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Old 11-06-2008, 10:40 PM
TigerPiPhi TigerPiPhi is offline
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Join Date: Nov 2008
Posts: 14
Quote:
Originally Posted by breathesgelatin View Post
Thanks for the details on all that. And welcome to GC!

The third SC chapter information is coming from this post. Pi Phi didn't always use the state-by-state naming system. Early in our history, the sorority used a naming system similar to what most GLOs use: the Alpha chapter was at Monmouth, and so on. The system was a bit disorganized and I think there were alumnae clubs that were lettered chapters at that time as well. At some point fairly early on we switched to the state-by-state system, and all the chapters that were still functioning got new names. I know for sure though, that the defunct chapters at the time of the name reorganization did NOT get new names. Thus there ARE some closed collegiate Pi Phi chapters that don't have state-by-state names. Some of them are at institutions that no longer function.

In this instance, according to irishpipes' thread, Pi Phi had a chapter at Baptist College, which is now Charleston Southern University.

You can look this up in the comprehensive history of Pi Phi that should be in every chapter's archives.

You can also see it on the Pi Phi website. I'm not giving anything away on this because when you set up an account you can see this list without having logged in... So when you set up an account and have to choose your chapter of initiation, the options on the drop-down menu include:

IA Clarinda
IC Psi
Phi of IC
Rho of IC
Zeta of IC

I'm assuming that the IA Clarinda is in Iowa. It's a state-by-state name, but a non-standard one. We used to have a ton of chapters in Iowa that no longer exist, you can see those on the drop-down list. Oddly, there are two groupings, one under "Iowa" and one under "IA."

Interesting stuff.

Thanks for the welcome.

I saw that post, but I don't think it is accurate. I don't recall a chapter of that naming convention in the history in SC, and Charleston would have been far from where Pi Phi was colonizing at that time. That was right after the Civil War, and I doubt Southern women would have been very receptive to a bunch of Northern girls coming in to start a group. Most of the oldest of the Southern chapters started in the 1920s and 1930s, in my recollection.
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