Fraternity History & More

Between 1867 and 1881, when Alpha Phi’s second chapter was founded at Northwestern University, only four of today’s National Panhellenic Conference (NPC) organizations – Pi Beta Phi, Kappa Alpha Theta, Kappa Kappa Gamma, and Delta Gamma – were expanding beyond the original campus. Most of that growth was taking place in what we call today the midwest. Indiana was a hotbed of early women’s fraternity growth. These are the groups which were forming early versions of today’s Panhellenic Councils (albeit not very successfully), trying to work together in recruiting women to become members of the organizations. That effort culminated in the creation of NPC in 1902.

Upper crust women, those women from very rich families, were not the ones forming and joining women’s fraternities/sororities. Unfortunately, this is a misconception which has found its way into the lore of GLO history, especially from those who know little about the history of NPC groups. During the late 1800s, these were not the women who were attending college. They may have been doing tours of Europe and or spending a year or two in a “finishing school.” They had to know the world of fine arts, and how to plan a superb dinner party, and how to run a household with the help of a full staff, but they did not have to worry about having a career to fall back on. That was not the life they were destined to lead. Their main goal was to “marry well,” at least once, and more, if need be. 

One of my favorite stories to tell, one that you will not likely find in her biographies, is that a young Iowa State student named Carrie Lane became a member of Pi Beta Phi (which was then known as I.C. Sorosis) at Iowa State University. Her family did not value education for women and she paid her own way through school working for pennies an hour. Some of the funds she earned went to pay her fraternity dues. She remained a loyal member of the organization her entire life. The fact that noted suffragist Carrie Lane Chapman Catt was a proud fraternity woman is a hard one for many people to reconcile. (A few weeks ago, I wrote about Catt and E. Jean Penfield Nelson, a Kappa Kappa Gamma member who was as equally ardent a suffragist. Catt and Nelson were good friends. Scroll back a few posts to find it.)

A graduate student contacted me last month for advice on a project she was doing. She was looking at early NPC women and their suffragist views. Because Alpha Delta Pi and Phi Mu have founding dates of 1851 and 1852, respectively, she was looking for information about these chapter members. She was also looking at the women who joined some of the other growing organizations and what they did in the years leading up to 1900. Neither Alpha Delta Pi or Phi Mu had any expansion until after 1900, so she was essentially looking at only the members of the Wesleyan Female College chapter and not at members of many chapters all across the country, as she was with some of the other NPC organizations. It was something she hadn’t thought of when she began her paper and it certainly skewed her results.

There are 26 NPC groups, four National Pan-Hellenic Council sororities, and a myriad of Latina and multicultural sororities. Not every chapter of these organizations is exactly the same. This week’s brouhaha was a recruitment video produced by a southern GLO chapter. I have not watched the video. I’ve only read about it and people’s reaction to it. There are real problems in the world and a video produced for sorority recruitment purposes is not one of them. Are there some aspects of the video the women might do differently now that they’ve seen the reaction to it? Probably. Has it been a good learning experience for them? Probably. Is it a matter of life and death? Definitely not.

While I would love it if every fraternity and sorority chapter was perfect 100% of the time, that is not going to happen. Are any of us 100% perfect in all that we do, day in and day out? Do we learn anything from being perfect? I wouldn’t know, because I am not perfect. But I do know that I’ve learned the most from the times when I fell flat on my face, the times when I had to work through an issue. Learning those things in a nurturing environment – like that of a GLO – is one of those priceless intangibles afforded by membership in a GLO.

Being a member of a GLO entails many responsibilities. For one, GLO members are always wearing theirs letters, whether or not they are on physically on one’s garments. The world at large will think the worst about any news story involving GLO members. If it’s about something good, there will be ulterior motives assigned to the deed. If it’s bad, it will try to paint every GLO with the same brush. If it is downright false (the UVA Rolling Stone story), it won’t matter.

This is a response that was on a friend’s (non-GLO member) facebook feed:

Actually, I wish they would get rid of the entire system. They laud all the good works they do. People who want to do good works will find ways to do so without membership in a fraternity or sorority. The damage they do cannot be replaced by a few good deeds.

My advice to incoming students is to approach GLO membership with an open mind. I was the last person anyone in my high school graduating class could have ever imagined joining a sorority. And here I am decades later, still believing in the positive aspects of GLO membership. But in searching for a home in a GLO, please note that you will be held to a higher standard, more will be expected of you, and you will be but one tiny little link in one very long chain of men or women who came before you. 

© Fran Becque, www.fraternityhistory.com, 2015. 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/