Theta Delta Chi: Kappa Charge

Theta Delta Chi, the eleventh oldest of the college fraternities, was founded in 1847 at Union College in Schenectady, NY by six members of the class of 1849: William G. Akin, Abel Beach, Theodore Brown, Andrew H. Green, William Hyslop, and Samuel F. Wile. In 1849, Green and Akin along with Francis Martindale (the first initiate), organized the Beta Charge (later renamed Beta Proteron) at Ballston Law School. However, two years later the school itself moved and the new Charge was disbanded and the members put on Alpha's rolls.

During the 1850's Theta Delta Chi spread rapidly, adding Charges at Vermont, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, William and Mary, Virginia, Hobart, Wesleyan, Harvard, Brown, Bowdoin, Kenyon, Tufts, Washington and Jefferson, and North Carolina. Few of these remained active for long, although several were later revived. Kappa at Tufts (1856) presently enjoys the honor of being the oldest active Charge in continuous existence.

During the 1860's new Charges, at, among other institutions, Lafayette and Rochester (1867), Hamilton (1868), and Dartmouth (1869), continued to be chartered at a pace that kept slightly ahead of attrition caused by Charges going inactive. The Civil War, however, severely weakened most Charges as men left for military service; many of the earliest Charges went inactive during this period, and expansion in the South ceased for a century.

Only after 1870 did Theta Delta Chi begin to acquire its present configuration. Westward expansion had traditionally been opposed by a large segment of the Fraternity, which worried that supervision and solidarity would suffer if Theta Delta Chi were to stray far from the East. The rise of the large state universities in the West, particularly in the Big Ten, eventually overcame that resistance and the Universities of Michigan, Minnesota, and Wisconsin welcomed Theta Delta Chi between 1889 and 1895. Further Midwest expansion included Illinois (1908) and Iowa State 1919). Berkeley (1900), Stanford (1903), the University of Washington (1913) and UCLA (1929) brought Theta Delta Chi in strength to the Pacific coast.

Expansion in the East during the 1870's, 1880's and 1890's brought Charges to Cornell, Boston University, Wabash, CCNY, Columbia, Lehigh, Amherst, Yale, MIT, Williams, and George Washington. Pennsylvania (1915) was the last Eastern Charge to become active before World War I, although 1904 and 1910 saw the reactivation of the Southern Charges, Epsilon and Nu.

Theta Delta Chi became an International Fraternity with charterings at McGill (1901) and Toronto (1912).

The Great Depression and the Second World War saw a number of Charges go inactive and brought a halt to expansion. At its Centennial Convention in 1947, Theta Delta Chi stood at 28 Charges, a number that would begin to increase only in the 1950's.

The institutions of the Fraternity slowly took shape during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. In 1867 anti-fraternity sentiment at Union led to the disbanding of the Alpha. As the Mother Charge, Alpha had exercised governing power over the Fraternity, but her demise, although temporary, brought about the creation of the Grand Lodge by action of the eight surviving Charges at the Convention of 1868. The Grand Lodge, originally three and now five officers (of whom two are undergraduates) remains the elected governing body of the Fraternity to this day (Alpha was rechartered in 1923, although executive power has remained with the Grand Lodge).

The annual Convention has evolved into a major international assembling of Theta Delts at which all Charges are represented by undergraduate and graduate delegates and at which the major business of the Fraternity is transacted.

The 1881 Convention required that the President of the Grand Lodge visit every Charge once a year; Central Fraternity Office staff now performs these duties. In 1869, the first issue of The Shield was produced, qualifying it as the oldest fraternity magazine. Although it lapsed after one issue, The Shield was revived in 1884 and has been published continually since then.

The Central Fraternity Office, or CFO, evolved over many decades from a virtually one-man job, filled by a Grand Lodge member, and housed in the now defunct Theta Delta Chi Club in New York City, to a professional staff consisting of an Executive Director, a Director of Operations, a Director of Charge Services, a Charge Consultant (formally called a Field Secretary), and one or more undergraduate interns, refered to as Member Service Coordinators. It currently operates from 214 Lewis Wharf in Boston, Massachusetts.

The financial health of Theta Delta Chi was ensured through the establishment of two entities, the Founders' Corporation in 1910 and the Educational Foundation in 1944. Any Theta Delt may join the Corporation on payment of $250 and thereby vote at its annual meetings. It also receives bequests and holds and invests all funds for the benefit of the Fraternity. The Educational Foundation, a 501 (c)(3) public charity, receives bequests and owns the property occupied by the CFO and other assets. It funds the educational activities of the Fraternity.

