of the March 16, 1878 meeting mention a serenade of four young ladies. The chapter adopted the custom of wearing a badge of mourning upon the death of an alumnus but this appears to have been discontinued by the time Zeta Phi joined Beta Theta Pi. A pinning is also recorded and several young women were actually "initiated" into the group and given a small pin to wear. A number of distinguished townspeople, in addition to members of the faculty, were also initiated into the society. The four known chapters of Zeta Phi were as follows. Those that merged are in bold, inactive chapters at the time of the merger are italicized: In 1882, the Alpha chapter had only eight active members and had decreased markedly in both size and activity. By 1884, however, memberships had increased to twenty, and a ritual and initiation ceremony were described in the chapter minutes. Zeta Phi received several invitations to unite with national fraternities before it finally became a chapter of Beta Theta Pi. Alpha Tau Omega approached the Zeta Phis on January 22, 1880 but was politely rebuffed. On April 24, 1884, the society was solicited by the Sigma Nu fraternity and flatly refused the offer, as the minutes of June 8, 1884 recorded: "the Alpha of Zeta Phi positively refuse to unite with Sigma Nu." The Kappa Alpha Order made an offer on January 6, 1886, without success, as did Phi Kappa Psi on May 17, 1886. On June 4, 1885, a petition signed by eighteen active members of the Alpha of Zeta Phi was sent to the Beta Theta Pi fraternity, petitioning to unite with them. According to one source, this desire to join the Betas grew out of close relations with the Alpha Delta chapter of Beta Theta Pi at Westminster College. The petition was subsequently dropped, however, possibly out of concern for the William Jewell chapter or alumni pressure. When the Westminster Betas inquired some months later, the minutes of January 6, 1886 record Zeta Phi's reply: "We inform our committee man to report that we are not anxious to enter." The Zeta Phi Chapter Affiliation with Beta Theta Pi No records are available from the period 1886 to 1890 but it appears that Alpha chapter of Zeta Phi reconsidered a union with Beta Theta Pi during this time, as a result of the withdrawal of their Sigma