Happy 27th, Gamma Eta!

Posted on October 18, 2022 by Fran Becque, Ph.D.

On October 18, 1995, Gamma Eta was founded at the University of Florida in Gainesville. It was the first social sorority founded in the state of Florida.

One of the 18 women who founded Gamma Eta is Gloria Forestieri, an Emmy award winner. There’s a wonderful profile of her in the UF College of Journalism and Communications publication.

CJC Telecom Grad Shared the Immigrant Experience in HBO Max Series “Gordita Chronicles”

The other 17 founding mothers are Ilena Camilo​, Maria Portilla, Marena Ramirez, Vanessa Ramirez, Maria Torres, Giselle Arvelo, Alexa Davila, Ana Del Valle, Vivian Estalella, Beatriz Lugo, Deborah Mazzeo, Diana O’Hara, Diana Ramirez, Adnybel Rosario-Ortiz, Leemarie Ortiz, Joann Schadenfroh, and Yahdira Torres

And I would be remiss if I did not include a shout out to Chris Medrano Graham who has devoted herself to the field of fraternity and sorority life and who is a dedicated and loyal Gamma Eta.

May today be a day filled with sunflowers!

From Wikipedia

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Happy Founders’ Day Alpha Chi Omega AND Zeta Tau Alpha

Posted on October 15, 2022 by Fran Becque, Ph.D.

October 15 is the founding day of both Alpha Chi Omega and Zeta Tau Alpha. Alpha Chi Omega was founded at DePauw University in Greencastle, Indiana, in 1885, Thirteen years later, in 1898, Zeta Tau Alpha was founded at the State Female Normal School (now Longwood College) in Virginia. Alpha Chi Omega is first in the alphabetical listing of the 26 National Panhellenic Conference (NPC) organizations and Zeta Tau Alpha is the last. Isn’t it fun that they were founded on the same day of the year?

Music has been an important part of Alpha Chi Omega since its very beginning. In an 1885 issue of Brianard’s Musical World, it was noted that in Greencastle Indiana, “Mr. James H. Howe gave a recital on October 18 at the Music Hall. The recital was devoted to Schumann and the programme was made up from this master’s works. We are glad to see such a good programme and hope to hear from the Alpha Chi Omega Fraternity again. Success to DePaw (sic) and her musical interests.”

According to the 1928 Alpha Chi history,  “Following the custom of the majority of Fraternities at that time, the founders of Alpha Chi Omega placed a clause in the constitution providing for Honorary Members.”  In all, 15 women were initiated as Honorary Members. The women were well-known in their day, although much of their renown has faded with time.

On April 23, 1886, the Alpha chapter initiated Julia Rive-King as an Honorary Member and the chapter gave a reception in her honor after the initiation. Rive-King made her debut in Cincinnati in 1874, officially debuted the next year with the New York Philharmonic. In 1876, she married her manager and added composer and teacher to her resume.

Two years later, on April 3, 1888, the Alpha chapter initiated Fannie Bloomfield-Zeisler. “The girls were all delighted with the genuine interest she took in their work. The reception given in her honor was in every way a success,” according to a chapter report. At the age of six, Bloomfield-Zeisler began picking out tunes on the piano. At the age of 11 she made her playing debut. She then went to Vienna for study. In January 1885, she debuted in New York City. Bloomfield-Zeisler was Jewish and she is perhaps Alpha Chi’s first Jewish member.

The chapter at the University of Michigan reported on the May Festival which took place in Ann Arbor from May 18-21, 1894, “Among the artists were several Alpha Chis most notable of whom was Madame Fannie Bloomfield-Zeisler. The ovation she received was the event of the festival.”

The History of Alpha Chi Omega gives this information about Honorary Members, “From time to time the various chapters initiated other Honorary Members, which practice gave rise to the inevitable question of specific qualifications for such membership. Consequently the 1898 Convention voted that only musicians of national repute should be initiated as Honorary Members, while musicians of local reputation could be initiated by the chapters as Associate Members.”

In 1908, the Grand Chapter ruled that Honorary Members could be initiated only upon the unanimous vote of all the chapters, and that Associate Members would no longer be allowed. In the end there were 15 women, talented musicians and patrons of the arts, who were initiated as Honorary Members. Below is a list of the other 13 Honorary initiates.

Neally Stevens was a talented pianist.

Teresa Careno, a Venezuelan pianist, singer, composer and conductor, performed for Abraham Lincoln at the White House. She also worked with Edward MacDowell, early in his career.

Adele Aus Der Ohe was a friend of Tchaikovsky. She performed his First Piano Concerto at the inaugural concert at Carnegie Hall. During her stay in Ann Arbor in 1904 she was made an honorary member. (The chapter was acquainted with her from 1894 when she played a concert in Ann Arbor – the one where Fannie Bloomfield-Zeisler performed).

Amy Mary Cheney Beach was the first woman whose work was performed by the Boston Symphony.

