Collegiate Sorosis at the University of Michigan – Gone But Not Forgotten

Collegiate Sorosis       University of Michigan

During the 1980s, we lived in Ann Arbor, Michigan. The Panhellenic Alumnae Advisors group was known as Persephone’s Consilium. Among the advisors was one from Collegiate Sorosis. I had never heard of that organization and my curiosity got the better of me, so I tried to find out more about it.

Kappa Alpha Theta was the first women’s fraternity to appear on the University of Michigan campus.  In October 1879, the members of the Alpha Chapter of Kappa Alpha Theta at Indiana Asbury College (now DePauw University) asked that a member contact one of five Michigan students who had written asking about the fraternity.  On December 10, 1879, Alpha chapter member Emma Blake Young braved the snowy travel between Greencastle and Ann Arbor.  She initiated six Michigan students into Kappa Alpha Theta.  The campus publications, all run by men, lampooned the establishment of the first women’s fraternity chapter.  Gamma Phi Beta was chartered in 1882, followed by Delta Gamma in 1885.

Michigan was the first state university at which Kappa Alpha Theta founded a chapter and as the first chapter on campus, the fraternity considered this feat a feather in its cap.  The Michigan women were strong-minded and when the power of granting charters was placed in the hands of the active chapters, the Michigan chapter was against the issuing of charters to small colleges without nationally recognized scholastic standing.  This created a division in the fraternity.  Consequently, the charter was withdrawn due to a convention vote at a specially called meeting of the Grand Chapter, held at Wooster, Ohio, on February 25, 1886.

Emma Winner Rogers, the wife of the Dean of the Law School, was a Kappa Alpha Theta alumna. She felt strongly that the women needed the close friendships and mutual assistance that a women’s organization could offer. She was instrumental in making the case to the Sorosis Club in New York City. Sorosis was founded with 12 members in 1868; it is considered the start of the Women’s Club movement. Within one year, Sorosis had 83 members.

The Michigan women obtained permission from Sorosis to create a collegiate chapter. On May 14, 1886, the 15 ex-members of Kappa Alpha Theta became known as Collegiate Sorosis. The chapter at Michigan was the only collegiate group that Sorosis supported. The badge of the New York Sorosis was adapted for use by Collegiate Sorosis. Designed by Tiffany and Company, the “S” of the Sorosis pin had a “C” imposed on it.  Pearls were later added to the “C”.

Charter members of    Collegiate Sorosis

Among the initiated members of Collegiate Sorosis were Harriet Alice Chapman Dewey, first wife of John Dewey, and Evangeline Land Lindbergh, mother of Charles Lindbergh.

A group of alumnae remained loyal to Kappa Alpha Theta and sought the opportunity to reestablish the chapter.  On June 29, 1893, the Eta Chapter was reestablished and one of its competitors on the Michigan campus continued to be Collegiate Sorosis.

In 1973, the Collegiate Sorosis alumnae voted to disband. The chapter house was sold. In 1978, the chapter was revived. In 1980, the chapter moved into a house on Cambridge Road. Five years later, the alumnae sought to purchase a private home at 903 Lincoln Avenue in the Burns Park neighborhood to use as a chapter house. At the time, the zoning required an existing building to be 5,000 or more square feet before it could become a sorority or fraternity house. The home in question was 3,100 square feet. The North Burns Park Association was formed and a legal battle ensued between Collegiate Sorosis and the neighborhood association. While Collegiate Sorosis ultimately won the legal battle, in the end it lost because the chapter became dormant in the late 1980s.

I recall that in the 1980s the collegiate members chose to be known as Chi Sigma in order to be in line with the other Greek-letter women’s fraternities. The collegians seemed to feel that the unusual name of the organization was a detriment to attracting members.I was disheartened when I read that the chapter had closed. It was quite a feat for the local organization to survive for more than 100 years. Collegiate Sorosis you are gone but you are not forgotten.

© Fran Becque, www.fraternityhistory, 2012. All Rights Reserved.