Pi Kappa

Pi Kappa, was a junior society, said to be “reinstituted in 1900.” In the Liber Brunensis, beginning in 1901, the list of members of Pi Kappa appears, under this heading, “1864-1894 Re-Instituted 1900.” Whether Pi Kappa existed at an earlier date is uncertain. The Brown Paper includes in November 1864 and again in November 1865 a society called “Pi Kappa Fraternitas,” with a list of members whose names are decidedly fictitious. The revived society, if such it was, presented during Junior Week in April 1901 a farce entitled “Through Thick and Thin” in Lyman Gymnasium, which the Brown Daily Herald described as “not at all pretentious in plot or length,” but “bright and witty.” The annual farce became a tradition of Pi Kappa, which also assumed the function of host to visiting athletic teams. New members were traditionally announced at the junior prom in a ceremony at midnight in which they were “tapped” by the outgoing members. When Pi Kappa was replaced by the Brown Key in 1930, the retiring members tapped the new Key members.