the continent, thousands of miles away. California ( is a US state on the West Coast of the United States, along the Pacific Ocean. It was then only fitting that to California the Fraternities should next have moved. And as in many initiatives, Zeta Psi was first: in 1870 it established the Iota chapter at the University of California, Berkeley and became the first Fraternity on the West Coast. The University of California Berkeley (also referred to as Cal, Berkeley and UC Berkeley) is a major research university located in Berkeley (Though the Iota chapter would not be joined until 1892 by the next addition, the Mu chapter at Stanford University. Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly known as Stanford University or simply Stanford, is a private Research university located in )
Nor was Zeta Psi content even to remain a national Fraternity, but also pressed northward into Canada. The brothers of the Xi chapter at the University of Michigan in 1879 constituted the Theta Xi chapter at the University of Toronto, making Zeta Psi the first international Fraternity as well. The University of Michigan Ann Arbor ( U of M, U-M, UM or simply Michigan) is a top-ranked Coeducational public research Since then, Zeta Psi has actively bolstered its Canadian presence, commissioning a director solely for Canadian chapter development and amassing a long list of successful chapters there.
The end of the nineteenth century was fecund ground for Zeta Psi. It took root at no fewer than fourteen colleges in those latter days: Omega was founded at University of Chicago in 1864; Pi at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in 1865; Lambda, Bowdoin College, 1867; Beta, University of Virginia, 1868; Psi, Cornell University, 1868; Iota, UC Berkeley, 1870; Gamma, first at the US Naval Academy in 1874, and then at Syracuse College in 1875 after the government proscribed Fraternities at its military academies; Theta Xi, University of Toronto, 1879; Alpha, Columbia University, 1879; Alpha Psi, McGill University, 1883; Nu, Case Western Reserve, 1884; Eta, Yale, 1889; Mu, Stanford, 1892; Alpha Beta, University of Minnesota, 1899. The University of Chicago is a Private university located principally in the Hyde Park neighborhood of Chicago. Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, or RPI, is a Nonsectarian private Research University located in Troy, New York Bowdoin College, founded in 1794 is a private liberal arts college located in the coastal New England town of Brunswick, Maine. The University of Virginia (also called UVa, UVA, Mr Jefferson's University, or The University) is a highly selective public research The United States Naval Academy is an undergraduate college in Annapolis, Maryland, United States that educates and commissions officers of the United States This article is about the University of Toronto's St George Campus Columbia University is a private University in the United States and a member of the Ivy League. Case Western Reserve University is a private research university located in Cleveland Ohio, United States, with some residence halls on the south end of campus The University of Minnesota Twin Cities ( U of M or The U) is the oldest and largest part of the University of Minnesota system. (The establishment of the Eta chapter at Yale made Zeta Psi the first and only fraternity to establish chapters at all eight Ivy-League schools. )
Even as the physical reach of Zeta Psi made great bounds, so too did the principles underlying its brotherhood. By the turn of the century, the need for some more centralized structure pressed as chapter after chapter was added to the Circle and their correspondence became too much to handle so chaotically. In 1909, an international publication concerning the affairs of Zetes was first published by Brother William Comstock (Ξ '99) and distributed among the several chapters: The Circle of Zeta Psi. William Alfred Comstock ( July 2, 1877 &ndash June 19, 1949) was an American Politician as Governor of the The periodical, which is still published to this day, contained in that first issue the exhortation which has come to be known as ”The Vision of Bill Comstock” for its prescience and wisdom:
In short, Brother Comstock criticized the degree of individualism among the chapters of Zeta Psi, demanding unity among such disparate brothers. He prescribed that every member should receive the fledgling Circle of Zeta Psi, and thus be apprised of the far-flung doings of the fraternity; that a general secretary be commissioned to travel among the chapters and treat with them; and that a foundation be established for the pecuniary support of the general Fraternity. And all three of his mandates have been amply fulfilled: The Circle is still published and distributed to the brothers of Zeta Psi (and can be read online here); now the General Secretary is assisted in his rounds by chapter consultants, whose function remains the same; and the Zeta Psi Educational Foundation was to be instituted within Brother Comstock's lifetime, though still in the future. Before Zeta Psi could turn to such collegiate concerns, war again threatened, this time abroad.
