The Sesquicentennials Begin!

Posted on June 30, 2017 by Fran Becque, Ph.D.

Indulge me please. Pi Phi’s 71st Biennial Convention celebrating our 150th was one for the record books. On Saturday, at the luncheon where we invited our Panhellenic Conference friends, I was seated next to the Sigma Delta Tau representative. She joked that she was the only SDT not in New York celebrating her organization’s Centennial. Happy 100th Sigma Delta Tau!

Celebrations are on the horizon. P.E.O. will turn 150 in 2019. Kappa Alpha Theta and Kappa Kappa Gamma are planning celebrations in 2020 with more NPC groups to follow them.* I encourage my Panhellenic friends to start saving their pennies in order to attend their organization’s celebration.

My friend Harper Whitten, Alumnae Regional Director – Region 2, wrote from the heart when she penned these words for a Facebook post:

I never before thought about what others think when they see me post about Pi Phi. I just figured non-members and members alike could see what an amazing organization it really is. Maybe it’s not always evident with the non-stop convention pictures of flower arrangements and elaborate desserts. Among those fun pictures though are some serious accomplishments like...

1400 women surpassing our $150,000 goal by raising $239,795 in one weekend for Pi Beta Phi Foundation.

Pi Beta Phi Foundation announcing a capital campaign to raise $28 million for Fraternity operations, leadership training, education and scholarships, literacy initiatives, and collegiate housing.

Pi Beta Phi Foundation announcing $19,772,791 has already been raised for the campaign including $6 million from Pi Beta Phi Fraternity.

40,000 books donated to the St. Louis community in one day bringing our ‘lives impacted’ total to 1,128,156, surpassing our goal of impacting one million lives from convention 2013 to convention 2017.

Five more Signature Fraternity Day of Service events announced for March 2018 which means another 100,000 books will be donated across the United States in one weekend.

Seven incredible women became alumna initiates and one remarkable alumna, Dr. Ellen Stofan, former Chief Scientist of NASA, received our Member of Distinction Award (Did I mention I was privileged to escort her to an event and then sit at her table during the lunch she was recognized at?!)

Our Grand President exemplified servant leadership by placing a $21,000 bid (and winning) for our Ring Ching Roadshow car, with all of the funds going to our founding location and historic site, Holt House.

WOW! I can’t even fit all of our weekend accomplishments and announcements in one post. But I will challenge everyone to learn more about Pi Beta Phi, Pi Beta Phi Foundation, and our newest partnership with the Barbara Bush Foundation for Family Literacy and DONATE, PARTICIPATE, and ADVOCATE to inspire a lifelong love of reading! #piphiproud #piphi150“

Harper Whitten, a Pi Phi Director, in her “I am One” shirt at Citygarden in St. Louis.

It was a phenomenal convention. Local Convention Chairman and former headquarters Executive Director, Renee Ross Mercer and her committee did an incredible job. At the final banquet, she was honored with the Dorothy Weaver Morgan Award for Fraternity Loyalty.

The historical display featured 15 mannequins wearing period clothes from each of Pi Phi’s decades. While many gave me credit for doing them, it wasn’t me. Props Chairman Kathy Weber went above and beyond to make it happen. She did an incredible job!

Lori Poveromo Haight with the mannequin from her decade in college.

I did have a hand in the banners and the six displays of 25 years each. It’s not easy to pack 25 years worth of history in a 2’x2′ displays and get them done in less than three hours but I took on the challenge nonetheless.

The display for 1942-66. The photo in the top left corner is of Jean Wirths Scott, Past Pi Beta Phi Grand President and NPC Chairman, when she was a Chapter President of the Bucknell University chapter.

While I could go on and on about the friends who were there, some of whom I hadn’t seen in decades, I will not bore you. I did have the opportunity to reconnect with someone I hadn’t seen since I was a collegian at Syracuse University. She was a Travelling Graduate Consultant the year I pledged and I remembered meeting her all those years ago. She now lives in Texas and she told me that her visit to snowy Syracuse led to her seeking out a warmer climate.

For those of you who love marching bands, here are the wonderful members of the St. Clair High School Marching Band from St. Clair, Missouri, under the direction of Tim Karth https://youtu.be/a3429yHiwdA

Members of the St. Clair High School Marching Band in the Scottrade Center. This special summer appearance was voluntary and these high schoolers gave it their all. I hope there are future GLO members among them.

