Alpha Beta Chi?!

[pas]

I have been doing some research but I am stumped.

My grandmother went to the University at St. John's in NYC. She was a sister of Alpha Beta Chi in the 1960s. She said their colors were gold and blue and that they were known as a business sorority.

She showed me her pledge book. It had a simple golden shield crest with the letters "ABX".

She said the pledge period was only two weeks long and you had to get 1,000 merits to be initiated. She got demerits for "making fun of [a sister's] shirt and driving". Ha.

Does anyone know what happened to this sorority? I have looked on St.John's website and it is no longer listed...I wonder if there were other chapters...

[Xidelt]

Does st. Johns have any old yearbooks you can access online? That would be a good place to start. You might also contact a university archivist or librarian to see if they have any info about your grandmother's glo. You could also look up alpha beta chi in an old edition of Baird's. they should be available online.

[pas]

I did email an archivist and they responded once...maybe I should write them again. Just by doing a simple google search I was unable to find any evidence of online yearbooks.

[philfratman1961]

The sorority was totally active, here is the link of it: http://www.alphabetachisorority.org/Photos.htm

[MysticCat]

Originally Posted by philfratman1961

The sorority was totally active, here is the link of it: http://www.alphabetachisorority.org/Photos.htm

Wrong college, so since the sorority to which you linked is a local, I assume wrong Alpha Beta Chi.

[philfratman1961]

Originally Posted by MysticCat

Wrong college, so I assume wrong Alpha Beta Chi.

Might that what he/she mean will onlye be one of the chapters of Alpha Beta Chi, cause there`s only one Alpha Beta Chi.

[MysticCat]

Originally Posted by philfratman1961

Might that what he/she mean will onlye be one of the chapters of Alpha Beta Chi, cause there`s only one Alpha Beta Chi.

Particularly if we're talking about locals, or local socials and professional GLOs or honor societies, it is possible for more than one group to have the same name.

The Alpha Beta Chi to which you linked is a local sorority at Alfred State College. (All fraternities and sororities at Alfred State College are locals, meaning they are not affiliated with any larger organization.)

The Alpha Beta Chi that the Op asked about was at St. John's University in New York City, and appears to have been a business sorority. She said the coat of arms as shown in the pledge book was a simple gold shield with the letters on it. The page to which you linked shows a coat of arms of the group for the at Alfred State that doesn't match that description.

pas, you can find a list of all general/social GLOs that have been at St. John's here. Since ABX isn't listed, and given your grandmother's reference to it as a business sorority, my guess it was a professional GLO, not a general/social one. Don't know if that helps.

[oldu]

The 1968 edition of Baird's Manual lists Alpha Beta Chi as a social sorority founded in 1950 at the College of Business Administration at its Brooklyn campus. That campus was ultimately consolidated on the main campus with the other separate divisions which had been scattered. It lists 3 fraternities & 2 sororities. Two of the fraternities are now listed as active on the Staten Island campus which St. John's acquired during the 1970s so maybe that school was moved to Staten Island instead of Queens. It could be that the sororities just closed instead of moving. This may shed a little light on the mystery.

[MysticCat]

^^^ Sounds like you're on the right track, oldu. Does the Baird's entry say anything about Alpha Beta Chi's colors or symbols, or anything else of that kind, or is it just a pure listing?

[oldu]

Sorry, just a listing of the groups & their date of founding.

[CutiePie2000]

Greekchatters come and go, but there used to be a very knowledgeable person on these boards named "localsororities" and they were the go-to person for questions like this.

However, this is going back to the early 2000's when they were on this board. I think they even had a website that they maintained..I think it was an angelfire or geocities website (yes, that old).

[pas]

Thank you all so much!

I had contacted St. John's archivist with my request and my grandmother's maiden name and she said she found some yearbook photos and information! She is going to mail it to me soon! I will scan and post what she gives me so we can all see it.

I am now trying to figure out a fraternity called Sigma Tau Beta. I have a pin from that GLO with a Beta guard so I suppose it was a Beta chapter. The style of the engraving dates the pin to about the 1940s. I was told that there was a GLO founded in 1927 at North Carolina State College with that name. When I went to do some research, I found that the founding chapter was established at X.C. State College...I have never in my life heard of this college!


And so the research continues...ha

[oldu]

I love these historical challenges! The only Sigma Tau Beta I found was a local fraternity founded at North Carolina State on January 4, 1925 and survived until sometime in 1933. Its yearbook entry always lists it as a local group and never indicates that there were other chapters elsewhere.
The pen you have could be unrelated to this group, or possibly a high school organization? Kee tracking.

[pas]

Oh! I found this one site that sort of keeps track of locals: www.greekpages.com and you can search by organization.

St. John's mailed me some photocopies of my gradmother in ABX. It is so wonderful to have! I wish they had the yearbooks online so I could track what happened to ABX.

[Xidelt]

Just be careful with greekpages. It hasn't been updated in many years. So glad you got such great information from the library at st. Johns!