Theta Nu Epsilon Society - History of the Berkeley Chapter

The Theta Nu Epsilon Society.

The Zeta & Delta Pi Chapters at The University of California at Berkeley.

The Zeta Chapter was established at Berkeley in 1881, and represented a surprising spread of the society to the then savage wilds of California. The Zeta Chapter was chartered by the Alpha Chapter and was therefore legitimate. Berkeley had only four fraternities at that time, Zeta Psi, Chi Phi, Delta Kappa Epsilon, and Beta Theta Pi, and the brothers of D.K.E. were no doubt the ones who brought Theta Nu Epsilon to San Francisco Bay. The society had some initial challenges, on Nov. 28, 1882, the Wesleyan Argus reported that “The property of the T.N.E. fraternity at the University of California was burned last week.” The Chapter recovered.

The running of the Zeta Chapter in 1899.

In 1892, the Zeta Chapter created the society of Skull & Keys for senior members. There were probably many reasons for this, one of which is that Berkeley was known for having many of its initial personnel come from Yale, and if Berkeley had a senior society, it would have been possible to recreate the Tap Day ceremonies at Berkeley. Theta Nu Epsilon was, of course, a Sophomore society and it would not have been as apporpriate for a Sophomore society to be the basis of a Tap Day. However, if Theta Nu Epsilon had come from the senior society Skull & Bones, then it only made sense, (to some minds), to create a senior society from it. It further created additional societies to belong to in different class years, (and Berkeley did eventually develop several societies in a class society system). The membership overlap between the two organizations was extensive and shows the connection clearly. (Also as a technical detail, Skull & Keys was not only a Senior society, but a Senior and Junior class society.)

The public Tap Day or ‘running’ events became a fixture of Life at Berkeley for many years. Tap Day is a process of tapping new members in a public gathering. What at Berkeley called running was also common among many chapters, (though not usually called running), where there would be some sort of public antics with the new members being made to amuse whatever audience there was. These kind of farces would usually lead up to the initiation itself later in the day.

A poster for the running of Skull & Keys from the 1938.

The Senior (and Junior) class Skull & Keys continues to this day, and has had some controversies in recent decades relating to some of the behavior at its social functions and certain political issues. The society does not own its own facilities on the campus.

Skull & Keys is not strictly speaking a surviving Theta Nu Epsilon chpater, although it does have an extremely close line of descent. The National Organization of the Alpha Chapter has maintained pleasant relations with Berkeley through occasional contact.

The Sophomore Theta Nu Epsilon chapter remained true to the traditions of the society and therefore was purged from the society in the 1913-16 Interfraternity Conflict. The Zeta Chapter continued on as an independent organization until about 1919, although the records on this point are entirely unclear.

The Delta Pi Chapter in 1924.

There was a second chapter of Theta Nu Epsilon founded at Berkeley on August 23, 1924, the Delta Pi. It is considered a legitimate chapter, chartered by Madden National. Although chartered in 1924, it was planned as a four-year fraternity by the faction working toward changing Theta Nu Epsilon into a four-year fraternity. It previously had been a local society at Berkeley called the Dwight Club. It failed ca. 1934. It is not clear that the Zeta Chapter was entirely dead when this chapter was created.