Why was your org founded?

[DUKyleXY]

A Premise of Fairness
In the fall of 1834, there arose on the Williams College campus a matter of great concern to the faculty - and to many students as well. The focus of their debate fell on the two secret fraternities on campus; not on their presence, but on their activities. These two societies had conspired to make use of an advantage. Their members, like all men at Williams, wanted to fare admirably in the race for campus honors. However, by use of their secrecy, they had strayed from their earlier, legitimate mission as debating and literary societies, and had become political machines. Their goal was to place their members into high campus offices, whether qualified or not. They had done this effectively.
Faculty members frowned on this trend. It raised previously unheard-of distinctions, jealousies, and animosity where none was needed. They questioned whether the emphasis on campus politics was contrary to the fundamental purposes of the college itself. Does this sound familiar? It may be that some faculty on your campus ask whether the activities of fraternities add to or detract from your college or university. Some students felt the same way. Their sense of justice was offended; they disliked the practice of conferring honors without merit. They longed for an even playing field. They were convinced that the spoils of victory should go to men on merit, men who truly earned their rewards, and not to unqualified men who used political clout to deliver them the prize.
DU's First Meeting
So it was that 20 men from the sophomore and junior classes met to forge a plan of action. They quickly found ten of the best men from the freshman class, and called a meeting for the evening of November 4. Though we would love to know exactly what happened that evening, we cannot; a fire destroyed all the Williams records seven years later. But we know that these 30 men gathered in the Freshman Recitation Room of Old West College, a building that stands today.
They chose a name: The Social Fraternity. "Social" didn't mean entertainment events, as many fraternity men mistakenly believe today. Instead, it was much broader. It meant an interest in life's interactions among people, and how society would better itself through group action.
The secret societies ridiculed the new group, but they knew full well that the Social Fraternity would thrive. And did it ever! Because its aims matched those of the college, the Social Fraternity soon had more than half the men on campus in its ranks - and soon, the first DUs dominated the lists of campus honors. This good idea of a spirited brotherhood based on merit spread rapidly. Within four years, men of similar beliefs set up another group, at Union College in Schenectady. Our Middlebury Chapter was born in 1845; Hamilton, in 1847. More followed: Amherst, Western Reserve, Wesleyan, Vermont, Rochester and Colby. These early groups thrived, powered by their zeal in battling the abuses of secret societies. These seven chapters at the 1852 Convention of the Anti-Secret Confederation came to be known as the "Seven Stars" of the anti-secrecy fight. Thus, they are commemorated in our Coat of Arms, in the Seven Stars you see below the open helmet, for non-secrecy and friendship, and above the balanced scales, for Justice.
An early meeting of four chapters brought these anti-secret groups into an organized fraternity. It was in Troy, N.Y., in November 1847. Williams, Union, Amherst and Hamilton met in Convention, and formally established the Anti-Secret Confederation (ASC). Its Constitution paralleled that of Williams, and the Convention first adopted a member key, bearing the Greek words Ouden Adelon, "Nothing Secret." The Fraternity's colors were set as "old gold on a field of sky-blue."
While other early fraternities fiddled with secret grips and recognition signs, DU was promoting friendship and developing character. While the secret fraternities wasted energy guarding their precious secrets from others, DU fought to advance justice and spread liberal, learned culture. DU had no need for mystic principles shrouded in secret ritual. Our aims were open, honest and direct.

[ealymc]

INTRODUCTION

Sigma Nu's past is a proud and colorful one. Founded by three cadets at the Virginia Military Institute in a period of civil strife known as the Reconstruction, Sigma Nu represented a radical departure from the times. The system of physical abuse and hazing of underclassmen at VMI led to James Frank Hopkins, Greenfield Quarles, and James McIlvaine Riley to form the "Legion of Honor" which soon became Sigma Nu Fraternity. So, amidst a backdrop of turmoil, North America's first "Honor" fraternity was established.

