An Undergraduate Student at Indiana University (1963-1967)

I grew up in a socially conservative town in Indiana.  By the time I arrived at Indiana University, I was a serious student and firm believer in following the rules. Fraternity life would challenge these assumptions. My focus on academic performance was challenged by the shock of college level study expectation and my interest in campus student activities would foster my leadership skills in the fraternity and develop my collaboration skills with the university community and later life.  

My freshman roommate was a senior whose lifestyle and values were very different from my own. The situation became increasingly uncomfortable and contributed to my decision to spend most evenings studying in the library, playing baseball, and becoming involved in campus activities. Looking back, I should have simply requested a room change, but I tended to endure difficult situations rather than confront them directly.

I was initiated and became a member of the Phi Kappa Psi fraternity at Indiana University in the fall of 1964.  My brother had been a member, and I followed in his footsteps with fraternity life.

IU in the 1960s was defined by experimentation, controversy, by challenging conventional lifestyles and institutions.  Did we do stupid stuff back then in the fraternity?  Were we idealistic and unrealistic?  Absolutely.  We could pull the most embarrassing pranks on each other or just embarrass ourselves and know we would come together afterward and be stupid, forgiving, and friends.  We could chase impossible goals but learn important life lessons like friendship is more important than conformity.

Soon after I moved into the fraternity house as a sophomore in the fall of 1964, I learned about the boulder run.  The boulder run was a fraternity tradition, initiated by a member after the 1 a.m. curfew for having dates back to their sororities or dorms.  The member would yell ‘boulder run”, strip and wait for any participants to do likewise, yelling out challenges to courage, manhood, and adventure.  Takers stripped and lined up at the door.  Someone would open the door and the participants would run naked down fraternity row, circle a campus boulder, and head back.  On one occasion I remember a member calling the next-door sorority house mother, and his girlfriend there, and telling them to look out their windows. The whole sorority lit up as my naked fraternity brothers ran by.  We could see and hear the girls laughing and pointing and some of the guys indecisive about where to put their hands.  What a moment!   We heard the next day the house mother was totally grossed by the experience and forbid open window shades after 1 a.m. This incident is never forgiven by the runners at reunions, although related always to laughs and gross comments about anatomy.

IU Phi Kappa Psi Fraternity 1965

As the spring of 1965 arrived, I agreed to do fraternity public relations and organized with a sorority a picnic for orphans, as opposed to the normal Geek game event. There was a photograph and heartfelt story about the event in the local newspaper.  Shortly after the event, the fraternity president asked me to meet in his room.  He and two juniors asked me if I would be willing to run for fraternity president, the election being in a month.  I declined as I felt too young and I wanted to focus on academics as opposed to the time-demanding president position.  They finally convinced me saying they didn’t trust any junior with the job, that the fraternity needed me, and that they would handle the election.  I got elected. 

I Was Elected President of the Fraternity during the 1965 School Year-

See Middle of Second Row From Top

Soon after the election, one of the fraternity leaders encouraged me to apply for a position on the university president's student advisory group called the Board of Aeons. It was the most prestigious student campus organization, selected by the president's staff to research and address key issue facing the campus and in collaboration advise the university president. I was a jock, had the fraternity's highest grade point average during the fall semester of 1964, and he felt I was qualified as he was a member of the Board. After going through interviews, I was selected a member. Through discussions in Aeons, the fraternity system, and the broader university community, I began to question traditions I had previously accepted without much thought. These questions would later lead me to become involved in efforts to challenge racial discrimination within the fraternity system.

IU Board of Aeons 1965-66

IU Board of Aeons 1966-67

I was elected the president of the IU Interfraternity Council in the spring of 1966 after actively promoting an organization change from a social good time group to one actively seeking change in the student experience of pledging and other campus culture matters. I write about one of these issues in my story My Race Experience. George Martin, Aeons President, was on the publication's editorial staff, and we remain friends to this day.

My focus as a fraternity president and member was academics, not social.  I had tried a beer in high school, but didn’t like the taste so had no interest in alcohol.  I wondered at the time what was the attraction of alcohol.  I found out I was an exception.  The fraternity members liked to party.  The University placed my fraternity on social probation in the spring of 1966 for a beer-drinking party off campus.  When classes started in the fall, the University decided to use my fraternity’s incident as a test case to begin enforcing alcohol prohibition at fraternity houses.  I was President of the Interfraternity Council at the time, idealistic and naive, and actually agreed with the action.  I pushed to have the IFC enforce the prohibition thinking it would be more acceptable and the Dean of Students agreed to let the IFC be inspectors.

I set up rotating two-man teams of Friday and Saturday night IFC fraternity inspectors and after a month we found no alcohol.  I decided to see for myself so the chief IFC court judge and I in our IFC blazers, white shirts, and ties went on a Saturday night alcohol inspection of the Beta Theta Pi fraternity which was having a big party.  I remember feeling important and that I was doing the right thing.  Two pledges met us at the door and invited us into the noisy fraternity house party.  But then something didn’t feel right as everything was too polite.  Suddenly four huge guys (the Betas had a lot of football players) appeared as if they had been waiting for us, picked up my companion kicking and screaming, carried him to the patio, and tossed him into a huge party pool to the yells and applause of the partiers.  I managed to help him out of the pool and we immediately left the house in shock and my companion soaked.

The next Monday I met with the Dean of Students and told him the IFC was out of the alcohol prohibition inspection business.  I learned later that various members of the IFC alerted fraternities beforehand to IFC inspections.  I felt undercut by the IFC organization and disillusioned by the reality of learning most 18-20-year-old young men at that time didn’t care about the alcohol rules, only having a good time.  Duh! I learned that leadership requires understanding people as they are, not as I wish them to be.

About that time my long-time girlfriend and I broke up.  It was emotional and I felt down and alone.  Plus I was graduating in the spring and almost certain to go to Vietnam where guys my age were being killed or wounded in the war.  I began to feel I should just enjoy the moment, the heck with the rules, and adopt a don’t care what happens attitude.  I decided to change my obedient conformist behavior and go for shock and awe. On my first post-breakup date, I bought a six-pack of beer, invited my date to our fraternity living room, and proceeded with my date to drink the six-pack.  It felt like an out-of-body experience as I was openly violating University, IFC, and fraternity alcohol rules, getting drunk and I didn’t care.  One of my fraternity brothers saw me, and then he brought a crowd to observe, all keeping their distance, totally surprised and amazed.  They have never forgotten that moment, nor have I.  The story of that moment is a staple at fraternity reunions, all laughing at the absurdity and shock of the sight.  Whenever I talk my good fraternity brother friend Bill Replogle in Portland, a prominent attorney, we both laugh ourselves silly to this day.  He always asks what was I thinking and I tell him I was just being stupid and he agrees.

Looking back, Indiana University gave me much more than an education. It taught me leadership, teamwork, responsibility, independence, and how to work with people whose values differed from my own. The friendships, mistakes, successes, and lessons learned from those four years helped shape the person I became.