Quote:
Originally Posted by nyapbp
When I went through rush (as it was known in those days) at Syracuse, I remember being told that Gamma Phi's founders didn't particularly care for the founders of another society on the campus. I thought that a bit odd to say, but as I later learned, it was the truth.
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That's not exactly the way it's presented in my history book, or how I've ever heard the relationship between the two groups described.
"Frances, Dr. Haven's oldest daughter, had attended Northwestern while her father was president, and had completed enough work to enable her to enroll at Syracuse as a sophomore. She was then twenty years old, an attractive girl who made friends at once. Two years previously, 10 of the 15 women students to enter Syracuse with the first class had formed a secret society which they called Alpha Phi. By 1874 they numbered 21 and invited Frances to join them. In her own words, "They were the friendliest people I had ever met but after due deliberation, I declined." She goes on to say in an article she wrote in The Crescent, October 1912, "Soon after I discovered that there were other girls in just the same position. We drifted together, and finding each other congenial, the question was broached- "Why shall we not found a society of our own?'" - The Gift from Syracuse
138 years later, Gamma Phi and Alpha Phi have a shared history and plenty to be proud of as Panhellenic pioneers and sisters! Neither would probably be the great organizations they are today without the friendly rivalry that challenged them both in their earliest years
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