A LOOK BACK: KAPPA HISTORY
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Teach a pledge to live, work and think with other Kappa men; Furnish a laboratory to practice and develop a capacity for self- government;
ties they would participate in. Some chapter’s Scrollers would be outfitted in red, while others would prohibit their Scrollers from being attired in that color, opting for their Scrollers to don other colors as part of their ‘uniform’. Some colors selected by those chapters would range from black, blue, purple and gold or green. A common fallacy which many members have perpetuated is that green was the “official” color of the Scroller Club. The custom of wearing colors during a pledge program was not in exis- tence since the inception of the Scroller Club in 1919 and most likely did not materialize until the 1940s or 1950s. Those Scrollers would typically wear one article of clothing to signify their affiliation with the fraternity by wearing something like a red beanie/beret. To further illustrate a contradiction to the erroneous and disproven claim, the Zeta Chapter Scrollers never wore green and the colors of Ohio State University are not green and white. The Scroller Club never had an official color. The fraternity originally published “The Scroller of Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, Inc.” in 1966. Fourth Elder Watson Diggs Awardee and long-time member of Baltimore (MD) Alumni, Dr. I.W.E. Tay- lor (Epsilon 1932) as primary author/edi- tor of the initial Scroller Club Manual. This manual was a guide which provided Scrollers with all of the foundational information they needed to be indoctri- nated along their paths to Kappa Alpha Psi membership. There were four edi-
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Teach a pledge the good old Kappa spirit. To enable a Scroller Club to implement its purposes, the committee recom- mended: ♦ Recognizing the Scroller Club as an official part of the Frater- nity;
1976 Scroller Club Membership Card
Adopting the “Scroller’s Spirit Building Manual” and repro- ducing it for sale to chapters at a minimum cost; ♦
Charging each pledge a mini- mum fee of $1.50 to cover the cost of a pledge pin, “1936 Kappa Alpha Psi Handbook” and “Scroller’s Spirit Building Manual”; and Dedicating the 29 th Grand Chapter to the 20 th anniversary of the Scroller Club
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Establishing a permanent com- mittee to coordinate Scroller Club activities; Designating the official title of the member supervising the activities of a Scroller Club as Dean of Pledges”;
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Dispelling the Myth
Following the formal adoption of Scroller Club as an official entity/pledge program of the Fraternity, it continued to proliferate and continued to create its own unique traditions that were distinc- tive and part of the fabric of the Frater- nity. In spite of the uniform guidelines established for the Scroller Club, individual undergraduate and alumni chapters distinguished their Scrollers by their attire and the types of activi-
Atlanta Panther, April 1, 1961
Left: 1954 Brooklyn (NY) alumni
Chapter Scrollers. 1955 Probates line up for "Kappa Kat Races."
THE JOURNAL ♦ FALL 2019 | 87
Publishing achievement for 105 years
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