My daughter, who was a 2011 Convention initiate, attended and although we didn’t have much time to catch up, it was fun to chat with her during the Literacy Walk around the Arch. As we headed out of the hotel, someone said, “You two must have planned that.” Dumbfounded, we both said, “Planned what?” She pointed at what we were wearing with our white “I am One” t-shirts. I had on blue and she had on wine. Totally unplanned!

There was a post-convention tour to Holt House. I will never tire of telling the story of Ada and Libbie renting a room from “Major” Jacob Holt and starting the organization in that second floor southwest bedroom.

We should warn D.C. that the Pi Phis will be there in June of 2019. I’ll start saving my pennies for that celebration!

*Alpha Delta Pi and Phi Mu’s Sesquicentennials took place in the early 2000s. Both were founded at Wesleyan College in Macon, Georgia. Alpha Delta Pi was founded in 1851 as the Adelphean Society. In 1905, the Adelphean Society changed its name to Alpha Delta Phi and established its Beta Chapter  Salem College in Winston-Salem. Phi Mu was founded as the Philomathean Society in 1852. In 1904, its second chapter was established at Hollins College.
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June 28 – A Day Shared by Sigma Chi and Sigma Tau Gamma

Posted on June 28, 2017 by Fran Becque, Ph.D.

June 28 is the founding date of two fraternities. Sigma Chi was founded in 1855 at Miami University in Miami, Ohio. It is one of the Miami Triad. Sigma Tau Gamma was founded in 1920 at Central Missouri State Teachers College, now the University of Central Missouri, in Warrenton, Missouri. 

Milton “Milt” Caniff joined Sigma Chi in 1930 while a student at Ohio State University. In addition to his Steve Canyon and Terry and the Pirates comic strips, he occasionally provided illustrations for his fraternity’s publications. There were often mentions of Sigma Chi in his comic strips.

The Sigma Chi founders at the founding as done by Caniff.

This wonderful film was produced in the 1930s. In 1937, Caniff was named a Significant Sig. He was in the second class of Significant Sigs. In the 1935 inaugural class of Significant Sigs was John T. McCutcheon, Purdue 1889, the artist to whom Caniff refers in the video clip.

Sigma Tau Gamma recently announced that it will be moving its headquarters from Warrensburg, Missouri, where the fraternity was founded. In early 2018, the fraternity and the Sigma Tau Gamma Foundation and WPN National Housing Company hope to be settled in Indianapolis, Indiana. My Pi Phi friend Jill Mackey is the Associate Director of WPN Housing. She was missed at the Pi Phi convention this past week, but she was busy with her job duties. I wish her and her colleagues a Happy Founders’ Day and a smooth move to Indy.

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A Fabulous 150th Pi Beta Phi!

Posted on June 26, 2017 by Fran Becque, Ph.D.

The women of I.C. Sorosis are in St. Louis celebrating a century and a half. One hundred and fifty years is a long time and the world of 1867 is vastly different from the one of 2017. The young women who dared to create a fraternity for women based on the ones for men that were at Monmouth College in 1867 chose to use I.C. Sorosis as their name with Pi Beta Phi as their secret motto. The gold arrow with an I and a C on the wings was the organization’s badge.

Between 1867 and 1881, when Alpha Phi’s second chapter was founded at Northwestern, only four of today’s National Panhellenic Conference (NPC) organizations were extending beyond the founding campus. The women of I.C. competed with the Kappa Alpha Thetas, Kappa Kappa Gammas and Delta Gammas. Some of the chapters began using the secret motto, Pi Beta Phi in the early 1870s. The Arrow of Pi Beta Phi debuted in 1885. Produced by the Kansas Alpha Chapter at the University of Kansas, the first page stated, “An organ of Pi Beta Phi.” The name change became official at the 1888 convention. There was never any discussion as to what the name of the organization would be as the Greek letters had been with us since the beginning.

So how did we celebrate? In grand style, of course! The Scottrade Center, home of the St. Louis Blues hockey team, was the venue for the Dinner by Chapter and Banner Parade (on a 150 foot long catwalk!).

The Pi Beta Phi Fraternity banner begins the banner parade of chapters beginning with the banner of the chapter where it all began, Illinois Alpha at Monmouth College.

Grand President Paula Shepherd with baton in hand at the 150th birthday celebration.

 

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The Correlation Between Sorority Conventions and Shoe Choices

Posted on June 22, 2017 by Fran Becque, Ph.D.

