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On Georgetown University's campus, a small, white key is painted on

the pavement just outside the crypt beneath Copley Chapel.

Last fall, each of the 1,300 freshmen received a letter on campus

traditions. It was unsigned but adorned by a small drawing of a key.

In the library, a group of books in the American studies collection

is identified as anonymous gifts. They are stamped with a Latin motto:

Non scholae sed vitae (not for school but for life).

The source of these small mysteries is a secret, all-male society

made up primarily of student leaders and advised by an 84-year-old

Jesuit priest, the Rev. Joseph T. Durkin, who has written a book on

Georgetown's history and teaches a course about it.

When the existence of the group, called the Stewards Society, was

publicly disclosed this month, it caused an uproar on campus. The

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student government, both student newspapers and a group of women

students strongly denounced it.

Its leader, senior Jeffrey Renzulli, who identified himself as the

Chief Steward, announced that the group was disbanding. He refused to

say much more, but as the identities of undergraduate members were

disclosed -- 12 so far -- they resigned their conspicuous posts on

campus, including editor of the Hoya newspaper and chairman of the

Student Assembly.

But on Thursday, Mark Johnson, who acknowledged having been a

Steward, was elected president of the student government by a decisive

margin in a campus-wide election.

In an interview, Johnson refused to discuss the secret society. He

told the Hoya he would make no "admission of wrongdoing."

Some society members, though, have been contrite.

"I understand now why so many people are against it," said

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Christopher A. Donesa, the former Hoya editor who, like his two

immediate predecessors as editor-in-chief, was a member of the Stewards.

"We didn't conceptualize it as an elitism thing or a control thing . . .

. I know now there's really no place on this campus for that kind of

group. But until things came out, I never had a chance to discuss it

with anyone who wasn't a member of the society."

After a letter from Durkin and a statement from the Stewards appeared

in the Hoya, its rival newspaper, the Voice, published a special edition

with many more details about the organization.

"It was a potentially dangerous power structure that excluded women,

who make up more than half the university," said senior Stephanie Yuhl.

The Stewards also had no black members, although Renzulli said the group

tried to recruit a few.

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In a letter to the Hoya, Yuhl and five other women students said the

society had "the power to manipulate student opinion and university

agendas" by promoting one another's ideas while being "entirely

unaccountable to the community which they purport to serve."

Donesa and other society members denied that they did any

"manipulating." In their letter to the Hoya, which was printed without

the names of the society's members, the group said its purpose was "to

defend, enhance and protect the spirit and traditions of Georgetown." It

said it had kept secret since its founding in 1982 so that members could

"serve for the sake of service and not for hope of personal benefit."

Durkin, in his published letter, said the secrecy and the exclusion

of women were both "serious mistakes." He said he went along with the

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policies because of the group's "good intentions."

"My attitude on both these points," Durkin wrote, "was what Saint

Ignatius of Loyola, in his 'Book of the Spiritual Exercises,' calls

'deception by the Devil when he disguises himself as a Spirit of Light.'

" When contacted by a Washington Post reporter, he declined to

elaborate.

Two Georgetown administrators acknowledged knowing about the group

for several years before Durkin disclosed its existence. John J.

DeGioia, the dean of student affairs, said he refused to give the

Stewards any support or recognition, despite several requests, because

Georgetown has a policy against secret societies, which flourish on some

college campuses, including the University of Virginia and Yale. But

DeGioia said he had decided not to disclose the names of members he knew

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or to ask them to dissolve the organization.

"I don't believe that was my responsibility, but I did make it clear

to them that we do not tolerate the activities of a secret society on

our campus," DeGioia said.

John Courtin, the executive director of the Georgetown Alumni

Association, acknowledged in an interview with the Hoya that he

"participated in a limited way" in the secret society. According to the

Hoya, Courtin said, "I was a contact in the group. From time to time,

students would come in and ask for ideas. As alumni director, I am

involved with many organizations." The Post could not reach Courtin for

comment, despite a number of messages left with his secretary.

One project in which many Stewards were involved is a new magazine

called Georgetown's Blue & Gray, published by an independent nonprofit

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corporation. Its two student founders, Jon Bacal and Johnson, were

members of the Stewards, and its first issue in October included a

picture of Courtin on the back cover, a brief profile of Durkin and an

article by Richard J. Cellini, a founder of the Stewards who attends

Georgetown Law School.

The second issue, published in December, included an article by

Manuel Miranda, another Stewards founder who is now a New York lawyer.

Miranda called for more Jesuit involvement in student organizations and

made the cryptic observation that the "greatest" student clubs are

"those whose membership is non scholae sed vitae," which is the

Stewards' motto.

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