Phi Sigma Kappa (), colloquially known as Phi Sig or PSK, is a men's social and academic fraternity with approximately 74 active chapters and provisional chapters in North America. Most of its first two dozen chapters were granted to schools in New England, New York, and Pennsylvania; therefore its early development was strongly Eastern in character, eventually operating chapters at six of the eight Ivy League schools as well as more egalitarian state schools. It later expanded to the South and West. The fraternity has initiated more than 180,000 members since 1873.
According to its Constitution, Phi Sigma Kappa is devoted to the promotion of its three Cardinal Principles: the "Promotion of Brotherhood", the "Stimulation of Scholarship", and the "Development of Character".
Phi Sigma Kappa began on March 15, 1873, at Massachusetts Agricultural College in Amherst (now the University of Massachusetts Amherst) by six sophomores (referred to as The Founders). Phi Sigma Epsilon merged with Phi Sigma Kappa in 1985, which was the largest merger of Greek-letter fraternities.
History
Founding Massachusetts Agricultural College in Amherst, now the University of Massachusetts Amherst, was the setting for the founding of Phi Sigma Kappa. Among its other students in the early 1870s, it had attracted six men of varied backgrounds, ages, abilities, and goals in life who saw the need for a new and different kind of society on campus. Early members recalled that it was Henry Hague who suggested that, since the six were close and were not interested in either of the two local fraternities on campus, they create their own. The six sophomores, meeting in Old North Hall, banded together during the summer of 1873 to form a "society to promote morality, learning and social culture."
The six Founders of Phi Sigma Kappa were: Jabez William Clay Joseph Francis Barrett Henry Hague Xenos Young Clark Frederick George Campbell William Penn Brooks
The six were active college students, members of literary and academic societies and athletic groups, and editors of campus publications. Three were military lieutenants and Brooks was a captain. Hague and Brooks even ran the college store. Academic leaders as well, "it cannot be too strongly stressed that these men were the best students in [the] college." On March 15, 1873, the Founders met in secret. Brooks already had prepared a constitution and symbolism, and Hague had designed a ritual. The first meeting seemed destined to succeed, for the individuals all had done their work well. The ritual has been changed only six times since, and never drastically. The symbolism and esoteric structure have never been altered. Clay was elected president of the group—which for its first five years had no name. Its cryptic characters could not be pronounced, either, though Brooks recalled that outsiders referred to them as "T, double T, T upside-down."Founder Barrett once recalled that the Fraternity was "conceived in iniquity", a gentle statement, implying that the first inklings of formation were around the possibility of initiation mischief, probably sparked by hints of 'shenanigans' by two rival societies that had only formed in the four years prior. It was only after writing out the ritual and exploring its metaphor and meaning that the Founders declared "Say, this is too good an initiation to waste... Gosh, this is a real initiation. Let's make it one. Let's have a fraternity of our own, and initiate some real fellows. With a [full] Ritual. And a Constitution." Rand alludes to this in his MAC history, Yesterdays at Massachusetts State College, 1863-1933, pp 32-35, accessed 5 Nov 2021.
Grand Chapter The Grand Chapter of Phi Sigma Kappa was organized in 1878, five years after the founding of Alpha chapter, to tie alumni and undergraduates into a continuing relationship. Charles Sumner Howe, an 1876 initiate, was elected its first Grand President (at the age of 20). Phi Sigma Kappa was adopted as the group's official name that same year after four years of debate and the work of seven committees.
Expansion
Originally, only one chapter was contemplated by the founders. Although the germ of expansion arrived early, its period of gestation consumed 13 years. As early as 1875 an inquiry had been received from a group at Maine Agricultural College,Now the University of Maine, there, as at UMass the fraternity system was in its infancy. A single chapter of the Latin Letter-named society Q.T.V. had been placed on the campus only the year prior. The likely name of this inquiring group from Maine was the E.C. Society which had formed in 1875. In 1878 the E.C. Society went on to become a chapter of a small Eastern fraternity called Alpha Sigma Chi, which one year later, in 1879, would join in a national merger with Beta Theta Pi, bringing that national five Eastern chapters. and a few years later there was an unexpected letter from the University of New MexicoBaird's Archive shows no local or national chapter having formed in all of New Mexico until 1903; the inquiring group was unsuccessful in finding a national affiliation.-but nothing came of either "feeler." In 1878, John A. Cutter was inducted into the group, a man destined to have much to do with the preservation of the order's early records and with its expansion beyond the confines of the Massachusetts campus. Graduating from Aggie he went on to attend Albany Medical College (which in 1873 had become a unit of Union College) and established a group that became Beta Chapter (1888).
