Chi Omega History

Chi Omega: Making A Mark 1900-2002 Jonathan S. Coit, Graduate Assistant Greek Chapter History Program December 20, 2001 Information courtesy of University of Illinois Archives and the Society for the Preservation of Greek Housing This history was produced as part of the Society for the Preservation of Greek Housing’s Greek Chapter History Project. The Society was founded in 1988, with the goal of preserving the historic buildings that embody the history of the nation’s largest Greek system, and educating the public about the historical significance of fraternities and sororities on the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign campus. Dues paid by member fraternity and sorority chapters and donations from chapter alumni fund the Society’s work. In keeping with their mission, the Society began the Greek Chapter History Project in May 2000 in conjunction with the University of Illinois Archives. The GCHP aims for nothing less than producing a complete historical record of fraternities and sororities on the University of Illinois campus by employing a graduate assistant to research and write histories of campus chapters. Making the work possible are the extensive collections of the University of Illinois Archives, especially its Student Life and Culture Archival Program. Supported by an endowment from the Stewart S. Howe Foundation, the heart of the SLC Archives is the Stewart S. Howe collection, the world’s largest collection of material related to fraternities and sororities. 2001 The Society for the Preservation of Greek Housing and the Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois. All rights reserved. 1 Chi Omega Before Illinois The University of Illinois (Omicron) chapter of the Chi Omega Fraternity was founded during the national Chi Omega’s initial burst of expansion. Chi Omega Fraternity itself was founded in April 1895 at the University of Arkansas, in Fayetteville, by a group of young women who desired to share the secrecy and cameraderie of the men’s fraternities at the University. The 1890s saw the first real flowering of the Greek system at both the University of Arkansas as well as the University of Illinois, and as men’s organizations grew in number and size, women began to establish their own institutions. National Founder Jobelle Holcombe noted later that male visitors to her rooming house “were most mysterious about their [fraternity] affairs and we women were sorry we couldn’t match them.” 1 Holcombe and her friends Jean Vincenheller, Ina Mae Boles, and Allie Simonds founded Chi Omega with the guidance of Fayetteville dentist and Kappa Sigma Fraternity member, Dr. Charles Richardson. Richardson was, like University of Illinois Dean of Men Thomas A. Clark, a booster of fraternities and sororities, and had introduced Greek organizations to the University of Arkansas in 1894. He not only drafted the first Chi Omega constitution and ritual, he also suggested, based on his extensive knowledge of Greek history and culture, the “Eleusinian Mysteries” as the foundational myth around which the sorority was organized. Chi Omega’s founding ideals suggest the ideals of the sorority had their basis in Progressive Era conceptions of women’s roles in the public sphere. Holcombe described the ideals of Chi Omega: “the idea of trained intelligence, the principle of social obligations, and social responsibility, all associated with the womanly ideal of striving to 1 “Chi Omega 1895-1910: The Foundations of a Sisterhood,” The Eleusis 3 (1993), p. 10. 2 be the best sort of woman.” 2 Student life historian Helen L. Horowitz posits a useful dichotomy for understanding these ideals. She divides early college-going women into two types, “the outsider,” who “entered college to prepare herself for paid work,” spent their time in college largely studying, as opposed to the “college men” and “college women”. This second category, she argues, based their college paths on an intrinsic hostility to their professors and to “outsiders” focus on grades and schooling. These students created fraternities and sororities, and encouraged the development of events like the University of Illinois’ Homecoming and college sports. These “college women” Horowitz describes as middle-class or “relatively affluent,” who “wanted to enjoy their college years and saw them as an extension of the round of parties appropriate to their courting age.” 3 The women who founded Chi Omega and expanded the fraternity in the early years undermine the opposition Horowitz sets up. Holcombe’s above quotation hints at the complicated marriage of traditional beliefs and Progressive-era reformist impulses which seems to have defined Chi Omega in its early years. For while it clearly implies a acceptance of the Victorian conceptions of gender difference—that women’s natures were softer, empathetic, compassionate—Holcombe also implies that “striving to be the best sort of woman” does not end with marriage and childrearing. 