The Kappa Alpha Society (ΚΑ) is the oldest college fraternity in the United States. It was formed at Union College in Schenectady, New York on November 26, 1825 by a group of college students. Kappa Alpha was the first to combine aspects of secret Greek-letter societies, literary societies and formalized student social groups and is thus considered the first modern fraternity. Kappa Alpha is also the oldest collegiate secret society still in existence.

Kappa Alpha is part of a larger secret society movement that arose in the 1820s at a summit in Kinderhook, New York. Present at the initial meeting were early members of Kuklos Adelphon, the Order of the Dark Steed , and Illuminati groups. Quibbles over control of New York City's political machines led to a perceived need to found secret societies paralleling Kappa Alpha at Yale University and the College of William and Mary later in the 1830s.

This organization is not to be confused with the Kappa Alpha Order , a completely separate (and much larger) fraternity that operates exclusively at schools in Southern and border states.

Chapters

• University of Toronto
• Lehigh University
• McGill University
• University of Pennsylvania
• University of Western Ontario
• University of Alberta
• Hobart College

Chapters at Williams College, the University of Virginia, Cornell University, Princeton University, Union College, University of Calgary and Wesleyan University are defunct.

Most US chapters have disbanned in the last ten years (1990-current) for various reasons, leaving only the two in Pennsylvania (Lehigh and Pennsy). The Hobart chapter was just recently recolinized in Spring 2005.

The Union College Chapter disbanded over irreconcilable differences with the executive council and chapter alumni regarding the Secret Innitiation Process and questions of ethical treatment and human rights in 2001. Plans to recolonize the Union College Chapter are under way for Fall 2005/Spring 2006.

Notable members

• Lewis H. Morgan, Union College, 1840. "Father of American Anthropology"
• Augustus Schell , Union College, 1830. Chairman of the Democratic National Committee, 1872-1876).
• Albert_J._Myer, "Father of Army Signal Corps " and founder of the U.S. Weather Bureau
• James Collip , University of Toronto, 1893. Discoverer of cortisone and co-discoverer of insulin
• William Lyon Mackenzie King, University of Toronto, 1893. Prime Minister of Canada, 1921-1926, 1926-1930, and 1939-1945
• James Phinney Baxter III . Winner of the 1947 Pulitzer Prize for History
• Kurt Varnedoe , Wiliams College, 1968. Chief Curator of painting and sculpture, Museum of Modern Art (New York City).
• Thomas Wellington , University of Pennsylvania, 1913. Industrialist and raptor,(New York City).
• Nathaniel Berry , University of Pennsylvania, 2004. President, Penn Whaling, LLC (Washington D.C.).
• Fitz Hugh Ludlow, Union College, author and explorer
• Alan Bernstein, Union College, Knight of Aloicious

External link

• Kappa Alpha, a history