Alpha Phi

Theta

University of Michigan

May 16th, 1892

Founding Date

It took a record thirteen days for Theta, Alpha Phi’s eighth chapter, to come into being at the University of Michigan. A chapter had been desired there for many years, owing to the school’s early support for coeducation and its “reputation of scholarship second to no other institution of like grade in the land.” Delegates to the 1891 Convention had agreed to dispatch several representatives to assess the potential for a chapter there, but despite their efforts to establish a connection with students who would meet the Fraternity’s high standards for scholarship and character, a chapter had not yet been realized. By the 1890s, the campus was crowded with women’s fraternities. Edith Greaves White (Delta-Cornell) took a special interest in establishing a chapter of Alpha Phi at the University of Michigan. On May 5, 1892, Edith and Mary Maltman Bass (Beta-Northwestern) met in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and laid plans for several days of work. Invitations were extended to ten women, and they accepted. Beta chapter supplied the bowknot pins they wore. The initiation of the charter members, conducted by Edith, Mary and Fannie Alabaster (Beta-Northwestern), took place on May 16, 1892, at the home of Mrs. Quigley. A banquet was held at Martha Orr's home.

Chapter Information

• Alpha Phi granted Theta chapter at the University of Michigan the privilege of pledging non-matriculated students on the understanding that all other chapters at the university enjoyed that same privilege. They did not, it turned out, and when the Fraternity realized its error, it offered an apology.

• In response to the issues faced by sororities on campuses and the lack of rules regulating pledging and other matters, International President Margaret Mason Whitney (Theta-Michigan) called together the leaders of the seven largest sororities for a meeting in Chicago in 1902. This meeting saw the founding of the Inter-Sorority Conference, later known as the National Panhellenic Conference.

• Another men’s society also called Alpha Phi existed at the University of Michigan Law School from 1864 to 1866, described in a university history as a “forerunner of the Greek-letter organizations.”

1830 Hill Street, Ann Arbor, Michigan

• Minnie Boylan Beal – International Executive Board

• Caroline Napier Butterworth – International Executive Board

• Louise Shepard Corbusier – International Executive Board

• Jeannette Smith Florer – International Executive Board

• Ilah Winter Grant – International Executive Board

• Nina Howlet Hole – International Executive Board

• Ruth Abbott Jones – International President

• Clara McOmber Mills – International Executive Board

• Katherine Puncheon Pomeroy – International Executive Board

• Edith Noble Prentiss – International Executive Board

• Gretchen Walser Riggs – International Executive Board