Happy Founders’ Day to Chi Omega! It was founded on April 5, 1895 at the University of Arkansas. Ina May Boles, Jean Vincenheller, Jobelle Holcombe, and Alice Simonds, with guidance from Fayetteville dentist, Dr. Charles Richardson, a Kappa Sigma, created the organization. Dr. Richardson was known as “Sis Doc” to generations of Psi Chapter members (the founding chapter at Arkansas is known as the Psi Chapter) and he is counted as a founder. He crafted Chi Omega’s first badge out of dental gold. I think it’s a safe bet to say that Chi Omega is the only National Panhellenic Conference (NPC) organization to have its first badge crafted out of dental gold.
Original Chi Omega badge crafted in dental gold by “Doc Sis.”
Th Pi Chapter at the University of Tennessee was founded on April 15, 1900, five years and a handful of days after Chi Omega came to be. Lucy McDaniel Curtis wrote the chapter’s first report in The Eleusis of Chi Omega and it offers a glimpse into expansion in the early 1900s.
To all her older sisters Pi sends greeting! We do not even know who all those sisters are as yet, for we have not seen the complete chapter roll. But it is our wish to make their acquaintance and earn their friendship.
We organized April fifth, at the home of Prof. Carson of the University, who is the father of one of our charter members. I need not tell you that we had a glorious time both at the initiation and at the spread that followed. We started with five charter members: Margaret Coffin, May Hazen Williams, Nelly Gratton Morton, Katherine Waller Carson, and Lucy McDaniel Curtis.
We have, as yet, taken in no new members, although it is likely that we shall do so before long. Four of us will probably not return next year, but fortunately all of us, with the exception of Nelly Morton, live in Knoxville. So we shall always be able to keep a watchful eye upon the frat. and do what we can to help it flourish.
Pi chapter of Chi Omega is the first chapter of a woman’s national fraternity to be established at the University of Tennessee. Quite a little stir was produced by the appearance of our pins and much favorable comment was called forth. Being the first on the field, we naturally have the choice of material, and I believe we can easily make ourselves the leading woman’s fraternity for all time. We could not accomplish very much this year, owing to the fact of its being so late in the term before our founding.However, we have succeeded in one thing at least, we secured a page in the University annual. That, we believed, would make our presence recognized and respected more quickly than anything else.
A few nights after we appeared with our pins, the pan-Hellenic banquet was held. The young men officially asked us and also had a man respond to our toast. But we thought it wisest not to attend. Our English professor, Dr. Henneman, had some vacant chairs near him and he referred to us most respectfully and stated that we would be there next year.
‘Children should be seen and not heard.’ So I will say merely that we are all full of love and enthusiasm for Chi Omega and only regret that it was not our privilege to come in sooner. Hoping that we may be seen at the convention, I am, Yours in Chi Omega,
***
Kate Rigazio, a Chi Omega, is a sophomore studying journalism and American studies at Miami University in Ohio. She is originally from Andover, Massachusetts. She is a Co-Editor for the Culture section for The Miami Student. In addition, she is on an improv team and works for the Department of Media, Journalism and Film.
On February 27, 2018, Greek or Not, It’s None of Your Business was published in The Miami Student. Rigazio wrote it and it begins:
‘You don’t seem like the type of girl who would be in a sorority.’
This is often the response I get when I tell people I am in a sorority, and I hate it. I’m never sure if I’m supposed to take it as a compliment or an insult.
Am I supposed to say “thank you?” Am I supposed to be flattered that I don’t fit the stereotype someone has in their head of the typical sorority girl, or am I supposed to be offended for the same reason?
I get particularly mad when I hear this comment from other women because, regardless of the subtext, this comment is scratching at the surface of a much bigger issue.
