University Societies May Meet Together

Greensboro Daily News, December 29, 1926

 

 

Both Organizations Now Have Proposals Before Them for Joint Meetings

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Is Radical Departure

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The Dialectic and Philanthropic literary societies of the University of North Carolina which are virtually as old as the institution itself and comprise in their membership thousands of alumni, may join hands and hold their regular weekly meetings under the same roof if resolutions which have just been introduced by groups in both organizations are put into effect. The move will no doubt meet with strenuous opposition, and it will probably be several weeks before the question is settled.

 

While the plan is to form one organization that will embrace the two societies each may be allowed to maintain its former identity. A joint committee is expected to report soon as to the advisability of the new move. The new organization would combine the best features of the old with the added feature that about once a month men prominent in public life could be invited to address the session thus lending the atmosphere of a formal school on public affairs which is impracticable under the present organization. The new organization would also aim to be a better avenue for the expression of student sentiment, it being argued that the two societies have had difficulty in finding a common meeting ground for the discussion of campus problems. The chief aim, however, would also continue to be to improve students in the art of public speaking.

 

The movement for a new organization was started by certain student groups who feel that the two societies are in a decadent state as the result of a constantly decreasing membership, the decline being ascribed "to the increase in number of other campus activities absorbing the attention of the students," and the fact that "a literary society in the old fashioned sense no longer fills the needs of the campus.

 

The birth of the two societies dates from 1798, three years after the university opened, although they had existed as one society a year prior to that. The split was a result of sectional differences and the desire to have smaller groups as to give each member more opportunity for practice in speaking. Since then it has been the custom for the students from the east to join the Phi and those from the west the Di.