J. D. B. News Letter

The Brown University corporation must decide whether Jewish students may organize a local chapter of Pi Lambda Phi, the national fraternity, which is predominantly Jewish, Harold B. Tanner, counsel for Brown University, has declared.

Mr. Tanner said that the question can not be decided by an administrative officer following the declaration of Dean Otis E. Randall that Jewish members of Pi Lambda Phi had resigned from the fraternity, and the denial by fraternity members that they had resigned. The members say that they have only given up the charter for a Brown chapter but are still members of the national fraternity and wear the pins of the organization.

The disbanding of the chapter was brought about as the result of the university’s stand that a man could not be a member of the chapter and a student at Brown at the same time. Dean Randall contended that this ruling did not constitute a threat of expulsion and said that the men resigned voluntarily.

Because the chapter was formed and the charter was granted without the knowledge of the university, officials said that they demanded that the organization disband.

However, this action does not settle the question whether the fraternity may have a chapter at Brown, or whether any purely sectarian fraternity may be formed on the hill, according to Mr. Tanner.

A statement regarding the situation is to be issued at the Pi Lambda Phi headquarters, New York City.

The organization is prominently Jewish in its membership, although not limited to Jews. It was founded at Yale and among its first members are Albert Ottinger. Republican candidate for Governor of New York at the last election; Arthur Garfield Hays. New York lawyer: Jerome Alexander. New York chemist, and Supreme Rex of the fraternity: Rev. Henry Mark Fisher of Atlantic City, who is a Christian; Louis Auspacher, dramatist : Alfred B. Nathan, New York attorney.

In ruling that the status of the fraternity must be decided by the university corporation. Mr. Tanner said.

“A group of undergraduates in Brown University organized, without the consent or knowledge of the university authorities a chapter of Pi Lombda Phi. Subsequently representatives of the national organization brought the fact to the attention of the university authorities. The position taken by these mathematics was that two group of any mature could be organized in the university without first seeking the permission of proper authorities and the group was for this reason requested to disband.”

Stating that the group did disband as a Brown chapter but still holds membership in the national organization. Mr. Tanner continued:

“The only question that has been settled is that a group organized within the university without the consent of its proper authorities must upon requirement be disbanded as an organization.

“The question of whether there may be in Brown University a chapter of Pi Lambda Phi-or even a chapter of a sectarian fraternity under proper circumstances of application-has not been settled by any of the above events mentioned. This matter remains to be settled by the corporation of the university and is not in the hands of any administrative office.”

There are at present at Brown two distinct cultural groups of Jews, the Menorah Society and the Tower Club. Dean Randall referred specifically to these two organizations as the nucleus for the possible development of a Jewish group which might at some time later become a local chapter of a non-sectarian fraternity.

Archie Smith, president of the Menorah. took exception to this specific reference and to Dean Randal’s failure to mention the Psi Club of which Mr. Smith is chancellor.

“The Menorah Society never was a fraternity, never will be, never intends to be and won’t become one if they force it on us,” Mr. Smith said.

“The present discrimination against Jews is apparent from the fact that Jews constitute about 20 per cent of the student body at Brown, and yet it is almost the only college of its size without a fraternity to membership in which Jews are eligible,” Mr. Smith said.

The question of Jewish fraternities at Brown University was the subject of correspondence last fall between Louis Marshall, president of the American Jewish Committee, and President W. H. P. Faunce of Brown University.

In a letter to Dr. Faunce, Mr. Marshall said he understood there were at Brown University a number of secret fraternities in which it was impossible for a Jewish student to enter, however meritorious his character and abilities. Excluded because of racial and religious motives. said Mr. Marshall, the Jewish students had no alternative but to establish Jewish fraternities.

While he thought it would be better if there were no secret fraternities of any kind. Mr. Marshall declared that the fraternity spirit has of late become very strong in university life and it has become the ambition of most students to join a fraternity.

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“To deprive Jewish students because of their creed and race of membership in existing fraternities and to forbid them to organize fraternities of their own. while everybody else is either urged or permitted to join a fraternity by secret oaths, savors of unfairness and injustice,” Mr. Marshall said.

In his reply Dr. Faunce said he regarded the establishment of any fraternity along racial or religious lines “as a confession of failure on the part of the American democracy.”

“I should strongly object to a Baptist fraternity at Brown, although I am a Baptist,” he declared. “If I had my way I would open every college fraternity in America to every worthy man of good character and scholarship, regardless of his origin or faith. That is my ideal, and for it I am steadily working both in Brown University and in every other college where I may have the slightest influence.”