Theta Nu Epsilon - Internal Struggles

Internal Struggles

As early as the turn of the century, there were chapters created informally and without official sanction, especially in the South. The new national organization attempted to unify all chapters of the society, but the process proceeded slowly. Some illicit chapters became very problematic for the society. Several of these chapters were banned from campuses, and many fraternities prohibited members from accepting membership in the society. These events negatively affected the reputation of the society.

Also, because of internal differences in the society, in the 1910s, many of the older legitimate chapters reorganized themselves as independent organizations which were loosely allied across campuses.

In 1913, the National Interfraternity Conference (predecessor to the current North-American Interfraternity Conference) officially announced its opposition to T.N.E. and recommended to the fraternities represented in the conference that they forbid their members to join Theta Nu Epsilon The relations between Theta Nu Epsilon and the N.I.C. improved and the N.I.C. retracted its opposition at its session in New York, 1925. Theta Nu Epsilon was later accepted as a member of the N.I.C. in the 1930s.

An attempt was made to convert a small portion of the then existing chapters into a four-year college fraternity in the 1930s. At the same time, some of the most notorious activity seems to have been among some illegitimate chapters in the far West in the late 1930s and 40s.

It is frequently assumed that all Theta Nu Epsilon members are also members of four-year college fraternities, but that has never been a requirement of membership. However, it is true that very many members have been members of four-year fraternities. There have been chapters that have operated exclusively that way, and the independent former chapter at Alabama is a well-known example of a group operating solely as an interfraternity coordinating organization.