4 Instead, the “best sort of woman” would recognize her “social obligations” and “social responsibility.” This resembles the ideology of many prominent Progressive women activists who based arguments for women’s broader participation in the public sphere on their conceptions of 2 “Foundations,” p. 12. 3 Horowitz, Helen L., Campus Life: Undergraduate Cultures from the End of the Eighteenth Century to the Present, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1987, p. 200, 201. 4 See Gail Bederman, Manliness and Civilization: A Cultural History of Gender and Race in the United 3 the distinctive contributions women could provide. 5 These early Chi Omegas, then, combined aspects of both Horowitz’s “college women” and female “outsiders.” They intended to enjoy college life, but did not view it simply “as a way station to a proper marriage.” They also held some sense that the dynamics of group living would function as democracy writ small. Holcombe noted “we would emphasize the influence of group living as a beginning for an understanding of our position in a democracy where people are bound together with a clear understanding and a sympathetic heart.” 6 Omicron Chapter Omicron was only the ninth chapter of Chi Omega, and the first chapter north of the Mason-Dixon line. The University of Illinois during the two decades on either side of 1900 was a fertile ground for fraternity and sorority expansion. In 1891, the Board of Trustees lifted the so-called “iron-clad pledge,” which required that both upon entering and graduating the University all students were required to sign a statement that they were not affiliated with any secret society. 7 By the time the Omicron chapter was founded, Illinois was home to nine men’s and four women’s fraternities, and fraternity booster Thomas A. Clark had just taken up the Dean of Men position. At Omicron’s 50 th Anniversary celebration, Clara Reasoner remembered that, similar to the founding of Chi Omega’s first chapter, Omicron’s founding was the result of close friendships. She and other Founders Mabel Hopkins, Mabel Schulte, Florence Beebe, and Henrietta Calhoun States, 1880-1917, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1995. 5 For a detailed treatment of “maternalist” politics in the Progressive Era, see Theda Skocpol, Protecting Soldiers and Mothers: the Political Origins of Social Policy in the United States, Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press, 1992; see also Linda Gordon, Pitied but not Entitled: Single Mothers and the History of Welfare 1890-1935, New York: Free Press, 1994. 6 “Foundations,” p. 12. 7 Solberg, Winton U., The University of Illinois: An Intellectual and Cultural History, Urbana: University 4 met as freshmen in 1897, and watched with interest as similar groups of women students founded Illinois chapters of Kappa Kappa Gamma and Alpha Chi Omega in 1899. Reasoner said that “the five girls began to talk sorority as they wanted to sustain their close relationship even after college days.” Mabel Hopkins, who came from the South, knew of Chi Omega’s “high ideals” and that the sorority was interested in expanding to the North. The 1902 Illio (for the 1900-01 school year), lists June 1, 1900 as the chapter’s founding date. The founders, Mabel Hopkins, Clara Reasoner, Mabel Schulte, Florence Beebe, and Henrietta Calhoun, prepared an informal spread of chocolate eclairs and “little pickled onions” to commemorate the event. 8 An early financial crisis, likely brought on by a house fire, nearly ended Omicron soon after it began. The chapter’s first house was apparently located on W. Green Street, Champaign, near campus. 9 In 1907, Omicron moved to a new house at 307 E. John Street, Champaign, where they were flanked by Delta Gamma at 305 and Alpha Chi Omega at 309. 10 Both early Chi Omega houses were rented. The 1907 move may have been the source of a financial strain on the chapter. Omicron’s house on Green Street burned down; and although it is not clear when this happened, it seems likely that the fire prompted the move, given the emergency situation which confronted the chapter in 1907. During fall semester of that year, Dean of Students Clark stepped in to keep the sorority of Illinois Press, 1968, p. 286, 379. 8 “Chi Omega Reviews 50 Year History,” newpaper clipping, p. 279, Building Association of Omicron of Chi Omega Minutes, ca. 1950, quoted passages are reporter paraphrases; Illio, 1902, p. 192; “History of the Omicron Chapter,” Chi Omega Centennial Celebration Program, box 1, Chi Omega Records, Student Life and Culture Archives, University of Illinois. The program history gives April 5, 1900 as the chapter’s founding date; as that is also the date of Chi Omega’s founding in 1895, my suspicion is that over the years the two dates came to be celebrated together as “Founder’s Day.” The June date is listed in the Illio until it stopped printing founding months and days for fraternities.

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