[paulam]

Originally Posted by AlwaysSAI

I have a question.

How long was your local on campus before you became nationally affiliated?

And, I thought Phi Sigma Sigma was the first sorority founded under nonsectarian terms so how does that make it a historically jewish sorority?

Really, I'm just wondering.

"On November 26, 1913, Phi Sigma Sigma was born, unobtrusively, without the thought of expansion. It was the first nonsectarian sorority; the only one that was open to diverse membership from inception and the only one with a ritual that was not based in scripture."

-courtesy of phisigmasigma.org

We were a local for about a year and a half. It was an arduous process obtaining permission from Panhellenic and earning our "stripes" so to speak, in terms of grades and activities in order to qualify for provisional status. Then we had to wait until all four sororities responded to the invitation to expand on our campus.

It was the Dean of Women who told us the names of the four "Jewish" sororities and who contacted DPhiE and Phi Sigma Sigma. All the DPhiE's and the few Phi Sigma Sigma's I knew were Jewish. Both sororities sent Jewish women from their national offices to interview us, so at the time, based on what we, 19 year old naive sophmores, were told, those two sororities were essentially Jewish. Now I know better.

Phi Sig's founders were all Jewish which leads me to believe that they formed their sorority for the same reason our founders did...to give everyone the option to join a sorority regardless of race or religion.

Paula M.
Sigma Delta Tau
ΣΔTPatriae Multi Spes Una One Hope of Many People