. It was erected during the year 1879-80 and
preceded by four years the erection of the old Alpha Delta Phi house,
the second fraternity house to be built. Sigma Phi occupied, in 1882,
the old home of Professor Moses Coit Tyler, on the beautiful site of the
present chapter house. The Delta Kappa Epsilon house was built in 1889;
the old Governor Ashley property on Monroe Street was bought by Delta
Upsilon in 1887; Zeta Psi bought the property on which the present house
stands in 1890; while Phi Kappa Psi bought, in 1893, the picturesque
Millen property on the triangle between Washtenaw and Hill streets they
had occupied for ten years, one of Ann Arbor's landmarks which has only
recently been removed to make way for a new chapter house. At the
present time practically all of the fraternities either own or rent
chapter houses; ordinarily purchasing the property with alumni
assistance, and issuing mortgages, largely held by the alumni, or the
national organization, for any unpaid balance.

A comparison of this record of fraternity establishment with similar
figures from other universities will show that Michigan was one of the
first of the larger institutions in which the fraternity system took
deep root. Student life at Michigan has always been colored by it, and
the mass of students, from the first, has been divided into fraternity
and non-fraternity elements; an unofficially recognized distinction
which has had far-reaching effects in all student affairs, particularly
class-elections, student athletics, journalism, and general society
membership. The "independent" suffers no particular social disability,
save as he misses the pleasant club life of the fraternity. Often, if he
is a man of marked ability, he finds his independence a distinct
advantage in college affairs, for non-fraternity men have always been in
sufficient majority to see that the choice positions go to the
"independent" representatives. Within the fraternities, too, there has
always existed a division between the older and the more recent
organization which was, for a long time, almost as marked as the
division between fraternity and non-fraternity men. This came through
the rivalry that arose between two groups of fraternities. The first,
known as the "Palladium," took its name from an annual, first published
in 1859, which came to represent the interests of nine fraternities in
college up to 1876, while a second group was made up of the fraternities
es