Between 1951 and 1970 the Fraternity added Charges at Northwestern, Penn State, Arizona State, Rhode Island, Michigan State, Santa Barbara, Calgary, Virginia Tech, and Virginia Commonwealth; Bucknell was rechartered also. Several of these charterings brought into being some of the strongest Charges in the Fraternity, but in the increasingly uncertain climate of those times, with anti-fraternity sentiment gaining strength on a number of campuses, a significant number went inactive. The 1992 rechartering at Wabash continues a pattern of reviving inactive Charges; new charterings in the 1990's and 2000 include Northeastern, Nova Southeastern, Greensboro, and the latest chartering at Merrimack which occured on February 19, 2000. The Fort Lauderdale and Greensboro, NC Charges mark a significant re-entry into the South.

The Chi Charge, originally founded in 1889, and active for most of the time since then will be re-chartered this summer at the Annual Convention.

Active Charges

A	Alpha	Union College, Schenectady, NY
B	Beta	Cornell University, Ithaca, NY
B^D	Beta Deuteron	Iowa State University, Ames, IA
B^p	Beta Proteron	Ballston Law School, New York, NY
B^t	Beta Triton	Lake Forest College, Lake Forest, IL
C	Chi	University of Rochester, Rochester, NY
C^D	Chi Deuteron	George Washington University, Washington, DC
C^t	Chi Triton	Merrimack College, North Andover, MA
D	Delta	Rensselaer Polytech, Troy, NY
D^D	Delta Deuteron	University of California, Berkeley, CA
D^t	Delta Triton	Northeastern University, Boston, MA
E	Epsilon	College of William and Mary, Williamsburg, VA
E^D	Epsilon Deuteron	Yale University, New Haven, CT
E^t	Epsilon Triton	Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ
H	Eta	Bowdoin College, Brunswick, ME
H^D	Eta Deuteron	Stanford University, Stanford, CA
H^t	Eta Triton	Nova Southeastern University, Ft. Lauderdale, FL
G	Gamma	University of Vermont, Burlington, VT
G^D	Gamma Deuteron	University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI
G^t	Gamma Triton	Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI
I	Iota	Harvard University, Cambridge, MA
I^D	Iota Deuteron	Williams College, Williamstown, MA
K	Kappa	Tufts University, Medford, MA
K^D	Kappa Deuteron	University of Illinois, Campaign, IL
K^t	Kappa Triton	Northeastern University, Evanston, IL
L	Lambda	Boston University, Boston, MA
L^D	Lambda Deuteron	University of Toronto, Ontario
L^g	Lambda Graduate	New York City, NY
M	Mu	University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC
M^D	Mu Deuteron	Amherst College, Amherst, MA
M^t	Mu Triton	University of North Carolina, Greensboro, NC
N	Nu	University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA
N^D	Nu Deuteron	Lehigh University, Bethlehem, PA
N^t	Nu Triton	Virginia Polytechnic, Blacksburg, VA
O	Omicron	Wesleyan University, Middletown, CT
O^D	Omicron Deuteron	Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH
O^t	Omicron Triton	University of Rhode Island, Kingston, RI
F	Phi	Lafayette College, Easton, PA
F^D	Phi Deuteron	University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA
F^p	Phi Proteron	Florida Institute of Technology, Melbourne, FL
P	Pi	Washington & Jefferson College, Canonsburg, PA
P^D	Pi Deuteron	City College of New York, NY
P^t	Pi Triton	California State of Pennsylvania, California, PA
Y	Psi	Hamilton College, Clinton, NY
Y^D	Psi Deuteron	University of California, Los Angeles, CA
Y^t	Psi Triton	University of California, Santa Barbara, CA
R	Rho	Washington & Lee University, Lexington, VA
R^D	Rho Deuteron	Columbia University, New York, NY
R^p	Rho Proteron	University of South California, Columbia, SC
R^t	Rho Triton	Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA
S	Sigma	Dickinson College, Carlisle, PA
S^D	Sigma Deuteron	University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI
S^t	Sigma Triton	Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA
T	Tau	Princeton University, Princeton, NJ
T^D	Tau Deuteron	University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN
Q	Theta	Kenyon College, Gambier, OH
Q^D	Theta Deuteron	Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA
U	Upsilon	Bucknell University, Lewisburg, VA
U^D	Upsilon Deuteron	Wabash College, Crawfordsville, IN
X	Xi	Hobart College, Geneva, NY
X^D	Xi Deuteron	University of Washington, Seattle, WA
X^t	Xi Triton	State University of New York, Albany, NY
Z	Zeta	Brown University, Providence, RI
Z^D	Zeta Deuteron	McGill University, Montreal, Quebec
Z^t	Zeta Triton	University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta