Alpha Delta Theta / Phi Mu

[TSteven]

Kind of long, so please bare with me.

I recently was looking at a family member's 1931 University of Kentucky Kentuckian yearbook. In the Greeks section it listed the Beta chapter (installed at UK in 1919) of Alpha Delta Theta national sorority. Also the Alpha Gamma chapter (installed at UK in 1926) of Beta Sigma Omicron national sorority.

I did some Internet research and found out that Alpha Delta Theta was founded at Transylvania University (Lexington, Kentucky) in 1919 and that Beta Sigma Omicron was founded at the University of Missouri (Columbia, Missouri) in 1888.

Further research found that Alpha Delta Theta affiliated with Phi Mu in 1939-1940 and that Beta Sigma Omicron affiliated with Zeta Tau Alpha in 1963-1964.

I wasn't able to find anything else on the net about Beta Sigma Omicron - and I don't have a Baird's - and only the following about Alpha Delta Theta.

From NPC’s Centennial History Highlights written by Liz Rinck, editor, The Kappa Alpha Theta Magazine.

"In 1939, Alpha Delta Theta presided over the twenty-sixth congress. At the close of the meeting, Alpha Delta Theta merged with Phi Mu. The national officers of both organizations embarked on a trip to Alpha Delta Theta’s Alpha Chapter at Transylvania University to install it as a Phi Mu chapter; visits to other Alpha Delta Theta chapters followed. Hazel Falconer Benninghoven, Alpha Delta Theta president at the time of the merger, later served as Phi Mu’s national president. She is perhaps the only person to serve two NPC groups as national president."

Currently, there isn't a Phi Mu chapter at UK, nor do I think there ever was one. So I'm guessing that the Alpha Delta Theta chapter at UK was not in existence when Alpha Delta Theta affiliated with Phi Mu. Or perhaps the UK chapter decided not to affiliate. (See below for follow-up question.) And since there was already a chapter of Zeta Tau Alpha at UK, I'm guessing that if the Beta Sigma Omicron chapter was still in existence, it would have merged with the Zeta Tau Alpha chapter.

First question. Does anyone with access to a Baird's know when the Alpha Delta Theta chapter (Beta) at UK closed? And or if they (Beta at UK) ever affiliated with Phi Mu?

Now, some follow up hypothetical and/or historical questions regarding mergers or affiliations.

1. Would it be possible for an individual chapter(s) of a national or regional GLO vote to not affiliate? I guess in theory become a "local"? And if so, would they be allowed to retain their letters, symbols, even ritual, or would they have to relinquishing all to the "new" group. Whom I guess in theory might now "own" the rights to such.

2. Do alumni of an affiliated GLO "automatically" (after meeting any of the "new" GLO's requirements) become alumni of the "new" GLO? And as such, would their children be considered legacies of the "new" GLO?

[sageofages]

Originally posted by TSteven
Kind of long, so please bare with me.

I recently was looking at a family member's 1931 University of Kentucky Kentuckian yearbook. In the Greeks section it listed the Beta chapter (installed at UK in 1919) of Alpha Delta Theta national sorority. Also the Alpha Gamma chapter (installed at UK in 1926) of Beta Sigma Omicron national sorority.

I did some Internet research and found out that Alpha Delta Theta was founded at Transylvania University (Lexington, Kentucky) in 1919 and that Beta Sigma Omicron was founded at the University of Missouri (Columbia, Missouri) in 1888.

Further research found that Alpha Delta Theta affiliated with Phi Mu in 1939-1940 and that Beta Sigma Omicron affiliated with Zeta Tau Alpha in 1963-1964.

I wasn't able to find anything else on the net about Beta Sigma Omicron - and I don't have a Baird's - and only the following about Alpha Delta Theta.

From NPC’s Centennial History Highlights written by Liz Rinck, editor, The Kappa Alpha Theta Magazine.

"In 1939, Alpha Delta Theta presided over the twenty-sixth congress. At the close of the meeting, Alpha Delta Theta merged with Phi Mu. The national officers of both organizations embarked on a trip to Alpha Delta Theta’s Alpha Chapter at Transylvania University to install it as a Phi Mu chapter; visits to other Alpha Delta Theta chapters followed. Hazel Falconer Benninghoven, Alpha Delta Theta president at the time of the merger, later served as Phi Mu’s national president. She is perhaps the only person to serve two NPC groups as national president."

Currently, there isn't a Phi Mu chapter at UK, nor do I think there ever was one. So I'm guessing that the Alpha Delta Theta chapter at UK was not in existence when Alpha Delta Theta affiliated with Phi Mu. Or perhaps the UK chapter decided not to affiliate. (See below for follow-up question.) And since there was already a chapter of Zeta Tau Alpha at UK, I'm guessing that if the Beta Sigma Omicron chapter was still in existence, it would have merged with the Zeta Tau Alpha chapter.

First question. Does anyone with access to a Baird's know when the Alpha Delta Theta chapter (Beta) at UK closed? And or if they (Beta at UK) ever affiliated with Phi Mu?

Now, some follow up hypothetical and/or historical questions regarding mergers or affiliations.

1. Would it be possible for an individual chapter(s) of a national or regional GLO vote to not affiliate? I guess in theory become a "local"? And if so, would they be allowed to retain their letters, symbols, even ritual, or would they have to relinquishing all to the "new" group. Whom I guess in theory might now "own" the rights to such.

2. Do alumni of an affiliated GLO "automatically" (after meeting any of the "new" GLO's requirements) become alumni of the "new" GLO? And as such, would their children be considered legacies of the "new" GLO?

There is a big section about the "merger" (more like a wholesale joining) of ADTheta with Phi Mu in our history. I will dig it out of storage and check for you. IMHO the only true merger in the GLO world is what brought the Phi Kappa Theta fraternity into existance. Theta Kappa Phi and Phi Kappa merger and chose a new name from the two.

I think #1 is really a legalese question as it really involves the ownership of intellectual properties, trademark and copyright issues.

Any way to answer #2, in Phi Mu, the alumnae of the old GLO must be initiated. After they are initiated they enjoy all the warm fuzzies and privileges of Phi Mu membership and their legacies are considered as such.

[Senusret I]

I love learning about these types of things!

[TSteven]

Originally posted by sageofages
There is a big section about the "merger" (more like a wholesale joining) of ADTheta with Phi Mu in our history. I will dig it out of storage and check for you.

Thanks so much.

[Diamond Delta]

ADTheta was founded as a local group-Alpha Theta in 1919 at Transylvania College in Lexington KY. The group was formed in response to rapid female enollment and a lack of enough womens groups on campus. Originally they planned to prepare to affiliate with a national organization, but later decided to establish an independent national of their own. The first initation to be held under the newer name of ADTheta was held in 1922. The Beta Chapter was installed in 1922 at UK also. Alpha Delta Theta became a member of NPC in 1926. It was the first "associate member" of NPC. The badge was a yellow gold delta shaped pin with 15 pearls and an emerald in each corner. The delta superimposed upon a gold key placed horizontally.The center of the Delta was black enamel With the greek letters ADTR in each apex. It also had a lighted candle and crossed palm branches on it. Their colors were tourquoise blue, scarlet and silver. The flower was the French sweetpea. They merged with Phi Mu in 1939. ADTheta was the hostess of the NPC convention that year and at the end of the meeting, they wer absorbed. The alpha chapter was initaited soon after followed by all the others. So, from what I gather, Beta must have been absorbed in 1939 or very shortly thereafter. I imagine the Grand Officers spent a year just initating the new chapters.

Hope that helps!

[Diamond Delta]

also, there were 25 total chapters of ADTHeta, but I believe only 20 of them were abosrbed into Phi Mu b/c Delta -Illinois, Epsilon-Butler, Iota-California, Kappa-Ohio Weslyean, and Upsilon-Missouri disolved in 1933 or 1934.

[Diamond Delta]

[QUOTE]Originally posted by sageofages
[B]There is a big section about the "merger" (more like a wholesale joining) of ADTheta with Phi Mu in our history. I will dig it out of storage and check for you. IMHO the only true merger in the GLO world is what brought the Phi Kappa Theta fraternity into existance. Theta Kappa Phi and Phi Kappa merger and chose a new name from the two.

I agree with your merger ideas. It is only a true merger if the groups are of sort of equal size and the new organization retains a roughly equal number of elements/ rituals. Or if it is all done over from scratch. Otherwise, it is really just an absorbing.

[EtaPhiZTA]

This is an aspect of ZTA's history that I really find interesting. According to The History of Zeta Tau Alpha, Beta Sigma Omicron was "absorbed" into Zeta Tau Alpha and seven of its chapters became Links in the Zeta Chain. "In the end we have agreed to affiliate only certain of their chapters and have selected only those that will be advantageous to Zeta Tau Alpha." The seven chapters that were installed were: Millsaps College (Delta Phi chapter), William Jewel College (Delta Chi chapter), Howard College (Delta Psi chapter), Westmister College (Delta Omega chapter), Thiel College (Zeta Beta chapter), Evansville College (Zeta Alpha chapter), and Youngstown University (Zeta Gamma chapter).

