Kenyon College - Reveille Yearbook (Gambier, OH)

Page 26 text:

Along with the Old Kenyon and Military Academy fires, rhi most serious calamity ever to befall the College was the death of freshman Stuart L. Pierson on Octolwr 28. •‘jo... during a DKK initiation. It was the custom at that • pi, t assign to each initiate some remote spot where he in .i wait alone until the actives of tin- chapter came to •t him to the lodge. Pierson was at the east end of • i . ilii .id bridge at the foot of the hill, and in some pl;.a:«-d wa ' he was rim over and killed by an ia-dii! ‘ l train. The story that he was tied to the to u,:‘) popularly In-licved to this day. has never , on. Mv, iy proven. Hut the sensational journalism ui tl • i i., h, •' ,i heyday with the event, as the cartoon at npjh i I.: uai ales; and the College suffered a pro- nounced I'l'iuliment slump which lasted for a decade. The i ane rusi i traditional contest of long standing, was conducted I lacing a cane on a field between the Freshman and ' nhomore classes. At a prescribed signal they charged fort : the class with the most hands on the cane at the end a certain time was declared the win- ner. — Ur 10 DAtt coiuct nuwonn mum I’he Freshman Pajama Parade, c. I960 24 Stuart L. Pierson The Freshman-Sophomore Tug-of-War.

Page 25 text:

 1 Kenyon’s first Greek-let ter fraternity. Lambda Chapter of Delta Kappa Epsilon originated in 1852 in defiance of a college ban on such organizations. Its recognition by the faculty in 1854 paved the way for the emergence of other fraternities, of which the earliest were Alpha Delta Phi in 1858, Psi Upsilon in I860. Beta Theta Pi in 1879, and Delta Tau Delta in 1881. By the eighties nearly ev- ery incoming freshman pledged a fraternity, and for eighty years the social life of the College revolved around them. Even in the late 1960’s over eighty |H?r cent of in- coming freshmen pledged. The figure has fallen off rap- idly in recent years: about two thirds of the Class of '72, sixty per cent of 73, half of 74. forty | er cent of 75, less than thirty per cent of 76. Kenyon’s youngest fraternity. Alpha Sigma Chi (1965) was the first victim of this de- cline in interest, going out of existence in May of 1972. It seems likely that the 1970’s will be recorded as the decade that saw at least the beginning of the end for fraternities at Kenyon. The first DKE lodge. 1855-1871 The Psi U’s. c. 1925, on the steps of Clifford Place. Now the resi- dence of Dean Edwards, this house, built in 1858, was used by Psi Upsilon as a lodge for a few years during the twenties. i 4 The Betas, 1895 23

Page 27 text:

U lra-Cu rrieu I«r A ( i vities 25