Celebrating the Rebirth of Two NPC Alpha Chapters!

This spring two National Panhellenic Conference (NPC) organizations are recolonizing their Alpha chapters. Zeta Tau Alpha is returning to its birthplace at Longwood University. Alpha Omicron Pi is revitalizing the chapter whose home will be the now co-ed Columbia University, with which its founding home, Barnard College, is affiliated.

Of the 26 NPC members, only ten have had their Alpha chapters open since their foundings. The ten include: Alpha Chi Omega and Kappa Alpha Theta, both founded at DePauw University; Alpha Phi and Gamma Phi Beta, two of the Syracuse Triad; and Alpha Sigma Alpha and Sigma Sigma Sigma, two of the Farmville Four founded at Longwood University. The remaining four organizations are: Chi Omega, founded at the University of Arkansas; Alpha Sigma Tau, founded at Eastern Michigan University; Delta Zeta, founded at Miami University (Ohio); and Sigma Delta Tau, founded at Cornell University.

The Monmouth Duo, Pi Beta Phi and Kappa Kappa Gamma, were founded at Monmouth College in Monmouth, Illinois. Pi Beta Phi was founded in 1867 and Kappa Kappa Gamma followed in 1870. In 1878, both were forced by college authorities to close their Alpha chapters. It is quite amazing that each organization was able to withstand the loss of the Alpha chapter. Pi Beta Phi recolonized in 1928. Minnie McDill McMichael, wife of  Monmouth College President Dr. T.H. McMichael, was a Pi Phi and she played a vital role in the recolonization festivities. She and Dr. McMichael, along with Monmouth resident and Pi Beta Phi Founder Clara Brownlee Hutchinson, traveled to the 1927 Pi Beta Phi Convention in Pequot, Minnesota, to help present the case of Zeta Epsilon Chi, a local organization; it petitioned to bring Pi Phi’s Alpha chapter back to life. Mrs. McMichael died shortly after the chapter was installed. Kappa Kappa Gamma returned to Monmouth College in 1934.

Two of the institutions at which the groups were founded closed. Delta Gamma, founded in 1873 at the Lewis School for Girls, closed its Alpha chapter in 1889. In 1893, Alpha Xi Delta was founded at Lombard College in Galesburg, Illinois. Lombard College closed in 1930. Alpha Xi Delta’s charter was transferred to Knox College, across town in Galesburg; the chapter closed in 1973.

The women’s fraternity system was eliminated on several campuses. Both Alpha Omicron Pi and Alpha Epsilon Phi were founded at Barnard College. The chapters closed in 1914 when Barnard ended recognition of the NPC groups. The Macon Magnolias, Alpha Delta Pi and Phi Mu, closed when Wesleyan Female College withdrew recognition of the groups.  In 1984, Colby College abolished of all fraternities and sororities and Sigma Kappa’s Alpha chapter was forced to close. (Sigma Kappa’s Beta and Gamma chapters had also been at Colby, but they closed before 1900.)

Zeta Tau Alpha  and Kappa Delta, two of the Farmville Four, closed their Alpha chapters at Longwood University when they opted to joined the National Panhellenic Conference in 1909 and 1912, respectively. The other two of the Farmville Four, Sigma Sigma Sigma and Alpha Sigma Alpha, became members of the Association of Education Sororities, the umbrella organization for the sororities located at teacher’s colleges that existed during the first half of the 1900s.

Several Alpha chapters were closed for a short time, but they are currently active and thriving chapters. Alpha Gamma Delta’s Alpha chapter at Syracuse University, founded in 1904, was closed between 2001-10.* The Alpha chapter of Delta Delta Delta, founded at Boston University in 1888, was closed between 1970-84. Delta Phi Epsilon, founded at the New York University Law School in 1917, had its Alpha chapter closed between 1966-83.

Theta Phi Alpha, founded at the University of Michigan in 1912, closed its Alpha chapter in 1944.  Phi Sigma Sigma was founded at Hunter College in 1913; its Alpha chapter closed in 1976.

* https://www.franbecque.com/2012/04/24/designed-by-members-for-members-kat-agd-azd/

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