Philolexian Society
| Philolexian Society | |
| |
| Founded: | 1802 |
| Recognition: | Yes |
| Membership: | Unknowable |
| Executive Board: | Moderator: Tara Coury CC '16 Censor: Juno McCallum BC '16 |
| Category: | Debate |
| Website: | http://www.columbia.edu/cu/philo/ |
| Contact: | Moderator |
The Philolexian Society is one of the oldest collegiate literary societies in the United States, and the oldest student group at Columbia. It is known primarily for its witty debates, unabashedly anachronistic air, and pretensions to pseudo-intellectualism and faux-erudition.
The society aims to "improve its members in Oratory, Composition and Forensic Discussion". The name Philolexian is Greek for "Lover of discourse," and the society's motto is the Latin word "Surgam", meaning "I shall rise". The society publishes a literary journal of the same name twice a year.
It has many famous alumni and an excellent website.
Contents
History
The Society was founded on May 17, 1802. Originally, freshmen were barred from entry, and to satisfy them, the Peithologian Society was founded four years later. For a century, these two societies would be rivals, until Peitholgian ceased to exist after the turn of the century. After maintaining a continuous existence for over 130 years, Philolexian succumbed to periods of intermittent dormancy over the next 20 years, thanks to a combination of administrative interference, the Great Depression, and student apathy following an internal power struggle. In the 1930s, for example, society president Ralph de Toledano noted that the group was almost exclusively devoted to drinking wine and listening to jazz. Although a postwar incarnation included such distinguished names as Allen Ginsberg, John Hollander, Jason Epstein, and Robert Butler, Philolexian effectively ceased to function in the early 1950's. The society was revived once in the 1960s by Ben Stein and others, largely as an adjunct to Alpha Delta Phi, but the effort failed to take hold. In 1985 Philolexian was reconvened again by six students and has been active ever since. The leader of the most recent revival, Thomas Vinciguerra, is now known as "the Avatar".
Activities
Beyond its weekly debating sessions, the Society administers the Joyce Kilmer Memorial Bad Poetry Contest. It also hosts a Beat Night, reading poetry of the Beat Generation aloud on The Steps, and holds an annual Croquet Tea on Mathematics Lawn, in which members appear in 19th century costume. Recently, Philo has attempted to broaden its range of activities, having hosted a human chess match on the Steps and tea with members of the University faculty, as well as co-sponsoring a book club event during Queer Awareness Month.
Prizes and Contests
In addition to the Kilmer Bad Poetry contest, Philo is involved with three other campus prizes and contests. The Philolexian Centennial Washington Prize oratory contest is conducted once every four years by the Society, and in 2011 the society helped conduct the George William Curtis Medal oratory contest, after Columbia forgot to hold it the previous year. The Philolexian Prize, one of the oldest endowed student prizes at Columbia, oddly, is awarded by the English Department without any collaboration with the Society.
Past debate resolutions
- Resolved: Having an embarrassing name is worse than having an embarrassing face
- Resolved: Penguins deserve to fly
- Resolved: We only want what's bad for us
- Resolved: Batman is a modern day Hamlet
- Resolved: Everything the light touches shall be mine
- Resolved: Horses are terrible people
- Resolved: Parents have no business raising children
- Resolved: Madness and Genius are separated by degrees of success
- Resolved: If you've stolen it, you've earned it
- Resolved: There is an objectively best sandwich
- Resolved: The laws of science are unconstitutional
- Resolved: Mo' money, mo' problems
Alumni
- Horatio Allen - railroad engineer
- Charles Anthon - classicist
- William Backhouse Astor - financier
- William Theodore de Bary - East Asia scholar
- Jacques Barzun - cultural historian
- James Warner Bellah - writer of Westerns
- John Berryman - poet
- Samuel Blatchford - Supreme Court justice
- Randolph Bourne - essayist
- Robert Neil Butler - gerontologist
- Sidney Buchman - screenwriter
- Frederic René Coudert, Jr. - congressman
- I.A.L. Diamond - screenwriter
- Evert Augustus Duyckinck - literary critic
- Jason Epstein - publisher
- Charles G. Ferris - congressman
- Hamilton Fish - Secretary of State
- Nicholas Fish - diplomat
- Stuyvesant Fish - president of the Illinois Central Railroad
- William Dudley Foulke - journalist
- Dixon Ryan Fox - president of Union College
- James W. Gerard - ambassador to Germany
- Oliver Wolcott Gibbs - chemist
- Allen Ginsberg - Beat poet
- Robert Giroux - publisher
- Robert Gottlieb - editor
- Paul Governali - football quarterback
- James Hamilton - Alexander Hamilton's son
- Abram S. Hewitt - mayor of New York City
- John Hollander - poet
- Richard Howard - poet
- Stephen Watts Kearny - general
- Jackson Kemper - theologian
- Joyce Kilmer - poet
- Wellington Koo - Chinese politician and diplomat
- William Langer - senator and governor of North Dakota
- William Beach Lawrence - acting governor of Rhode Island
- James Lenox - bibliophile
- Alfred Thayer Mahan - military theorist
- Brander Matthews - dramatic scholar
- Thomas Merton - author and monk
- John Purroy Mitchel - mayor of New York City
- Nathaniel Moore - Columbia president
- Edmund H. Pendleton - congressman
- Benjamin Treadwell Onderdonk - bishop
- Henry Ustick Onderdonk - bishop
- John L. O'Sullivan - journalist
- William Barclay Parsons - engineer of the New York City subway
- William Milligan Sloane - historian
- Ben Stein - humorist, speechwriter, actor
- John Lloyd Stephens - explorer
- George Templeton Strong - diarist
- Ralph de Toledano - conservative commentator
- William R. Travers - sportsman
- John Howard Van Amringe - dean of Columbia College
- Thomas Vinciguerra - journalist
- Peter Dumont Vroom - governor of New Jersey
- Walter Wager - novelist
- Gideon Yago - TV personality
