Information on Sigma Iota Chi sorority

[oldu]

Xidelt has a pin for the sorority Sigma Iota Chi and an old progam from a banquet and asked me to research the group.

Sigma Iota Chi was founded in 1903 at St. James Xarvis Academy in Alexandria, Lousiana. This institution was one of the many female academies that were somewhat a cross between a high school and a junior college. A member of the faculty (and a Kappa Sigma) provided much of its framework and ritual.

It expanded into additional similar institutions. However, as the junior college system developed, those chapters at the academies were dropped. In 1914 a National College Panhellenic Council was formed for similar organizations and ultimately there were more than a half dozen members. There is little information in Baird's Manual to indicate when these organizations died out. They just cease to be listed by World War II.

Often, when an institution expanded to a four year curriculum, the chapters left and petitioned N. P. C. sororities for membership. At least five Sigma Iota Chi chapters did so:

Delta Phi of Alpha Xi Delta, University of Charleston in 1965
Epsilon Lamba of Alpha Xi Delta, Rider University in 1967
Gamma Psi of Sigma Kappa, Tennessee Wesleyan College in 1961
Gamma Tau of Sigma Sigma Sigma, West Virginia Tech in 1968
Delta Psi of Zeta Tau Alpha, Samford University in 1964 (by absorbing Beta Sigma Omicron Sorority)