Theta Chi

Theta Chi Fraternity (ΘΧ) is an international college fraternity. It was founded on April 10, 1856 at Norwich University in Norwich, Vermont, and is a member of the North-American Interfraternity Conference. Theta Chi has initiated more than 180,000 members and currently has over 8,000 undergraduate members across North America.

History

Founding and early years at Norwich

Theta Chi was founded on April 10, 1856, at Norwich University in Norwich, Vermont, by two military cadets, Frederick Norton Freeman and Arthur Chase. A third man, Egbert Phelps, is considered to be the "assistant founder" for lending his help and advice to Freeman and Chase after transferring to Union College in 1854 (he was a member of the Chi Psi Fraternity). The first initiates after the founders were Edward Bancroft Williston and Lorenzo Potter. Theta Chi's early history is closely connected to the history of Norwich University. In 1866 a massive fire devastated the University, completely destroying the Old South Barracks, where the Fraternity had been founded. This disaster prompted the University to move from Norwich, Vermont to its present location in Northfield, Vermont. During fall quarter in 1881, Norwich University was reduced to only 12 students and Theta Chi's membership was reduced to one undergraduate member, James M. Holland. In November of that year, Phil S. Randall and Henry B. Hersey approached Holland and insisted that they be allowed to join Theta Chi; Holland agreed, thus saving the Fraternity from extinction.

Theta

Theta (uppercase Θ or ϴ, lowercase θ (which resembles digit 0 with horizontal line) or ϑ; Ancient Greek: θῆτα, thē̂ta, [tʰɛ̂ːta]; Modern: θήτα, thī́ta, [ˈθita]; UK /ˈθiːtə/, US /ˈθeɪtə/) is the eighth letter of the Greek alphabet, derived from the Phoenician letter Teth . In the system of Greek numerals it has a value of 9.

Greek

In Ancient Greek, θ represented the aspirated voiceless dental plosive /t̪ʰ/, but in Modern Greek it represents the voiceless dental fricative /θ/.

Forms

In its archaic form, θ was written as a cross within a circle (as in the Etruscan or ), and later, as a line or point within a circle ( or ).

The form ϑ was retained by Unicode as U+03D1 ϑ "GREEK THETA SYMBOL" ("=script theta"), separate from U+03B8 θ "GREEK SMALL LETTER THETA". For the purpose of writing Greek text, the two can be font variants of a single character, but θ and ϑ are also used as distinct symbols in technical and mathematical contexts.

Latin

In the Latin script used for the Gaulish language, theta developed into the tau gallicum, conventionally transliterated as Ð, although the bar extends across the centre of the letter. The phonetic value of the tau gallicum is thought to have been [t͡s].

University of South Carolina

The University of South Carolina (also referred to as USC, SC, South Carolina, or simply Carolina) is a public, co-educational research university located in Columbia, South Carolina, United States, with seven satellite campuses. Its campus covers over 359 acres (145 ha) in downtown Columbia not far from the South Carolina State House. The University is categorized by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching as having "very high research activity" and curricular community engagement. It has been ranked as an "up-and-coming" university by U.S. News & World Report, and its undergraduate and graduate International Business programs have ranked among the top three programs in the nation for over a decade. It also houses the largest collection of Robert Burns and Scottish literature materials outside Scotland, and the largest Ernest Hemingway collection in the world.

Founded in 1801 as South Carolina College, South Carolina is the flagship institution of the University of South Carolina System and offers more than 350 programs of study, leading to bachelor's, master's, and doctoral degrees from fourteen degree-granting colleges and schools. The University of South Carolina has an enrollment of approximately 49,220 students, with 33,575 on the main Columbia campus as of fall 2015. USC also has several thousand future students in feeder programs at surrounding technical colleges. Professional schools on the Columbia campus include business, engineering, law, medicine, pharmacy, and social work.

South Carolina

South Carolina ⁱ/ˌsaʊθ kærəˈlaɪnə/ is a state in the southeastern region of the United States. The state is bordered to the north by North Carolina, to the south and west by Georgia across the Savannah River, and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean.

The Province of South Carolina became a slave society after rice and indigo became established as commodity crops. From 1708, a majority of the population were slaves, many born in Africa.

South Carolina was the first state to ratify the Articles of Confederation and the eighth state to ratify the U.S. Constitution on May 23, 1788. South Carolina became the first state to vote to secede from the Union on December 20, 1860. After the American Civil War, it was readmitted into the United States on June 25, 1868.

South Carolina is the 40th most extensive and the 23rd most populous U.S. state. Its GDP as of 2013 was $183.6 billion, with an annual growth rate of 3.13%. South Carolina comprises 46 counties. The capital and largest city is Columbia with a 2013 population of 133,358; the Greenville-Anderson-Mauldin metropolitan area had a 2013 population of 850,965.

State university system

A state university system in the United States is a group of public universities supported by an individual state, or a similar entity such as the District of Columbia. These systems constitute the majority of public-funded universities in the country. Each state supports at least one such system.

State university systems should not be confused with federally funded colleges and universities, at which attendance is limited to military personnel and government employees. Members of foreign militaries and governments also attend some schools. These schools include the United States military academies, Naval Postgraduate School, and military staff colleges.

A state university system normally means a single legal entity and administration, but may consist of several institutions, each with its own identity as a university. Some states—such as California and Texas—support more than one such system.

State universities get subsidies from their states. The amount of the subsidy varies from university to university and state to state, but the effect is to lower tuition costs below that of private universities for students from that state or district. As more and more Americans attend college, and private tuition rates increase well beyond the rate of inflation, admission to state universities is becoming more and more competitive.