Back Home Again in Ann Arbor – Happy Centennial Convention Theta Phi Alpha!

Theta Phi Alpha Founders and initiates

This week, from July 10-15,  Theta Phi Alpha is celebrating its Centennial in Ann Arbor, Michigan, the place where it was founded. How fitting that an organization founded by a Catholic Bishop for Catholic women began at a state institution that was co-founded by a Catholic priest, Father Gabriel Richard.

Theta Phi Alpha’s roots can be traced to the 1909 establishment of a local organization, Omega Upsilon. Father Edward D. Kelly, a Catholic priest and the pastor of the student chapel at Michigan, felt that there should be an organization that could provide the Catholic women at Michigan with an environment that “resembled the Catholic homes from which they came.” This was in a time and place when Catholics were not always welcome in the other fraternal organizations on campus.

By 1912, after Father Kelly left campus and became the Auxiliary Bishop of Detroit, Omega Upsilon was struggling, likely because there were no alumnae to guide the organization. Even without him being in Ann Arbor, Bishop Kelly’s vision that the Catholic women at Michigan should have a place to call their own was still alive. He enlisted the assistance of Amelia McSweeney, a 1898 University of Michigan alumna. Together with seven Omega Upsilon alumnae, plans were made to establish a new organization. Theta Phi Alpha was founded on August 30, 1912 at the University of Michigan. The ten founders were seven Omega Upsilon alumnae, two Omega Upsilon undergraduates and Ms. McSwenney.

Hill Auditorium, now a fixture on the University of Michigan campus, was just being built in 1912. Fielding Yost was the football coach and he led the team to a 14-0 win over Ohio State University. More than 10,000 football fans attended that game. The Michigan-Ohio State rivalry is as strong today as it was a hundred years ago.

According to a 1912 University of Michigan catalog, all Catholic students were “expected to become members of the Students’ Catholic Club, which meets twice a month in St. Thomas Parish Hall. The society is under the personal supervision of the pastor of St. Thomas Church. Its object is both social and religious. A fund is being collected with which to erect a Catholic Club building.”

In 1912, women were also under strict rules as to where they could live and what they could do. They could not live in the same rooming houses as men and their housing choices were to be approved by Myra B. Jordan, Dean of Women. A matriculation fee of $10 for legal Michigan residents and $25 for all others was required before a student could enter the University. An outdoor physical education fee of $5 was assessed to each student on a yearly basis. Locker rentals were $2 per year and the graduation fee was $10.

Theta Phi Alpha remained a local organization until 1919 when the Beta Chapter was formed at the University of Illinois. In addition, chapters at Ohio State University, Ohio University and the University of Cincinnati were chartered that year.

In 1921, Pi Lambda Sigma was founded as a Catholic sorority at Boston University. On June 28, 1952, Pi Lambda Sigma merged with Theta Phi Alpha. Its members at Boston University and the University of Cincinnati became members of the Theta Phi Alpha chapters on the two campuses. The chapter at Creighton University became the Chi Chapter of Theta Phi Alpha in the fall of 1952 and the Quincy College chapter became the Psi Chapter of Theta Phi Alpha in 1954.

Today, just as other organizations have accepted Catholic women, Theta Phi Alpha is open to women from all religious backgrounds. Congratulations to Theta Phi Alpha as its members celebrate the past 100 years and plan for the next century.