Marie Decca was identified in the 1921 history as a member of the Alpha chapter; I suspect she was a member of Delta chapter. I found this in an 1893 Allegheny College magazine, and  it speaks to the 1890s and Alpha Chi Omega. “Now, though but two years old, our active membership-roll shows sixteen names; our alumnae, nine, and our honorary, three, among the latter Marie Decca, the famous concert singer. Our work is primarily musical, as shown by the programs rendered, otherwise Alpha Chi Omega differs not from college fraternities—our rites are as mysterious, our vows as binding, and our goat quite as ferocious. The name of the fraternity is now commonly shortened into Alpha Chi, but for some time we were dubbed ‘The Conservative Old Maids,’ a title we bore with patience, feeling sure that Time, the great wonder-worker, would change all that. Even so already are there deserters from this ‘sisterhood of spinsters,’ but the majority have clung to their art. Of the graduates of ’92, seven are Alpha Chi’s, and this year seven more will receive diplomas. Two of the charter members are now included in the faculty, and several others are teaching at their homes. Thus through its members the aim of the fraternity, which is the advancement of music, is being carried out.”

Helen Hopekirk Wilson, a Scottish concert pianist, resided in Boston. One of her most valuable works was a volume of Scottish folk songs.

Mary Howe Lavin was a Brattleboro, Vermont, native. It was written that “There is something indescribably fascinating in the singing and personal appearance of this charming woman.”

Margaret Ruthven Lang studied violin first in Boston and then in Munich. She also studied orchestration and was Edward MacDowell’s composition student.

Maud Powell was a violinist. During the 1893 Columbian Exposition she and another Alpha Chi Honorary initiate, Mary Cheney Beach, played Beach’s romance for piano and violin for the first time in public at one of the concerts of the musical congress.

Antonette Szumowska Adamowski, a Poland born pianist, was on the faculty of the New England Conservatory of Music. She played in Europe until 1894 when she came to the US. She served as a judge for a musical competition that the Alpha chapter sponsored. In the November 1917 Lyre, it was reported that “On the afternoon of November 22, 1917 occurred the debut of Miss Helenka Adamowski the daughter of Madame Szumowska Adamowski at their home in Cambridge Massachusetts.” As an aside, Madame Adamowski’s daughter, Helenka, married a man named Pantaleoni. Her granddaughter, the Alpha Chi Honorary member’s great-granddaughter, is actress Tea Leoni.

Adele Verne was considered one of the greatest woman pianists of her era. She  performed the first television performance of Mozart’s Concerto for 2 Pianos.

Ellen Beach Yaw Cannon was known as “Lark Ellen.” She had an extraordinary vocal range and could produce unusually high notes. Some say she was the only soprano of her era who could sing and sustain the D above high D. She was also a philanthropist. In the November 1920 Lyre, an article told of Epsilon chapter’s effort to help Lark Ellen’s philanthropy, “There is in Los Angeles a home for boys from the ages of seven to twelve years called the Lark Ellen Home. This home is financed by Ellen Beach Yaw, an honorary member of Epsilon Chapter. This year we thought it would be a fine plan to do something for the little fellows. It was decided to spend the afternoon of the eleventh of November there. Eighteen girls met that morning and saw the Armistice Day parade. Then after lunch we drove out to the home. The twenty boys in the home had not been informed of our coming and they were quite surprised to see us. Each of the girls had brought either jam jelly or canned fruit. The two matrons in charge invited us into the children’s little play house. Here we sang songs and recited for them. The little fellows were very happy and seemed to enjoy it all. But the crowning feature occurred when bananas, cookies and bright sticks of candy were presented to them. After all this pleased them the most. The girls enjoyed the day and we are sure the boys were made a little happier by our coming.”

The last Honorary initiate was Marion MacDowell, wife of Edward MacDowell. She was initiated on January 5, 1916 in Boston. At the 1926 National Convention at Lake Louise, Alpha Chi Omega’s awarded her its Distinguished Service Medal for “her incomparable service to the world in establishing the MacDowell Colony at Peterboro (sic) and in every way her command promoting the American world of the arts.”

Alpha Chi Omega’s devotion to the MacDowell Colony has been long and endearing. 

AXO

ZTA2

On October 15, 1898, Zeta Tau Alpha was founded at the State Female Normal School, now Longwood University, in Farmville, Virginia, by Alice Maud Jones Horner, Frances Yancey Smith, Alice Bland Coleman, Ethel Coleman Van Name, Ruby Bland Leigh Orgain, Mary Campbell Jones Batte, Helen May Crafford, Della Lewis Hundley, and Alice Grey Welsh.

One of Zeta’s symbols is the strawberry. Founder Mary Campbell “Cammie” Jones (Batte) was sent a gift of strawberries by an admirer. Today, strawberries can be found in any American supermarket at any time of the year. In the 1890s, they were a rare and very special treat. This gift of strawberries was the inspiration for the first purely social gathering called a “Strawberry Feast.” It was Zeta’s first social event and it proved a turning point in the history of the organization. For Zeta Tau Alpha members the world over, the strawberry has become a symbol of inspiration. 

strawberryFor more about Zeta Tau Alpha and Dr. May Agness Hopkins, one of Zeta’s early Grand Presidents, see http://wp.me/p20I1i-pj

 

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Dorothy Canfield Fisher on Kappa Kappa Gamma’s 152nd!