THE FOUNDERS

The story of Sigma Nu began during the period following the Civil War, when a Confederate veteran from Arkansas enrolled at the Virginia Military Institute in Lexington Virginia. That cadet was James Frank Hopkins, and it is to him and two of his classmates that Sigma Nu owes its existence. When Hopkins enrolled at VMI, the south was in a state of turmoil and just beginning to recover from the devastating military defeat it had suffered. The Virginia Military Institute was highly recognized for its civil engineering program and the South badly needed to repair its bridges and railroads. At the Institute cadets suffered, not only of the ravages of war and a disrupted homelife, but because of the system of physical harassment imposed on lower classmen by their fellow students in the upper classes.
Hopkins had experienced military subservience during the war, and was willing to tolerate a reasonable amount of constraint intended to induce discipline. However, Hopkins was unwilling to accept any amount of hazing then being allowed at VMI. Not one ounce of hazing was he willing to suffer and he was doggedly adamant about eliminating it.
Hopkins soon was joined by two classmates and close friends who were also equally unhappy with the hazing situation. They were Greenfield Quarles, from Arkansas, a Kentuckian by birth, and James McIlvaine Riley from St. Louis, Missouri. These three men began a movement to completely abolish the hazing system at VMI. Their efforts climaxed on a moonlit October night in 1868, presumably following Bible study at the superintendent's home, when the three met at a limestone outcropping on the edge of the VMI parade ground. Hopkins, Quarles and Riley clasped hands on the Bible and gave their solemn pledge to form a brotherhood of a new society they called the Legion of Honor.
The vows taken by these three Founders bound them together to oppose hazing at VMI and encouraged the application of the Principle of Honor in all their relationships. That the founders should adopt Honor as a guiding principle was a natural move since a rigid code of Honor was already an established traditon of the VMI Corps of Cadets. The Honor system at VMI required each cadet to conform to the duty imposed by his conscience that each act be governed by a high sense of Honor.

SIGMA NU ANNOUNCED

Although Sigma Nu Fraternity began in October 1868 as the Legion of Honor, its existence was kept secret until the founders publicly announced their new society on the first day of January 1869, the accepted birthdate of Sigma Nu. What a New Year's celebration it must have been for cadets who could not go home for the holidays! In those days the Institute did not close for "breaks" as we know them. It suspended classes only for the day on such occasions as Christmas and New Year's.
The Fraternity's spiritual birth, however, actually occured in 1866, the year the Founders entered VMI, when Frank Hopkins first rebelled against hazing at the Institute. Still, the Founders did not create Sigma Nu with any feeling of animosity toward others; rather they were prompted by the impulses of sympathy and affecton for all people which underlie abiding peace and contentment. They had experienced enough hate and destruction all during and after the War. They wanted to end all abuses, and they knew it would not come easily. It was never an issue of who won or lost the War. It was only an issue of winning the peace.
The Legion of Honor society in its first year assumed the outward aspects of a college Greek-letter organization. The organizaton kept its original name secret but was recognized publicly as Sigma Nu Fraternity. It was soon to win the respect of all.
The new Fraternity needed an identifying symbol, and Founder Hopkins designed a Badge for the members to wear on their uniforms. That Badge was patterned after the White Cross of the French Legion of Honor, which was worn on the uniform of a favorite professor of Hopkins. The Badge was first introduced in the spring of 1869. Keeping with the Founders' decree, the Badge has remained unchanged ever since, except in size and the raised center. Even today, the collegiate Commander's Badge, and the Badge of the Grand Officers remain identical to Hopkins' original Badge. When the first slate of Officers was chosen, Riley, the most popular, was elected Commander and Hopkins the Lieutenant Commander. Typically, Hopkins, the epitome of humbleness, was delighted that "Mac" Riley was chosen leader. It gave Hopkins "the doer," thinker, planner, along with Quarles who had similar talent, more of an opportunity to concentrate on solidifying ol' Alpha before he graduated in 1870. By the 1869 commencement, the group had grown to fifty-one members.

[WSULion]

Alpha Delta Pi has a rich history. The following was adapted from www.alphadletapi.org



Founded on May 15, 1851, Alpha Delta Pi is the oldest secret society for college women in the world. Established at Wesleyan College in Macon, Georgia, the first college chartered to grant degrees to women in the world, the story of Alpha Delta Pi is a remarkable one. And, it all began as a young girl's dream.

