Both societies are allegedly dedicated to performing "discrete service" to Columbia College in cooperation with the school administration.
[5] The publicly stated reason for their formation, however, was that it was in response to Columbia's growing class size, when it was judged that only one senior society would not adequately to serve the needs of the university's undergraduate student body.
[6] A Sachem was a paramount chief among the Algonquins, but the term also referred to the leader of the New York City political machine Tammany Hall.
Until 1951, both societies published the names of their newly elected members in the Columbia Daily Spectator, as well as in The New York Times on occasions.
[1] Various political figures have been suspected of being members of either the Nacoms or Sachems, but given the secrecy of both groups, such suspicions have been difficult to verify.