THE MICHIGANENSIAN SERIES: FEATURING 1969 AND 1985

Article by H. Keith Hellems, M.D. ‘62

During the fund-raising campaign I started to gather pages from Michiganensian publications that had the name of Delta Chi in them.  I started in 1897 and went to 2008.  Delta Chi went off campus during the depression in 1933 and came back on campus in 1949.  We plan to publish these over the next months, usually 2 or 3 years at a time for your interest.  Below is a brief history of the Michiganensian excerpted from Wikipedia.

“The Michiganensian, also known as the Ensian, is the official yearbook of the University of Michigan.  Its first issue was published in April 1896. The yearbook is editorially and financially independent of the University of Michigan’s administration and other student groups. It is published yearly in late spring by a staff of several dozen students. The book is the second oldest publication on campus, and it contains articles and original photography related to campus life, student activism, university athletics, and current events.

In its earliest form, the Michiganensian served as an illustrated directory, providing information on organizations, fraternities, and athletics. As the publication evolved in the early 1900s, more space was dedicated to writing and photographs, but the publication still focused largely on fraternities and athletics. Now, in its current form, the Michiganensian is composed of photography and stories about campus life, student activism, current events, and athletics.  The 125th issue also split with precedent by including limited fraternity and sorority coverage, amid student criticism of secret societies on campus and a nationwide ‘Abolish Greek Life’ movement.” 

In this month’s eDelt, we feature the Michigan Delta Chi class of 1969 and 1985

Doug Shelton noted that in 1969, Washtenaw County elected a far-right sheriff in response to all the demonstrating on campus.  Delta Chi thought it might be great fun to have a picture taken with the sheriff at the county jail. 

John Hasse gave us more detail as follows: “That picture was taken at the Washtenaw County Jail.  

Starting in 1967, the Michiganensian editors had decided to make the yearbook photos more interesting.  Instead of us all standing in rows and smiling at the camera, all the Sororities and Fraternities were encouraged to use remote sites for our photos and to ‘improvise.’  So, we somehow got permission to take our photo at the jail and Sheriff Harvey posed with us.  One has to remember this is the time when police were ‘pigs.’  Harvey even got out the Thompson Machine Gun that Keith Little is holding to spice up the photo.

The next year, we all drove out to the Air National Guard base at Wayne County Airport and posed on the wing of Frank Morrey’s fighter jet.  But the that was last year for improvised photos.

In 1967 and again in 1968, the Sigma Alpha Mu’s submitted photos in which one of their members was exposing himself.  Incredibly, the editors didn’t notice the obscenity and published the pictures in the Ensian!  Well, that was the end of all Sorority and Fraternity photos in the yearbook.  Thanks for that, Sammies.”