Page 37 - 1919 September - To Dragma

30 TO PRAGMA OF ALPHA OMICRON PI

FRATERNITY EXAMINATIONS

LUCY R. SOMERVILLE

Chairman of the Committee on Examinations

W H E N I wrote the report of the Examining Officer for Con-
vention, I thought my valedictory message had been sent, but
apparently not. We are to have a Committee on Examinations, how-
ever, that will share the work and furnish ideas for the future. A
number of regulations relating to examinations were passed by Con-
vention; one requires the giving of a course of study "upon frater-
nity and related topics," and it was voted that each chapter should
have a by-law requiring pledges to be familiar with fraternity facts
and history before initiation, also that each chapter should devote
some portion of its time to study and discussion of fraternity history
and development and interfraternity and collegiate questions. Un-
fortunately I was not at Convention and so did not have the oppor-
tunity of hearing the discussion that must have accompanied the
passage of these resolutions; i f any of you have ideas and opinions
on this subject, please tell me what they are. There is one point
that I have expressed before, but which will bear repetition, that the
object of fraternity examinations is not to give low grades to members
and chapters but to insure a minimum of fraternity knowledge on the
part of each member. The responsibility for the chapter's record
rests upon each individual member alone.

Examinations are ordinarily a dire and forbidding topic, but two
years' association with your examinations has brought out a lighter
and more friendly side. Examinations are one of the bonds of
union between us all. I n the future on examination day, serve tea
and make it a gala occasion, not a day of mourning, and be prepared
to make a hundred!