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re: merging chapters
Merging chapters wouldn't be easy, I would think. But in
1939 (when TKN/LXA merged) the Depression had been
on for 10 years, and many chapters only had a few members.
Merging a chapter of 19 LXA's with 9 ThKN's probably wasn't
a big deal.
Only six campuses had both LXA and ThKN active at the time,
and all but one was successful. At Washington College (MD),
there were only 3 fraternities: LXA, ThKN, and one other.
The president of the COLLEGE forbade the chapters from
merging...he was trying to expand the Greek system on
his campus, not shrink it (compare that to most college
presidents today!!).
The ThKN chapter was only 1 year old (the last chartered)
and had existed for a few years prior as a local. So the
members resigned from ThKN, technically before the
merger (the chapter was still alloted a NU-SOMETHING
LXA designation) and reverted to a local. Shortly thereafter,
they became a chapter of Theta Chi, which still exists today.
So LXA lost 1/2 a chapter in the merger to ThX.
But they got 1/2 a chapter back 2 years later....BK and
ThX national fraternities merged in 1941, but the chapters
at Ga. Tech. didn't get along and refused to merge into one,
so the BK chapter became a local fraternity, then chartered
with LXA soon thereafter....they were granted a special
request: they are now Beta-Kappa chapter of LXA.
LXA and ThX traded merged chapters in the end!
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