List of collegiate secret societies
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There are numerous collegiate secret societies at American and Canadian colleges and universities. They vary in how secret they are, how much they function as an independent organization (versus being an 'in name only' honor), and how they are tied to the university, (if at all, often through the Dean's office or the alumni affairs office).
Strictly speaking, any society with society affairs, membership rolls, signs of recognition, or especially their initiation, kept secret from the public, can be counted as a secret society. College fraternities, or "social fraternities" meet this definition, but are not included here. At many universities, the singing groups, newspaper and other editorial boards, etc., often have secret initiatory processes, but they are also not included here.
Collegiate secret societies sometimes have Greek letter names, like fraternities, but often have names that derive from one element or two elements in their emblems, such as Wolf's Head Society or Scroll and Key Society, groups formed specifically in imitation of Skull & Bones Society at Yale University. After the 1870's, Theta Nu Epsilon, (aka Skull & Keys), once the beta chapter of Skull & Bones, was founded at Wesleyan University and began chartering chapters nationally, spreading the basic concept and plan for collegiate secret societies to many universities.
Secret societies typically have emblems that identify membership. Death-inspired imagery is often associated with many secret societies, and clubhouses are often called "tombs".
Also following the Yale model is the process of membership selection called "tapping".[1] At a previously, publicly announced evening, the Yale undergraduates would assemble informally in the College Yard. Current members of the Yale secret societies would walk through the crowd and literally tap prospective members on the shoulder and then walk with him (usually up into the tapped man's room in the dormitories), to privately ask him to become a member. Note that during the course of this process, it was plainly obvious to the whole college who was being tapped for the coming year. Tapping Day is probably a less anticipated event on the Yale campus today, and the tapping process never was perfectly followed as well at other universities, although there is a public ceremonial that happens today at Missouri, and did happen for many decades at Berkeley.
Below is a list of some well-known collegiate secret societies. The list is not exhaustive; new secret societies are founded each year and some older groups are not included.
[edit] Selected secret societies of colleges/universities in North America
[edit] Secret societies of colleges/universities in Latin America
| Name | Years | College or University | Country | Member limit | Active or honorary | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| OFUS Sigma Mi [5] | ? | ITESM | Mexico (Monterrey) | Senior | Class society | Existing and active |
[edit] Society systems in North American colleges and universities
Dartmouth's Office of Residential Life states that the earliest senior societies on campus date to 1783 and "continue to be a vibrant tradition within the campus community."[1] Six of the eight senior societies keep their membership secret, while the other societies maintain secretive elements. According to the college, "approximately 25% of the senior class members are affiliated with a senior society."[1] The college's administration of the society system at Dartmouth focuses on managing membership and tapping lists, and differs from that of Yale's, though there are historical parallels between the two colleges' societies.[2][3]
Harvard contains its own variant of historic and secretive undergraduate fraternal (there are also sororal) organizations. The Final Clubs are not referred to in Cambridge as 'secret societies' only because in the Harvard context, that appellation is unnecessary to convey characteristics identical to collegiate 'secret societies' elsewhere. Principal amongst these are secretiveness about their respective selection/election procedures, which has always prompted debate about elitism, total opacity with regard to their initiation and meeting rituals, avoidance of public posting of full membership lists, and maintenance of their buildings by alumni trust organizations. The notable variation is in their size, approximately sixty students per club (Yale societies have 15-16 seniors only). Furthermore, several do permit non-members inside their buildings in the company of members at specified times of the week (or only let in guests of the opposite sex but not of the same sex of the members). However the Porcellian and the Delphic never allow any non-member undergraduates inside their buildings, and non-member Harvard faculty only in very rare instances. "Punch Season" and the "Final Dinner" is analogous to "Tap" at Yale. Final Clubs at Harvard include:[6][7]
All male
- Fly Club, (1836), a successor of the fraternity Alpha Delta Phi
- The Phoenix - S K Club (1897)
- Porcellian (1791, originally called The Argonauts), the most famous and often bracketed with Yale's Skull and Bones
- Other
- The Signet Society, a Harvard literary club rather than a Final Club, is also regarded on campus and by members as a 'semi-secret' society.
