Quote:
Originally posted by Erik P Conard
Alpha Kappa chapter was for years the largest in TKE. During the
30s the chapter had 80 some actives. The closure of the chapter
for WWII ended it and it was never re-opened. Many attempts to return failed, not due to TKE, but Penn had a two-track system, the Jewish fraternities and the Gentile ones, separate rushes. We would have to return as a Jewish house, and while TKE is not
adverse to any ethnicity, we rejected each time the notion 'cause
we would be discriminatory...and we took a lot of heat because
we did not return to Penn. Penn alums were among our most loyal and successful. It is sad, we have not even today returned
to Penn. I do not know if they maintain Jewish/Gentile rushes yet
there. It was a sorry situation. And, for an Ivy League school it
was bigotry at its best. TKE has long maintained a Cornell unit,
known as Scorpion (originally Sigma) chapter. The Penn local which aspired to go TKE was Theta Rho...and it may exist yet. But
even our most liberal, Jim Logan, was against us being all anything...time has proven us right and Penn wrong.
So, TKE has been at ONLY two of the Ivy League schools. It would be nice to go to Harvard and Yale instead of Bruce's School
of Cosmetology or that ilk...
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When Phi Psi chartered at Penn in 1877, it was a majority Jewish chapter (our second such chapter, following Columbia in 1872.) Through the years, the religious makeup of our Penn Iota chapter has fluctuated, often with a majority Christian membership. It would be interesting to read more information on this two-track system at Penn. Any citations?
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