"All But Two Presidents Born Since 1825" is no longer true

[nyapbp]

Forgive my copy and paste. I thought GCers might be interested in this post from my blog. While it once was true, it was before my time and I graduated college during the Jimmy Carter years.

I consider myself an advocate for fraternity life. As the start of a new academic year approaches and recruitment beckons on the horizon, a pesky statistic rears its head. Every time I see it on Greek Life websites or in a chapter's recruitment information, I cringe. The fact in question is "Every U.S. President and Vice President, except two in each office, born since the first social fraternity was founded in 1825, have been members of a fraternity."

To be fair, there may have been a grain of truth in that statistic at one time. Rutherford B. Hayes, born in 1822, was initiated as an honorary member of Delta Kappa Epsilon. Every President from Hayes through Calvin Coolidge, a Phi Gamma Delta initiated as a student at Amherst College, belonged to a Greek-letter organization either as a collegiate member or an honorary member. Herbert Hoover was the first to break that long streak. The next to break it was Lyndon Johnson. Up until this point, the statement would have been true. Unfortunately, after Johnson, the statistic becomes not so true. Neither Richard Nixon nor Jimmy Carter belonged to Greek-letter organizations. Current President Barack Obama is not a fraternity man.

And to be honest, I didn't even go searching for the Vice President information because I quickly came up with more than two recent ones who haven't been fraternity men, including our current Vice President, Joe Biden. I am fairly certain that neither Walter Mondale, Al Gore nor Dick Cheney belonged to a fraternity while in college.

While I would love it if the above statement was true, the fact is that it is not currently true. I suspect someone saw it on something written in the 1960s when it was true and used it. It then spread like wildfire. It appears on countless web-sites as a given fact. Don't believe me? Do a quick search and you will get pages and pages of results. A quick look at the North-American Interfraternity Conference (NIC) web-site points out the truth that "At this date 44% of U.S. Presidents have held fraternity membership."

It is my opinion that we - those of us who advocate for and believe in the fraternity system when it works as it was meant to - shoot ourselves in the foot when we spout clearly false information simply because we assume that it is true, because it once was true, and/or because we want it to be true. If you have connections to one of the web-sites that is using that "all but two" information, please bring it to the webmaster's attention. It hasn't been true since the late 1960s. It's also a good example of that old adage about a lie traveling round the world before the truth has a chance to tie its shoelaces.

The list of Presidents (and First Ladies) who are GLO members is at: http://wp.me/p20I1i-Vb

[pas]

very interesting! Thank you for posting!!

[DeltaBetaBaby]

The other problem here is the whole "correlation is not causation" concept. Presidents happen to be people from privileged backgrounds. So are fraternity men (though this is changing outside the "white" fraternities, it's still largely true, and certainly has been historically). It's like saying that no president has ever been born in Wyoming as a case for the inferiority of Wyoming.

[Sciencewoman]

When I was a student at Michigan, President Ford posed for formal pictures with the current DKE chapter members. They all stood on the lawn outside their house, wearing sport coats and ties. The DKEs made recruitment posters and a brochure with the picture. Our chapter hung out with the DKEs a lot, and the brothers were really excited about it. It was pretty cool!

Oooohhh...I found a picture!


This isn't the one that was on PR materials...that one was a shot from a ladder/above with the brothers clustered around President Ford.

[nyapbp]

Sciencewoman - What a wonderful picture! I recall that when President Reagan died one of the guests at the funeral was the Chapter President of the TKE chapter at Eureka College.

This also reminds me of a couple of paragraphs from a book Margaret Truman's son wrote. He spoke about a visit to the Ford White House in a somewhat altered state mentioning their DKE connection to the president.

Wasn't there a DKE temple in Ann Arbor, near Jacobsen's perhaps?

[Sciencewoman]

Originally Posted by nyapbp

Wasn't there a DKE temple in Ann Arbor, near Jacobsen's perhaps?

I'm sure you're talking about the "DKE Shant." I have no idea what a "shant" is or what they did there, but they rented it out for formals. We had our fall formal there my freshman year. It was a store front building in the shopping area west of campus. The main floor was open, and worked well for a formal. I think we weren't allowed on the upper floors.

[nyapbp]

Originally Posted by Sciencewoman

I'm sure you're talking about the "DKE Shant." I have no idea what a "shant" is or what they did there, but they rented it out for formals. We had our fall formal there my freshman year. It was a store front building in the shopping area west of campus. The main floor was open, and worked well for a formal. I think we weren't allowed on the upper floors.

Ok, don't know why I called it a temple. I think that's how my mind remembered it. How fun to have a formal there.

[Sciencewoman]

I found a site about it. Apparently it wasn't so much of a "store front" as I remember, but it was mixed right in with the shops and restaurants around it.

http://arborwiki.org/DKE_Shant

[nyapbp]

Oh, so this is the new location of the DKE HQ! I was thinking it was a cement or limestone building, but I am confusing Yale buildings with it. Yes, this is what a remember - a building with Greek letters in a mix of storefronts. It's coming back to me. Thanks for the trip down memory lane!

[Sciencewoman]

Supposedly, Gerald Ford is also a member of Michigamua, the secret society mentioned in the article. The members pledge to "fight like hell for Michigan."

[naraht]

If the title is "Fraternity men who have served as President of the United States" rather than "NIC men who have...", then I would say that it makes a lot more sense to list Bill Clinton with Alpha Phi Omega than with Phi Beta Sigma (which should be listed as "Post White Years" the way that it is for Barbara Bush.)

[nyapbp]

Originally Posted by naraht

If the title is "Fraternity men who have served as President of the United States" rather than "NIC men who have...", then I would say that it makes a lot more sense to list Bill Clinton with Alpha Phi Omega than with Phi Beta Sigma (which should be listed as "Post White Years" the way that it is for Barbara Bush.)

I understand your point. However, NIC membership has been quite fluid, and some groups have been members and non-member depending on which year it is. NPC membership has remained constant for decades. The list is more of what has been called social organizations. I think I will add an asterisk to Mr. Clinton with both the APO and post White House info. Truman and Eisenhower may have been post White House, but don't quote me on that. I also did not try to discuss honoraries except Phi Beta Kappa.

[AZ-AlphaXi]

I believe that Truman was initiated while still in the White House, a Lambda Chi Alpha should confirm.

[nyapbp]

Originally Posted by AZ-AlphaXi

I believe that Truman was initiated while still in the White House, a Lambda Chi Alpha should confirm.

You're correct. And here is a wonderful article about it from the LXA magazine http://pdf.crossandcrescent.com/2006...6aug_print.pdf

[MysticCat]

Originally Posted by nyapbp

Forgive my copy and paste. I thought GCers might be interested in this post from my blog. While it once was true, it was before my time and I graduated college during the Jimmy Carter years.

I consider myself an advocate for fraternity life. As the start of a new academic year approaches and recruitment beckons on the horizon, a pesky statistic rears its head. Every time I see it on Greek Life websites or in a chapter's recruitment information, I cringe. The fact in question is "Every U.S. President and Vice President, except two in each office, born since the first social fraternity was founded in 1825, have been members of a fraternity."

Yep. This one rears its head (and gets debunked) every few years on GC. See here for example: Nifty Fun Fact. And yet it lives on.