The Omicron Chapter of Alpha Omicron Pi at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, was chartered on April 14, 1902. Mattie Ayres Newman was the daughter of Dr. Brown Ayres, who began his tenure as the University’s President in 1904. His daughter, an initiate of Alpha Omicron Pi at the Sophie Newcomb (now Tulane University) chapter in New Orleans, was interested in seeing her sorority grow.
Among Omicron’s charter members was Dorothy Greve Jarnigan. Dorothy’s sister Harriet Cone Greve, was initiated during the chapter’s first year of existence. Both Dorothy and Harriet are listed as Grand Council members in early issues of To Dragma.
Harriet Greve graduated from the University of Tennessee in 1906. She taught high school in Chattanooga where her family lived. Then she earned a graduate degree from Columbia University in 1913. She held various teaching jobs until 1921 when she returned to Knoxville and became the University’s first full-time dean of women. Female students had many rules and regulations as to what they could and couldn’t do.
She gave the welcome at the 1923 Alpha Omicron Pi convention held at Whittle Springs, Knoxville, Tennessee. She also served as the sorority’s Scholarship Officer in the 1920s.
In 1926, she visited England, France, Belgium, Italy and Switzerland during a summer abroad. She spoke at a November 1932 Alpha Omicron Pi alumnae meeting and talked about her tour of Europe the previous year.
Greve retired in 1951 at the age of 65. She had seen many changes in the 30 years she served as Dean of Women. According to the UT website, she “organized the counseling and hostess systems in the women’s residence halls and was active with the Girl Scouts and YWCA organizations.”
At the 50th anniversary of the Omicron Chapter, a stained glass window was presented to the James D. Hoskin library. Greve dedicated the window.
After retiring she moved to Gatlinburg. West Hall, a women’s residence hall, was named in her honor in 1963. In 1971, Greve Hall was closed due to the housing need not being great enough to warrant its use. For a time, it housed visiting athletes and high school students. In the fall of 1972, it was used again as a men’s residence hall. In 1994, the first four floors were used to house men and the two top floors were shared by Sigma Kappa, Delta Zeta, and Zeta Tau Alpha. A renovation in the summer of 2009, turned it into academic offices. An announcement in 2022 reported that the building was slated for demolition. A January 10, 2024, notice on the UTK website caution that the building would be demolished in early 2024.
Greve died at the age of 84 on December 16, 1969, in a nursing home in Athens, Georgia, the city in which her sister and nieces lived. She had been blind for several years.
It was said Greve was stern when she needed to be, but her usual demeanor was gracious and soft-spoken. She once said:
Above all, I’ve wanted our girls to learn to adjust to life as they meet it. I want the University to give them the basis for knowing how to meet life on its own terms. I think every girl should know how to earn a living – but still more. I want her to know how to live. That, I believe, is the important thing.
Greve left a $10,000 bequest to the university which was allocated to the Harriet C. Greve Memorial Scholarship Fund. Her sorority also established the Harriet Greve Alpha Omicron Pi Fraternity Scholarship which is given to a sorority woman (NPC or NPHC) who has demonstrated “exceptional strength of character, leadership and stewardship to the University of Tennessee Knoxville.”
