Monday, December 5th, noon to 4:00 p.m., Langsam Library’s 4th floor.

Sponsored by the Student Wellness Center and Langsam Library.

Additions and updates have been made to ARB’s exhibit Going Greek: Fraternity and Sorority Life at the University of Cincinnati.

Omega Psi Phi pledges From Clifton Magazine, Autumn, 1981

Pledging traditions of African-American fraternities are highlighted in an article from the Autumn, 1981, edition of Clifton Magazine, now available on the 1980 and Beyond history page. During the anti-hazing controversies of the early 1980s, long-time pledging rituals practiced by Black fraternities, such as marching and branding, were brought into focus and their legality was questioned. Members defended these activities while outsiders tended to view them with a more critical eye.

Documents recently discovered in the Theodore M. Berry collection shed new light on the formation of an organization created in 1927 to govern Black fraternities and sororities. New to the exhibit are Berry’s proposal for the formation of an Inter-Greek Letter Organization, the first constitution of the organization, and Berry’s speech marking the first anniversary of the organization’s founding. The documents can be accessed from the 1920-1940 history page. Original documents will be accessible at the Archives & Rare Book Library when processing of the Theodore M. Berry Collection is complete early in 2012.

New images have been added to the image gallery from the 1970s and 1980s. We have also updated the chapter listings to include UC’s newest sororities. Gamma Phi Beta will have a colony here beginning fall quarter 2012 and Phi Mu, which had a UC chapter from 1931-1950, will re-colonize in the fall of 2013.

From the 1955 Cincinnatian

By Janice Schulz

While students enter college with the goal of gaining a formal education, a good bit of learning also occurs outside of the classroom. A university campus is in many ways like a self-contained community, providing students a place to live, study, work and socialize. Much of this lifestyle is student-driven, allowing students to build leadership, organizational, social and even political skills for use in life after university. At the same time, students react to and are affected by the wider world outside of the university.

The Archives and Rare Books Library has compiled a guide to its holdings that can be used to research student life at the University of Cincinnati. Research ideas are endless, but can include topics such as:

• Student groups – both individual groups and collective development
• Women’s studies
• Minority studies
• Student government
• Comparative studies in culture, style, taboos, etc. across decades
• Political activism

The research guide can be found on the ARB website. Where available, links to online inventories and catalog entries have been provided to help prepare researchers before visiting the Library. The Archives and Rare Books Library is open Monday – Friday, 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Research assistance is available at the library, or by calling 556-1959 or emailing Archives@uc.edu.

In a continuing effort to showcase student life at the University of Cincinnati, the Archives and Rare Books Library has created an exhibit documenting the history of fraternities and sororities from 1882 to today. Going Greek: Fraternity and Sorority Life at the University of Cincinnati offers a historical view into the development of the Greek system at UC and its growth (and growing pains) as it became a social vehicle at the University and then settled into the comfortable position it enjoys today.

Started in 1882 with the establishment of the Sigma Chi fraternity, the Greek system grew steadily in the following decades to become the primary social force at UC in the 1940s, 1950s, and into the 1960s. Political and social unrest in the 1960s forced the Greeks to redefine themselves and their values, creating a system more like what we know now. In many ways, the history of UC’s Greek system reflects events and attitudes occurring in the broader social structures in which it existed.

The exhibit offers a historical narrative, lists of all known chapters that have existed at UC, narratives and images of fraternity and sorority houses, an image gallery, and a bibliography. The Archives and Rare Books Library has several exhibits with a student life focus on its website, including Yearbooks: Turning the Pages of UC History, Clifton Magazine, and School and Country: A Survey of Student Military Life.  Additionally, we have digitized several publications related to student life including The Cincinnatian, the News Record from 1960-1970, and the Cooperative Engineer.