Purpose
The purpose of Beta Theta Pi was laid out publicly in 1879, when Beta Theta Pi became the first college fraternity to publish its constitution. The Fraternity continues to guard certain secrets about membership which are reserved for its members; however, it offers wide knowledge of the objects and aspirations of Beta Theta Pi. The Code of Beta Theta Pi lays out the objects of the Fraternity as follows:
| “ | It shall be constituted as hereinafter provided and shall have for its objects, the promotion of the moral and social culture of its members, the establishment of confidence and friendly relations among the universities and colleges of the United States and Canada, in securing unity of action and sympathy in matters of common interest among them, and the building up of a fraternity that recognizes mutual assistance in the honorable labors and aspirations of life, devotion to the cultivation of the intellect, unsullied friendship, and unfaltering fidelity as objects worthy of the highest aim and purpose of associated effort. | ” |
-The Code of Beta Theta Pi, Article 1, Section 2
| “ | Again, the Beta is distinguishable and distinguished from all other kinds of fraternity men whatsoever by just a little warmer and stronger, just a little tenderer and more enduring fraternity feeling than any of them can attain to. For it was always so. I do not in the least know how it happened, nor why it persisted after it happened, but a long time ago there came into Beta Theta Pi a fraternity spirit that was, and is, and apparently will continue to be, unique. We know it, who are inside, and they see and record it who are outside the Beta pale. Whether young or old, in college or out, from the small school or the great university, we are conscious of a heritage of genuine fraternalism that has not been vouchsafed in like measure – I say it deliberately – to any other of the great college fraternities. And we cannot doubt that in this, as in other respects, our 'future will copy fair our past, and that in the world of fifty years from now, as in that of years ago, as in that that lies around us today — the first mark of a Beta will be his Beta Spirit. | ” |
-Willis O. Robb, Ohio Wesleyan 1879
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