Thirty years ago, I left three young children, ages four and under, with my husband and travelled to New Orleans for my first Pi Beta Phi convention. I was apprehensive about sharing a room with a complete stranger, but she was and remains delightful and I treasure her friendship all these decades later.

My first Pi Phi Convention roommate and I pose in the early 1990s at a Pi Beta Phi Indiana State Day.

It’s difficult to describe a sorority convention. Old friends greeting one another. The quick spark of new friendships being made. The laughter. The tears. The excitement of so many women in one place.

The shoes! Why a sorority convention is the perfect opportunity to change shoes two or three times a day is an unstudied question. It just is. This morning, my roommate at last summer’s Leadership Institute remarked that she had to bring a carry on with nothing but shoes in it. Her husband did not understand how five days away necessitated a full carry on of shoes. I remarked that she was in contention for the Olivia Smith Moore Award for Shoe Choices at Convention.

Olivia Smith Moore served Pi Beta Phi as an officer for more than three decades. She graduated summa cum laude from the University of Missouri. From 1936-46, she served as a Province Vice-President. She then served as Treasurer of the Settlement School Committee until 1951. The Committee was charged with overseeing the work of the Pi Beta Phi Settlement School in Gatlinburg, Tennessee. In 1952, she was elected Grand Treasurer and served in that position until 1967. At the 1967 Centennial Convention, she was named Grand Treasurer Emerita. She often began her Grand Treasurer’s convention reports with the phrase, “We took in scads and we spent oodles.” Despite the joking, “Miss Olivia,” as she was known in the fraternity, kept a very careful eye on the organization’s funds. During her years of service, her Neiman Marcus shoe collection became legendary. Pi Beta Phi convention delegates considered it a treat to see the more than three dozen pairs of shoes she usually took to convention lined up on a chest of drawers in her hotel room.

The shoes Olivia Smith Moore took to a Pi Phi convention.

Miss Olivia’s shoe collection is on display at the Ace of Clubs House in Texarkana, Texas. See https://www.arkansas.com/attractions/detail/ace-of-clubs-house/18841.

In the summer of 1867, the founders attended the first convention at Fannie Thomson’s home in Oquawka, Illinois. The organization began on April 28 so the membership during that summer was about 15 or so. The convention was really more of a get together, but matters were decided upon and so it begins our list of conventions. The Mississippi River was visible to the attendees at that first convention and it is visible to those who attend this special convention.

Each summer there are sorority conventions and I encourage further study of the shoe question.

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Monday GLO Mailbag

Posted on June 19, 2017 by Fran Becque, Ph.D.

A friend who attended the AAUW convention sent me a note about Julia T. Brown, the newly-installed Chairman of the AAUW Board (no longer President). Brown in a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc.

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I also realize that I never acknowledged the installation of Kay Ivey as Governor of the Alabama on April 10, 2017. She is a member of Alpha Gamma Delta and an Auburn University alumna.

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Congratulations to Sigma Nu Charlie Trantanella. He just published BROWN and BLUE and Greek: A history of fraternities, sororities and early student organizations at Tufts University.  The book was a labor of love for him. He did extensive research and documentation and he left no stone unturned. It is dissertation worthy. An excerpt from his research appeared on this blog several years ago (http://wp.me/p20I1i-Dn). If you’d like info about purchasing a copy, use the contact form below and I will forward the inquiries on.

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Over the weekend several additional sorority women won state contests and will be competing in Miss America 2018. See the list, which will be updated as additional contests are decided.  See http://wp.me/P20I1i-3ER.

← Back

Thank you for your response. ✨

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Fraternity Connections to the Alexandria Shooting

Posted on June 16, 2017 by Fran Becque, Ph.D.

Although I feel somewhat like an ambulance chaser, I think this information might be of interest to the readers of this blog.

My thoughts and prayers are with those who were injured on June 14 while practicing for the Congressional baseball game in Alexandria, Virginia. Several of the injured, as well as one of the special agents, have fraternity connections.

House Majority Whip Steve Scalise is a member of Acacia. Zack Barth, a Congressional Aide, is a Sigma Nu. Matt Mika, a Lobbyist for Tyson Foods, is a Phi Kappa Sigma.

Two of the three members of the Capitol Police Force who are came to the aid of the players are fraternity men. Special Agent David Bailey is a member of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc.  Henry Cabrera is a Kappa Sigma.

