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Delta
Upsilon
| The Middlebury
chapter of Delta Upsilon (DU) began in the fall of 1856 as an
anti-secret society that refused to exist as a secret underground
group. DU's refusal to hide its untraditional and exciting activities
as well as its defiant attittude toward disapproving college
faculty and prude townspeople resulted in fundamental changes
on Middlebury's campus. DU rapidly became a dominant student
group on campus and as such attracted increasing attention from
students and alumni. Despite its comparatively late start on
campus (Chi Psi and Delta Kappa Epsilion had secretly existed
since the 1820s to 1830s), DU's popularity rapidly grew and
by 1861 it was the largest fraternity on campus (Stameshkin,
176). The popularity of fraternites, especially anti-secret
DU, fueled struggles over leadership positions and power between
these new social groups and long-standing literary organizations,
such as the Philomathesian society (Stameshkin, 177). |
This excerpt
from the Middlebury Register, a student newsletter,
details traditional DU social activities:
"The
Delta Upsilon chapter of Middlebury took its annual boat
ride on Thursday, June 28. Sixty-eight people, many of whom
are alumni, drove from Middlebury to Vergennes, taking the
"Alexander," which was chartered for the occasion
at 8:25 A.M. The weather was beautiful; it seemed as if
nature had put forth her efforts to make the day a model
one for a boat ride on Lake Champlain. After a ride of four
and a half hours the merry party were landed at the foot
of that commanding eminence which is capped with Hotel Champlain.
Here a banquet was served, during which singing was indulged
in. At 3:35 p.m, the party boarded the little steamer for
its return trip and reached Vergennes at 8:15. There a supper
was served, after which all returned home by the longest
way." -Middlebury Register, July 6, 1900
(Bain,
The College on the Hill, 200)
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| Delta Upsilon,
Fourty-Fourth Annual Convention |
| Wednesday, October
10th, 1878 |
| "By 1880 Delta
Upsilon had, in essence, taken the position that fraternity,
morality, and general culture- the raisons d'etre of
fraternities- could be accomplished by both secret and non-secret
fraternities." (Stameshkin, 176). |
|
Delta
Upsilon, Initation Banquet, The Undergraduate
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| DU membership card
from Special Collection in Middlebury College's Starr Library. |
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