NEW SMYRNA BEACH -- Every American has seen the film classic "Animal House" depicting life in a college fraternity.
The fraternity brothers were depicted as being totally without any redeeming qualities. They were totally lazy, irresponsible, undisciplined, destructive and any academic achievement was accidental and discouraged by the fraternity.
Nobody took the movie too seriously. However there has always been the lingering fear that there is a little bit of animal house in all fraternities. Over the years a few mishaps occurred which gave fraternities a bad name at MIT.
Delta Kappa Epsilon had a pledge fall through the ice on a pond and disappear after they left him loose out in the country. That one made the national news for a solid week as it took that long to find the body. About ten years ago a pledge from Phi Gamma Delta died from drinking hard liquor while in the company of a chapter faculty adviser.
Needless to say this caused a big furor on campus.
The president wanted to move all fraternities over onto the campus. However, those plans got hung up on the realities of finances. With this background in mind the public should be aware that the fraternities at MIT are the exact antitheses of animal house.
First of all, at my fraternity we Phi Sigma Kappa we ran our affairs with pretty strict discipline. We maintained strict study conditions starting one half hour after dinner. On those rare times when things got noisy the shout "study conditions" would usually bring instant quiet.
We ran our own kitchen and dining room. There were four of us running the commissary at any one time. We had a menu planner and a stock checker who made we had enough staples in the pantry at all times. The food purchaser took the menus and ordered the meats and particulars to make the meals a reality. The head of commissary was entrusted with seeing that all went well and that the cook and butler were happy.
As head of commissary, my main contribution was the introduction of frozen vegetables and teaching the "Yankees" how to eat grits and eggplant soufflé. Needless to say we always felt that we ate better and cheaper that the people who were eating in the commons. Our dirty little secret was that it was cheaper to live at our fraternity house than in the MIT dorms.
As head of commissary, my main contribution was the introduction of frozen vegetables and teaching the "Yankees" how to eat grits and eggplant soufflé. Needless to say we always felt that we ate better and cheaper that the people who were eating in the commons. Our dirty little secret was that it was cheaper to live at our fraternity house than in the MIT dorms.
Lots of attention was given to preparing the freshmen for their Fridays tests. We held review sessions every Thursday evening. It was surely helpful being in a house full of upperclassmen who could clarify some of the mysteries of physics and calculus.
Maybe the biggest event in the fraternities life was rush week. For about three days hundreds of candidates whom we had never seen before came storming through the house and we were supposed to pick the dozen best and pledge them. After 50 years, I am convinced that my dad was right when he said put a pledge pin on the first 12 who are willing and you will do just a well as your selection process and with a lot less labor.
When a candidate came to the front door, one of the brothers would take him through the house and engage him in conversation. The brother was then supposed to make the fateful decision. Is he a second floor lounge candidate or a first floor lounge candidate?
The second floor lounge candidates were courted assiduously while the first floor people were gotten rid of as quickly as possible.
Carl Bartow, who owned a cab was entrusted with taking the first floor people out for ice cream or just out. Carl enjoyed that job.
Despite this random method of picking we were able to pledge some really talented brothers. While I was there the most outstanding brother was Paul E. Gray. He was an unbelievably good student with only about two Bs during his undergraduate years. This was before grade inflation hit MIT.
The upperclassmen were convinced that one day Paul would be president of MIT. They were right. His judgement and performance was so outstanding that the rest of us would study his every move to see what we could learn.
The one lesson he had to teach today's students was don't waste time and plan your studies so you never pull an all-night study session.
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