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July 26

"Kappa Alpha Professor"

I'm making sporadic attempts to nudge the currently very rickety article on the historian, versifier and occasional mace-wielder Morris Bishop in the direction of something worth reading. Since before I started tinkering with it, the article has said that Bishop was "Kappa Alpha Professor of Romance Literature". And I do have reliable sources that back up this claim. But I don't know what this means, and I hate to parrot factoids without understanding them. I suspect that it has something to do with the Kappa Alpha Society (whose nature I only dimly understand). Correct? And if so, what's this aforementioned "something"? (Would the Kappa Alpha Society have funded the professorship, perhaps?) -- Hoary (talk) 08:53, 26 July 2017 (UTC)[reply]

This site [1] says that the Kappa Alpha Society funded the professorship in 1946. Looking at the Cornell site indicates that there may now be more than one such chair, as there are references to such professors in various subjects. Wymspen (talk) 10:52, 26 July 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you, Wymspen. -- Hoary (talk) 22:46, 26 July 2017 (UTC)[reply]