Early in the 1980s, and perhaps a few years earlier, Fraternity leaders noticed that the waves of litigation everywhere in society could make chapters and general officers vulnerable to complaints of any kind. Any accident on Fraternity property or any real or imagined discrimination could trigger such actions.

Each chapter was asked to submit a certificate of insurance coverage, but none was adequately covered.

So, the General Council voted to establish a mandatory insurance program.

The mandatory insurance program took effect in 1984 under the direction of William ‘Rusty’ Richardson, Tampa ’80, then handling alumni affairs at General Headquarters. He negotiated the initial policy with a Colorado insurance firm specializing in fraternity business. The initial cost to individual chapters was $12 per man. By the 1996–97 school year, each chapter was assessed $140 per man to cover the annual $1.2 million insurance cost.

Today, because of the Fraternity’s proactive risk management actions, Phi Delta Theta is proud to have the lowest insurance rates in the industry.

Read the article about the Fraternity’s adoption of an insurance program from the Spring 1985 edition of The Scroll.