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Eugenia Tucker was just 16 years old when she left her family home in Laurens County, Georgia, to enter Wesleyan College. Before the end of her first year she would establish the first sorority in the world. Later, she would reflect on her young reasons…


This was a new world…she finds that many of her classmates think more of mischievous enjoyment than their lessons. and so, by and by, a sober thought enters her brain—“Could she influence her friends to join her in forming an association for improvement?” Eugenia wrote.


Eugenia approached her “dearest and most admired friends” with her dream.

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Eugenia and her friends picked May 15 as the day they would reveal their new society and wore blue and white ribbons in honor of the occasion.



"This society shall be called Adelphean, and shall have for its object, the mental, moral, social and domestic improvement of its members.” – Article I of Original Adelphean Society Constitution





The first college chartered to grant degrees to women in the world, Wesleyan College, was originally chartered by the Georgia Legislature in 1836 as the Georgia Female College.

Finest.

Eugenia and the other founders established Alpha Delta Pi on the Finest Principles. In addition to stipulating the “mental, moral, social and domestic improvement of its members” in the first constitution, they also made provisions for disciplinary action to ensure that future members would adhere to the same high standards.

Article Fourteen of the Original Constitution States, “in case of alleged violation of the above obligation…, it shall be the duty of the president to appoint a committee of three to inquire into the facts.” This procedure that so closely resembles today's standards process, more than 150 years later, is just one more example of how wise our young founders were.

In addition to the timeless constitution, the founders selected the Native Woodland Violet as the official flower. They chose colors—azure blue for friendship and white for sincerity and truth. They embraced the motto Eugenia had selected, “we live for each other,” and they selected the clasped hands as a symbol of friendship.

The objects, like the open symbols, and the ritual, known only to the initiated sisters of Alpha Delta Pi, remain unchanged today. they are ours--gifts from the young founders.

[KDAngel]

This part in italics really sets the feel for how KD came to be (all taken from the KD national site):

"A chilly rain splattered against the windowpanes of the little dormitory room on Professional Hall, the dormitory floor where most of the seniors lived. Saturday meant no classes, and the dreary weather that hung over Farmville was a perfect excuse for the four friends to tuck themselves away in that cozy spot and talk for hours... It was that afternoon that Kappa Delta was born - October 23, 1897 - at the State Female Normal School in Farmville, Virginia."

Kappa Delta's founders were four very different women. They ranged in age from 15 to 23, yet brought a singular sense of purpose to this particular endeavor. Their dream was to create something more lasting than a club -- a sorority! It was to be an entity that would grow beyond their own chapter at State Female Normal School.

Kappa Delta's Four Founders...

Lenora Ashmore Blackiston was unconventional. She was a dreamer and an idealist filled with enthusiasm for new ideas. Nicknamed "Nora," she was a writer and a poet, able to put her thoughts into action. She was the one who first suggested the idea of forming a sorority, but was unable to put her lasting personal marks on Kappa Delta's beginnings because, after Christmas holiday, she transferred to Randolph-Macon Women's College.

Quiet and extremely intelligent, Julia Gardiner Tyler Wilson came from a distinguished and respected family; her grandfather was John Tyler, former U.S. president, and her father was the president of the College of William and Mary. She was characterized as capable, dependable and possessing considerable artistic talent. She illustrated most of the school's first yearbook and designed the Kappa Delta badge. After helping to found the sorority, Julia spent another year at State Female Normal before transferring to Dana Hall, a preparatory school for Wellesley College where she earned her AB degree in 1904. She joined her founding sister Sara at Kappa Delta's 50th anniversary celebration at the 1947 convention.

Daughter of a Virginia senator, Sara Turner White was gracious and friendly, but known as being a bit more straight-laced than most students. She enjoyed her friends and social activities more than she did her studies. Sara did not return to college after that first year, but remained steadfastly involved with Kappa Delta throughout her long life.

Mary Sommerville Sparks Hendrick was much loved and respected by all students at State Female Normal School. She was known for her fine character and gentle understanding. Mary had concern for others, perhaps because, at 25, she was more mature than the younger students. She was a Bible class leader. Mary stayed on and helped the fledging sorority through its early years.