Tap Day reveals new secret society members

The ceremony moved from Francis Quadrangle to Jesse Auditorium due to rain.

By Jared Grafman

Published April 23, 2010

New members of the six MU secret societies removed their hoods to a full audience of family and friends Friday in Jesse Auditorium, for MU’s 83rd annual Tap Day.

Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs Cathy Scroggs introduced representatives of the six organizations, after Chancellor Brady Deaton gave opening remarks.

“MU’s greatest service today is educating the leaders of tomorrow,” Deaton said in his speech.

The students selected on Tap Day exemplify the university’s values: respect, responsibility, discovery and excellence, in action, he said.

“Today, here, in this ceremony, these values come alive,” Deaton said. “These inductees have carried these values in their lives, here in their studies and in their work.”

The unveiling of each society’s new members began with QEBH, the oldest recognized secret society at MU, founded in 1898 by Royall Switzler.

After QEBH, the Mystical Seven revealed their new members. Then followed LSV, the Mortar Board, Omicron Delta Kappa and the youngest MU secret society, established in 1994 by the Graduate Professional Council, the Rollins Society.

After the inductees were revealed to the public, Missouri Students Association President Tim Noce addressed the new members about their initiation on Tap Day.

“The students that were honored today excel in a few areas of special values we all hold dear,” Noce said. “They are leadership, scholarship, service and character.”

Noce said leadership is not elected or appointed but is an attitude cultivated over time, and that scholarship is much more than GPA or grades earned in a classroom.

“Scholarship is actually the desire to learn,” Noce said.

Noce said, for those honored on Tap Day, service is not just about recognition or a task, but second nature and done on a daily basis. He said character is about what you do when no one is looking and what you have when everything is said and done, when only one thing remains.

“The word ‘initiation’ means beginning,” Noce said. “It does not mean end or middle. I want to stress to all of you that this is the beginning of your leadership at Mizzou and your leadership that you will have throughout the rest of your life.”

Sophomore Josh Travis was inducted into QEBH during the ceremony and will go on to become president of the society during his senior year.

“It’s a tremendous honor,” Travis said. “I don’t really know how to describe it — it’s exhilarating.”

At the beginning of the ceremony, new members of the societies walked into Jesse Auditorium with hoods covering their faces and remained anonymous until they were recognized on stage.

“It was an exciting feeling because you couldn’t see anything but you knew everybody was staring at you,” Travis said. “It was like the eyes were staring through your hood.”

Travis said it was difficult not to smile under his hood because of the excitement.

“The first thing I thought was ‘Are the people I want here to share this moment here or not?’ ” he said. “The hood came off and immediately I scanned the room and found all the folks I wanted here, and so that’s what I think made it the most special for me.”