Why was your org founded?

[PeppyGPhiB]

In a society where women were discouraged from entering college due to their "insufficient brainpower" and "delicate health," four women from Syracuse University came together to form a society they named Gamma Phi Beta. Now, over 130 years later, we celebrate the vision and dedication of those women and all that have come since then, who have built Gamma Phi Beta into one of the largest and most well-respected sororities in the world.

In the late 1800s, the few women that were admitted to colleges and universities in the United States were admitted reluctantly and negatively, facing harsh opposition from their conservative friends, family and faculty. The few "appropriate" and "genteel" careers open to women included dressmaking, teaching music and china painting, and instructing elementary classes - all with low pay. It took a truly ambitious woman to succeed.

In this controversy, Dr. E. O. Haven, Syracuse University chancellor and former president of the University of Michigan, and Northwestern University, maintained that women should receive the advantages of higher education. He enrolled his daughter, Frances, at Syracuse, which in 1874 had approximately 200 students and 10 faculty members.

Frances asked three friends to assist her in organizing a society. Helen M. Dodge, Frances E. Haven, E. Adeline Curtis and Mary A. Bingham were courageous women that could see beyond the limits of their time. They recognized the opportunity a women's society presented, and aimed to establish one that would promote literary culture and social improvement among its members.

They sought the advice and help of Dr., Haven, their brothers, the faculty and members of two existing fraternities. On November 11, 1874 , the four founders met in Dr. J. J. Brown's study for the first official meeting of Gamma Phi Beta. As The University Herald, Syracuse University's newspaper, reported the following spring, "A new ladies' society made its appearance at the close of last term, and is to be known as Gamma Phi Beta . . . The ladies have started on the right principle, are select in the choice of members, and we see no reason why a prosperous future is not in store for Gamma Phi Beta."

The minutes of their first meeting on November 11, 1874 state: "Miss Dodge was appointed to draft a Constitution." Frances Haven and Helen Dodge agreed to ask Dr. Haven for a suitable name and motto. The Founders met again on November 16 for further decisions as recorded in the minutes: "The merits of the six mottoes suggested by Chancellor Haven were discussed, and the motto of Gamma Phi Beta unanimously accepted."

They agreed on a badge design for which they had sought the help of Charles M. Cobb and Charles M. Moss, Frances' future husband. Mary A. Bingham (affectionately known as Minnie) envisioned the crescent shape; Helen M. Dodge wanted the Hebrew letters. Frances E. Haven's beau, Charles Moss, took Minnie's crescent vision and combined it with his personal admiration of the Alpha Lambda Phi fraternity badge. When he couldn't come up with a suitable design, he sought help from a local Syracuse jeweler who ultimately sent the material to Tiffany's in New York City. Tiffany's sent back several designs, one which was adopted. The jeweler delivered the first badges on December 16, 1874, just one month after the sorority's founding.

The years that followed were full of growth. The society drafted a constitution, decided on rituals and expanded membership. The women took intellectual advancement seriously, taking time at every meeting to discuss current world issues and share new ideas. In those days, new members were initiated for the high price of $2.50, and tardy members were fined a nickel.

Eight years after their first meeting, two members of the Alpha chapter went to the University of Michigan to charter the Beta chapter. Upon their return to Syracuse , Professor Frank Smalley commented, "I presume that you young women are now members of a sorority."

Thus, Gamma Phi Beta became the first women's fraternity to be called a sorority. Gamma Phi Beta now has an international membership of over 130,000 members, with 119 collegiate chapters and over 200 alumnae groups worldwide.

[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.

[SydneyK]

Originally Posted by PeppyGPhiB

The Founders met again on November 16 for further decisions as recorded in the minutes: "The merits of the six mottoes suggested by Chancellor Haven were discussed, and the motto of Gamma Phi Beta unanimously accepted."

...Tiffany's sent back several designs, one which was adopted.

Your whole post is interesting, Peppy, thanks for sharing! I'm especially interested in the quoted part.

Out of curiosity, are the five rejected mottoes and the unselected badge designs from Tiffany's known to Gamma Phis? If that's secret, of course, I understand. But when I read that I thought, if I were a GPhiB, I'd really like to know what other mottoes were considered, as well as badge designs!

