A Short History of Delta Beta Chapter of Phi Mu Bao Bui, Greek Chapter Housing History Project September, 2011 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. 2012 The Society for the Preservation of Greek Housing and the Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois. All rights reserved. 1 The Origins of Phi Mu Though the University of Illinois’ educational and research institutions well deserve their international reputation, few outside the United States know that the University also hosts the world’s largest Greek-lettered college fraternity system. The history of Greek life at the University in many ways mirrors the ever-changing nature of American life and society. Indeed, since the founding of the University in 1867, college life in Urbana-Champaign has grown and evolved alongside the life of the national community. Though the idea of a university education dates back to the medieval era, the revolutionary notion that women should have equal access to higher education in the arts, letters, and sciences only gain widespread support in the nineteenth century. In the early twentieth first century, when women make up the majority of American college students, the early nineteenth century seems like a foreign and distant country. Indeed, the origins of Phi Mu reaches back to a time when few women went to college; even fewer colleges existed that allowed women to enroll. Needless to say, Greek fraternities for college women did not exist in early nineteenth-century America. Even so, higher education in America did not prove immune to the larger currents of change working their way through American society. One of the early trailblazers in opening up the doors of academia to women, Wesleyan College (then known as Wesleyan Female College) in Macon, Georgia, had offered young women since 1839 an education equal to that of their male peers.1 Though they appeared to contemporaries as 1 Wesleyan was not the first college in the English-speaking world to admit women. Oberlin College, founded in 1833, opened its doors to women from the very start; however, Oberlin did not award its first degrees to its female students until 1841. 2 a novel experiment at first, Wesleyan and other like-minded educational institutions clearly pointed the way to the future. In 1852, female students at Wesleyan founded the Philomathean Society. Three young women stood at the forefront of what later became Phi Mu. Mary Ann DuPont (Lines), Mary Elizabeth Myrick (Daniel), and Martha Bibb Hardaway (Redding) all came from respectable middle-class families of the Old South. The name they chose for their new organization proved apt; it meant “lovers of learning” and it suited the intellectual aspirations of American’s first generation of trailblazing female college students. Yet Phi Mu also had a practical social function. In between classes, studying, and mandatory chapel and prayer services, few social outlets and extracurricular activities existed for women in the nation’s colleges. Popular (and socially acceptable) pastimes for college students, men and women alike, included literary and debating societies. Though these societies openly professed serious scholarship and learning as their objectives, they served a vital social function for the first generation of collegiate women. As permissible extracurricular activities, these clubs combined high-minded learning with the very personal desire for fellowship, social interaction, and close friendship. In the words of Phi Mu historian Annadell Craig Lamb, these societies “provided fun and relaxation, a setting for talk sessions, an outlet for pent-up energies, albeit their avowed purpose was invariably literary, philosophical, political or educational in nature.” 2 The Philomathean Society at Wesleyan became the first (Alpha) chapter of what later evolved into Phi Mu Fraternity. Members today still commemorate March 4 as Founders’ Day. In 1900 the society adopted the Greek letters ΦΜ. Four years later, Phi 2 Annadell Craig Lamb, The History of Phi Mu: The First 130 Years (Indianapolis, Indiana: Phi Mu Fraternity, 1982) 1. 3 Mu petitioned for and received a national charter from the State of Georgia. Soon afterwards, Phi Mus founded their second (Beta) chapter at Hollins College in Virginia. In 1907, the Phi Mus held their first national convention, with eight chapters represented. The opening decades of the twentieth century saw Phi Mu expand rapidly on the national scene, starting with membership entrance into National Panhellenic Conference in 1911 and new chapters springing up across campuses in the Northeast and Midwest, Southwest, and West. The histories of the University of Illinois and Phi Mu converged during this period, with the founding of the Delta Beta chapter in 1921. By 1939, the University of Illinois’ Delta Beta numbered among some 73 chapters. That same year, Phi Mu merged with Alpha Delta Theta. Expansion continued into the post-World War era. Indeed, the social and political turmoil of the 1960s did not stop Phi Mu from seeing its most rapid expansion yet; some 39 chapters took root across America within that decade alone. From its humble origins the Philomathean Society has blossomed into a national organization with 150 collegiate chapters and over 175,000 initiated sisters, alongside 225 alumnae chapters across America. Phi Mu and Alpha Delta Pi (founded a few months earlier in 1852 as the Adelphean Society) remain the nation’s two oldest continuous Greek fraternities for women. 3 The forms of initiation, such as the password, sign, grip, and motto have not changed significantly since the founding of the Philomathean Society in 1852. The Phi Mu badge consists of a quatrefoil shape of black enamel displaying a hand holding a heart. Above the quatrefoil is a gold band with the Greek letters ΦΜ. The original badge emerged from a design by Sarah Amelia Bardwell Wright, one of the original founders at 3 Lamb 1. 4 Wesleyan. A jeweler in Macon, Georgia, fashioned the first badge from a twenty-dollar gold piece given to Mary Ann DuPont by her father when she entered Wesleyan; she went on to become the first president of the Philomathean Society. The fraternity colors are rose and white, and the flower, as any newly initiated member knows, is the rose carnation. The National Council in 1973 designated Sir Fidel, the lion, as the official Phi Mu mascot. The Phi Mu coat of arms consists of a shield supported by two lions. The shield has a badge and three stars. On top of the shield is a lamp with a flame. Underneath, there is a banner with the motto “Les Soeurs Fideles” (the Faithful Sisters). Phi Mu holds its national convention held once every two years, on even numbered years. Famous alumnae include actress Carol Burnette and pop singer Belinda Carlisle. Currently, The Aglaia serves as the in-house quarterly magazine. The Aglaia can trace its origins back to December 1857 with the first printing of The Philomathean Gazette , at that time, the first known publication produced by a women’s fraternity. 4 The Roaring Twenties: Delta Beta Begins For hundreds of years since the colonial era the Northeast Ivy League schools had set the tone and model for collegiate life; in the 1920s, the Midwest schools became trendsetters in their own right. Amidst this period of growth for the University of Illinois, a local sorority, Zeta Pi, petitioned the national office for membership in Phi Mu. During the 1920-1921 school year, Zeta Pi had just 19 members. At the national convention in June of 1921, their petition received the official approval. With the start of the new school year in the fall of 1921, the new chapter was officially installed by Zenobia Wooten Keller, the national president, on October 1. Thus, the women present at the 4 Annadell Craig Lamb, “Aglaia Marks 70 th Year.” Aglaia , Spring 1977. 5 time became the charter members of Phi Mu’s Delta Beta chapter at the University of Illinois. 5 To Myrtle Davis went the honor of drafting the very report sent into the Aglaia . In the November 1921 edition, she reported 15 members, and 4 pledges. 6 Eugenia (“Virginia”) Arter ’24 served as the first president of the fledgling chapter. “We are the baby chapter of Phi Mu, and we feel very much like babies trying to write their first letters, for we do not know what to write about,” wrote Myrtle. What the members of Phi Mu’s newest chapter lacked in experience they more than made up for in enthusiasm and ambition: “But we can say that we are just as glad as can be to be Phi Mus, and we are all striving to make a name for Phi Mu on the Illinois campus.” The Delta Beta chapter aimed, as Myrtle put it, to “put Phi Mu on the map at Illinois until all of you will say as you do when you look at the vegetables in the spring, ‘Just see ‘em grow!’” 7 By the time of Phi Mu’s ninth biennial convention (1923), held in Beverly Hills, California, the Delta Beta chapter had about 25 active members.