Page:The Fraternity and the Undergraduate (1923).pdf/226

 managed, as its senior class is strong or weak. I have in mind a number of instances of fraternities at the University which have started in with what was thought to be an excellent freshman class, and have come to the end of the four years with one or two or occasionally with not a single one of the men who were originally pledged. Such a fraternity is unquestionably weak. With no seniors it has little organization, and it reveals the fact that for some time it has had little, or there would have been someone to save a few of the upperclassmen from the wreck. The organization which by one means or another can carry a large percentage of the men through to the senior year and graduate them, has a strength that is worth much to the organization and to the institution of which it is a part.

It has been a matter of interest to me to make some investigations at the University of Illinois relative to these men who join fraternities and who do not finish their college course. Recently I sent to the local secretary of each of twenty-three national fraternities a questionnaire asking the number of initiates over a period of four years in each fraternity, and also the number of these initiates who finally graduated. Through our class annuals and the registrar's office I was able to check results which came in reply to these inquiries,