From November 27-December 1, 1951, the National Panhellenic Conference (NPC) met in Williamsburg, Virginia. Edith Reese Crabtree, Kappa Kappa Gamma, served as chairman. Alpha Phi Margaret Hutchinson served as secretary and Delta Gamma Mavis Mann was treasurer.
The 11 associate members – Alpha Epsilon Phi, Phi Sigma Sigma, Delta Phi Epsilon, Sigma Delta Tau, Theta Phi Alpha, Alpha Sigma Alpha, Alpha Sigma Tau, Delta Sigma Epsilon, Pi Kappa Sigma, Sigma Sigma Sigma, and Theta Sigma Upsilon – were admitted to full membership. NPC took on its modern face. The total number of NPC members was 31 (today it is 26 due to several mergers) and 155 fraternity officers were present.
It was resolved that NPC continue to emphasize the importance of simplifying rushing rules and procedures, and keeping to a minimum the expenses of rushing, social affairs, and campus activities. Another resolution empowered the members of the Executive Committee of National Panhellenic Conference, the Chairman of the College Panhellenics Committee, and the NPC College Panhellenics representative of the regions involved, to send an official visitor to campus when necessary, the expense incurred to be defrayed equally by the national member groups having chapters on the campus to be visited, upon advance approval by the National Presidents of the chapters.
On December 1, the delegates gathered into Phi Beta Kappa Hall at the College of William and Mary to commemorate the 175th anniversary of Phi Beta Kappa’s founding on December 5, 1776. The Phi Beta Kappa Hall that the delegates visited is not the one that exists today on the campus; the one they visited was built in 1926. On December 29, 1953, a fire destroyed the auditorium. It was rebuilt and the building is now known as Ewell Hall.
Ewell Hall was known as Phi Beta Kappa Hall when the 1951 NPC meeting took place in Williamsburg and the delegates visited it.