Posted on October 13, 2022 by Fran Becque, Ph.D.

Happy Founders’ Day, Kappa Kappa Gamma. Kappa Kappa Gamma’s founders are Mary Moore “Minnie” Stewart, Anna Elizabeth Willits, Susan Burley Walker, Hanna Jeanette “Jennie” Boyd, Mary Louise “Lou” Bennett,  and Martha Louisa “Lou” Stevenson. Some of the founders recalled that the organization was founded in March, 1870, but that the appearance was delayed until fall, because the badges had been difficult to procure.  Willet’s mother was the one who came up with the idea of using a key as the badge.  The first badges were made by the Bennett’s family jeweler who was in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.  In order to have the badges made, 12 had to be ordered at a price of $5 each.  The Kappa Kappa Gamma’s first public appearance at chapel took place on October 13, 1870 and since the 1876 Convention, October 13 has been celebrated as Founders’ Day.

At a June 1874 meeting, the Senate of Monmouth College, under pressure from some sections of the United Presbyterian Church, passed the following resolution, “It shall be unlawful for any student of the college hereafter to become a member of any secret college fraternity or to connect with any chapter of any such fraternity, and also for an active member of such fraternity to be admitted as a student in the college.” At first the resolution had little impact, but pressure from devout United Presbyterians grew. Some refused to donate money to the financially struggling institution.  In early 1878, the Kappa Kappa Gamma chapter disbanded.

On October 13, 1934, the chapter was reinstalled.  A local sorority, Kappa Alpha Sigma, became the Alpha Deuteron Chapter of Kappa Kappa Gamma. In between the time the Alpha Chapter was closed and Alpha Deuteron rechartered, Dorothy Canfield was initiated by the Ohio State chapter. In 1913, Lucy Allen Smart, former Editor of the Key of Kappa Kappa Gamma, wrote:

Little Dorothy Canfield, with curls down her back, entered the Ohio State University preparatory department in 1894, when her distinguished father, Dr. James H. Canfield, became president. She had known Kappas at Lincoln, where Doctor Canfield was chancellor of the University of Nebraska, and she liked them, too, and so, naturally and most fortunately for us, she was pledged to Beta Nu. The writer was a senior when Dorothy was initiated in the fall of 1896. As a student, she entered whole heartedly into the life of the chapter and into all activities of college life. The hospitable home, with big open fires in the living rooms and the studio (for Mrs. Canfield is an artist), was the scene of one delightful gathering after another. Musicales. receptions, lectures, Hallowe’en parties followed one upon the other. Especially informal and delightful were the happy times when Kappas, active and alumnae, sometimes forty strong, took possession of the executive mansion. Rare good fun we had one day when we were Dorothy’s guests for dinner and supper and a side splitting mock wedding ceremony was performed. A province convention was held in the Canfield living rooms one May. Rich, indeed, are the memories of those happy times when Dr. and Mrs. Canfield and Dorothy and her brother, Jim, opened their doors and their hearts to Kappas.

Jim married a Nebraska Kappa, Stella Elliot, who was director of physical education for women at Ohio State University. In 1Γ898, Dorothy was Beta Nu’s delegate to the Kappa Convention, which was held at Lincoln. When Doctor Canfield resigned to become librarian at Columbia, Dorothy Canfield, B.Ph., entered Columbia and affiliated with our Barnard chapter. After studying at Columbia and in France, Italy, and Spain, she received the degree of Ph.D., in comparative philology at Columbia in 1904. She was secretary of Horace Mann school for several years.

Dorothy married John Redmond Fisher, essayist and journalist, in 1907. The old Canfield homestead in Arlington, Vermont, is the permanent home of the Fishers and little three-year-old Sally plays where her maternal great-grand-parents lived. Dorothy is a linguist of remarkable gift, speaking a number of languages as a cultured native speaks each one and reading fluently many more. She used to play a violin charmingly and oh, how her musical voice read Browning to me! The world knows her through her writing, for the magazines have been full of her unusual fiction for years. Some of her serious books are ‘Corneille and Racine in England’ (Macmillan), and ‘Rhetoric and Composition’ (Macmillan). Two novels have attracted much attention and favorable comment: ‘Gunhild’ (Holt), and ”The Squirrel Cage’ (Holt). The latter preaches one of the strongest sermons I know against the modern complex life, with its many artificial and false standards. Read it, all ye Kappas, and profit thereby.

Her last book, ‘The Montessori Mother,’ is fresh in our minds. Last winter, Dorothy Canfield Fisher (for so we must now call her), was in Rome and came in close contact with Doctor Montessori and the Casa dei Bambini and in this book the author brings to us the message of the Italian educator, whose philosophy is based on the democracy of the child. The book gives a clear statement of this new system and the apparatus used and helps all mothers in the education of their small children.

