A HISTORY OF THE FRATERNITY SYSTEM AT
SOUTHERN ILLINOIS UNIVERSITY FROM 1948 THROUGH 1960
By Frances DeSimone Becque
A Master’s Thesis Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Master of Science in Education Degree
Graduate Program in Higher Education in the Graduate School, Southern Illinois University at Carbondale
April 1995
All rights reserved
[Fran Becque's Master's Thesis]
This was a very good thesis so far Fran! I too love reading about the Greek life at SIU. I am apart of the EK chapter of Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia here. I also never expected to join in Greek Life when I was in High School, and now I’m president. Weird how things work out!
I do have a quick question, why was Phi Mu Alpha not mentioned in the thesis (unless I haven’t gotten that far yet). We were established on November 19th, 1949. I am wondering if it has to do with PMA not being required to be apart of IGC (even though our chapter is apart of them, but not every chapter is). I don’t know much about the early history of our chapter and would love to know what you know so I can add them to our history book!
Again, I am looking forward to reading the rest of the thesis!
Hi,
Thanks for the comment. During the time frame of this study, Phi Mu Alpha was considered one of the Men’s Professional Fraternities (I’m looking at the page in a 16th edition -1957- copy of Baird’s Manual of American College Fraternities). I limited the research to what were considered the social organizations. If you’d like to learn more about your chapter, you might try looking in the available yearbooks (through the late 70s or early 80s, unfortunately, there are no longer yearbooks produced). It might give you a glimpse into the early history of the organization. Best wishes with your reaearch!