Chapter 3:

"Alpha Tau Omega holds before the young men of the country an ideal and something greater than a mere intellectual ideal. Alpha Tau Omega stands for heart as well as head. It has given men a true ideal of life."

From 1878 - 1895 "more chapters" was the Fraternity's goal. Now ATO began flexing its muscles. With a High Council to investigate institutions of higher learning, ATO was able to issue charters with more assurance. For a time, it was even possible to found a new chapter through the mail. All it took was a due inquiry and consultation with National Officers. Once satisfied the chapter would be a strong one, the officer to whom a grant had been issued might send the charter, Constitution, and secret work by registered mail. The chapter would return a signed oath of secrecy, and the founding officer would send the key to the cipher, by the fastest means available and the group would the initiate itself!

All fraternities were expanding rapidly. Students were enjoying new freedoms, and the fraternity system fit right in. Colleges during this era grew more tolerant of student activity — recreational, athletic, and social. It was only natural that membership in Greek-letter societies swelled and competition for the best freshmen grew. ATO gladly joined in the rush for new members.

This was the era when pledgeship got its start. Through the mid-1870s, there was not such thing as pledgeship. Chapters observed prospective members for weeks or even months — then, when satisfied, invited them to join. If selected, you might be awakened in the middle of the night, asked to become an ATO, and hustled off to be initiated the moment you accepted.

In an 1885 Palm, though, a revealing article appears. There is a problem, it seems, with the new initiate who never bothers to "acquaint himself with the origin, history, progress, and present condition of his Fraternity." Thus, apathy grows within the chapter.

Given the rush for new members, fraternities found themselves with less time in which to judge a new man. If they picked their members too early, they might not get what they expected. If they waited too long, other fraternities would snap up the best men. The solution was a sort of waiting period whereby a new man might be "pledged" to join a fraternity. This would keep him safe from competitors, but allow him and his prospective chapter a chance to really get to know one another.

It was Larkin W. Glazebrook, Mercer 1880, who applied the brakes. The younger Glazebrook, son of the Founder, was elected Worthy Grand Chief in 1895. His goal was the consolidation of existing chapters — improving their quality and living conditions.

One of the most important steps taken toward that end was the development of the Province system. Chapters did better when alumni came by regularly to visit and advise the undergraduates, so the Fraternity decided to make an institution of the practice. Province Chiefs were appointed on a provisional basis in 1899. Their job was to act as deputies of the Worthy Grand Chief, visiting their chapters and offering guidance. The Worthy Grand Chief might then concentrate on long-range matters, free from the constant travel and correspondence of older days. The system worked so well that the 1890 Congress made it official, and ATO's far-flung chapters now had the assistance of regular alumni visits and supervision.

The Fraternity's oldest chapter houses date from about this time, for chapters were encouraged to build. By now, ATO possessed thousands of alumni able to devote time and money to fund-raising drives. Colleges frequently encouraged the trend in order to help provide much-needed housing at a time when enrollments ballooned.

The University of the South (Sewanee) chapter was the first ATO chapter with a house and the first of any fraternity in the South. Actually a lodge, the building was an early University library donated to the chapter in 1880 "in recognition of service rendered to the University."

Despite ATO's conservative outlook, it still granted charters to promising interest groups and by 1916 boasted 67 chapters from coast to coast. That was gratifying, but it presented a new problem: administration. From the Fraternity's founding, its correspondence had been written, its treasury kept, and its archives preserved by individual National Officers. They received no remuneration beyond travel expenses. Records of great value were kept in officers' homes, taken to Congress, transferred to new Officers, and dumped into trunks for the trip to their new homes. The 1916 Congress appropriated a small budget for a central office and amended the Constitution to authorize the High Council to open the office and employ an Executive Secretary.

World War I forced the issue. When several key National Officers entered the service, the High Council knew the time had come to act. It hired a University of Illinois professor of English, Dr. Frank W. Scott, Illinois, to be ATO's first, albeit part-time, Executive Secretary. Dr. Scott set up his office in Champaign, Illinois, and vital records began arriving from across the nation. Even those initially opposed to the expense of a central office were ready to call it the most important event in recent years. For the first time, the Fraternity had a "home," which remained in Champaign until the 1990's.