We have our weekly Stute meetings on Tuesdays. During the meetings, we go over assignments, give any important announcements, and then a few of us usually hang out in the office afterward to chat. We all catch up on each other’s weeks, complain about homework, and, of course, share the latest campus tea.
“What if the tapping was tonight?” someone remarked. Nah, it can’t be tonight. But what if? Trying to find the tapping takes a lot of effort if you go in blind. We had no leads — it wasn’t worth the time. Eventually, we all decided to call it a night and head home. We took the elevator down from the 7th floor to the lobby and returned the office key. Someone told us to look outside the entrance of Howe — and there it was.
Seven individuals dressed in black entered the Howe Center and briskly walked into the stairwell closest to the entrance of Howe. We knew it could only be one thing — the tapping ritual of Khoda, the secret senior honor society on campus. Yup. We recognized a known member, in the front. One of us even shouted “Hi!” to one of the individuals in the line. He did not even acknowledge us. He just kept walking forward — from the entrance of Howe to the first set of the doors upstairs.
I’m not a stranger to this. I’ve seen parts of multiple Khoda tappings before. It’s a brisk walk around campus with stops at various landmarks. However, every other time we had some sort of lead that the tapping would be occurring. This time, we had nothing — we just ran into them. It gives you a rush uncovering a secret on campus almost accidentally. Later, a member skirts around the question if you ask anything remotely related to the society.
The rush comes from the secrecy associated with Khoda — finding something that you were not supposed to find. In the past, Khoda used to be a lot less secretive about its members and initiatives. The Stute would publish the names of the newly tapped individuals in both the Fall and Spring. The Stute would detail the individuals newly elected to the executive board. The Stute would sometimes even provide details from their initiation banquets!
My favorite part is how Khoda’s initiatives would sometimes be detailed within The Stute. For example, Khoda used to conduct interviews with every freshman to help promote campus involvement. Additionally, the Khoda members served as public advocates for the formation of multiple organizations, including the Inter-Dormitory Council and the Student Review Board, both of which are now defunct, and the Student Council. The organization also helped with parking violation appeals and senior career interview signups, as well as organizing freshman elections. Khoda had an active role and actively worked to better the Stevens community.
Sure, Khoda got its fair share of criticism — and in hushed circles still does today. First, in 1936, The Stute claimed that “personal feuds and fraternity politics” had excluded many outstanding men from Khoda membership. Additionally, they claimed that Khoda had become “ineffective” and was then a “mere social fraternity” whose membership was no longer an honor. The criticism flared up for a time then subsided — usually for about 10 or so years. The only media between these bursts would be membership announcements or discussions on the current actions of Khoda.
Typically individuals — whether The Stute or a letter to the editor — would criticize Khoda for its membership selection, not doing anything, or just blatant corruption. In the late 1970s — around the time when membership selection for Khoda was no longer published in The Stute — The Stute claimed that “dirty politics are definitely going on in Khoda” regarding its member selection, as five of the six recent inductees were from the same fraternity and came from the same campus background. (I’m going to stop here since this is a GIANT rabbit hole, like 10,000 words long — please reach out if you want to learn more about the past of Khoda and its portrayal within the media!)
The last “public” action by Khoda was hosting a Leadership Conference in 1992. Since then, it has remained largely out of the public eye. No membership notifications. No initiative notifications. According to the Khoda Constitution, “Khoda is a leadership honor society which addresses important issues concerning students and student organizations.” Shouldn’t an organization that serves the students by helping solve their issues and better the student-centric experience be on the ground, interacting with students, and be held accountable to students?
As The Stute once said, “[The] need for secrecy is a myth perpetuated by the members of Khoda themselves.” Khoda has little accountability to the student body and vaguely “exists.” The Student Government Association serves as the advocate for students across campus. Why does Khoda need to exist?
I’m a big fan of transparency. It would only benefit the student body for Khoda to come clean, reveal their members, and talk about how they are working to better the student body. We criticize the administration for their lack of transparency, so why shouldn’t other students follow suit?
“Khoda will remain secret, partially because of the initial thrill of its members of belonging to such an organization and also because of the misconception that more can be accomplished in this manner.” —Mike Wolk, The Stute, 1975.
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