Beta Theta Pi (), commonly known as Beta, is a North American social fraternity that was founded in 1839 at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. One of North America's oldest fraternities, , it consists of 150 active chapters and colonies in the United States and Canada. More than 223,000 members have been initiated worldwide and there are currently around 10,000 undergraduate members. Beta Theta Pi is the oldest of the three fraternities that formed the Miami Triad, along with Phi Delta Theta and Sigma Chi.

History

thumb|alt=Old Main|[[Harrison Hall (then known as Old Main) at Miami University, founding site of Beta Theta Pi, pictured about 1896]]

Students at Miami University at the time of Beta's founding had previously formed two rival literary societies: The Erodelphian and Union Literary Society. A student of the school, John Reily Knox, gathered members of both the Erodelphian and Union Literary Societies to create a new fraternity. In a letter that he wrote four years after the founding of the Alpha chapter, Knox said that other fraternities being formed possessed "many objectionable features which rendered them liable to be used as engines of evil as well as instruments of good."

The fraternity was formally founded on August 8, 1839, by eight male students of Miami University. Its founders included:

  • Thomas Boston Gordon
  • Charles Henry Hardin
  • John Reily Knox
  • David Linton
  • Samuel Taylor Marshall
  • James George Smith
  • Michael Clarkson Ryan
  • John Holt Duncan

In 1879, Beta Theta Pi became the first college fraternity to publish its constitution.

Men of Principle initiative

In August 1996, St. Lawrence University Chairman and Beta Theta Pi alumnus E.B. Wilson wrote a letter to the editor of The Beta Theta Pi magazine challenging the general fraternity to undertake a project to reverse the emerging Greek and Beta culture, which he felt was not in line with their core values. After this first year of piloting, the Men of Principle initiative was officially introduced at the 160th General Convention in Oxford, in 1999.

Since the beginning of the initiative in 1998, its international headquarters closed 64 chapters by 2008 and 85 chapters by 2013 for hazing or failing to comply with standards set by the Men of Principle initiative. , approximately 25,000 members graduated from one of the fraternity's leadership programs.

The program was later renamed the "John and Nellie Wooden Institute for Men of Principle", named for member and basketball coach John Wooden, in Oxford, Ohio.

Symbols

The five core values espoused by Beta Theta Pi are cultivation of intellect, responsible conduct, mutual assistance, integrity, and trust.

Flag

The flag of Beta Theta Pi similarly displays several symbols of the fraternity. The flag includes three horizontal stripes, blue, then white, and then blue. The flag shows three five-pointed stars that are made to form an equilateral triangle. The Beta dragon is set within this equilateral triangle.

thumb|Founder John Reily Knox in 1886

Poem

Beta Theta Pi uses the poem The Bridge Builder as a symbol of its will and estate giving program.

Chapters

Notable members

Beta Theta Pi has notable members across industries, including more U.S. Supreme Court justices (8), Rhodes Scholars (85), and members of the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives than any other fraternity.

The following is a select group of notable Beta Theta Pi members.

  • Richard Lugar (Denison University, 1954), US Senator for Indiana
  • Bill Nelson (University of Florida, 1965), congressman and administrator for NASA in 2021
  • Bill Bowerman (University of Oregon, 1933), Founder of Nike
  • Dan Carney (Wichita State University, 1953), Founder of Pizza Hut
  • Chris DeWolfe (University of Washington, 1988), Founder of Myspace.com, CEO of SGN Games
  • Charles G. Koch (Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1957), Founder and CEO of Koch Industries
  • Bruce Nordstrom (University of Washington, 1955), CEO of Nordstrom
  • Donald Petersen (University of Washington, 1946), CEO of the Ford Motor Company
  • Sam Walton (University of Missouri, 1940), Founder of Walmart
  • Mike Brown (Dartmouth College, 1957), Owner of the Cincinnati Bengals
  • Don Coryell (University of Washington, 1947), Coach of the San Diego Chargers
  • Shahid Khan (University of Illinois, 1971), Owner of the Jacksonville Jaguars, Fulham FC, AEW
  • Mike Schmidt (Ohio University, 1971), baseball player for the Philadelphia Phillies and Baseball Hall of Fame inductee
  • John Wooden (Purdue University, 1932), Men's basketball coach at UCLA
  • Robert Engle (Williams College, 1964), Economist and Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences winner
  • Dale Mortensen (Willamette University, 1961), Economist and Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences winner
  • George Whipple (Yale University, 1903), Physician and Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine winner
  • William "Adam West" Anderson (Whitman College, 1951), actor who played the first Batman

Local chapter or member misconduct

As part of a multi-year dispute over co-ed student housing issues, the Beta Theta Pi chapter at Wesleyan University had been refusing access to campus security personnel. In March 2010, Wesleyan issued a warning to students to avoid the chapter house. In October of that year, a freshman was raped by a non-member, non-student at a Beta Theta Pi Halloween party. In 2012, a lawsuit by a female student at Wesleyan University accused the university's chapter of sexual assault and called its fraternity house a "rape factory" due to the predatory practices present and constant sexual assaults of young women visiting the house. Both the fraternity and the university reached an out-of-court settlement with the victim in 2014.

In March 2013, the Carnegie Mellon University chapter was suspended following a police investigation of sexually explicit videos and photographs of female students circulating among members.

In December 2014, the University of California, Santa Barbara chapter was shut down after years of violations and suspensions. Two pledges were sent to the hospital due to hazing which prompted the fraternity's national office to finally close the chapter.

In 2017, the Pennsylvania State University chapter was permanently disbanded due to the death of a pledge, Tim Piazza, related to hazing and alcohol abuse. Piazza was forced to drink excessive amounts of alcohol and fell down the stairs into the basement, where he eventually fell into a coma and died. The members of the fraternity had purposefully destroyed video footage of what happened in the basement. Eighteen members of the fraternity were arrested and charged for his wrongful death. The former chapter faces more than 147 charges, including involuntary manslaughter and tampering with evidence.

See also

  • List of social fraternities and sororities

References

Sources

  • Brown, James T., ed., Catalogue of Beta Theta Pi, New York: 1917.