Fraternity Improvements

Fraternity Internal Improvements at the University of Minneosota

At this point in time, we see a relationship between fraternities and university administration starting to develop. As they gained popularity and power, the university administration enacted a program of co-operation called “The Minnesota Plan” that made improvements and democratized the fraternities. The plan gave fraternities

• financial supervision by establishing budgets and an auditing system through the office of student affairs
• resident counsellors that aided them in their studies (typically graduate students or members of faculty)¹

This action towards improvement shows how the university attempted to take more of a role in the interworking’s of fraternities at the time. A newspaper article put it this way:

“The proverbial swords with which the Greek letter organizations and the university

administration faced each other from time to time in the past have been turned into plough-

shares through a co-operative arrangement known as the Minnesota plan by which the

university will take the Greek letter houses under its protecting wings.”²

The relationship between fraternities and the university administration will continue to develop as the years pass at the University of Minnesota. At this point in time, the relationship seemed strong.