[ThetaDancer]

From www.kappaalphatheta.org:

Indiana Asbury officially opened its doors to women in 1867, but not without great uproar from the male students. The first women students at Indiana Asbury were looking for ways to make friends and find support and encouragement for their academic pursuits. They were reviled by their teachers, taunted by their classmates, and ignored by their girlhood friends who did the "right" thing and attended conservatories for girls. It took these brave pioneers three years to found Kappa Alpha Theta, the first Greek-letter Fraternity for women.

To be sure, there were societies for women before 1867, and some of these had secret rituals with badges, passwords, mottoes, and other symbols. But in 1870, Theta became the first women's Greek-letter fraternity because its primary founder, Bettie Locke, wanted full membership in a male fraternity. When the men asked her to wear their fraternity badge as a "mascot," she responded, "If you won't initiate me into your fraternity, I'll start my own." Thus, Kappa Alpha Theta was established on January 27, 1870. In 2005, Kappa Alpha Theta celebrated its 135th anniversary.

[PeppyGPhiB]

Originally Posted by SydneyK

Your whole post is interesting, Peppy, thanks for sharing! I'm especially interested in the quoted part.

Out of curiosity, are the five rejected mottoes and the unselected badge designs from Tiffany's known to Gamma Phis? If that's secret, of course, I understand. But when I read that I thought, if I were a GPhiB, I'd really like to know what other mottoes were considered, as well as badge designs!

I don't recall ever hearing them, but I wonder if it's something that would be on display at IH (the Tiffany designs, anyway)? Any Gamma Phis who've been to IH know?

[DSTRen13]

From www.deltasigmatheta.org:

Delta Sigma Theta Sorority was founded on January 13, 1913 by twenty-two collegiate women at Howard University. These students wanted to use their collective strength to promote academic excellence and to provide assistance to persons in need. The first public act performed by the Delta Founders involved their participation in the Women's Suffrage March in Washington D.C., March 1913. Delta Sigma Theta was incorporated in 1930.

From www.omegaphialpha.org:

In 1953, a group of men in Zeta Kappa chapter, Alpha Phi Omega, a National Service Fraternity, decided they were in need of another organization to help them with service projects on campus and in the city of Bowling Green, Ohio. These men met with the deans of the various departments of the University to decide whether or not another service fraternity would be advisable for Bowling Green State University. Then, an inquiry was made to see if any interest existed on campus. Many women attended this inquiry. Realizing the need for more varied projects, plans were made to reorganize a women's service sorority.

Since the objectives of the two organizations were to be the same - Friendship, Leadership, and Service - a similar name was chosen: Omega Phi Alpha. Membership was open to University women who had been Girl Scouts or Camp Fire Girls (This ruling changes in 1958).

At first, many people were interested in the sorority and what it was doing. In 1958, Eastern Michigan University in Ypsilanti wrote to Bowling Green State University and obtained information on how to form their own Omega Phi Alpha Chapter. The material was sent to Michigan, and the group held their first meeting on April 22, 1958. The women of Eastern Michigan's new OPhiA chapter conducted several service and fundraising activities. They took their first pledge class the following fall. Communication began between the two groups about the possibility of becoming a national organization, but the formation of a national sorority did not materialize. [...] ... a national organizing convention was scheduled to be held in Bowling Green in June, 1967. At the convention, the three groups discussed ideas and compromises that led to the formations of Omega Phi Alpha National Service Sorority. [...] The consolidation of the three groups was finalized on June 15, 1967, and the dream of many years became a reality.

