Recent incident leads to quarrel between Phi Delta Theta and Theta Delta Chi
The start of every school year brings a mix of old and new to campus. New classes, new students, new professors, but also old traditions and old friends.
One of the unfortunate “olds” students have dealt with the past few years is conflict and violence arising out of disagreements over Phi Delta Theta’s pots and Beta Theta Pi’s hats. Most notoriously, students will steal the pots and hats by running by the pledges and simply snatching their headwear, making off with the prize.
However, if they are grabbed or caught in the attempt, physical altercations can crop up. Two years ago, a Beta freshman was attacked for his hat on his way to class, resulting in a dislocated shoulder that had to be reset. Since that year, Beta no longer instructs their pledges to wear their hats around campus; the hats are still worn within the chapter house, but nearly exclusively so.
Conflict isn’t just restricted to overt violence; it hasn’t been uncommon to hear stories from a pledge whose backpack was rifled through and his hat or pot stolen while he was at practice.
These instances of theft and violence surrounding pots and hats are a departure from the good-natured pranks and interfraternity competition of the past.
Many students may not know the origins behind the tradition of Phi Delt pots and Beta hats. Pots were introduced in 1920, and originally, every freshman on campus had to wear a pot as a right of passage.
Eventually, freshmen were no longer required to wear the pots, and by around 1968, no freshmen, besides Phi Delt pledges, wore pots. Phi Delts valued the tradition, and wanted to continue the practice as a way to cultivate fraternity pride. Somewhere along the line, Beta adapted pots into hats, but the motivation behind the accessories was still the same.
“It’s never been a point of hazing or demeaning the freshmen,” said Karston Runge ’25, Phi Delt’s current chapter president. “It’s always been a source of pride and a way of showing that we’re keeping alive a tradition that’s been here for over 100 years.”
While freshman wearing hats and pots has a long and illustrious history, the tradition has not stayed stagnant. Chris Runyon ’26, a junior at Beta, spoke about what the protocol traditionally was after a hat was taken from a Beta.
“From what we understand, before if you went over as a pledge class to the house who stole the hat, you would talk to the freshmen class there, strike a deal and you’d get the hat back,” said Runyon. “Boom, done, that’s the end of it. But it turned into guys saying, ‘No, I’m not giving the hat back.’ Okay, now it’s to the point where it isn’t even a game, you just stole my hat.”
Freshman wearing hats and pots are key elements of house culture and tradition for Beta and Phi Delt, respectively. For the College and the Deans, most examples of conflict over the practice arises from other people disrupting the tradition. After speaking with Dean of Students Gregory Redding ’88 he stressed the importance of fraternities having the chance to uphold traditions and conduct their own freshmen education.
“If Beta and Phi Delt want their new members to do that [wear pots or hats], that should be fine,” said Redding. “They should feel comfortable walking down a sidewalk here without thinking someone’s going to come and tackle them or run from behind and steal their hat or pot.”
It is also important to recognize these stories are not always one-sided; sometimes, the retrieval effort can cause just as much strife as the initial theft.
On Tuesday, August 27, 2024, a stolen pot turned sour when the thief was misidentified as Gino Park ’28, Theta Delta Chi (TDX) freshman. Three brothers of Phi Delt showed up at TDX around 4:15 P.M. and asked a brother of the fraternity to let them in because they suspected Gino stole a pot just a few minutes before. They were directed to TDX’s president, Carter Bertsch ’26, and asked for directions to Gino’s room. The Phi Delts said they saw a “small, Asian guy” steal the pot, jump into a black car and drive off. Bertsch was confused because Gino doesn’t own a car, but he went with the Phi Delts to speak with the freshman.
Things began to bubble over when Bertsch estimated twenty to thirty more Phi Delts then made their way into the building through the side and front doors. One student brought a golf club in with him. While no violence occurred beyond this, the incident could have turned south. As it turns out, Gino did not even know what a pot was and had been seen by a fraternity brother eating cereal in TDX’s dining area not even twenty minutes before the theft of the pot.
Thankfully, Park, despite enduring an unsettling fiasco barely two weeks into the year, was optimistic about Wabash getting better from here on out.
“It is my second week, so not a great first impression to be honest, but from what I’ve heard, Wabash has its ups and downs,” said Park. “I think my experience still has a good chance to turn around.”
For Bertsch, the incident was an indictment of a wider culture in fraternities that puts freshmen in difficult situations where they feel as though they must do something extreme, even if it is contrary to their interests. That mentality can be particularly damaging when multiplied in a group setting, as in the case last week.
“I think it puts freshmen in a scenario where, ‘Alright, someone took your hat or pot, now you’ve got to get it back at all costs,’” said Bertsch. “I think that is kind of a bad look on fraternities, especially when the whole freshmen class rolls up on almost a witch hunt to get whoever took their pot.”
Runge, for his part, took responsibility for his involvement and the actions of his brothers and pledges.
“I take full responsibility,” said Runge. “My role as president in the house is to make sure that nothing like this happens, and I failed in that responsibility. So I take full responsibility.”
Of course, the confrontation should have been entirely avoided. The Interfraternity Council (IFC) distributed guidelines this year for, among other traditions, Beta hats and Phi Delt pots. In order to ensure safety and the safe return of the hats and pots, IFC banned the theft of hats and pots off of pledges’ heads. This is not an area the IFC wants to be involved in, according to IFC President Matt Lesniak ’25, but with the injuries and conflict in recent years, their hand was forced.
“I don’t want the IFC to have to meddle into every house’s business,” said Lesniak. “But the fact of the matter is it’s needed because if it isn’t the IFC doing stuff, it’s going to be the Deans.”
However, Lesniak is optimistic about this year, and he believes the students have the ability to tighten things up while also pursuing a truer form of a long-valued tradition.
“If we could have zero incidents for the next two or three years, I think campus could get another shot at going more old school with some of our traditions, like where you run and steal a pot off somebody’s head,” said Lesniak.
The responsibility lies with the students. A student body obsessed with tradition and preserving culture can have boisterous fun and mischievous competition, but, at the end of the day, civility and respect needs to come first.