Dorothy Canfield Fisher

Dorothy Canfield Fisher

In the February 1917 Key, a letter from Fisher was published. It told of her efforts and how she ended up in Europe during the war:

You know I was partly brought up in France, and have lived here off and on a good deal, so that it’s a second home. The outbreak of the war seemed like the end of the world to me. I had loved Germany too, and had lived there, and for that reason there was an added bitterness to the horror for me. I’ll never forget the day I stood on our front porch at Arlington (Vermont), on the slope of the big mountain, and read in the headlines that Belgium had been invaded. The very ground seemed to drop away from under my feet and when I looked up,  I remember how like a mirage our peaceful, green valley looked, so unchanged by what had changed all the world to me. But my little boy was only a few months old then, it was out of the question to leave him or to take him along. My husband (who felt quite as I did) and I worried along as best we could, through many painful months of “neutrality” until we couldn’t stand it any longer. Little Jimmy by that time had grown into a big, hearty, healthy child who didn’t look as though he could be hurt by traveling . . . and so we came. Mr. Fisher went into the American Ambulance Field Service, and went out to the front near Verdun. It was the very first separation since our marriage eight years ago, and I can tell you, it was a very dismal time for me; although I was ashamed to confess it because it was nothing compared to what my friends were suffering all round me here. It is true my husband was in danger, was replacing tires under shell-fire, and all the other trying circumstances possible, was spending whole days in the ‘abris’ with German shells falling all around it, and was driving night after night over shell-ruined roads, without any lights at all, to and from the front . . . but he wasn’t in the front-line trenches liable to be sent over the top at any moment; so I said nothing about my anxieties to any Frenchwoman.

She went on to add that after she arrived in Paris, she had a hand in the preparation of Braille reading materials for the men blinded during the war. When she wrote the letter she was serving as a head cook for the American Ambulance training camp. She then told about her friend, Madame Fischbacher:

Now please, will you do something for me? I appeal to you as members of my own family. This is the case. Mme. Fischbacher (the one who is taking my place at the Phare) lives in Bellevue-Meudon, a suburb of Paris. She has been terribly impressed by the sufferings of the children there, due to war-conditions. . .no, not war-orphans, everybody is helping them . . . nor yet refugees, who are getting help from many and many an organization; but just children, children who are always inexpressibly precious to every nation, but who to France are the only hope she has for the future. Their fathers are at the front and have been for three years. Just think of that. That means that a little baby of three, has now become a school-child of six without seeing his father more than three or four times, without ever having had any help from his father in the family life. Their mothers work them-selves into shadows trying to be father and mother both, and to be wage-earners into the bargain but they can’t do it. Nobody could! And they aren’t “helped” because their case is the normal, usual one in France. . .think of that! Now Mme. Fischbacher wants to start a little work for the children in her own town, and she is partly laying that aside because I have pounced on her for the work at the Phare Printing Department. Won’t you help me make it up to her and to the children of Bellevue. Why shouldn’t all Kappas, if they want to have a special war work of their own, just ‘adopt’ the little children among the poor of Bellevue.

She ended her plea with ” Think of yourselves as their far-away aunts, why don’t you . . . there, that’s just the thing. Let’s call ourselves the ‘Kappa Aunts of Bellevue’!” and signed of with “affectionate greetings to you all.”

In the 1919 Ohio State yearbook, her chapter gave this information about the work being done by one of their number: 

Behold the godmothers of the children of Bellevue. It happened through Dorothy Canfield Fisher so prominent in war work and in the literary world. Mrs Fisher was a member of Beta Nu Chapter of Kappa Kappa Gamma not so very many years ago. She is now in France while her husband is at the front. She takes care of great numbers of refugee children giving them clothing and food to keep them alive. She has granted our chapter the privilege of being headquarters for all the clothing that the people of this country send to her for the French who need it so badly.

The “Kappas aunts” took up the cause. A report of NPC war work which appeared in many NPC member publications noted that the Kappas:

Performed reconstruction work in Bellevue Meudon France under the direction of Dorothy Canfield Fisher. This work consisted in a free dispensary, doctor, visiting nurse and free meals for the sick and underfed children of this district. Many tons of clothing, shoes, toys, soap, and medicine were sent. Underclothes, dresses, suits, layettes, etc. were made by the chapters and alumnae associations for the children and women of Bellevue.  

Fisher received the Kappa Kappa Gamma Alumnae Achievement Award in 1948. She was the author of 22 novels and 18 books of non-fiction, including Understood Betsy. Published in 1916, it introduced a Montessori style of learning to an American audience. She died in 1958.

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Gamma Sigma Fraternity International

Posted on October 11, 2022 by Fran Becque, Ph.D.

Gamma Sigma Fraternity International was founded on October 11, 1869 at the Brockport Normal School (now SUNY Brockport) in Brockport, New York.

It was formed “for the purpose of improving themselves in debate, in original composition and in other literary exercises.” The idea for the organization was brough forth by Professor Charles D. McLean, Principal of the Normal School and 18 young men met in the chemistry to form Gamma Sigma.

