Fraternity History & More

Do not join a fraternity if:

You do not believe in the organization and the tenets upon which it is built.

You sort of believe in those things, but have no intention of living up to them.

You give a nod to it all, but plan to do whatever you want, whenever you want.

You want to live the frat boy life, not the one of a fraternity man.

Find a few friends, rent a house and do whatever you want, without a thought to whether there are prohibitions against it. Tragedies that occur in a blue house at the corner of Pine and Maple rarely make the national news, and if they do, they are quickly displaced when the next story comes along.

When one frat boy or a chapter of frat boys screws up bigtime, all of us suffer the consequences. Those who believe fully in the positive qualities of fraternity done well cannot justify the acts of frat boys.

My heart breaks for the parents and families who are left to pick up the pieces of frat boys gone bad.

Is it finally time to see all fraternities and sororities dissolved and banned from existence? No, it is not. Fraternity done well is a worthwhile and rewarding experience. Chapters which are not living up to the ideals of the organization need to be closed right now. Members who can’t or won’t live up to the ideals of the organization need to resign or be dismissed. The future of all of our organizations depends on it.

(And while this is written from a fraternity point of view, it is just as applicable to sorority women.)

Here in the midwest, it is still November 9. I have been remiss in posting this earlier in the day. I have been away from home for more than two weeks and just returned here after the sunset.

It Sigma Kappa’s Founders’ Day! On November 9, 1874, Sigma Kappa was founded by five young women, the only females enrolled at Colby College in Waterville, Maine. They received a letter from the faculty approving the organization’s petition, which included a constitution and bylaws.

The five founders of Sigma Kappa are Mary Low Carver, Elizabeth Gorham Hoag, Ida Fuller Pierce, Louise Helen Coburn and Frances Mann Hall. In Sigma Kappa’s first constitution, chapter membership was limited to 25 women. The original chapter is known as the Alpha chapter. After Alpha chapter’s membership reached 25, a Beta chapter was formed. A Gamma chapter soon followed. Although there were some early joint meetings, the members did not think it feasible to continue that way. In 1893, a vote was taken to limit Alpha chapter to 25 members and to allow no more initiations into Beta and Gamma chapters. In due time, Beta and Gamma were no more.

The Delta chapter was installed at Boston University in 1904. In 1905, Sigma Kappa became a member of the National Panhellenic Conference. Sigma Kappa’s Alpha chapter closed in 1984 when Colby College banned all fraternities and sororities from campus.

In 1910, Sigma Kappa’s Lambda Chapter was founded clear across the country at the University of California – Berkeley. Anna McCune (Harper) became a member of the chapter. She and her sister Lucy played a lot of tennis growing up in Pacific Grove, California. Harper told an interviewer that she and her sister entered the California State Tennis Championships because “we thought it would be cheaper to see all the matches as participants rather than pay for spectators’ tickets.” They did well in the ladies’ singles competition and won the doubles competition. Tennis took a bigger role in their lives after that.

She graduated in 1924 with Phi Beta Kappa honors. Shortly afterwards became Mrs. Lawrence Harper.  She also joined the pro tennis circuit. She was in the U.S. top ten players for five consecutive years (1928-32) and she was top ranked in 1930. She won the mixed doubles at Wimbledon in 1931. Her tennis career was cut short when she returned home due to an illness in the family.

A mother of three, she found time to serve Sigma Kappa as National President from 1939-42. Harper was induced into the California Athletic Hall of Fame. Each year  a Scholarship is given in her honor to a UC-Berkeley student who is an outstanding athlete and scholar.

Given that there are 365 days in most years and 26 National Panhellenic Conference organizations, I find it amazing that several NPC organizations were founded on the same day, albeit different years.

Alpha Epsilon Phi was founded on October 24, 1909 at Barnard College by Helen Phillips, Ida Beck, Rose Gerstein, Augustina “Tina” Hess, Lee Reiss, Stella Strauss and Rose Salmowitz. They came together and created an organization spurred on Phillips’ inspiration. She sought a way to stay in closer contact with her friends; Alpha Epsilon Phi was founded in her room.

The seven shared their Jewish heritage. A second chapter was quickly founded two months later at nearby Hunter College. The founding chapter at Barnard was closed when the college banned Greek-letter organizations in 1913.

Today, Alpha Epsilon Phi notes that the organization is a Jewish sorority, “but not a religious organization, with membership open to all college women, regardless of religion, who honor, respect and appreciate our Jewish identity and are comfortable in a culturally Jewish environment.”

Zelda Sicklick was a member of the second chapter of Alpha Epsilon Phi. She became a teacher and spent decades teaching in the New York City area.

Sicklick and her Beta Chapter members are named on the Certificate of Incorporation dated February 20, 1913. She was born in Russia in about 1891. She died in 1982. She and her sister Isabelle had a house in Stockbridge, Massachusetts. Zelda made good use of her passport and seemed to do a great deal of international travelling.

***

On October 24, 1902, Delta Zeta made its debut at Miami University in Ohio. Delta Zeta’s founders are Alfa Lloyd, Mary Collins, Anna Keen, Julia Bishop, Mabelle Minton, and Ann Simmons. It is interesting that Delta Zeta’s history includes the heritage of several former NPC organizations. Between 1941 and 1962, the members of four other NPC groups became members of Delta Zeta. The organizations with which Delta Zeta has absorbed or merged include Beta Phi Alpha, Theta Upsilon, Phi Omega Pi, and Delta Sigma Epsilon. Prior to these groups becoming a part of Delta Zeta, many had themselves merged with other groups.

