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As the door closed on the final moments of the nineteenth century, a
handful of undergraduate men began meeting between classes at City
College of New York. Some had known one another before they graduated
from the New York public school system, and they had wanted to continue
their friendships at City College. The obvious solution was to join a
fraternity, but there was just one problem: This was no ordinary group
of undergraduates. They were an affiliation of Jews and Christians;
and, at the time, entry to all-Jewish and all-Christian fraternities
was barred to individuals and groups that mixed religions.
Given
that their close association challenged the conventional behavior of
the day, perhaps it was only natural that the undergraduates took an
even bolder step by founding their own Fraternity on December 10, 1899.
Symbolized by the Greek letters Delta, Sigma, and Phi, the Fraternity
was based on the principle of the universal brotherhood of man.
Uptown
from City College at Columbia University, the second chapter was
organized in 1901 but did not become a chapter until 1902. To
differentiate the chapters, the first was called Insula, from the Latin
insularis, since it was on the island of Manhattan. Because of its
location in Morningside Heights, the new chapter was called Morningside.
Delta
Sigma Phi was incorporated in New York City on December 2, 1902. Five
members of Insula signed the incorporation papers, with the stated
objectives of dissemination "the principles of friendship and
brotherhood among college men, without respect to race or creed." The
early organizers, including Meyer Boskey (Insula), also drafted Delta
Sigma Phi's laws, requiring open membership to all college men of
quality. The purpose of the Fraternity, written the same year, was "to
fulfill the desire of serious young college men for a fellowship and
brotherhood, as near a practical working ideal as possible not fettered
with too many traditional prejudices and artificial standards of
membership, by a clean, pure, and honorable chapter home life."
Although
such principles later would invite problems, the basic concept of the
Fraternity-embracing brotherhood and congeniality without regard to
religion race-not only attracted other idealists as City College of New
York, it set the stage for expansion onto other campuses.
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