Quote:
Originally Posted by WhiteRose1912
Pi Beta Phi- I love the focus on literacy and the colors. I really love your badge. I was flipping through a Michigan yearbook from 1912, and it was pretty cool to see that there was a chapter of I.C. Sorosis on campus back when we were Omega Upsilon. I love your crest!
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Pi Beta Phi was founded as I.C. Sorosis, but Pi Beta Phi was the secret motto. When chapters insisted that Greek letter were needed, there was never any discussion as to what the Greek letters would be. There were there from the beginning. I.C. Sorosis and Pi Beta Phi are one and the same. Some chapters started using the Greek letters before the official change in 1888. The first issue of the Arrow, published in 1885, three years before the official change, stated "The official organ of Pi Beta Phi". What you may have seen in the 1912 yearbook was the crest which has both the Greek letters and I.C. on it. I am absolutely positive that all collegiate chapters were Pi Beta Phi by the end of the 1880s.
(Head slap!) What I think you saw in the Michigan yearbook was a page for Collegiate Sorosis, a local organization that had its beginnings as a Kappa Alpha Theta chapter and was loosely connected to the Sorosis Club in NYC (That thought did not come to me until I had almost finished typing this, so I will leave the history lesson in this post. Free of charge :-) (I have a post about Collegiate Sorosis on my blog, in case anyone wants to know more.)
Or as Emily Litella used to say "never mind." (extra points if you catch this obscure reference to 1970s SNL)