**My apologies for the incorrect headline when this was posted. I typed Arlington when it should have been Alexandria.

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A P.E.O. Founder, Kansas State Convention, and a Sigma Chi

Posted on June 14, 2017 by Fran Becque, Ph.D.

My daughter became a P.E.O. during her senior college of college. She was initiated as a member of my chapter. She’d attend a meeting once a year, usually the holiday auction where her salted caramel sauce is a highly prized item. Earlier this year she accepted an invitation from a Kansas chapter to transfer her membership, then she quickly volunteered to attend the Kansas State Chapter meeting as a Convention guard, along with several other of her chapter sisters.

She sent me this picture after she arrived at the convention site in Wichita. The quote in the typewriter is of my favorites. It was written by Franc Roads Elliott* and it applies to the organization as much today as it did when she first delivered it in the early 1900s, “P.E.O.s should ever keep their eyes forward, to note the possibilities of the future rather than to dwell on the achievements of the past.”

The quote can also apply to all Greek-Letter Organizations. It reminded me, too, that I recently discovered a connection between Elliott, one of the seven P.E.O. founders, and a Sigma Chi who grew up in Carbondale, Illinois.

At the end of her life, Elliott lived in the Hotel Windermere in Chicago. The hotel was built in 1892 in time for the 1893 Columbian Exposition. In 1924, the Rapp and Rapp firm in Chicago designed and led its rebuilding as Windermere East and Windermere West. The two hotels, the one built in 1892 (West) and the one designed by the Rapp brothers together had 482 guest rooms and 200 apartments. The buildings were connected by an underground tunnel. In 1959, Windermere West, was demolished and the space was used to construct a parking lot. Windermere East was converted to an apartment building in 1981. Today, it has undergone a renovation and is known as the Windermere House, a luxury apartment building.

George Leslie Rapp, a member of Sigma Chi’s Kappa Kappa Chapter at the University of Illinois, and his brother Cornelius Ward (“C.W.”) were proficient at all three styles of grand movie theaters (see http://wp.me/p20I1i-iB).

Cornelius Ward Rapp designed Altgeld Hall at Southern Illinois University Carbondale. It opened in 1896. The building was named in honor of Governor John Peter Altgeld.

Altgeld Hall on the Southern Illinois University Carbondale campus

*Franc, whose given name was Frances, alternated between having an “h” in her maiden name. The Roads spelling is the one on her gravestone.

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Same Bat Channel, a Cat in a Hat, and a Chi Psi Shoutout

Posted on June 12, 2017 by Fran Becque, Ph.D.

When he was a student at Whitman College, William West Anderson became a member of Beta Theta Pi. A 1951 initiate of the chapter, he followed in the footsteps of his father, Otto, a 1925 initiate of the Whitman chapter. When he began his acting career, he took the stage name of Adam West.

He is best known for his starring role in Batman where he played both Bruce Wayne and Batman. When it first aired in 1966 and only lasted until 1968. The episodes were shown on two consecutive nights, with the first night’s show always ending in a cliffhanger. “Same bat time, same bat channel” was the phrase of the day.

West died on June 9, 2017. His portrayal of a campy super hero for two short seasons added joy to the lives of those who grew up in the 1960s, when color televisions were replacing old black and white (and gray with snow) sets. Although Adam West is no longer with us, his Batman will always be available somewhere on the “same bat channel.” He also was the voice of the quirky Mayor (Adam) West of Quahog, Rhode Island, the setting of The Family Guy. 

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Last week, “the sun did not shine, it was too wet to play” and a museum, The Amazing World of Dr. Seuss Museum, opened in Springfield, Massachusetts. It’s dedicated to hometown son and beloved children’s author and illustrator, Theodor Geisel, better known as Dr. Seuss. While at Dartmouth College, Geisel became a member of Sigma Phi Epsilon. The museum is now officially on my bucket list.

Theodor Seuss Geisel, 1925, while a student at Dartmouth.

***

I missed wishing Chi Psi a Happy Founders’ Day on May 20. It was founded in 1841 by 10 Union College students. H. Fisk Johnson was initiated as a member of the Cornell University chapter. The picture below appeared in Ezra Magazine. It is a selfie Johnson took with his Chi Psi brothers at the reception ceremony honoring his gift to endow the new S.C. Johnson School of Business at Cornell. (Thanks Gabbie for passing it along!)

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Reaffirming My Faith in the Fraternity World

Posted on June 5, 2017 by Fran Becque, Ph.D.

