Page:The Fraternity and the College (1915).pdf/28

 Only last spring two fraternity officers came to me and said, "Two of our sophomores are developing bad associations down town; they are learning to drink, and they have more than once come home drunk. We have done what we could, but the conditions are not improved. We want you to help us." I called the men, we talked it over, they promised to break away from their harmful associations, and they have kept their promise. This fraternity was not an unusual one nor was it a particularly "Sunday School" organization; in fact it was quite the contrary, but it had standards of conduct and of scholarship which these men were violating, and they were thus helping to lower the standing of the fraternity. The case of another student is interesting. He is a boy of excellent mind but of weak principles. He had been guilty during his first two years in college of a number of derelictions of which I had talked seriously to him. His influence, I felt, was growing bad. He was a ready promiser who admitted usually more than I accused him of and offered immediate and complete reformation. His reform, however, was usually short lived. I was convinced that he ought to be sent away from college, but before having him dismissed I called the president of his fraternity and put the facts before him. He asked to be given a final chance at the man and I consented, with