Page:The Fraternity and the Undergraduate (1923).pdf/211

 I have seen a chapter disrupted by transfers; I have seen its whole policy and character disorganized. I have seen it deteriorate into little more than a mere boarding house. I can at present think of but few cases in which the affiliate really proved a benefit to the chapter, got into its spirit, and became a strong unifier and leader. We have this year at the University of Illinois such an instance, but they are so rare as to attract unusual attention. This fact does not seem to me strange. The transfer, coming from a different chapter has learned its methods, its customs, its traditions, its spirit, and he can not lay these aside at once. In point of fact he seldom desires to do so; he wishes rather to transplant them into other soil. He comes from another college, also, and he finds it as difficult to relinquish its customs as he does those of his chapter.

There is a pretty general opinion prevailing among undergraduates that all the members of one fraternity, their own, perhaps, are in large degree alike—alike in ideals, in temperament, in personal appearance even. Only a few days ago I was speaking to a young sophomore in my office, and I happened in the course of the conversation to refer to his chapter. "How did you know what fraternity I belonged to?" he asked with much interest. "Oh, I usually know," I said, "I can't