Tau Phi Tau

We are not a nationwide organisation, the concept of community based means that we are only at Montclair State University.

When was your organisation founded at Montclair State University? Which are the colours of your organisation?

Theta Chi of Penn State

In the early part of the 1917-1918 academic year there were many hot, high and passionate Northeast Bloc gatherings on the issue of whether this bloc, then a limited community brotherhood, should go on in this role or abandon its limitations and become a community, non-restrictive brotherhood.

Following week-long debates that were threatening the survival of war-ravaged memberships, a ballot was taken and the outcome was the founding of the Phi Tau Alpha Family. Eventually, after the ruling was made to become a locally non-restrictive brotherhood, many members thought it was the most challenging thing to enact laws through determined affiliation, it was found that work had only just started and everything was going well.

Winfield F. Smith'20, the Chairman, nominated the Board to obtain facts and data and to elaborate its advice on name, composition, ceremonies, insignia, and more. The work of the members of these various commissions was what actually founded the Phi Tau Alpha Brotherhood. Its work merged and there were many common sessions of the commissions to establish a name, a charter, a rite and insignias to fit into a functioning outfit.

It was hard enough to achieve this challenge of review and establishment by the commissions in board memberships, but bringing their work successfully through the General Assembly was another long debate of views - points of view that were unrelentingly persistent on many points. The work of establishing a new organisation very different from the Northeast Club continued in mid-winter 1917-1918.

After the Liaison Committee of the College's General Faculty gave its approval to make the amendment on 23 February 1915, the new organisation was virtually operational, but it was not until 6 April 1918 that the official amendment was communicated to the staff and other departments by a smoking man and a welcome.

The real admission of the founding members of Phi Tau Alpha took place on March 22, 1918. We were accepted into the Intramural Council on 15 April 1918, an organisation of the Greek letter brotherhoods. It was the last stage in the formal foundation of the Phi Tau Alpha Brotherhood and placed it on an equitable footing with the modern NGC.

Phi Tau Alpha was chosen with much diligence and consideration, a board had presented three to the general assembly. It was a very good way to get used to the ceremony, and if the brotherhood had been around for many years, it would certainly have been good. It took a whole sabbatical to implement them, and when the candidate countries had finished them, they must have certainly chosen to join a rewarding brotherhood.

The following is a meagre depiction of the brotherhood crest and badges that were part of the ceremony and worked into the ceremony; the crest was created in the form of a simple sign that is about four and a quarter inch wide and about seven-inch high. Emblem and its components; even the colouring of the individual parts was thought out with a thought in the head.

It was the realization of parts of the phi tau alpha cult and of the ideal. It was Raymond B. Poeppel who created the crest in'20. Phi Tau Alpha's emblem was very striking in shape and styling. There were sixteen gems, four opaques and twelve beads around the mark.

Epithelial was placed on the four fourths of the insignia and the beads were evenly distributed. Items on the insignia were a symbol of parts of the ceremony and were placed on them to constantly remind the friar who wore them of what his brotherhood was. Designing a connection insignia that is dissuasive and easy to recognize, contains Brotherhood insight while maintaining a high level of esthetic proportions and looks was a challenging work.

The insignia was drafted by George W. Chapman in'20 with the help of proposals from the board. This new Brotherhood had a specific goal, which was for every one of its brethren to seek endurance in every business, to be ambitious in everything that is precious, dignified and good, to be tolerant of the opinions and thoughts of others for his brethren, to learn when the highest level in his realm, to be perfect in his masculinity and to be honest in his relationships with his people.

Generally, the Phi Tau Alpha ideals were a brotherhood in which all brethren should exercise friendliness and tolerance towards one another and reach as close as possible to the fraternal sentiment that existed between them. Founding members of the Phi Tau Alpha Fundernity will follow:

The Founder of the Phi Tau Alpha Fraternity agreed that the organisation was a brotherly structure of high ideals that would last for a long period of it if it had not been quickly accepted by a nationwide organisation. In their praises of the Constitutional and Military Rites, the members of these nationwide organisations, who thoroughly examined each stage of Phi Tau Alpha, did not sing.

A great welder in the back was the thought and expectation that she would eventually become part of a rewarding brotherhood. The fact that a separate commission of Raymond Poeppel'20, George W. Chapman'20 and Clifford Beaven'21 was set up well before the Phi Tau Alpha organisation was completed, even before the Charter of the Collegiate School had been issued, to examine ways and means of becoming a section of a nationwide federation and, if possible, to choose one that could be applied for.

During the rest of the term, 1917-1918, this commission did not achieve much to do anything specific. There was a gathering in the south of 1918 and the number of brotherhoods available was reduced to one, Theta Chi. Raymond Poeppel'20 and William Thompson'19's close acquaintanceship with a number of Theta Chi at the University of the Pennsylvania had much to do with this choice, but the nature and reputation of Theta Chi in comparison to other nationwide brotherhoods has been scrutinized well.

Theta Chi began negotiating immediately and in the autumn of 1918, when the members came back to the liaison office, which had been taken over by the administration as military base, these messages were resumed and sent to the National Secretary of Theta Chi, who was then Frederick Ladue.

This was probably reassuring because there is another moment of the session when the first promises were made for a new house fund area. Ensuring a better hall of chapters was always in the brothers' heads as something to look forward to. Concrete measures have now been taken to establish a Theta Chi section.

The Investigation Commission of the Grandchapters was welcomed and a paper edition of a pamphlet spread throughout the entire land to various chapters of Theta Chi. When they had left, other Theta Chi members came to visit the Brotherhood, some of whom were heralded and some unexpected. These were from the main section and other chapters close by, such as Dickinson's Pi section, Cornell's Lambda section and the University of Pennsylvania Kappa section.....

The 25th February 1919 he was informed by Mr. Frederick Ladue, the national secretary of Theta Chi, that the Phi Tau Alpha Fraternity Petition was formally adopted by Theta Chi Fraternity and that Phi Tau Alpha would be founded as Omega Chapters in this organisation.

On March 10, 1919 the last Phi Tau Alpha Brotherhood met and on March 14, 1919 the Phi Tau Alpha Brotherhood became the Omega chapter of Theta Chi.