I have repeatedly tried searching the internet for any information or history about Beta Sigma Omicron, but unfortunately I have not been able to find any.

[Diamond Delta]

I posted about this in another thread:

After reading my Baird's, my understanding is that yes, the alumni of the group that is absorbed will have the chance to be initiated into the one that is doing the "take over". Now, there have been cases when say a organization has 20 chapters, but a few of them do not want to be absorbed. So they break away and stay the same, while all the other chapters get absorbed. Usually the groups that do not get absorbed will die out or eventually get absorbed by someone else. So basically people use the word absorbe and merger interchangably when discussing these things, but there is acutally a bit of a difference. Absorbing is when a big groups totally (or almost totally) takes over a little group. Sometimes, the groups will decide to retain some element of the second group so that their history is not totally forgotten-like singing a special song at convention time or keeping a senior ceremony, or something at founders day.

Now a true merger would be when two equally sized (or close to it) groups decide to actually merge in order to become more stable/ bigger. For instance ABC has 20 chapters and XY has 20, if they merge, they now have 40. Normally what happens in that situaion is that they will retain the letters, etc. of one, but incorporate elements of the other. For instance, keep the letters, colors and ritual of one, but adopt the flower, and pledge cermeony of the other. This is actually a pretty good deal for groups if they are willing to do a bit of compromising. I often wonder if locals or regionals from all over the country did this, they'd have a huge organization!

Beta Sigma Omicron had 61 chapters and 15,000 initiates before it was merged with ZTA, 15 of which were active at the time of the "merger". So I would consider that more of a merger than an absorbing I guess. I dunno. However, the chapter at Fenn elected to go local instead, and the chapter at Queens decided to go local under the name Beta Sigma Delta, and at Hunter-they chose to stay Beta Sigma Omicron and function under that name but as a local sorority. So, only 12 joined ZTA.

[sairose]

So here's something I'd like to know. I know there have been several sororities that were absorbed by Phi Mu, Zeta, etc. So....what happened to all the rituals of the old ones? Do the sororities that absorbed them have them? I always wondered.

[exlurker]

EtaPhiZTA and DiamondDelta have shared excellent information about what happened to many of the chapters of Beta Sigma Omicron. I'd like to add that three BSO chapters were "pledged" by Alpha Phi, and the active members and some alumnae ofr those chapters were initiated in 1965. The three chapters (schools and Alpha Phi chapter designations are given) were:

LSU - Baton Rouge - Delta Tau

Baldwin-Wallace - Delta Upsilon

Indiana U. of Pennsylvania - Delta Phi

[FSUZeta]

has not changed since it was written, so i think that it is safe to say we absorbed the other group-at least those that chose to affiliate. we would have had considerably more than 15 chapters of zta at that time in history, so diamond delta's definition of merger would not have applied.

i believe that delta zeta absorbed another sorority sometime in their history. can any delta zeta's confirm this?

[aopirose]

Originally posted by FSUZeta
i believe that delta zeta absorbed another sorority sometime in their history. can any delta zeta's confirm this?

Beta Phi Alpha was founded at the University of California- Berkeley in May of 1909 and was the first college fraternity for women on the Pacific coast. Originally called "Bid-A-Wee," the girls club was sponsored by the university to meet a very difficult housing problem. Little did their Founders dream that one day their little club was to become the mother chapter of a national organization. In 1912 the name Bid-A-Wee was changed to "Aldebaran" after the star, and in 1919Aldebaran was oficially changed to Beta Phi Alpha. Following expansion, Beta Phi Alpha was admitted to the National Panhellenic Council (NPC) in 1923 as the nineteenth member and held the chairmanship of NPC from 1935 to 1937. The merger of Beta Phi Alpha with Delta Zeta in 1941 brought two National Convention traditions: the gavel which opens and closes every convention and the song Convention Lights. The gavel had been given to Beta Phi Alpha by one of its Founders, Elsa Ludeke, and made from the tusk of a walrus. It contains the names of both Delta Zet and Beta Phi Alpha Founders and National Presidents. At the 1941 Beta Phi Alpha National Convention, those present were initiated into Delta Zeta. It was a tearful conclusion when, at the final banquet, they sang Convention Lights for what they thought would be the last time. But it was only a beginning for the song has been sung, still tearfully, at the final banquet of every Delta Zeta convention since.

