From the very beginning, Hamline’s Greek Life has been a unique part of campus culture. Compared to other college fraternities, Hamline’s Beta Kappa chapter of Theta Chi stands out against the norm. Theta Chi continuously defies stereotypes that give fraternities a bad reputation in the media.
“When you think of typical fraternities where they just don’t care, don’t focus on schoolwork and just do parties,” Theta Chi president Carter Arhart said. “We’re guys in the chapter who actually focus more on actually doing well in school. We don’t do the stereotypical parties that you see in movies and TV shows. We play pool with each other, play video games, we play poker here on campus.”
Rather than focusing on the popularity contest that seems to plague big university Greek life, Theta Chi hones in on being great members of not only Hamline’s campus, but society as a whole.
A big part of how they achieve this important community outreach is through fundraising events, volunteer excursions and blood drives. The last two school years, the brothers have teamed up with an organization that exchanges fiscal donations for workout activities. Last semester the brothers participated in Laps Against Breast Cancer, a fundraiser that raised money for the Breast Cancer Research Foundation, where they reached $894 of their $1000 goal.
“It’s also about making sure that brothers continue the tradition of being good scholars, academic students, and so we want to make sure to continue to do study sessions and promoting development in the terms of learning and growth mindset,” Arhart said.
Despite being a social fraternity, academics are an important part of the culture surrounding Theta Chi. They value the idea of being a model student, encouraged by their many study sessions held for the brothers: an activity that not only furthers academic success but creates a strong relationship between each member. Theirs is a relationship that Arhart describes as brotherly, not just in the fraternity way, but also in a familial way.
“We’re not a typical fraternity that is portrayed in movies or TV. We’re one that is especially focused on making sure that there’s a strong bond between brothers,” Arhart said. “The brothers are safe from any kind of harm. We’re always there for each other, that we’re always outstanding members of not just our chapter, but society, making sure we don’t do anything that would be wrong—unethical — because that’s not what we believe in.”
Theta Chi branches from a rich history of Hamline Greek life and is now the last remaining piece of its golden age. Now approaching their 122 anniversary, Theta Chi was originally founded as the Alpha chapter of the Knights of Beta Omicron Sigma Kappa (commonly shortened to Beta Kappa) on Oct. 15, 1901.
In April of 1942, Beta Kappa merged with Theta Chi, making them into the Beta Kappa chapter of Theta Chi to honor its former rank as an Alpha chapter.
Early Greek life was largely academic social clubs, an idea that is still reflected in today’s version of Theta Chi. However, it is not to be confused with solely academic Greek societies. While the former reflects how most folks see modern-day fraternities with a clear importance of academics within the group, the latter is purely for academic purposes. As the Instagram account @tracesofhamline describes, these academic societies would, for example, sit around and read 19-century plays together.
“By the 1950s and 1960s, you know, a little bit more kind of what we think in terms of beer drinking, and certainty by some of the pictures: the 1970s [wearing] togas, people running down the street rolling kegs. Animal house kind of stuff,” the account said regarding the evolution of fraternity culture. “Then, by the 2000s, HALO LAN parties and playing network video games.”
At the prime of Hamline’s Greek life, there were five fraternities and five sororities, all of which had roughly 20-plus members.
“A lot of them took a hit in World War I and World War II: especially the male fraternities. People would go off to war and stuff like that. So a lot of them shrunk and disappeared then, or merged,” @tracesofhamline said.
Since the end of World War II, Hamline fraternities and sororities slowly dwindled. This decline in numbers can be seen in today’s Theta Chi. It seems that since COVID-19 hit, the fraternity’s membership has not recovered.
“Theta Chi, when I joined, seemed to be a pretty small and tight knit community,” Vice President of Health and Safety Will Walker said. “Ever since, in recent years … perhaps we’ve grown smaller, but we have grown tighter knit. We’re a lot closer as a chapter than I think we were even, like, two years ago.”
Despite their low membership count, Theta Chi stays hopeful for their future. After a successful rush month, they have several hopeful pledges. Striving to have fun at their own rushes, the brothers have made it their goal to show Hamline what Theta Chi is truly like: a fun, safe space for brothers of all kinds, where one would be able to always have a study buddy and have someone to play Smash Bros. with.
“We just want to be this positive presence on campus,” Walker said. “We want people to see that we enjoy each other’s company and that we want to bring people into that company.”