On November 4, 1899, eight young women, Mable Chase, Ruth Dutcher, May Gephart, Harriet Marx, Eva O’Keefe, Adriance Rice, Helene Rice, and Mayene Tracy, formed a sorority at the Michigan State Normal College (now Eastern Michigan University) in Ypsilanti, Michigan. Alpha Sigma Tau was the name they chose. The organization’s first national convention took place in 1925.
Alpha Sigma Tau’s oldest, continuous chapter, the sixth chapter, celebrated a centennial this year. Located at Lock Haven University in Pennsylvania, the Zeta Chapter was chartered 1n early April 1921.
The Mysterious Eight, a local organization at Lock Haven Normal College, applied for an Alpha Sigma Tau charter. A national officer and an alumna from the Alpha Chapter performed the pledging ceremony on April 7, 1921. The women were initiated on April 8.
Lock Haven was, at the time, a two-year teacher’s college and the chapter could not be represented at convention until the institution became a four-year one. The first convention at which the chapter had a delegate was Alpha Sigma Tau’s third convention in 1928.
Zeta Chapter, 1932