Though already inured to the horrors and trial that War would wreak upon her from the bloody Civil War, war in Europe came suddenly in the 1910s and caught a nation and Fraternity unawares. World War I (abbreviated WWI; also known as the First World War, the Great War, and the War to End All For some time, the United States did not commit troops to the battle, maintaining an isolationist stance protected. But Canada was a member in good standing of Britain's Commonwealth, and as war threatened England, the men of Canada were called upon to support their ally abroad. England is a Country which is part of the United Kingdom. Its inhabitants account for more than 83% of the total UK population whilst its mainland
With the first Canadian chapter only founded at Toronto in 1879, her sister chapters were still young when war came to them. Particularly stricken were the Alpha Psi and Theta Xi chapters at McGill and U Toronto. Even in 1914, they were already sending letters indicating their brothers heading east across the sea to the war. In 1915, more than half the workers at the McGill Base Hospital were Zetes from Alpha Psi. By war's end, the two beleaguered chapters had given over two hundred souls in defense of King and Country.
Perhaps most noted among the rolls of the brave Canadian brethren who went overseas is Lt. Col. Brother Dr. John McCrae (Θ Ξ '94), a serviceman in the Canadian army, who like so many other men did not return at the close of conflict. Lieutenant Colonel John Alexander McCrae ( November 30, 1872 &ndash January 28, 1918) was a Canadian Poet But Brother McCrae bequeathed to his fraternity more than even his worthy life, but also a poem which has been preserved in great honor as both a historical and literary work: “In Flanders Fields. " In Flanders Fields " is one of the most famous Poems written during the First World War, and has been called "the most popular poem" produced during ” The words are a testament to the heroic spirit in man and are treasured still by the brethren of Zeta Psi as the hallowed words of a brother whose time long ago passed.
Finally in 1917, America entered the war, and with their country, so too did the many Zetes who called that land their home. At the annual convention of Zeta Psi, the brothers adopted a resolution in support of the war—which the United States Congress had itself only declared a few weeks previously—:
Nor was the pledge mere idle words nor fatuous boasting. Over one quarter of all brethren of Zeta Psi would serve during the First World War in foreign lands, and many did not return. Zeta Psi also provided the nation its first Assistant Secretary of War, Brother Benedict Crowell (Ν '92), noted for his bold reorganization of civilian military control during World War I. Benedict Crowell (October 12 1869 - September 8 1952 was a United States Military officer and Politician particularly influential in military organization Even after the war, Crowell remained politically powerful, and was later instrumental in engineering the repeal of National Prohibition. In the United States, the term Prohibition refers to the period from 1920 to 1933 during which the sale manufacture and transportation of alcohol for consumption When battle and country called, the men of Zeta Psi answered.
The official color of the Fraternity is white, the unofficial secondary colors are gold and black.
The Fraternity flower is the white carnation.
The pennant (flag) of the Fraternity depicts the Greek letters zeta and psi, wrought in gold with a black outline, set on a white field.
The escutcheon The Zeta Psi escutcheon is composed of a shield divided quarterly—the chief dexter tierced pallwise with proper skull, book, parchment and crossed swords on a Gules field, surmounting a Sable field, dexter and an argent star on azure sinister. The chief sinister quarterly divided per satire. A proper crossed Roman fasces joined with an argent star with a Greek letter phi on a vert field. A pair of sable lips on argent, sinister. A sable annulus linked with an or alpha on azure. A sable eye and ear on or dexter. The inferior dexter simple quarterly. An or lamp, chief dexter. A proper book on azure field, sinister. A proper hand on argent field, or lyre on azure, and proper quill on argent. The inferior sinister unpartitioned with a proper caduceus surrounded by a wreath of argent flowers on an or field. An inescutcheon appears with a perfect circle or on an argent field. The shield is shown above a proper wreath of oak leaves and acorns with a proper badge of zeta psi at their center. It is surmounted by a proper star, below which appear the motto in Greek letters tau, kappa, phi in sable.
The public motto is Τ Κ Φ (Tau Kappa Phi), the significance of which is considered one of the Fraternity's mysteries.
The badge of Zeta Psi consists of “a gold pin formed of the Greek letters zeta and psi and there shall be engraved upon it the letters O and A. ” The arms of the psi are also engraved, with a Roman fasces upon the left and a star upon the right. Fasces (ˈfæsiːz a Plurale tantum, from the Latin word fascis, meaning "bundle" symbolize summary power and Jurisdiction The badge is set with seven stones (usually pearl or jet) along each of the bars of the zeta, for a total of twenty-one. A pearl is a hard roundish object produced within the soft tissue (specifically the mantle) of a living shelled Mollusk. Jet is a geological material and is considered to be a minor gemstone
The following list is necessarily incomplete:
2. http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Baird%27s_Manual_of_American_College_Fraternities_%281879%29/Zeta_Psi