The first regular meeting was held a week later and about a month later, Professor McLean became an honorary member on November 6, 1869. He also advanced the group $200 to furnish the room which had been secured for them as a meeting spot on campus. The chapter paid him back by charging admission to their literary entertainments.

On April 11, 1872, the Gamma Sigma Society was incorporated in New Your State. The badge did not make an appearance until 1877.

A long-time reader of this blog asked that I acknowledge this organization, which no longer has active chapters. On October 11, 2019, alumni gathered in Niagara Falls, Canada, for a convocation.

Joseph William Atkinson authored a book on the first 100 years of Gamma Sigma. It is available to read in digital format. The website also has a wealth of information.

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Happy 150th Alpha Phi!

Posted on October 10, 2022 by Fran Becque, Ph.D.

The first women’s fraternity/sorority to own its own home? It’s the same organization that is the oldest of the Syracuse Triad. The home belonged to the Alpha chapter of that organization. And that organization celebrates Founders’ Day on October 10. Alpha Phi it is!

In September of 1872, Martha Foote (Crowe), Clara Sittser (Williams), and Kate Hogoboom (Gilbert) pondered the thought of women having fraternal organizations comparable to those of the men.  They invited all the college women to discuss the possibility.

Ten women – the original three plus Jane Higham, Clara Bradley (Burdette), Louise Shepherd (Hancock), Florence Chidester (Lukens), Ida Gilbert (Houghton), Elizabeth Grace (Hubbell), and Rena  Michaels (Atchinson) met and pledged allegiance to the sisterhood. Minutes from the first meeting noted that Michaels was chosen president, plans were made for weekly meetings at which literary exercises would be part of the  program, and a 25¢ tax was levied for the purchase of a secretary’s book.  The first debate was “Resolved – that women have their rights.”

At first, the chapter met in the homes of chapter members. Dr. Chidester, Florence’s father, allowed the use of his Irving Avenue home office on Monday evenings. The first chapter room was on Salina Street, over Sager and Grave’s carpet store. The chapter room remained there for six years until it was moved to a suite of rooms on the fourth floor of the Onondaga County Savings Bank Building.

In 1884, the Alpha Phi chapter gave up the meeting rooms it rented in the bank.  Plans were made to rent a house “where the out-of-town girls could live and where one room could be used for a chapter hall.  The experiment proved a success, and at the end of a year it was suggested that the girls build and own a chapter house.”

Jennie Thornburn (Sanford), an 1887 Alpha Phi initiate, recounted the story of Alpha Phi’s chapter house and she gave credit to Grace Latimer (Merrick), for “making practical by figures, by argument and by enthusiasm the possibility of building and owning a house.  At first we thought it a crazy idea; it was certainly novel – no girls had ever owned a chapter house.”

In May of 1886, a 56’ x 178’ lot at 17 University Place was purchased by the members of Alpha Phi for $1,400, or $25 a front foot. A few Alpha Phi fathers acted as a Board of Trustees. A $2,500 bank mortgage was arranged and another Alpha Phi dad loaned the chapter $2,700.  The father of a chapter member was  a building contractor.  He contributed his services and asked the firms with which he dealt to contribute some materials. An eyewitness described the start of the building process, “At 2 P.M. June 22, 1886, on the lot opposite the campus of Syracuse University, which had already been purchased by the Alpha Chapter of Alpha Phi, were held the exercises attending the laying of the corner stone of the first chapter house owned by the society.  Ida Gilbert DeLamater Houghton, ‘76, one of the founders of the organization, struck the gavel upon the unfinished foundation wall.  Carrie Shevelson Benjamin, ‘81, read a paper, at the conclusion of which a song composed by Lydia Thompson ‘83 was sung.  After a short address by Chancellor Sims (an Alpha Phi father), Dr. W. P. Coddington laid the corner stone in the name of the Alpha Chapter of Alpha Phi.  In closing all joined in a familiar college song and the interesting ceremonies were completed.  This was the first chapter house built by women and the day was the fourteenth anniversary of the founding of the Alpha Phi society.”

The Alpha Phi chapter house on University Avenue in Syracuse. It was the first house built and owned by a women's fraternity. The house was sold in 1902 and the chapter moved to its current home on Walnut Place.

The Alpha Phi chapter house on University Avenue in Syracuse. It was the first house built and owned by a women’s fraternity. The house was sold in 1902 and the chapter moved to its current home on Walnut Place.

The chapter moved into its new home in November.  The chapter hall was dedicated in January, 1887, and on Washington’s birthday, the chapter opened the house to 300 invited guests.  In order to pay the mortgages, “it was decided to have the members make an annual subscription to a house fund, each girl giving what she thought she could afford.  This was done, the largest amount given being fifty dollars.” In 1896, the chapter house was redecorated at a cost of $600.  By 1902, the debts had been paid.  It was time to move again.”

As the house became too small, the Bacon residence on Walnut Park, the home of an Alpha Phi family, became available and it was purchased.  The old chapter house was sold to the university for dormitory use. Thirty women could live in the new house.” That home on Walnut Place is the home in which Alpha Phi still resides.