The first group to become a part of Delta Zeta was Beta Phi Alpha; it was founded as Bide-a-wee on May 8, 1909 at the University of California-Berkeley. A few months later, the name changed to Aldebaran, In 1919, it became Kappa Phi Alpha. It then changed its name to Beta Phi Alpha. In 1923, Beta Phi Alpha joined NPC. On June 22, 1941, Beta Phi Alpha was absorbed by Delta Zeta. At that point, 30 chapters had been installed and there were 3,000 members. 

Phi Omega Pi was founded at the University of Nebraska on March 5, 1910. In its early years, membership was limited to those belonging to the Order of the Eastern Star. In 1931, this restriction was eliminated. It was granted associate NPC membership in 1930 and full membership in 1933. On October 1 of that year, Sigma Phi Beta, founded at New York University on November 1, 1920 under the name of Sigma Sigma Omicron, was absorbed by Phi Omega Pi. On August 10, 1946, Delta Zeta absorbed Phi Omega Pi.

Delta Sigma Epsilon was founded on September 23, 1914 at Miami University. In the fall of 1941, Pi Delta Theta merged with Delta Sigma Epsilon. In 1956, Delta Sigma Epsilon was absorbed by Delta Zeta. At the time of the merger more than 13,000 women had been initiated as Delta Sigma Epsilons members in its 52 chapters.

Theta Upsilon was founded at the University of California-Berkeley in 1914. Its roots can be traced to 1909 when a group of women rented a house on Walnut Street that they called “Walnut Shell.” On January 1, 1914, they organized as the Mekatina (“Among the Hills”) Club. Theta Upsilon was granted associate NPC membership in 1923 and full membership in 1928. In September 1933, Lambda Omega, which was founded on May 5, 1923 at the University of California-Berkeley, became a part of Theta Upsilon. On May 6, 1962, Theta Upsilon became a part of Delta Zeta.

Oxford, Ohio, where Delta Zeta was founded is also the location of its headquarters and museum. There is a wonderful virtual tour of the museum.

Kappa Delta was founded on October 23, 1897 at the State Female Normal School (now Longwood University) in Farmville, Virginia. Its founders are Lenora Ashmore Blackiston, Julia Gardiner Tyler Wilson, Sara Turner White and Mary Sommerville Sparks Hendrick. Kappa Delta, along with Zeta Tau Alpha, Sigma Sigma Sigma and Alpha Sigma Alpha, were founded at the same institution and comprise the “Farmville Four.” 

One hundred years ago, students had little opportunity to borrow funds for their education. There were no federal loan programs and banks did not offer much in the way of student loans. Scholarship programs were not commonplace and financial aid offices were not yet a thing. If  one did not have the funds saved to pay for tuition, or a way to earn money during the semester, or did not have someone paying the bill, one was not able to attend the institution. Moreover, credit was not a way of life, as it is today.

Many women’s organizations started Loan Funds to provide their members with the opportunity to stay in college when it might not otherwise have been possible. These were loans, and the expectation was for the loan to be paid back, with interest, in a timely manner.

In 1916, Kappa Delta’s officers met in Sewanee, Tennessee, and a Loan Fund for Kappa Delta members was established. Each chapter was asked to contribute $5 and each alumna was asked to send $1. The alumnae “ask” was done by means of round-robin letters.

At the 1917 Birmingham convention, plans for the Kappa Delta Loan Fund were
adopted and a committee was appointed. That year, three loans for were granted. Four loans were given in 1918, and six the following year.

The chapters in Beta Province gave the funds they had budgeted for a dance at the 1917 convention. The goal for the Loan Fund was for it to become entirely self-supporting. It was noted, however, that the treasury was almost depleted. Since the program was in its infancy, the borrowed funds had not been fully repaid.

Lois Brown, a member of the University of Kentucky chapter wrote:

I had finished my second year at the University of Kentucky when it seemed impossible, financially speaking, for me to return to study. I remembered a long heart-to-heart talk I had with Becky Smith, and the Scholarship Loan Fund seemed the melting-pot for all my troubles and would-be worries. IT WAS. The year the Kappa Delta Loan Fund sent me back to the University was the happiest of all the four years, and the turning point, I might say, in more ways than one. Through good fortune, (I won’t say luck, for that’s the lazy man’s excuse) it was possible for me to return in the fall without asking for a further loan.

It was just like the creeks we found in the mountains of eastern Kentucky, bridgeless, and I had waded in just so far, when the foot log slipped, and I was left sinking. I sent out an S. O. S. call and the Kappa Delta Loan Fund appeared in the distance and helped me over the deepest part. Then I waded out on the other side; however, my feet are still in the water because I have not paid all that loan— but ‘blessed are they that keep their heads above water’ – and it was Kappa Delta at thhelped me do this.

If this sounds like a patent medicine advertisement, maybe I am ill, but you cured my ills once, and I’m hoping that the Loan Fund will have a healing effect on many other Kappa Deltas in the years that are to come.

Since the early years of the Loan Fund, Kappa Delta has helped its members. Last year, the Kappa Delta Foundation awarded $140,400 in scholarships to Kappa Delta graduates and undergraduates.