Фи Каппа Пси: Құрылу тарихы мен даму жолы

American collegiate fraternity

In the winter of 1850, a typhoid fever epidemic hit Jefferson College in Canonsburg, Pennsylvania. Many students left school. Among those who remained were William Henry Letterman and Charles Page Thomas Moore. They chose to care for their classmates who were stricken with the contagious disease, and a strong bond was formed. The following school year, Letterman and Moore decided to found a fraternity based on "the great joy of serving others" that they experienced during the epidemic. Letterman and Moore founded Phi Kappa Psi in Widow Letterman's home on the campus of Jefferson College in Canonsburg, Pennsylvania on February 19, 1852. The fraternity's first Grand Arch Council convened in 1853 in Chalottesville, Virginia. At the 1885 Grand Arch Council in Columbus, Ohio, a special committee was created to draft a new constitution. The fratenity also decided to prohibit chaptes from honoray initiations. In 1894 in New York City, the Arch Grand Council passed a resolution to oppose hazing for its undergrauation membes, becoming the first fraternity to publicly oppose hazing. The Arch Grand Council adopted the Phi Kappa Psi Creed in 1964.

The coat of arms as adopted in 1908 has a sable (black) field, but today it is most often seen as shown in the adjacent infobox. The colors are the official fraternity colors and the design is three vertical stripes of equal width, a hunter green in the middle, flanked on either side by a cardinal red stripe. A smaller version is available with proportions roughly three and one half feet wide by two feet high. The fraternity song is "Amici". Its root dates back to the traditional song "Annie Lisle".

The Executive Council of Phi Kappa Psi is composed of the President, Vice President, Secretary, Treasurer, and six Archons. Since its founding, Phi Kappa Psi has been controlled by undergraduates. This unique system of governance is achieved by a governing body, the Executive Council, which is made up of a majority of elected undergraduates. These undergraduates, known as Archons, represent the six Districts of Phi Kappa Psi, which divide the nation into roughly equal parts based on the number of chapters represented. Archons are elected during meetings of each District during District Councils, held during odd numbered years. Four alumni also serve on the Executive Council and are elected at Grand Arch Councils, held during even numbered years.

Phi Kappa Psi's first form of government centered on a Grand Chapter. One chapter at a time was designated the Grand Chapter, and it was responsible for governing the national fraternity. This lasted until 1886 when a new constitution changed to the current form of government. In 1992, Phi Kappa Psi began to award one exceptional chapter with the Grand Chapter Award. Its name is derived from the fraternity's first form of government. This award was initially granted biennially at Grand Arch Councils. 2001 marked the first time that this award was granted in an odd numbered year, and it has been an annual award ever since.

The supreme governing body of Phi Kappa Psi is the Grand Arch Council (G. A. C.). The first Grand Arch Council convened in 1853 in Chalottesville, Virginia. The council met at an irregular schedule until an entirely new form of government was ratified in 1886. Beginning in 1888, nearly all G. A. C. s have occurred biennially, except 1944 which was canceled due to World War II and 2020 which was canceled due to the COVID 19 epidemic.

The Order of the S. C. was formed in 1920 at the Grand Arch Council to recognize the most loyal of alumni. It regarded by Phi Kappa Psi as a "fraternity within a fraternity". It funds scholarships, grants, fellowships, and assistantships for cPhi Psis and other students across the country. Local chapters or members have occasionally been involved in events that lead to deaths or sexual assault. The following events have been cited as impacting chapters and their communities:

In 1984, Liz Seccuro was drugged and raped at the Phi Kappa Psi house on the University of Virginia campus. William Beebe, who was not a member of the fraternity, pled guilty to sexual battery in 2007, following a written confession he had made to Seccuro as part of his Alcoholics Anonymous program. Two others were implicated during an investigation of the Beebe case. They retained legal counsel and invoked the Fifth Amendment when questioned before a grand jury and were ultimately not charged. The homework of two chapter members was found at the same location where the stolen newspapers were discarded. In 2014, Brown University suspended its Phi Kappa Psi chapter after two female students reported that they rapidly became intoxicated at the fraternity's party and tested positive for the date rape drug GHB. Chapter officials disputed the test results and a subsequent investigation by the university showed that the results were inconclusive for the presence of GHB due to errors in laboratory procedures. In 2016, the female students sued the university for intentionally mishandling the case because a Brown University trustee's son was accused of drugging them with plans to sexually assault them. In 2017, Matthew Ellis, a Phi Kappa Psi pledge at Texas State University, attended a fraternity event and was found unresponsive in an off campus apartment complex the next morning. Ellis' death led the university suspend all Greek activities on campus soon after. The chapter of Phi Kappa Psi at Texas State University had been put on suspension by the national organization a week earlier for unrelated violations. The local police placed the fraternity under investigation to determine the cause of his death. In 2017, Creighton University suspended its chapter after an alleged hazing incident. A Phi Kappa Psi pledge slashed a female student's neck in her dorm room upon returning from an event at the fraternity's house. The nineteen year old pledge stated that he was forced to take drugs due to failing a pledge test, which led to the slashing. After an investigation, an Omaha judge rejected the pledge's attempt to use fraternity hazing as a legal defense. The pledge pleaded no contest to felony second degree assault. In 2020, on the campus of the University of Michigan, during the height of the coronavirus pandemic, a banner on the Phi Psi house urged people to remove masks, saying, "You can't eat ass with a mask on." This occurred during a back to school party in an attempt to encourage new pledges. In 2020, Cornell University "permanently revoked" recognition of its chapter of Phi Kappa Psi nearly a year after a freshman student was found dead in a gorge after leaving an illegal Christmas themed "dirty rush" party in October 2019. In 2020, a Louisiana State University fraternity member was arrested and charged with twelve counts of misdemeanor hazing. He was alleged to have made a group of 12 new fraternity members finish a large amount of alcohol at his off campus home. One new fraternity member was transported to the hospital by Phi Kappa Psi members.

In a since retracted November 2014 article in Rolling Stone, Sabrina Erdely reported in detail allegations of a 2012 gang rape, and reported in brief on allegations of two subsequent gang rapes at the University of Virginia. Leaders of the fraternity conducted an internal investigation and found the allegation to be baseless. Following the story the fraternity voluntarily suspended activity there. The chapter house was also vandalized in response to the accusation. The University of Virginia suspended all fraternity activities until they signed a new agreement with the university. including Robby Soave of Reason, Judith Shulevitz of The New Republic, and others. Rolling Stone apologized for the article, and after investigating the accusations, Phi Kappa Psi, ABC News, and The Washington Post said they had found significant discrepancies in the account. On January 12, the University of Virginia reinstated the Phi Kappa Psi fraternity after the police investigation concluded that no incident had occurred at the fraternity. According to Charlottesville police Capt. Gary Pleasants, Phi Psi has been cleared; "We found no basis to believe that an incident occurred at that fraternity, so there's no reason to keep them suspended." That same day, the fraternity was reinstated by the University of Virginia into its Greek system. On July 29, 2015, a lawsuit was filed by three graduates of the fraternity Phi Kappa Psi against its publisher Wenner Media and its publisher for defamation and infliction of emotional distress. Rolling Stone has settled the case and is paying the Phi Kappa Psi chapter at the University of Virginia $1.65 million as the result of a defamation suit.