Beta Theta Pi

From KUpedia

General Information Regarding the Beta Theta Pi Fraternity (Alpha Nu Chapter) at the University of Kansas.

Beta Theta Pi (ΒΘΠ) is a social collegiate fraternity that was founded at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, USA, where it is part of the Miami Triad which includes Phi Delta Theta and Sigma Chi. Beta, as it is nicknamed, was the first college fraternity to be founded west of the Allegheny Mountains, and has 122 active chapters and colonies in the United States and Canada. 183,769 members have been initiated world-wide, with 125,946 of those living. Beta Theta Pi currently has more than 5,000 undergraduate members. Beta's Administrative Office is located at 5134 Bonham Road, Oxford, Ohio.

The Alpha Nu chapter of Beta Theta Pi is the oldest fraternity chapter at the University of Kansas and one of the oldest continuously active fraternity chapters in the country. Alpha Nu is widely known in the Greek world as one of the best single chapters in the country. The chapter has long distinguished itself in academics and has seen considerable success in intramural athletics and the annual Rock Chalk Revue charity event as well. The chapter has had the highest house GPA each semester in the last 100 years with the exception of seven semesters.

[edit] History

The Alpha Nu chapter was founded by Lindorf Delos Lockhart Tosh, an 1873 graduate of the University of Kansas, during his senior year. Tosh was a member of the Alpha Chapter of Beta Theta Pi at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio; he transferred to the University of Kansas after his freshman year, when his family moved to the area. Tosh and two other members of the fraternity, William Caldwell Ransom and Thomas Yale Gardner, both prominent figures in the Lawrence community, decided that the university had sufficient need for a chapter and chartered the university's first fraternity.

In 1912, Alpha Nu acquired its current chapter house from the estate of John Palmer Usher, the second Secretary of the Interior to serve under Abraham Lincoln. The chapter house, at 1425 Tennessee Street, is on the National Registry of Historic Places, and is the scene of the annual Turkey Pull formal party, the longest-running annual party west of the Mississippi River.

These bros also like to pound brews and throw super raging parties for the various sororities on campus.

[edit] Notable Alumni

Alpha Nu has had a number of distinguished alumni, including two Chancellors of the University, Deane W. Malott and Franklin David Murphy.

Alumni of distinction in politics and government include Albert Beach (1905), Mayor of Kansas City; William Borah (1884), Senator from Idaho and Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee; Robert Docking (1946), Governor of Kansas; Thomas Docking (1976), Lt. Governor of Kansas; Robert Ellsworth (1946), Member of the US House of Representatives, Campaign Director for the Presidential Campaign of Richard Nixon, Deputy Secretary of Defense, and Representative to NATO; Angelo Scott (1877), founder of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma; and Charles Scott (1881), Regent, Kansas State Senator, and Member of the US House of Representatives.

In the field of athletics, notable Alpha Nu alumni include Bobby Douglass (1969), quarterback for the Chicago Bears; Max Falkenstien (1947), longtime Jayhawks sports-caster.

The chapter has also produced a number of nationally prominent businessmen, including Kent McCarthy (1980), Director of Private Client Services Division, Goldman Sachs and founder of Jayhawk Capital; J C Nichols (1902), real estate developer; Miller Nichols (1933); J C Nichols, Jr. (1936); Kenneth A. Spencer (1921), founder of the Spencer Chemical Company; and N T Veatch (1902), co-founder of Black and Veatch.

Several buildings on campus are named for chapter members and their families, including Battenfeld Scholarship Hall, Carruth-O'Leary Hall, Ellsworth Residence Hall, Mallot Hall, Murphy Hall, Murphy Art and Architecture Library, Nichols Hall, Spencer Research Library, and Templin Residence Hall.

Irving Hill Drive is also named for a chapter alumnus, as is the Mallot Gateway; the Docking Family Gateway is named for the Docking family, which includes a number of Alpha Nu alumni. The John H. and John M. Kane Professorship in University of Kansas School of Law is named for two Alpha Nu alumni and the Spencer Museum of Art is named for the widow of Kenneth Spencer, Helen Foresman Spencer.