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Hazing Hath No Charms #NPHW22

Posted on September 21, 2022 by Fran Becque, Ph.D.

This year, National Hazing Prevention Week is September 19-23, 2022. It’s not a coincidence that the week happens when many students are assimilating into Greek-letter organizations. Hazing has no place in any organization, but getting that message out to the rank and file members is not easy, especially if all those members know about an organization is what they’ve seen in the media or in embellished stories from older members.  Membership and chapter culture changes each year, too, adding an extra challenge to it all.

Hazing, according to the definition on HazingPrevention.org, is “any action taken or any situation created intentionally that causes embarrassment, harassment or ridicule and risks emotional and/or physical harm to members of a group or team, whether new or not, regardless of the person’s willingness to participate.”

Hazing is not exclusive to Greek Letter Organizations. Professional sports teams have been known to haze rookies. Colleges and universities once supported class rivalries and potentially dangerous competitions were held between classes. My alma mater, Syracuse University, had its Salt, Cane, Flour, Orange, and Snow Rushes.

College customs were much discussed in the Greek-letter organization magazines of the early 1900s. The December 1905 Delta Upsilon Quarterly contained this report on the Syracuse chapter’s activities, “The Flour rush and Salt rush were held as usual and furnished the same amusement to the spectators and the same exhibition of class spirit as heretofore, the former being won by the freshmen and the latter by the sophomores.”

Salt Rush 1903

Salt Rush, Syracuse University, 1903

 

Gamma Phi Beta’s Alpha Chapter outlined some of Syracuse’s traditions in the November 1906 Crescent of Gamma Phi Beta, “Class distinction is impressed upon the ‘Freshie’ by a flour rush and a salt rush; in the Spring he retorts by an extraordinary ‘parade’ and a moving ceremony, in which the ‘Freshies’ bury their hated green caps which they have been forced to wear all the year.”

According to a chapter report in the January 1911 Alpha Phi Quarterly, “At the beginning of each college year the men have a series of rushes which include the salt rush, flour rush, the football rush, and later the snow rush. Only the underclassmen participate in these and everyone is glad to see the freshmen win as they usually do. The freshmen form at the foot of Crouse Hill, and the sophomores at the top. Then they rush at each other, throwing bags of salt or flour as the case may be, and the sophomores try to prevent the freshmen from reaching the top of the hill. Wrestling matches follow the rushes. The men usually escape with a few cuts and bruises but these, of course, are marks of honor.”

Snow Rush

Snow Rush, Syracuse University

This excerpt from a 1930 Onondagan yearbook gives more details,  “The Flour Rush, which took place on September 28 (1929), was a victory for the freshmen who stormed the Irving Avenue side of Crouse College with bags of flour and completely routed the sophomores with their fire hose. Boxing and Wrestling matches followed. A tie rush was scheduled between the halves of the St. Lawrence game, but this was called because of the mud. The Salt rush which followed soon after was a chance for revenge for the men of ‘32, and they took advantage of it.”

These traditions died out by the early 1940s. Inter-class rushes were not confined to Syracuse; they were part of campus life on many other campuses. Salt Rushes took place at other upstate New York schools including St. Lawrence University and Colgate University. This may have been because, Syracuse supplied much of the country’s salt.  Cane Rushes in which freshmen and sophomores sparred over possession of a cane were commonplace at schools all over the country.

Sigma Nu was founded by three cadets at the Virginia Military Institute after the Civil War. Hazing was rampant in the institution, “the system of physical abuse and hazing of underclassmen at VMI led to James Frank Hopkins, Greenfield Quarles, and James McIlvaine Riley to form the ‘Legion of Honor’ which soon became Sigma Nu Fraternity.” 

The bottom line is that hazing has absolutely no place in today’s fraternity and sorority life. The future of all of our organizations is at stake. That, choir, is the sermon for today.

 

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Theta Phi Alpha Founded on August 30, 1912

Posted on August 30, 2022 by Fran Becque, Ph.D.

Theta Phi Alpha was founded on August 30, 1912, at the University of Michigan.

The Founders of Theta Phi Alpha

In the early 1900s, Catholics were not always accepted in the other fraternal organizations. Theta Phi Alpha’s roots can be traced to the 1909 establishment of a local organization, Omega Upsilon, at the University of Michigan. Father Edward D. Kelly, a Catholic priest and the pastor of the student chapel at Michigan, felt that there should be an organization that could provide the Catholic women at Michigan with an environment that “resembled the Catholic homes from which they came.” This was in a time and place when Catholics were not always welcome in the other fraternal organizations on campus. Interestingly, Theta Phi Alpha birthplace was a state institution that was co-founded by a Catholic priest, Father Gabriel Richard.

I came across this article in the October 1952 issue of The Fraternity Month. That summer, at the Theta Phi Alpha convention at the Edgewater Beach Hotel in Chicago, Pi Lambda Sigma, another Catholic sorority, merged with Theta Phi Alpha.

