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History of Kappa-Omega Zeta |
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History of Kappa-Omega Zeta |
The 1920’s was a decade of prosperity and growth both for the nation and for colleges and universities. The increasing wealth of the American families sent thousands of new students into institutions of higher learning. Traditional student living spaces soon filled to overflowing, including established fraternity and sorority housing. The effect on fraternities mirrored that of the “boom” of the early 1900’s which prompted the founding of Lambda Chi Alpha by Warren Cole.
“Homeless” freshmen, unable to acquire accommodations in over-filled dorms and fraternity
houses, grouped together to rent houses near campus. These groups often quickly evolved into
local fraternities, adopting many of the external attributes of their nationally-chartered
neighbors, including Greek-letter names, symbols, and most importantly jeweled badges,
which were THE emblem of fraternity membership in those days. (The
proliferation of 1920’s-era local badges on Ebay is a testament to this phenomenon.)
Many of these locals did not survive the graduation of their founders since they saw no need to admit new members unless a vacancy arose in the house. The houses of these short-lived locals were often occupied by a new “crop” of freshmen every four years who began the cycle all over again by starting a new local.
However many locals decided to outlast their founders and continue as “permanent” brotherhoods. The “boom” in the establishment of local fraternities soon filled national fraternity headquarters with charter applications. Once again the law of “supply and demand” took over as the national fraternities became extremely selective about which groups to charter, having so many from which to choose. The “five year rule” was common (a local must be at least five years old to be considered) to weed out any group that could not survive the graduation of its founders. Most headquarters were also more likely to charter at large and well-known institutions while rejecting applications from small and newly-established colleges, of which there were many.
Early in the decade the National Interfraternity Conference (NIC) recognized the need for new national fraternities to satisfy the demand for new charters. In 1923 the NIC organized a convention of representatives of over 70 local fraternities to discuss forming new national fraternities. One of the new national fraternities which eventually sprang from this convention was Theta Kappa Nu.
The economic boom and subsequent expansion of college campuses and fraternity chapters would come to an end and even reverse at the end of the decade, when an October 1929 stock market crash heralded the onset of the Great Depression.
[Photo: The Owls: a short-lived local fraternity at Georgetown College. Photo from 1924 Belle of the Blue]
[Editor's note: information on QKN is readily available elsewhere, so this section if brief ]
Theta Kappa Nu Fraternity was founded as the Union of eleven local fraternities in Springfield, Missouri, on June 9, 1924. Lead by four alumni founders, QKN was the fastest-growing fraternity ever, attaining forty chapters in its first two years.
Almost all of QKN's chapters began as local fraternities
at small private colleges, organizations which rarely had a chance of chartering
with an older national fraternity in the mid to late 1920's. The chapter at
Georgetown College was chartered in May 1928, the forty-forth, and named
Kentucky-Alpha.
The onset of the Depression in 1929 would hit small private colleges, and thus QKN, very hard. By 1938, about 20 of QKN's 54 chartered chapters had closed, and many of those remaining had small active memberships. With no relief in sight, QKN decided to seek a merger with another national fraternity.
LCA was larger, older, and financially more stable than QKN in 1939, but was also hurting from ten years of economic depression. LCA had preferred chapters at large state universities, so its active chapter roll overlapped little with QKN's. National leaders of both fraternities had worked well together in the past at the NIC and had forged lasting friendships.
Thus when a Union of the two was proposed, discussions proceeded quickly. While the united fraternity would keep the name and ritual of the larger LCA, much of QKN's emblems and traditions would be integrated into the united fraternity. The Union agreement was unanimously ratified by the General Assemblies of both fraternities in the summer of 1939.
The union added 28 new active chapters (plus merged chapters on 5 campuses), and over 7,000 alumni to those of LCA, making this the largest fraternity merger in Greek history.
[Image: QKN Coat of Arms taken from The Paedagogus of LCA]
