 Phi Tau was founded at Dartmouth College in 1905 as the Tau Chapter of Phi Sigma Kappa . While the national fraternity proved to be an early leader among its peers in the area of non @-@ discrimination , mid @-@ 1950s Tau Chapter leaders led the demand for such post @-@ war era changes . The pace of change was contentious : Phi Sigma Kappa had previously had occasional foreign student members at many chapters . Unlike other fraternities , it had also welcomed Catholics and Jews at a time when most fraternity members were Protestant . But it did not yet welcome Blacks . In a reactionary response to a short @-@ lived policy that limited pledging of Black students between 1952 – 56 , and in a move that allowed it to avoid unpaid debts to the national , Tau broke with Phi Sigma Kappa and reformed itself as Phi Tau on March 7 , 1956 , naming the national fraternity as racist . Yet ironically , the Dartmouth chapter won the debate over the issue : the same discriminatory policy that caused Tau to withdraw was itself rescinded by the national fraternity at its Summer Convention just two months later , leaving Phi Sigma Kappa chapters free to pledge Black members . There has been no reconciliation , even though both groups remain progressive . Today , Phi Tau prides itself on its progressiveness ; when the house constitution was rewritten in 1956 , references to gender were deliberately excluded , making the house officially coeducational even before Dartmouth College accepted women as students . Phi Tau is the only coeducational Greek organization at Dartmouth that has always had female members since first admitting them , and was the first Greek house at Dartmouth to add sexual orientation to its non @-@ discrimination clause . Members of Phi Tau refer to one another as " brothers " regardless of gender . The fraternity is known for its quarterly " <unk> and Cookies " party , featuring thousands of homemade cookies and milkshakes . Phi Tau completely replaced their residence hall in 2002 , at a cost of $ 1 @.@ 8 million , funded in part by the sale of 1 @,@ 675 square metres ( 0 @.@ 4 acres ) of land to the college . 
