It’s September 1. How did that happen? I missed doing a post for Delta Gamma’s #IAmASororityWoman campaign. (For last year’s post, see http://bit.ly/2bVb4w8 for a list of some really amazing sorority women).
Not to brag, but I know some really amazing sorority women and I am grateful for their friendship. (Full disclaimer – I know some of them are amazing fraternity women, my sisters included, but that gets too cumbersome, and explaining why some are #amazingsororitywomen and some are #amazingfraternitywomen dilutes the effort’s effectiveness.)
A Panhellenic friend I’ve “met” through writing this blog had a link to an Oklahoma University Daily article on her facebook feed. It was entitled, “OU fine arts majors join Panhellenic organizations despite already busy schedules.” (See http://bit.ly/2bE4aux for the entire article.)
The minute I started reading the article, the voice of Betty Lou Mitchell, who spent almost her entire life teaching English at Southern Illinois University Carbondale and at the same time was an advisor extraordinaire to the Alpha Gamma Delta chapter here, came into my head. When I was researching my Master’s thesis on the history of the fraternities and sororities here, she was one of the first people I interviewed. She had lived much of the history and she authored several books about the University’s history. I remember her telling me that she told all of the women who joined her chapter that if they could not handle academics, a part-time job, their Alpha Gam responsibilities and membership in another organization or two, then they were going to have problems when they left school, because it wasn’t going to get any easier. Of course, she personified the adage, “If you want something done, ask a busy person.”
Being a member of a Greek-letter organization should add value to one’s life and offer opportunities for learning and leadership. I have been deeply immersed in the GLO magazines of the 1910s-1930s for a while now and when I look at the young faces of the men and women who joined the organizations back then, I long to ask them if they found their experiences worthwhile and how the membership impacted their lives. Sadly, those people are no longer with us. The young people of today, born connected to the world in ways that those who came a century before could not even dream about, share membership in the same organizations. That shared experience is an important part of GLO membership. It is what hooked me and helped me do what I do today. It has never been easier to learn and use the history of GLOs to have an impact on the future of the movement.
While this post did not start out being a thank you to the readers who enjoy this blog, it’s ended up there. I think I will proclaim September “Thank You Loyal Readers Month!” and promise some interesting posts to come along soon.
© Fran Becque, www.fraternityhistory.com, 2016. All rights reserved. If you enjoyed this post, please sign up for updates. Also follow me on twitter @GLOHistory and Pinterest www.pinterest.com/glohistory/