Pi Lambda Sigma was founded at Boston University on June 24, 1921. Delta Delta Delta founder (Sarah) Ida Shaw Martin with support from the Chancellery Office in Boston and the approval of Boston’s Archbishop O’Connell helped create the sorority. Theta Phi Alpha’s Eta chapter was founded at Boston University in 1921 and the two Catholic sororities were rivals on the campus.

Pi Lambda Sigma’s purpose was “to stimulate the social, intellectual, ethical and spiritual life of its members; and to count as a world force through services rendered to others.” In 1927, a second chapter was established at Boston University’s School of Education. Additional chapters were chartered at Temple University, University of Illinois, University of New Hampshire, University of Cincinnati, Quincy University, and Creighton University. Pi Lambda Sigma never attained membership in the National Panhellenic Conference.

In the early 1950s, it became evident to the Pi Lambda Sigma governing council and active members that the existence of the organization was tenuous. Ruth Thompson, a Pi Lambda Sigma, is quoted in the Living Our History Centennial History of Theta Phi Alpha:

Pi Lambda Sigma was faced with several alternatives: a.) merger; b.) dissolution with assets set up in scholarship funds; and c.) each collegiate chapter would make its own decision whether to merge, go local, etc. The final vote was for the merger. I visited the Dean of Women at the University of Cincinnati and asked for advice. The administration was in favor of the merger and was helpful. We checked all NPC groups and sent questionnaires to four sororities. We received two responses besides Theta Phi’s. It took two years to finalize our merger with Theta Phi Alpha. The decision was made because the ideals of both sororities were similar and we hoped that together we would become strong.

The Pi Lambda Sigmas met in convention in May 1952 in Boston. A merger with Theta Phi Alpha was approved. When the Theta Phi Alpha convention convened in Chicago in late June the merger was ratified. There, Alison Hume Lotter, National President of Pi Lambda Sigma, was initiated into Theta Phi Alpha.

At the time of the merger only four of Pi Lambda Sigma’s chapters were active. The chapters at Boston University and the University of Cincinnati combined under Theta Phi Alpha’s letters. The chapter at Creighton University became the Chi Chapter of Theta Phi Alpha in the fall of 1952 and the Quincy College chapter became the Psi Chapter of Theta Phi Alpha in 1954.

Today, just as other organizations have accepted Catholic women, Theta Phi Alpha is open to women of all religions.

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OTD – A Phi Gam and His Pi Phi Wife Become President and First Lady

Posted on August 3, 2022 by Fran Becque, Ph.D.

On August 3, 1923, Americans were waking to the news that Warren Harding had died suddenly, late in the evening on August 2, after he became ill in a San Francisco hotel. The Vice-President, Calvin Coolidge, and his wife Grace, were visiting the Coolidge homestead in Plymouth Notch, Vermont, where the Vice-President’s father, John, lived.

For about fours hours, the country was without a President, as it took that long for the news to travel from the west coast, where Harding died, to the hills of the small New England town where the Coolidges were staying.  

Colonel John Coolidge’s home did not have a telephone. President Harding’s secretary telegraphed the initial message of Harding’s death to White River Junction, Vermont. The public telephone operator who received the message sought out Coolidge’s stenographer, W. A. Perkins, and Joseph N. McInerney, his chauffeur. They alerted a reporter. Much activity ensued in a short amount of time. They went to the Coolidge homestead at about 2:30 a.m. and knocked. Colonel Coolidge answered the door and received the news. He trudged up the stairs to wake his son.  The President recounted the night in his autobiography:

I noticed that his voice trembled. As the only times I had ever observed that before were when death had visited our family, I knew that something of the gravest nature had occurred.

He placed in my hands an official report and told me that President Harding had just passed away. My wife and I at once dressed.

Before leaving the room I knelt down and, with the same prayer with which I have since approached the altar of the church, asked God to bless the American people and give me power to serve them.

The Coolidge family - Calvin, Jr., Calvin, Grace, and John shortly before Calvin, Jr.'s death. Courtesy of the Library of Congress.

The Coolidge family – Calvin, Jr., Calvin, Grace, and John shortly before Calvin, Jr.’s death. Courtesy of the Library of Congress.

Grace Coolidge went downstairs to join her husband in the parlor. A Bible belonging to Calvin Coolidge’s mother, who died when he was young, was on the table. As her father-in-law, a Windsor County notary, administered the oath of office to her husband by the light of a kerosene lamp in the small (14′ x 17′) parlor, she became the First Lady of the United States. 

First-hand accounts vary as to the people in the room when the oath was administered. That is understandable given the haste of the activity, the darkness of the night, and the solemness of the occasion.

On that night, Grace Coolidge, a charter member of the Pi Beta Phi chapter at the University of Vermont, and Calvin Coolidge, a member of the Phi Gamma Delta Chapter at Amherst College, became the first President and  First Lady to have been initiated into Greek-letter societies as college students.

