Scope United States Symbol Sickle and Sheaf | Motto "To Make Better Men" | |
Founded October 10, 1904; 112 years ago (1904-10-10)
Ohio State University
Columbus, Ohio Type Social-professional fraternity Colors Growing Green and Harvest Gold | ||
Alpha Gamma Rho (ΑΓΡ) is a professional-social, agriculture fraternity in the United States, currently with 71 university chapters.
Founding
The fraternity considers the Morrill Act of 1862 to be the instrument of its inception. Having been signed by President Abraham Lincoln in 1862, it provided land and other financial supports to establish one institution of higher learning in the agricultural and mechanical sciences within each state. Alpha Gamma Rho, referred to as "AGR", was founded when two local fraternities from Ohio State University (Alpha Gamma Rho, founded 1904) and the University of Illinois (Delta Rho Sigma, founded in 1906) met at an International Livestock Competition in Chicago. Sixteen men originally signed the fraternity's charter at the Claypool Hotel in Indianapolis on April 4, 1908. Expansion increased dramatically over the next three decades to almost all land-grant universities in the country. The first chapter at a non-land-grant university was chartered in 1958 at Arizona State University. The first non-state (private) associated chapter (Beta Psi) was at Delaware Valley College in Doylestown, PA.