Alpha Pi Chapter of Beta Theta Pi at the University of Wisconsin
Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/1418528
4 BETA THETA PI A s Alpha Pi has grown to become one of the largest chapters in Beta's Broad Domain (and the largest chapter in the Big Ten), the Beta Building Association (BBA) has worked to modernize operations to reflect our new membership levels. All leases, billing, and payments are now handled electronically, resulting in a significant increase in timely rent payments. Our new meal plan vendor from last semester (Upper Crust Food Service) has proven so popular that a large number of live- out members have joined the dinner-only plan, further strengthening the bonds of brotherhood throughout the chapter. Almost 80% of our membership lives outside the house, but nearly everyone uses the house and what it has to offer. To keep the chapter competitive on campus and to protect our investment, all members of the chapter now pay parlor fees and security deposits. Parlor fees will go directly toward improvements for the house; this semester, we are putting them toward a new phone-based access system, speaker system, and chapter room TV. Security deposits from all members will cover any damages to common areas of the house and furniture that go beyond normal wear and tear (if the responsible party is not determined). All these changes are based on best practices from other fraternities of similar size—both Beta chapters across the country and chapters here in Madison. With them, we expect to solidify the chapter's recent successes and position ourselves well into the future as we approach 150 continuous years as the Alpha Pi Chapter of Beta Theta Pi. Damn glad to be a Beta! Yours in _kai_, Max Lord, #1991, UW 2007 BBA President mslord@gmail.com Preserving Our Home for the Future How Brothers Are Chipping In I f you believe one of our favorite Beta songs, "Adam was the first man to wear a Beta pin." Spoiler alert: he wasn't, but that's just one of many tales that we share about our legacy. When I pledged Alpha Pi way back in 1968, I was told that Wisconsin's greatest politician, "Battling Bob LaFollette," was one of us. He wasn't, but his son Robert LaFollette Jr. 1917 (1895-1953) was—and "Battling Bob" didn't like it one bit! Bob had made his name, and even run for president in 1924, as a staunch member of the now long gone Progressive Party. To his credit, he received 16.6% of all votes cast in that election, making him far and away the most successful third-party candidate in American history. You could summarize the Progressives pretty succinctly by calling them "anti-elitists." Beta at Wisconsin was, as most fraternities were back in 1913, elitist. So when Robert pledged, there was plenty of friction between father and son. It's a matter of history now, but Battling Bob did not want his namesake in a fraternity, a fact he made quite well known at the time. Robert, who had been groomed from birth to govern, defied his fiery dad. As a second son myself, I can tell you from my own vast experience that when you're the "spare to the heir," everything is easier the second time around—which probably explains why there wasn't a public comment from the senior LaFollette when his second son, Phillip LaFollette 1919, followed his older brother to Alpha Pi. Robert would never graduate from UW and was kept out of World War I by illness. He served as his father's personal secretary in the Senate from 1919 to Bob's death in 1925, at which point he took over his seat in the Senate. Politically, "Young Bob" (as Robert was known) was an isolationist in the run up to World War II, and would later oppose Joseph Stalin and the formation of the United Nations. He was known during his political career as a champion of organized labor and as a man beholden to no one who spoke and voted his conscience freely. Robert and Phillip were the leaders and lifeblood of the Progressive Party in Wisconsin during the middle portion of the 20th century, with Phillip serving two terms as governor of Wisconsin from 1931-33 and 1935-39. A true man of the people, it was said that people greeting him on the street just called him Phil. Robert lost his seat in the U.S. Senate in 1947 after 22 years of service after being defeated in the Republican primary by a scant five thousand votes. He and his father had held the same seat for a combined 41 years. His opponent had accused him of being a draft dodger—a pretty wild accusation considering "Young Bob" would have been 46 years old at the time of Pearl Harbor. Robert died by his own hand in 1953, reportedly from depression over being accused of being soft on communism. He and his family are remembered through a high school and a plethora of other memorials to their devotion to the state. "We are the people." Damn glad! Yours in _kai_, Roderick Taylor, #1448, UW 1972 THE LAFOLLETTES AND ALPHA PI The Legacy of Robert LaFollette Jr. 1917