Phi Omega Pi, founded as the Achoth Sorority on March 5, 1910, at the University of Nebraska, began as an organization for girls who were affiliated with the chapters of the Order of the Eastern Star. The name Achoth was taken from Hebrew, signifying "sisters," and it is interesting to note that one of the girls invited to the founding meetings was Pearl Barton, a friend of the sponsors but a member of Delta Zeta and thus ineligible for membership. In 1932 it was decided to join the Greeks and the name was changed to Phi Omega Pi. In 1933, in order to be accepted into full membership in NPC, the Masonic affiliation requirement was dropped. Also in 1933, Sigma Phi Beta, founded at the University of New York on November 1, 1920 and originally named Sigma Sigma Omicron, merged with Phi Omega Pi. A second group, Phi Alpha Chi, founded at the University of California- Berkeley in 1919 and originally known as "The Tanewan," had already merged with Sigma Phi Beta. Thus, after 1933 Achoth, Tanewan, Phi Alpha Chi, and Sigma Beta Phi members were all sisters in Phi Omega Pi. On August 10, 1946, Phi Omega Pi was accepted into membership in Delta Zeta. This merger brought the Achoth Award to Delta Zeta honoring alumnae serving long and well on the local level.

An interesting note is that before negotiations with DZ, Phi Omega Pi (POP as they called themselves) approached AOII. AOII declined to accept the entire group. We did accept the Auburn chapter and that is how our Delta Delta Chapter came into being on August 10, 1946. I also have a 1932 POP song book.


Delta Sigma Epsilon was organized on September 23, 1914 at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. Because their Founders represented high scholarship and splendid ideals, they were selected by Dean Minnich of the College of Education to organize a new sorority. In 1917, the sorority's fifth chapter was installed and Delta Sigma Epsilon was admitted into the National Panhellenic for Education Sororities, then called the Association of Pedagogical Sororities. From that date, Delta Sigma Epsilon played a leading role in determining and perfecting the policies of that national association which was later renamed the Association of Education Sororities. Delta Sigma Epsilon became a member of NPC in 1947 and on August 22, 1956, merged with Delta Zeta. With this union, two awards were added to those already given at Convention: the Genevieve Schmitt Memorial plaque, which is awarded to the collegiate chapter with the highest scholastic rating between Conventions; and the See Loving Cup, originally the Loving Cup honoring Adelaide See, who served as Delta Sigma Epsilon National President from 1918 to 1920, and given to the chapter having the highest "efficiency" between conclaves. Since Delta Zeta already had both the council and Founders Awards, which were given to achieving chapters, a new criteria was established. The See Loving Cup is now given to the chapter which has shown unusual improvementin any or all areas since the last Convention.

Theta Upsilon traces its beginning back to 1909 when their Founders joined forces at the University of California, making scholarship and friendship thier aim. In 1913-14, the group decided to organize under the university and chose the Indian name, Mekatina, meaning "Among the Hills," and January 1, 1914 was the formal date of their founding. With the growth in numbers and campus standing came the desire to become a national Greek letter fraternity. On February 7, 1921, Mekatina girls were pledged to Theta Upsilon, a national fraternity for women whose plan was already outlined and whose ritual had been perfected by Ida Shaw Martin of the Sorority Service Bureau. On April 24, 1921, Mekatina became the Alpha chapter of Theta Upsilon and birth was given at a university whose motto is the same as the open motto of Theta Upsilon: "Let There Be Light." In 1932 Alpha Sigma Delta, founded as the Iaqua Club in 1919 at the University of California, merged with Lambda Omega, an associate member of NPC. Lambda Omega had been founded at the University of California in 1923, and its origin went back to the Norroena Club founded at Berkeley in 1915. Norroena, meaning "Breath of the North," developed its ritual around an Indian legend and had a Norse Motif emphasizing the hardihood, hospitality, economy, and friendship of the Norse people. In September of 1933, Lambda Omega merged with Theta Upsilon. On May 6, 1962, Theta Upsilon was accepted into membership in Delta Zeta Sorority.

[exlurker]

Regarding the Beta Phi Alpha - Delta Zeta merger -- it's my understanding from reading an Alpha Chi Omega history that one former Beta Phi Alpha chapter became a chapter of Alpha Chi Omega -- the chapter at Miami U. (Ohio).

[Diamond Delta]

Beta Phi Alpha is not in my Bairds. Hmmmmmm....