[Wolfman]

http://www.oppf.org/about.asp

Omega Psi Phi, the first national fraternity founded at an HBCU, was born of the idealism and persistance of its four founders:three stellar undergraduates and the faculty advisor they chose to shepherd them in their quest to form a brotherhood which would inspire student leaders bound by bonds of "religion, culture and tradition." The three three Juniors of the class of 1913 at Howard University in Washington D.C., Edgar A. Love (an honor student, member of the varsity debating team, football team, and president of the KA Debating Society who later became a bishop of the United Methodist Church), Oscar J. Cooper (a lab assistant to Assoc. professor Ernest E. Just who served as a noted physician in Philadephia for 50 years) and Frank Coleman (an honor student in physics who graduated with highest honors and later served as professor and chair of Howard's Dept. of Physics for many years), were known on Howard's campus as the "Three Musketeers" because of their inseparable friendship. Bishop Love once stated that the first time he met Prof. Coleman they became friends and he nominated him for president of the freshman class.

They wanted to form an inclusive brotherhood based on the intrinsic characterists of the man as brother and scholar, and not on class,caste or any other extrinsic human category, which they saw in the other social fraternity on campus at the time, Alpha Phi Alpha. In an interview in the early '70s before he died, Bishop Love recounts that then President Wilbur Thirkield of Howard asked the three founders in his office why didn't they want to join to join the fraternity already on campus, he stated that it was a social club, not a fraternity.

In order to realize their dreams, they knew they needed guidance. They chose then Assoc. Professor Ernest E. Just, a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Dartmouth who the only person to graduate Magna Cum Laude from his class at Dartmouth and who excelled in the Classics(Greek), English and Biology. He once spent a large portion of one of his terms working on a concordance for the work of Demosthenes, only only to be crushed to discover that a German scholar had already accomplished this task. He would become the first recipient of the Spingarn Medal of the NAACP, widely considered to be the highest award an African American can be bestowed, for his research in biology. Dr. Just encourgaged the develpment of student life at Howard, encouraging the development of theatre on campus, and he mentored students and played tennis with them, etc. He was was centrally responsible for helping develop the ritualistic and constititional foundations of the Fraternity. Dr. Just was a seminal thinker in embryology and he was lauded by European scholars.

With this foundation, Omega Psi Phi has flourshed for almost a century.

[Senusret I]

Originally Posted by Wolfman

They wanted to form an inclusive brotherhood based on the intrinsic characterists of the man as brother and scholar, and not on class,caste or any other extrinsic human category, which they saw in the other social fraternity on campus at the time, Alpha Phi Alpha. In an interview in the early '70s before he died, Bishop Love recounts that then President Wilbur Thirkield of Howard asked the three founders in his office why didn't they want to join to join the fraternity already on campus, he stated that it was a social club, not a fraternity.

You're welcome, Bishop Love.

[AlwaysSAI]

I just knew you were going to quote that paragraph and say something!

[Senusret I]

Originally Posted by AlwaysSAI

I just knew you were going to quote that paragraph and say something!

LOL..... I mean, it's just really interesting to me.

Alpha Phi Alpha sent a letter of congratulations to Omega Psi Phi when they were founded. My history book does not quote my founders as saying anything negative about any other organization.

If the Omega founders didn't find what they were looking for, so be it. But don't say there was no brotherhood. If there wasn't, we certainly wouldn't have lasted for a century.

[Wolfman]

Originally Posted by Senusret I

LOL..... I mean, it's just really interesting to me.

Alpha Phi Alpha sent a letter of congratulations to Omega Psi Phi when they were founded. My history book does not quote my founders as saying anything negative about any other organization.

If the Omega founders didn't find what they were looking for, so be it. But don't say there was no brotherhood. If there wasn't, we certainly wouldn't have lasted for a century.

I'm relating what he said.This goes directly to the issue being raised in this thread. This is history. He said something in a speech I read ,not mentioning APhiA by name,which was a bit stronger. From what I've heard--from people I've known who met him and from his testimony--he was a good and gracious man who loved God and humanity, esp. young people, a scholar and a gentleman; but he also didn't mince his words. He was one who spoke his mind about what he believed, not out of pettiness or jealousy but out of his idealist convictions of what was right and wrong in his mind, whether it was taking to task those in one of his congregations for being misguided and falsely sanctimonious when the church elders got on him for putting a pool table in his church for the young people to keep them out of the streets or playing badminton with them on Sundays and the injurious nature of Fraternity politics to his views on communism and African American self-help philosophy.He verbally "wrecked."

[Senusret I]

Ok.