Cutter was also instrumental in the establishment of Gamma at Cornell (1889). The transition to a national order was accomplished. These same early years saw the pin (or badge) adopted essentially as it is today; an induction ritual, which embodied the concept of universal brotherhood and expanded the order's horizons beyond Massachusetts, was written in 1890; the establishment of the fraternity's magazine, The Signet, and the first chapter out of the Northeast came into being at West Virginia University (1891).
"Bigness was never one of our ideas," Big Chief Barrett said in later years, admonishing a convention that was getting starry-eyed over dozens of new expansion possibilities. The principle has held; that though Phi Sigma Kappa stands high among national orders, size alone has never been a major consideration or goal.
Phi Sig's value to other campuses was as an organization offering something special and valuable to persons of varying backgrounds. Massachusetts Agricultural − Aggie − was more egalitarian, open to men of average means but high potential, and not filled with the class-conscious scions of Boston and New York society. In many ways, it has kept this ethic throughout its expansion. It never was simply another fraternity to be invited. Founder Brooks, four years before he died in 1938, put it this way: "We believe that our fraternity exerts a powerful influence for good in national college life. The thought which lay in the minds of the Founders was good. May our brothers never forget that the foundation for a useful and satisfying life must be thought -- thought resulting in the visualization of a high ideal; and the determination to use all of one's strength of body, mind, and soul for its realization."
During the final decade of the 19th century, careful expansion nevertheless led to solid chapters at Yale (Sachem Hall), Columbia, Maryland, Penn State and Penn, among other storied schools. Dartmouth, Brown, and MIT followed soon after. Eventually, Phi Sig was present at six of the eight Ivy League schools; even Canadian campuses were not excluded in the thinking of those who carried new chapters in all directions shortly after the turn of the century. Rho chapter was organized at Queen's University at Kingston, Ontario, in 1903, and seventeen other units were added during the decade. Under Cutter's and Barrett's leadership, the national organization was strengthened, and work was begun among the alumni to support their continued interest in the fraternity after graduation. The Greek system's uniqueness among American organizations is based partly on this principle – the idea of continued involvement for members after their undergraduate days. Phi Sigma Kappa was one of the early leaders in such efforts and remains one of the strongest alumni-oriented groups. If Founder Brooks' assessment of its purpose is true, then there would be no end to the fraternity's influence on its members, and its role in their lives—another vital part of Phi Sig's heritage.
Though the admonition against "bigness for bigness' sake" was always there, the demand to serve campuses wherever they might be was equally loud. In 1909, for example (after the Grand Council had earlier refused to put a chapter on the West Coast because of the distance involved and because it feared such a chapter would be denied the visits and services of a nearby headquarters), the fraternity spanned the continent. The Ridge Road Club of the University of California, Berkeley became Omega chapter—fittingly utilizing the last letter of the Greek alphabet and preparing the way for the first of the Deuteron or second-series units. This national aspect did not escape the notice of the mid-continent; within six months, petitions were received from Minnesota, Illinois and Iowa State. In all, fourteen new chapters were established in the first decade of the new century. Some who were there tell that the induction ceremonies at the early Deuteron units often included a reminder in the form of Founder Hague's benediction on the night of March 15, 1873, words that still ring of idealism and true worth:
Let us ... keep on growing till our beloved fraternity shall become full grown ..., having the strength to help and protect its members, wisdom to guide them to helpful and good things as to college life, and love so warm that its members shall feel its kindly glow, that brotherly love may indeed be a reality and not an idea.
Phi Sigma Kappa became a founding member of the North American Interfraternity Conference, or NIC, in 1910.
To honor the Founders, on , members unveiled "The Shrine" on the wall of Old North College, the site of the first meetings of the fraternity. This memorial was moved to the entrance of Machmer Hall in when Old North was razed.A photo of the Shrine, from the UMass archives, accessed 11 September 2022. The location of Machmer Hall is noted on the Campus Map.
In the 1920s the fraternity continued to grow, especially into the land grant institutions, with establishment of chapters at Oregon State, Stanford, Tennessee, Alabama, Ohio State, Kentucky, Washington, Oregon, South Carolina and others, twenty-five in all.
Great Depression