Cross & Crescent

The origin of the Commons Club can be traced to the efforts of future President Woodrow Wilson when he was on the faculty of Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut.

In 1889, Wilson and a group of reform-minded students began a campaign to change the nature of the Wesleyan House of Commons Debating Society into an organization that would meet the social, academic, and spiritual needs of non-Greek students.

Throughout the country, similar groups began to spring up in opposition to fraternity dominance of student offices and honors, and to provide a sense of democratic brotherhood missing from their campuses.

In 1899, men like Frederick Clark, Thomas Travis, and Herbert Ward created the Wesleyan Commons Club. By 1906, the National Federation of Commons Clubs was created by the association of four Commons Clubs in the Northeast.

Founding Principles

The NFCC founders saw their organization as different from other student groups because of the open membership policy. This policy permitted any male student of good character to join.

A student’s social status or wealth was not a membership consideration. The Commons Clubs did not have secret oaths or rituals to distinguish them from other student groups. The chief principles were based on the concepts of democracy, service, and brotherhood.

LeRoy W. Brooks (Washington 1918), a former president of the Washington University Commons Club, wrote what is considered the most authentic account of the NFCC in the June 1921 issue of the Purple, Green, and Gold Magazine.

According to Brooks, the Commons Clubs believed in democracy and did not recognize rank, class, or condition. He wrote that the Commons Club offered its members an “…ideal of service, the dignity of honest labor, the nobility of intellectual effort, the sublimity of Christian duty.”

Brooks also noted that the NFCC hoped its members would “…exemplify the ideals of unselfish service” and that the organization would “…guide the individual into a sphere of greater usefulness in the supreme work of life…the uplifting of humanity.”

Collapse of the Commons Clubs

In spite of its idealism, the NFCC had a short life. Its decline and slow death was a result of the very reason for its creation: open membership.

Many of the Commons Clubs failed because they grew too large to operate effectively, differences would fragment the interest and loyalty of members, and there was no clear understanding of what it really meant to be a member.

Many of the Commons Clubs began to operate as fraternities without Greek letters. They would rush, bid, pledge, and initiate new members with unauthorized rituals.

By the end of World War I, the national organization split into various new organizations. The remnant of the old NFCC formed the American Association of Commons Clubs. Two national fraternities also grew from its collapse: Phi Mu Delta in 1918 and later Kappa Delta Rho.

The Alpha Chapter of Kappa Delta Rho is unique because it accepts women into full membership. Though initially expelled from Kappa Delta Rho, it would return with a slight name change. It is now known as The Alpha Chapter of Kappa Delta Rho Society. This distinction of “Society” marks its special status within Kappa Delta Rho Fraternity.

Influence on Lambda Chi Alpha

Seven of our earliest chapters grew from, or were heavily influenced by, Commons Clubs on their respective campuses.

The first chapter to originate from a Commons Club was Alpha-Upsilon Zeta at Syracuse University in New York. Though most members of the Syracuse Commons Club received bids from fraternities, they felt that they could not afford the membership fees.

Instead, they banded together in 1911, bought a house, and joined the NFCC. Over time, this local group became more like a fraternity in its practices. Eventually they joined Lambda Chi Alpha as Alpha-Upsilon Zeta on February 23, 1918. The example set by the members of Alpha-Upsilon Zeta had a great influence on other Commons Clubs desiring national fraternity affiliation.

The Kasa Club was founded at Brown University in 1900 and eventually became a member of the NFCC. This group was founded on the principles of congeniality, fraternal feelings, high scholarship, and individual achievement.

In 1907 a minority group broke away to form Sigma Phi Delta Fraternity. This new fraternity was to be based on the ideals of democracy and the desire to accept members of modest wealth. However, it petitioned Lambda Chi Alpha and became ”’Iota Zeta”’ on November 12, 1912.

Wabash College in Crawfordville, Indiana, saw the formation of the Barb Association in 1913. This was an attempt by independent students to break the political rule of the Greek fraternities. Internal divisions within the Barbs led to a faction leaving to form a Commons Club in 1916.

On May 20, 1918, Alpha-Kappa Zeta was installed. Interestingly, almost every member of the Barb Association and the Wabash Commons Club became members of our Fraternity.

The Sketlioi Club of Adelbert College of Western Reserve University was organized in 1914. It joined the NFCC in 1916, but left that organization to become ”’Alpha-Nu Zeta”’ of Lambda Chi Alpha in May 1918. Alpha-Nu’s installation was conducted by Grand High Alpha Warren A. Cole (Boston 1909).

Colby College, located in Waterville, Maine, was the home of Omicron Theta, which joined the NFCC in 1912. The Colby Commons Club split with the national organization because the local group wanted to be selective in its recruitment. After leaving the NFCC in 1917, it petitioned Lambda Chi Alpha and became Alpha-Rho Zeta on May 29, 1918.

The series of photographs of the Colby chapter house illustrates its transition from a Commons Club to a “Lam Kai” Zeta.

In 1922 Alpha-Rho experienced one of the greatest tragedies in the Fraternity’s early history as five members died in a horrible chapter house fire.

The University of Washington, located in Seattle, had a long history of independent student organizations. The Washingtonians (1913), the Independent Union (1915), the Library Commons Club (NFCC) (1915), and the Kapho Club (NFCC) (1916) were all variations on the Commons Club form of student organization.

It appears that members from all of these groups were installed as Alpha-Psi Zeta on June 15, 1918. One of the most prominent Commons Club members of Alpha-Psi was the previously mentioned LeRoy W. Brooks.

Carnegie-Mellon University, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, was the home to Delta Sigma Rho Local Fraternity (1914). Another local student group, Kappa Sigma Rho (NFCC), was organized in 1916.

Both of these organizations, and a non-NFCC Kappa Sigma Rho Local Fraternity (1918), were installed as Epsilon-Lambda Zeta on November 9, 1929, making it the seventh and final chapter that can trace its beginnings to the Commons Club.

Though records show that the Allegheny College Commons Club petitioned for a charter from Lambda Chi Alpha, the petition was rejected by Cole. The club became inactive shortly after their petition was rejected.

Largely forgotten, the ideals and principles of the Commons Clubs are compatible with the beliefs of Lambda Chi Alpha Fraternity. Our heritage as a fraternal organization was enriched when seven local Commons Clubs became chapters of our Fraternity.