This full size portrait of President Coolidge was painted by Ercole Cartotto. Although it is now at the Phi Gamma Delta's Headquarters, it was originally commissioned. by the Xi Graduate Chapter originally commissioned this for the Phi Gamma Delta Club in New York City. Ercole Cartotto's painting was dedicated on February 20, 1929, in the Club library. It is "life size."

This full size portrait of President Coolidge was painted by Ercole Cartotto. Although it is now at the Phi Gamma Delta’s Headquarters, it was originally commissioned. by the Xi Graduate Chapter originally commissioned this for the Phi Gamma Delta Club in New York City. Ercole Cartotto’s painting was dedicated on February 20, 1929, in the Club library.

Grace Coolidge in her official First Lady portrait

Grace Coolidge in her official First Lady portrait. In it, she is wearing her Pi Beta Phi arrow. The portrait was given to the United States by Pi Beta Phi.

If you’re ever near Plymouth Notch, Vermont, you can stop by and see the room where Grace Coolidge became First Lady by the light of a kerosene lamp.

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The 21st Century Edition of Baird’s Manual of American College Fraternities

Posted on August 1, 2022 by Fran Becque, Ph.D.

William Raimond Baird published the first edition of Baird’s Manual of American College Fraternities in 1879. After Baird’s death, others took on the job of editing Baird’s Manual. The twentieth and last edition, edited by Jack Anson, Phi Kappa Tau, and Robert F. Marchesani, Jr., Phi Kappa Psi, was published in 1991. It’s a very large book (8.5 x 11 x 2.5) and if another edition were to be published, it would likely have to be twice the size, what with the changes that have taken place in ensuing three decades. Moreover, it would be outdated before publication.

Carroll Lurding, Delta Upsilon, made his hobby the study of fraternities and sororities. For decades he painstakingly researched the local groups which became national organizations. He kept track of the changes that have happened in the fraternity and sorority world since the last edition of Baird’s was published in 1991. Lurding combed fraternities and sororities publications including histories, pledge manuals, magazines, and websites as well as available yearbooks. He also consulted the publications available at the University of Illinois Library’s Student Life & Culture Archives,  Indiana University’s Lurding Collection of Fraternity Material at the Lilly Library and the New York Public Library’s Baird Collection. He expanded on information offered, including the names of local organizations which became chapters of fraternities and sororities.

The Almanac of Fraternities and Sororities picks up where that 20th Edition of Baird’s Manual ended. And it includes much more! I hope you will take a look at it and use it regularly.

This from the “How to Use” section offers an overview of the Almanac as well as a listing of all the institutions where there is or once was a fraternity and sorority system:

This Almanac contains several sections. There are introductory files with the evolution of the fraternity and sorority system, founding dates, chronology, a list of the founding institutions, and largest organizations by decade. The organizational listing is divided into three sections –Men’s, Women’s, and Co-ed, for organizations with more than three chapters. In each section, there is a listing of the manner in which an organization evolved. Information includes the name of a local if that is how it was founded, when it became a part of the organization and the chapter identifier, as well as any time the chapter may have been inactive. There is also a section dedicated to organizations which are no longer active.

The institutional listing encompasses more than 1,000 North American higher education institutions, listed below for easy of finding in each pdf file. It includes information about the institution’s founding, the status of housing for fraternal organizations and the chronology of the chapters. The men’s groups are listed first, followed by the women’s groups and then the co-ed organizations. Organizations that are in bold-face type are currently active on campus. There is also a section for more than 100 institutions which no longer exist.

Please help publicize this important resource. I just finished the latest updates. There is also a mechanism to send updates if you find any errors.

 

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To the Moon and Back

Posted on July 16, 2022 by Fran Becque, Ph.D.
On this day in 1969, three men, the crew of Apollo 11, had just blasted off from the Florida coast and into the great beyond. Despite internet reports to the contrary of the three men aboard Apollo 11, only one was a fraternity man. Michael Collins and  Edwin Eugene “Buzz” Aldrin, Jr., were West Point graduates. Aldrin was elected to Tau Beta Pi, an engineering honor society. Neil A. Armstrong was a fraternity man, an initiate of the Phi Delta Theta chapter at Purdue University. Armstrong’s Phi Delt badge is the first fraternity badge to have been to the moon. He was the first man to walk on the moon. Upon his return to Earth, he presented the badge to Phi Delta Theta and it is on display at the fraternity’s headquarters in Oxford. However, contrary to rumor, he never pinned it on the American flag on the moon, nor did he pin his wife’s Alpha Chi Omega badge to the American flag. This post from Phi Delta Theta is several years old, but you all can do the math.

A P.E.O. Connection

Aldrin carried with him a P.E.O. Centennial Charm in loving memory of his grandmother, Jessie Ross Moon. She was a member of the first Florida chapter of P.E.O., Chapter A, in Miami, as was his aunt, Madeline Moon Sternberg. His aunt and her chapter presented the charm to P.E.O. at the dedication of the P.E.O. Centennial Center on Sept. 29, 1969 during P.E.O.’s Centennial festivities.
The P.E.O. Centennial charm is at the top of the plaque in the center of the circle.
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