[Erik P Conard]

Sangamon State is now UI-Springfield. TKE had a chapter in
Corpus that went 'upper division' and we did not survive, why I
know not. They seem to have reverted to four year status but I have found no one who can talk about it, though I know TKE is no
longer there. This was a horrible period in TKE history, by the way
Don Kaser, as Grand Prytanis, was hot on the idea of TKE as a jc
feeder and pushed Melchert to goad the HQ and TJ into doing a
survey. Well, I had been on Kollintzas' team since '56 as an undergrad and then a fielder and further a hotshot expansion guy. While Kaser did not particularly buy my act, I was dean of a
Kansas "junior college" at this time, the early 70s. I had a lot of
data on higher education, wrote my PhD dissertation on Kansas
higher ed and was collaborating with John Robson, sig ep, with a
revision of Baird's. So, I knew Sig Pi had a jc founding and that they had somewhat been eager to revive Alpha at Vincennes, &
the JC movement wasin the process of changing to "community colleges" nomenclature with huge
enrollments in some places. Kansas had 19 public community jc's
and I was a graduate of one (Hutchinson) and dean of another as
well as secretary of the Jayhawk Junior College Conference, the largest of it's kind. But I knew of the problems we had in KS and in MO with transfers from the teachers' colleges to larger schools,
and the reluctance in some cases in taking them in as fraters....
and I had been one of those, too, initiated at Gamma Phi, Kansas
State Teachers College, Emporia and transferring to Alpha Phi at KU. While we supplied a lot of the leadership, we were not totally
well-received...Behaviors and manners and other expectations were foreign to some and unobserved by others. Clashes galore.
Well, the jc's had been glorified high school exentsions with a big
flunk out rate when transferred....
And, two years at the jc...would they have a house? Would they
be full time? Would they fit transfer-wise? The twenty some two
year schools in Kansas varied widely, size-wise, and somewhat philosophically...But I put together some NY, FL, TX, CA, all of KS, some others...and concluded that this would be a bad deal. Don
Becker was ape shit over Broward and Miami-Dade and we did charter at both...unenthusiastically. I think both of these would likely work. Erie in PA, Tyler in TX, Vincennes in IN, perhaps others, were chartered. Sig Ep had at least one, and I simply do
not know others. At any rate, I was very negative, and cursed in
a few circles. We went ahead and chartered the two FL ones, the
only charters for two-year schools TKE ever did.
We were entering a whole new field, trade schools, extensions,
shopping centers, on-line ones, golly, quite a contrast to the Union and Miami triads. I kinda threw up my hands and basically
quit. Kane was in my camp. Logan, too, but Georgeff, soon to be
unceremoniously cashiered out of the Grand Council, left with a sour gizzard. Kollintzas died and the idea was shitcanned.
I was basically the only one left of the whole shebang and I took a lot of heat for it and to still this day am widely ignored.
Think of an Iowa State, KU or SC or another semi-snooty being besieged by transfers from junior colleges from everywhere with
three-eyed nerds whose best buddies were Acacias on that campus...problem, and would TKE profit...no, HELL NO!
I could write a lot on this but no one seems to care and/or have
much interest today. The entire system is kinda out of whack, and I don't know what to say. Even writing a history is a chore I
myself turned down twenty years ago, and TKE + Mark have
had a tough time finishing TKE's 100th...no criticism from me, tho.
Perhaps this might be discussed at some future conclave at length but count me out. I have attended my last conclave. The
Indy one so soured me on their treatment of alumni that I have just about tossed in the towel, but continue to write a little yet.