Delta Phi Epsilon (professional)

American foreign service fraternity
1=the professional fraternity

Delta Phi Epsilon (ΔΦΕ) or Delta Phi Epsilon Foreign Service Council the largest national American professional foreign service fraternity and sorority. Founded on January 25, 1920, it was the first fraternity dedicated to careers in foreign diplomacy in trade. Its Alpha chapter went on in the first half of the twentieth century to colonize new chapters at many other universities throughout the country, although most chapters went defunct in the latter half of the century. In 1973 Delta Phi Epsilon Foreign Service Sorority was founded, with its Alpha chapter at Georgetown University. As of 2021, there remained ten active collegiate chapters, half of which were created between 2016 and 2018.

The fraternity was founded in the wake of World War I, in a time of increased interest in world politics and solving global issues with diplomacy. In 1919, Fr. Edmund A. Walsh, S. J. at Georgetown University founded the School of Foreign Service (SFS) and in 1924, the Rogers Act formed the basis of the United States Foreign Service. During this time, other groups with similar missions, such as the Council on Foreign Relations, were founded, along with international bodies such as the League of Nations. The four founders of the fraternity were Alfred O. Arseneau, Wesley O. Ash, Samuel C. Bartlett, and T. J. Patrick O'Connell. At first, three of them, all undergraduates in Georgetown's SFS living together on 10th Street, held in common only their experience in overseas military service and their interest in foreign service careers. Soon they met the fourth, Pat O'Connell, who thought of founding a foreign service fraternity independently. They were drawn together by their common vision for a professional foreign service fraternity for future graduates of the School of Foreign Service and others in the field. Later these men joined with seven other interested undergraduates (future brothers Sandager, Butts, Ash, MacKenzie, Brooks, Sullivan, Scott, and Bates) and signed the Articles of Agreement. After choosing a name and nominating officers, Delta Phi Epsilon Foreign Service Fraternity was formally founded at the Catholic Community House at 6th and E Streets, NW, on January 25, 1920. The group was incorporated in the District of Columbia on April 20, 1920. Early expansion focused on both East and West Coast schools. The fraternity's activities and expansion ceased during World War II. After the war, the fraternity saw even greater expansion into institutions across the United States. and by the 1960s, the fraternity began to see a decline in the number of its chapters. During the 1970s most of the fraternity's collegiate chapters went inactive, leaving only the original Alpha. This decline is attributed to two major factors: a national decline in professional fraternities and a negative perception generally of foreign service. During the Vietnam War, foreign service was closely associated in many minds with current United States foreign policy, which was protested against at many member institutions. In the summer of 2003, the first reactivation of a dormant chapter, Epsilon chapter at UC Berkeley, occurred. In 2016, the first co ed chapter, Delta chapter, was founded at USC by Jacob Lokshin and eleven other USC students. This was soon followed by the creation of Pi chapter, Psi chapter, Chi chapter, Eta chapter, Gamma chapter, and Mu chapter. Alpha chapter was the longest lived collegiate chapter of Delta Phi Epsilon; its undergraduate officers all resigned in 2018 and suspended all chapter activities in protest to actions of national leadership. The chapter three successive one person initiations over the succeeding eighteen months. In late February 2020, Alpha initiated the chapter's 200th line of ten initiates, just before the fraternity's 100th Founders' Day Banquet.

In the 1950s, some members suggested that the fraternity accept women. Another movement to make the fraternity coed emerged in the late 1960s. A second chapter of the sorority, Epsilon chapter, was founded at UC Berkeley in 2003. In January 2021, the American University chapter withdrew from the national organization, saying that the national board "was unrepresentative of its values." The group continued as the local organization Sisterhood for International Engagement. The council originally selected its leaders from Delta Phi Epsilon members to support international relations education, promote public engagement in foreign policy, and provide career development tools to Delta Phi Epsilon brothers and sisters. In 2016, the first co ed chapter, Delta chapter, was founded at the University of Southern California by Jacob Lokshin and eleven other USC students. However, some of the national fraternity's leadership continue to oppose the admission of women.