Kappa Kappa Psi National Honorary Band Fraternity (, colloquially referred to as KKPsi) is an honorary fraternity for college and university band members in the United States. It was founded on November 27, 1919, on Thanksgiving Day, at Oklahoma Agricultural and Mechanical College, now known as Oklahoma State University, in Stillwater, Oklahoma.
Kappa Kappa Psi primarily operates as a recognition society providing service, leadership opportunities, and social programming for band members. The organization is led by the National Council and Board of Trustees, which are supported by the National Headquarters staff. Tau Beta Sigma, National Honorary Band Sorority, has been recognized as a sister organization since 1947, and the two organizations share National Headquarters in Stillwater Santa Fe Depot, a converted historical Santa Fe rail depot that was purchased by the fraternity and sorority in 1991.
Since 1919, more than 66,000 men and women have been initiated into Kappa Kappa Psi, with nearly 6,000 collegiate members active today. Members of Kappa Kappa Psi include President Bill Clinton; chancellor and eleventh president of Indiana University, Herman B Wells; composers John Williams and John Philip Sousa; conductor William Revelli; and jazz pianist and bandleader Count Basie.
History
Founding and expansion
William A. Scroggs, a student at Oklahoma A&M College, sought to establish an organization that would "bind [dear] friendship together indefinitely" and unite members across colleges and universities. After some initial planning, he consulted band president A. Frank Martin and Bohumil Makovsky, director of bands at Oklahoma A&M, both of whom agreed to help with the creation of the fraternity. From Makovsky's band, ten members were selected as the first members of Kappa Kappa Psi: William Houston Coppedge, Clyde DeWitt Haston, George Asher Hendrickson, Dick Hurst, Andrew Franklin Martin, Iron Hawthorne Nelson, William Alexander Scroggs, Raymond David Shannon, Clayton Everett Soule, and Carl Anderson Stevens.
The founders accepted chemistry professor Hilton Ira Jones' suggestion to name the fraternity Kappa Kappa Psi. It was organized on November 27, 1919, with Scroggs as president. Martin was it first national president. Legal organization was completed on March 5, 1920, when the fraternity received its charter from the state of Oklahoma. The formal organization of the fraternity was celebrated on either March 23 or 25, 1920, with the initiation of the first membership class and a banquet. The uncertainty comes from an error in the article that makes it unclear whether the initiation and banquet took place on Tuesday the 23rd or on Thursday the 25th.
The fraternity grew rapidly in its first years. Within ten years, there were 27 chapters spanning from the University of Washington in the west to Duke University in the east. Only fourteen chapters were installed during the Great Depression, while World War II put a further damper on fraternal activities.
At the 1939 National Convention in Cincinnati, Ohio, plans were set into action to make Kappa Kappa Psi an international fraternity. Invitations were sent to colleges and universities in Canada and South America, but no chapters were ever installed at those institutions.
World War II
Before World War II, most college bands were military-style and exclusively male. When the war began, most band members left to serve in the armed forces, which greatly strained the fraternity—to the point that 90 percent of chapters were forced to suspend activities. The Grand Council granted those chapters that were forced to suspend their activities "war furlough" so that instead of treating the chapter as inactive, their service would be honored. War furlough enabled a chapter to seal its records and keep its materials in safekeeping for the duration of the war. Petitions for war furlough required the signatures of all active members, the director of bands or other faculty member who was an honorary member of the fraternity, as well as the signature of the college or university president. Only five chapters remained active during the war: the Alpha chapter at Oklahoma A&M College, Alpha Beta at Butler University, Alpha Iota at the University of Colorado at Boulder, Alpha Omicron at Texas Technological College, and Alpha Pi at the University of Tulsa. With so many members serving overseas, including members of the Grand Council, the 1943 and 1945 national conventions were canceled.
Because of the number of men serving in the military, many band programs opened up to women during this time. At Texas Tech, a local sorority for women in the band was established as Tau Beta Sigma. The women of Tau Beta Sigma petitioned Kappa Kappa Psi to be chartered as an auxiliary chapter of the fraternity, which was supported by founder A. Frank Martin, who was serving as National Executive Secretary, and Max Mitchell, Grand Second Vice President. On January 25, 1944, Martin wrote to fellow founder, William Scroggs, "If we do not meet this new situation and give recognition to the girls who are coming into the bands or make it possible to give aid or assistance to the many universities and colleges that have bands composed of both boys and girls, we will be playing second fiddle within the next five years to some band fraternity that will grant membership to boys and girls and their chapters will open up in the smaller schools where ours have died." The fraternity was unable to decide whether or not to accept Tau Beta Sigma's petition due to the severely reduced number of members and the cancelation of the 1943 and 1945 national conventions.
Ultimately, Tau Beta Sigma decided not to become an auxiliary chapter of Kappa Kappa Psi and chartered as a national organization on March 26, 1946. They were officially recognized and accepted as a sister organization of the fraternity at the first national convention following the war in 1947.