Despite belief to the contrary, it has never been easy to be a member of a Greek-letter organization. Anti-fraternity sentiment has been around since about the time of the founding of the first chapter of the first fraternity.

I like to tell the story about how amazing it is that Kappa Kappa Gamma and Pi Beta Phi are part of the GLO landscape today because they were forced off the Monmouth campus in the infancy of both organizations. Luckily, each had established subsequent chapters and thus was able to survive the loss of the Alpha Chapter at a time when power was typically vested in that Alpha Chapter.

Document from Monmouth College students’ attempt in the late 1870s to keep on wearing GLO pins. The organizations were ultimately forced off campus until the 1920s when inter/national organizations were allowed on campus.

The fraternity system has been under scrutiny these past months; the scrutiny is justified and the actions of a few cannot be brushed asided. There are no excuses when a member dies. It is against every principal and belief we have. And we are all touched and damaged by the actions of a few.

That’s why it was so refreshing and so uplifting to read the bio of each and every winner of this year’s crop of NIC Awards. I suggest you go do the same. The undergraduate winners are outstanding and it warms my heart to see them honored for their service. I hope they will continue to make the fraternity world proud of their efforts. Be sure to check out the other winners, too. A special shout-out to my friend Mari Ann C allais, a Silver Medal Recipient!

http://nicindy.org/programs/undergraduate-award-of-distinction/


 

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Hazing Has No Place on Fraternity Row

Posted on June 1, 2017 by Fran Becque, Ph.D.

There is no universe in which I condone fraternity hazing. As a mother and as someone who believes deeply in the ideals of the fraternal world, I find hazing to be abhorrent to everything that should fraternity and sorority life. I am horrified by the recent hazing deaths and my heart breaks for the victims of these senseless tragedies.

Whenever news reports include the words “hazing ritual” I cringe because our rituals, those deeply imbedded values and beliefs and the words and ceremonies which reflect them, do not include hazing of any kind.

I remembered something I read in The Palm of Alpha Tau Omega. It was written in 1977 by Craig Mousin, but it is as true today as it was 40 years ago. Although Mousin was speaking about ATO, it could have been any fraternity, and I am confident it applied to almost all of the NIC fraternities of 1977.  He stated that although hazing and fraternity were “in theory the antithesis of each other, this current attention to hazing can be seen as part of a circular pattern of the growth of hazing, the progress toward elimination of hazing, the renewed growth of hazing, and on and on.” Mousin had served for two years as a Chapter Services Consultant and was in his third year of law school. He went on to enumerate the steps ATO had taken to eliminate hazing starting with the 1924 constitutional amendment to eliminate hazing and rough play; violators would be fined $25 (about $350 in today’s funds). 

In 1977, a film about fraternity hazing debuted. It was the work of Charles Gary Allison. It was his first movie, and it was produced on a shoe-string as part of his doctoral dissertation at University of Southern California. He sought to tell about the problems faced by a producer making a film. He realized that the best way to do that was to actually make a film. He wrote On Brotherhood and then brought it to life using a handful of young professional actors, one seasoned actor who played a rich alumnus, and with Cliff Robertson as the narrator. Many of the actors and extras were USC students and members of its fraternities and sororities. The Sigma Alpha Epsilon and Delta Delta Delta houses were used in the filming which took place on the campus over summer break.

The story takes place at the fictional eastern Summit College in 1954. It centers on the pledges of the Gamma Nu Pi fraternity. Kappa Delta Alpha is the sorority featured in the film. It starred Peter Fox, Nancy Morgan, Gregory Harrison, Wendy Phillips, Scott Newman, and Robert Emhardt.

The story that Allison told was one that he knew well. It was based on a true story, the death of Richard Swanson, a Kappa Sigma pledge, who choked on a piece of liver while a student at USC in 1959. Allison graduated in 1960 from USC. I’ve also read accounts that Allison was a Kappa Sigma when that happened, although I do not have official confirmation of that.

The film, which became Fraternity Row, was shown at several fraternity gatherings that summer and on campuses throughout the country. Allison’s film was screened at the Alpha Tau Omega Congress and he followed the screening with a question and answer session.

From the March 1977 issue of The Palm of Alpha Tau Omega

The following year, another film about fraternity life debuted. Animal House stole Fraternity Row’s thunder and helped bring a renewed interest in fraternity life, but that is a story for another day.

My sincere thanks to Kappa Kappa Gamma Carolyn Hunter for bringing this film to my attention and sharing her collection of items about the movie with me.


 

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