The records of the University of Michigan Fraternity Office cover the period 1922-1964. The provenance of the records is unclear. The records appear to have been created in the offices of the Dean of Men, Dean of Women, and the Interfraternity Council, in addition to the Fraternity Office. The records are divided into two series, Topical Files and Greek Organizations.
There are also materials relating to Theta Nu Epsilon, an underground fraternity that generated concern among college administrators across the nation and a 1960 hazing incident involving Theta Xi fraternity. Also of interest are the files on Alpha Kappa Alpha and Delta Sigma Theta, two sororities formed for African American women.
The documentation of this office is in general scant; the bulk of the documentation covers the years 1958-1964.
The history of the Fraternity Office dates back to the 1938/39 academic school year when the experimental position "Fraternity Relations Counselor" was created by Dean Joseph Bursley (Dean of Men). This experimental position was created to define and clarify the relationship between the university and fraternities and to coordinate various fraternity activities through the Interfraternity Council (letter to Dean Bursley from Arthur Lundahl dated June 14, 1939, Vice President for Student Affairs, Box 1, "Fraternities - Resident Advisors, 1933-1949). The position was not continued the next year due to university-wide budget cuts.
A staff position related to Fraternities first appears within the Office of the Dean of Men in the 1951/52 Directory of officers, Faculty, Staff and Associated Organizations. Beginning in the 1951/52 school year, Joseph H. Fee, Assistant to the Dean of Students, held the new position of Fraternity Advisor within the office of the Dean of Men. The duties of this position were transferred to the Assistant Director of Student organizations, Freeman T. Clark in the 1968/68 academic school year. (See list of persons holding the fraternity advisor position).
The Fraternity Office was created by the university to monitor activities and housing policies and to police individual fraternities. The advisor (counselor) to fraternities was also a member of the advisory board for the Interfraternity Office (IFC), a self-governing student organization concerned with maintaining the standards of the fraternity system,.
During the 1960s, the university gradually lessened its control over fraternities. The office was disbanded at the end of the 1968/69 school year. It was decided at that time that fraternities required only an advisor on an as needed basis, which was the current practice for student organizations on campus. (President's Report, 1968/69, Volume IV - Student Organizations, p.2.).
University Officers Overseeing Fraternity Affairs
Fraternity Relations Counselor
| Date |
Event |
| 1938-1939 | Arthur B. Lundahl (graduate student) |
Assistant to the Dean
| Date |
Event |
| 1951-1952 | Joseph H. Fee |
| 1952-1956 | William S. Zerman |
| 1956-1959 | William G. Cross |
| 1959-1962 | Louis C. Rice |
Assistant to Director of Student Activities and Organizations, Office of Student Affairs
| Date |
Event |
| 1962-1965 | John Feldkamp |
Assistant to Director of Student Organizations, Office of Student Affairs
| Date |
Event |
| 1965-1966 | Charles Judge |
| 1967-1969 | Freeman T. Clark |