Post-war expansion After the war, Kappa Kappa Psi began an ambitious expansion program to reactivate old chapters and install new ones. The fraternity had been divided into 11 districts since 1941, which were led by a Grand Counselor (now called Governors). With the revitalization of the fraternity, these districts were reorganized and pamphlets were printed detailing the fraternity's purposes and history. District governors were charged with giving information to potential chapters. The expansion program was quite successful—in the ten years following the fraternity's reorganization in 1947, Kappa Kappa Psi more than doubled the number of installed chapters, growing from 45 chapters installed before the war to 98 by the end of 1957.
May 1957 saw the first chapters at historically black universities: On May 19, at Langston University, Kappa Kappa Psi chartered its 96th chapter, Delta Alpha, on the campus of Langston University. On May 22, the 97th chapter, Gamma Omega, was established at Texas Southern University.
On September 1, 1967, the 11 districts were consolidated into nine. These districts would again be consolidated in 1987, into six districts with regional names: Northeast, Southeast, Southwest, North Central, Midwest, and Western.
Effect of Title IX On June 23, 1972, Title IX was enacted and had tremendous repercussions for the women's rights movement. Title IX prevented organizations from excluding members based on sex. Although social fraternities were exempt from the law, Kappa Kappa Psi, as a recognition society, fell under its purview. Rutgers University's board of trustees decided that Rutgers should serve as a model for the rest of the United States in Title IX implementation and mandated that all organizations on campus become coeducational or face disciplinary actions. The men of the Alpha Phi chapter of Kappa Kappa Psi regarded this issue as minor given the ongoing Vietnam War. With dwindling numbers, Alpha Phi looked to the new women members of the Rutgers band as potential members. The national constitution of Kappa Kappa Psi prohibited women from holding membership, so the Alpha Phi chapter explored the possibility of establishing a chapter of Tau Beta Sigma. This was unrealistic, as the undergraduate college for women prohibited the formation of or membership in any sorority.
On October 8, 1972, the men of Alpha Phi voted to admit women into their chapter. They alerted National Headquarters, and National Secretary Robert H. Rubin replied telling Alpha Phi not to administer any degree of ritual until the issue could be discussed in person. When Rubin arrived at Rutgers on November 11, 1972, he learned that the first degree of ritual had been administered, which began formal probationary membership. Alpha Phi's charter was immediately revoked and their chapter was placed on suspension. On November 13, the former Alpha Phi chapter formally reorganized as Mu Upsilon Alpha (local). On October 7, 2007, Mu Upsilon Alpha became a chapter of Mu Beta Psi.
At the national convention of 1973, the issues presented by Title IX were discussed by the Grand Chapter. The jurisdiction committee considered several options that would bring the fraternity into compliance but was not receptive to the general idea. At the insistence of committee chair Richard Adler, from the Nu chapter at the University of Michigan, the jurisdiction committee presented the Grand Chapter with an amendment "without prejudice"—that is, without a recommendation for or against the amendment—that would strike the section of the constitution that reads, "All members of the Fraternity shall be of the male sex." The committee simultaneously recommended that the delegation take no action to change the constitution or consider a merger with Tau Beta Sigma. The amendment was defeated, and a separate amendment was proposed and approved that changed the wording to say, "All active, alumni, inactive, and life members of the Fraternity be of the male sex." This amendment was approved, allowing the fraternity to initiate women as honorary members.
During the 1973–1975 biennium, pressure was put on Kappa Kappa Psi chapters by their host institutions to admit women to comply with Title IX. The issue was again brought up at the 1975 national convention, and a joint committee consisting of an equal number of members from Kappa Kappa Psi and Tau Beta Sigma was formed to explore the legal possibilities of a corporate merger of the two organizations, with the results of their investigation to be read at the 1977 convention. At the 1977 national convention, votes were cast by the Kappa Kappa Psi and Tau Beta Sigma delegations for a merger—Kappa Kappa Psi voted 211 against, 9 for; Tau Beta Sigma voted 104 against, 4 for. With the idea of a merger soundly defeated, the delegation voted to remove all references to gender from the constitution, allowing women to become active members in full and regular standing.
The first women to join the fraternity were sisters of the Sigma chapter of Tau Beta Sigma at Arizona State University, who merged with the Beta Omicron chapter of Kappa Kappa Psi after a unanimous vote of both organizations. These women were Patricia A. Childress, Lydia L. Lennon, Leslie A. Anderson, Mary L. Duffala, Mary M. Ketterer, Kristina M. Zipsnis, Clara M. Bertilson, and Toni Ryon, who were initiated into Beta Omicron on August 26, 1977. On August 27, Lea F. Fuller was initiated. The first woman to participate in the formal probationary membership process and become a member of Kappa Kappa Psi was Darragh Hill Young, who was initiated into the Beta Tau chapter at Wichita State University on September 1, 1977.
Early 21st century
Beginning with the installation of the Kappa Pi chapter at Claflin University on February 24, 2001, 57 new chapters have been installed in the 21st century.