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Facts
ATΩ was founded
by Otis Allan Glazebrook, Erskine Mayo Ross, and Alfred Marshall,
at the Virginia Military Institute in 1865 upon Christian and brotherly
love, with Christian principles, not Greek principles, as the cornerstones
of the values of ATΩ.
ATΩ was not established in imitation of or in opposition to any
existing fraternity.
In June 1935, the ATΩ Foundation's inception occurred
at the 34th Congress in Memphis, Tennessee.
The Leadershape Institute, Inc. was created in 1986
by Alpha Tau Omega, and today is considered one of the nations finest
leadership skills training programs in the country.
ATO
was honored by the Smithsonian Institute for innovative use of technology
with an award for Information Technology in the field of Government
and Nonprofit Organizations in June 1995. The award was given for
ATΩ's innovative use of CompuServe as a communications tool.
ATΩ annually ranks among the top ten national fraternities for number
of chapters and total number of members. ATΩ has more than 240 active
and inactive chapters with more than 181,000 members and more than
6,500 undergraduate members.
The ATΩ foundations provides more that $150,000 in annual scholarships
to members including scholarships to attend the LeaderShape Institute,
Inc.
Alpha Tau Omega is a participating member in the National Inter
fraternity Conference, the Fraternity Executives Association, the
College Fraternity Editors Association, the Council for the Advancement
and Support of Education, Inc., and the Fraternal Risk Management
Trust.
In 1950 Indiana University Worthy Master Robert Lollar created "Help
Week" setting pledges to doing good deeds around campus and
replacing the traditional "Hell Week."
The Firsts
ATΩ was the first fraternity founded after the Civil War in 1865,
striving to heal the wounds created by the devastation and help
reunite the North and South.
ATΩ was the first fraternity founded as a national fraternity,
not a local or sectional fellowship.
The
first meeting of ATΩ was at 114 E. Clay St. in Richmon, Virginia,
where Glazebrook read the Constitution of ATΩ to Marshall and
Ross for the first time.
The first chapter north of the Mason-Dixon line, was chartered
at the University of Pennsylvania sixteen years after the founding
of ATΩ, helping to bring a realization to the founder's dreams.
The ATΩ chapter of the South (Sewanee) was the first of any fraternity
in the South to have a chapter house in 1880.
ATΩ's first fraternity west of the Rockies and first of any fraternity
in the Northwest was at the University of Oregon with the chartering
in 1882.
Thomas Arkle Clark, the first initiate of the Gamma Zeta chapter
at the University of Illinois, was the nation's first college
dean of men.
ATΩ was the first national fraternity to start a chapter free
of alcohol and tobacco on fraternity property.
ATΩ was the first national fraternity to sponsor and conduct coeducational
leadership conferences nationwide in 1992.
The Symbols
The ATΩ Badge was designed by Otis Allan Glazebrook in 1865 and
is worn by the initiate.
The
Grand Seal was painted by Richard N. Burke, VMI Arts Instructor,
in 1872.
The White Tea Rose became the ATΩ Flower in 1892.
The Coat of Arms was redesigned and approved by committee in 1910.
The ATΩ Flag was designed by William C. Smiley and approved in
1914.
Colors: Azure and Gold.
Nickname: Taus, Alpha Taus, ATOs
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Creed
of Alpha Tau Omega
To
bind men together in a brotherhood based upon eternal
and immutable principles, with a bond as strong as right
itself and as lasting as humanity; to know no North,
no South, no East, no West, but to know man as man,
to teach that true men the world over should stand together
and contend for supremacy of good over evil; to teach,
not politics, but morals; to foster, not partisanship,
but the recognition of true merit wherever found; to
have no narrower limits within which to work together
for the elevation of man than the outlines of the world:
These were the thoughts and hopes uppermost
in the minds of the founders of the Alpha Tau Omega
Fraternity.
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