Cap and Skull is a senior-year coeducational honor society at Rutgers University, founded on January 18, 1900. Admission to Cap and Skull is dependent on excellence in academics, athletics, the arts, and public service. The organization considers leadership and character as factors for membership. Using these criteria, only 18 new members were selected each year.
On January 18, 1900, 10 members of the senior class of Rutgers College assembled in the Chi Psi Lodge to form the Cap and Skull organization. Drawing inspiration from Skull and Bones and Quill and Dagger, Yale and Cornell's senior class honor societies, Cap and Skull aimed to form a Rutgers honor society.
The 10 founders drew up a Cap and Skull constitution and adopted a code of secrecy and the motto, Spectemur agendo. To ensure the exclusivity of the organization, the selection of a new member required a unanimous vote of the current members. In the first two decades, no more than 80 men joined the organization.
The 1920s found the college recovering from the First World War, and the Skulls began to reexamine their selection criteria to increase membership. Under the new system, each leadership position and honor on campus was awarded a points value, and students with the highest cumulative value were selected for induction into Cap and Skull. In 1923, in response to the growing student body, the number of members to be tapped each year was fixed at 12 and a tri-fold criterion for selection was established.
With the onset of World War II, many members of the Rutgers community left college to serve in the military. Only ten members were selected in 1944, and no one was tapped in 1945. In October 1945, members of the administration who were also Cap and Skull members were asked to make nominations for the class of 1946. Cap and Skull resumed the traditional 12-member selection in 1948.
On January 31, 1950, an all-day gala celebration was held in honor of Cap and Skull's golden anniversary – the first of the 10-year reunions that are still held today. The golden anniversary celebrated the 440 men selected as members of the society during those first 50 years.
Through the 1960s, sweeping social changes occurred. Organizations such as Cap and Skull, came under scrutiny. In 1969, Cap and Skull graduated its last class.
Though Cap and Skull ended in 1969, the alumni of Cap and Skull retained their ties and the underlying need for the organization remained. In 1981, Rutgers College students again discussed the need for an organization or honor that would recognize leadership contributions made by members of the senior class. Cap and Skull re-emerged in 1982, and a reunion was held to celebrate the tapping of new members.
In 2000, the 100th anniversary of Cap and Skull, a large gala event was held and members donated a large endowment for an annual scholarship to Rutgers students. Also in connection with the centennial, a web site was launched and author William B. Brahms, a society member compiled a detailed history with full biographies of all inducted members of the first 100 years. It was privately printed by the society, but is available at the Rutgers University Special Collections and Archives. The history presented here is from Brahms' research.[1]
Today, Cap and Skull represents many of the diverse organizations on campus and is now composed of undergraduate students from any of the university's reorganized schools. Formerly only members of Rutgers College (which had become co-educational in 1972) and Rutgers College affiliates from the School of Pharmacy, Engineering, and Mason Gross School of the Arts were tapped.
In November 1990, the Cap and Skull Room was formally leased, solidifying Cap and Skull's physical presence on campus. The appointed room features old photographs and several display cases filled with Cap and Skull memorabilia.
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