University of Pennsylvania There are several "secret societies" at the University of Pennsylvania. At UPenn, the term "secret society" generally denotes a social club that is independent of any official organization. For this reason, the society cannot be regulated by the university, and is not accountable to a national fraternal or sororal organization. Most of the all-male secret societies, such as "Owl Society" and "THEOS," were founded by former members of fraternities after the fraternity to which they belonged had had been suspended by the university for disciplinary reasons. But other societies, such as the all-female "Tabard Society" (founded 1987), were founded by students who were not affiliated with any particular greek organization. At UPenn, secret societies are smaller than their greek counterparts, and tend to vary in degree of secrecy. Secret societies at UPenn include:
- Owl Society (founded 1990)
- THEOS
- H.O.Z. (founded 2004)
- Tabard Society (founded 1987)
The term "Secret society" at Yale encompasses organizations with many shared but not necessarily identical characteristics. The oldest surviving undergraduate secret societies at Yale derive from various 19th c. fraternal organization traditions, rooted in the Enlightenment society-founding boom [11], and therefore the term "secret society" at Yale encompasses a variety of models: senior-only versus three-year, with or without Greek letters, affiliated with other campus chapters or stand-alone entities. From 1854-1956, "Sheff", the Sheffield Scientific School was the sciences and engineering college of Yale University, and it also had a fraternal culture that differed in some respects from the humanities campus, further enriching (and complicating) the picture. [12] Yale's history contains numerous fraternal organizations that have become defunct, those remaining survived owing to confluences of endowments, real estate, and the vigor of their respective alumni organizations and their charitable Trusts. [13][14] Across this spectrum, common features of Yale secret societies are that they (usually) have fifteen members per class, they own their "tomb" which is wholly or partially closed to non-members (unlike a club such as the Elizabethan Club whose members may bring their guests). Secret societies at Yale "tap" their members, mostly on the same "Tap Night", and a member is off-limits to recruitment by another secret society, i.e. reciprocal exclusivity -- in contrast to Yale's singing groups which also "tap", but whose members may also join a society. As hybrids like Sage and Chalice and St. Anthony Hall demonstrate, it is not possible to draw clear distinctions between these secretive organizations. Yale's Buildings and Grounds Department refers to some as "senior societies" in its online architectural database.[15] The Yale Alumni Magazine contains historical references to fraternities also possessing "tombs". A series of articles on Dartmouth and Yale secret society architecture provides an overview of the buildings as "a uniquely American representation of the joining spirit, (that) are crucial to an understanding of the organizations they represent." [16]
Several societies were cited in the Official Preppy Handbook, including Skull and Bones, Scroll and Key and St. Anthony Hall.
As an aside, the linguistic tendency at Yale for mortuary-themed concepts, i.e. tombs (read silence of a tomb), and the prevalence of Yale men in the creation of the U.S. intelligence community [17] may be why the term "spook" (an undergraduate society member) became a colloquialism for a spy. (For more on Yale secret society members' influences on intelligence agencies, see the book Cloak and Gown: Scholars in the Secret War, 1939-1961 by historian Robin W. Winks)
University of Iowa
Although the date cannot be confirmed as of yet, there is a secret honorary society of women academics that apparently started in 1975. Known as "The Tennyo," 15 women who were frustrated by a highly sexist ivory tower, decided to develop strong networks for publication, fund raising and professional development in private. They belonged to various disciplines and departments throughout the university.
They borrowed from the Japanese folk tales about Tennyo goddesses who were quite curious about human civilization on earth. Often, seduced by men, these goddesses were forced to give up the magical part of themselves in order to remain on earth--torn between their heavenly existence and earthly one, Tennyo were both melancholy and full of lament.
The Tennyo at the University of Iowa believed that women would never be fully successful in the academy without private and secretly shared resources. They boast of an international membership that is highly exclusive. It is said that although they support all women in the academy, not all women in the academy were equipped to be leaders and members of the Tennyo. Using traditional images of goddesses, members were invited through a postcard. Higher ranking officials supposedly wore the ancient image of the earth goddess.
Women academics claim to have received fellowships, child care, dissertation office rentals, publication opportunities with a signed card from the anonymous "Tennyo."
[edit] Secret Societies of colleges/universities in Western Europe
University of Cambridge, England
- Cambridge Apostles (1820)
- Juvenalorden (1907)
Radboud University Nijmegen, Netherlands
- De Gong (1927)
[edit] Secret Societies of colleges/universities in Africa
[edit] Nigeria
[edit] Secret Societies of colleges/universities in South East Asia
[edit] Malaysia
- Brethren of Datu Abdillah (1980)
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ a b Senior Societies. Trustees of Dartmouth College. Retrieved on 2007-02-14.
- ^ Scott Meacham (1999-07-18). Halls, Tombs, and Houses: Student Society Architecture at Dartmouth. Retrieved on 2007-02-14.
- ^ Gomstyn, Alice. "Secret societies remain veiled in mystery", The Dartmouth, 2001-05-18. Retrieved on 2007-02-14.
[edit] Bibliography
- Robbins, Alexandra (2004). Pledged: The Secret Life of Sororities. New York: Hyperion. ISBN 0-7868-8859-8.
- Winks, Robin W. (1996). Cloak and Gown: Scholars in the Secret War, 1939-1961. New Haven: Yale University Press; 2nd edition (March 27, 1996). ISBN-10: 0300065248.
[edit] External links
- "How the Secret Societies Got That Way", Yale Alumni Magazine (September 2004)
- "Halls, Tombs and Houses: Student Society Architecture at Dartmouth"
- "Four Years at Yale" A late 19th Century contemporary account of fraternal societies at two Connecticut Universities: Yale & Wesleyan
