History

1900-1920

Growth and Unity of the Greek System

As the century turned to the twentieth, UC's Greek system was made up of four fraternities and three sororities, but there was little cohesiveness among the groups, nor was there a clear direction for its growth. However, grow it did. Sororities really began to experience popularity at this time. Alpha Phi Psi Sorority (which would become Kappa Kappa Gamma ten years later) chartered in 1904, Kappa Delta in 1913, and Delta Zeta in 1916. In May 1913, Pi Delta Kappa sorority (a local group organized in 1910) petitioned Chi Omega for a charter and was installed in December, 1913. Two local fraternities received national charters. Delta Tau Delta Fraternity, formerly Alpha Mu Alpha, chartered in 1909. Pi Kappa Alpha Fraternity chartered in 1910 from the Epsilon Gamma Chi chapter, which had organized the year before. The local fraternity Alpha Nu Sigma was founded in December 1911 and it would become a chapter of the national fraternity Alpha Tau Omega in 1922. However, attrition was also a factor as the local sorority Gamma Beta folded in 1907.

This SAE brother was caught drinking tea and landed in the 1918 Cincinnatian.

In 1902 the fraternities and sororities met together for the first time when they participated in the first annual "Athletic Carnival," a three-day spring festival organized by the University Club featuring booths, games, athletic events, music, and other entertainments. The four fraternities, performing as the "Inter-Fraternity Minsteer-elles" and presented by the "ΣΧ-ΣΑΕ-ΒΘΠ-ΦΔΘ Extravaganza Company," entertained with a musical program of voice and piano. The three sororities staffed the refreshment booth and the interestingly termed "Japanese" and "snow" booths. No further explanation of what was offered at those booths was given! The Greeks continued to participate in the event each year. Years down the road, the carnival would be organized by Sigma Sigma and they hold the event to this day.

Activities in which the Greeks participated at this time were numerous, including banquets, receptions, picnics, parties, teas, rush, installation services, conventions, plays, literary events, luncheons, smokers (fraternities), slumber parties (sororities), bridge matches, and founders days celebrations (chapter and national). The idea of the fraternity smoker is interesting. The March 1901 edition of Sigma Alpha Epsilon's Record gives a good description of an inter-fraternity smoker at Central University:

The four fraternities united in an inter-fraternity smoker at the S. A. E. hall last Friday night. A committee had bountifully provided fruits, cakes, pickles, frappé , pipes, tobacco and cigars. A troup of negroes was also present to enliven with music, song and dancing. Each person was presented with a pipe and proceeded to smoke. They smoked and talked, smoked and ate, smoked and drank frappé, smoked and gave fraternity yells, smoked and listened to toasts, and then smoked again until the ceiling was invisible because of smoke.

Fraternities to this day still call their rush parties smokers, but the main ingredient of the early days is not as prevalent.

Upon her installation as Dean of Women in 1904, Elizabeth Czarnomska made it known that she did not like the idea of freshmen joining fraternities and sororities as they were "not properly guided in this period of unformed opinions" and were "apt to form uncongenial associations." She made it part of her campaign to prevent freshman initiation into the Greeks. Whether she made headway with this endeavor is uncertain, but evidence in the form of pledges and initiations the falling autumn point to it going down in flames, and regardless, it made no adverse effect on Greek growth. However, rush policies would continue to be a major point of contention for the sororities throughout the coming years.

Meanwhile, the focus of competition among the fraternities moved away from rush and took the form of sports early in the twentieth century. In 1910, the fraternities began a Pan-Hellenic Bowling League and later in the decade, they began to participate in an intra-fraternity basketball league. The first intra-fraternity track meet was held on May 18, 1920.

The Women's Pan-Hellenic Association was organized in 1911 as a governing group for the four sororities then in existence. Foremost on their agenda was the standardization of rush activities across the sororities and among their first actions was to abolish summer rushing and to prohibit freshmen invitations until after second semester registration. Perhaps some of Miss Czarnomiska's wisdom concerning freshmen joining fraternities had carried over. Academic requirements for receipt of an invitation were set at the attainment of at least the grade of "C" in two-thirds of the first semester classes. In addition, each sorority was limited to one rush party during the first semester, the date of each determined by a draw. In October 1911, the Pan-Hellenic Association held its first joint function, a banquet as a reception for freshman girls where they were able to meet the sororities on equal ground. The banquet became an annual event.

In 1912, the Pan-Hellenic Bowling League took on a new purpose when its members charged themselves with working out fraternity issues and strengthening the fraternity system in addition to coordinating the weekly bowling matches. Fraternities did not follow the lead of their female counterparts, and rush continued to happen during the summer months with bids and initiations occurring in the fall. The name was changed in 1915 to the Interfraternity Association of the University of Cincinnati and was made up of two delegates from each of the national fraternities. They held a monthly business meeting and an open house where each chapter took turns acting as host. According to the 1916 Cincinnatian, "The Bowling League occupies the attention of the Association during the winter months."

The fall of 1913 saw the Women's Pan-Hellenic Association regrouping and again questioning the effectiveness of their policies. It was decided that more than one party for each sorority was necessary to allow the freshman girls to truly get acquainted with the character of each group. On December 12, 1913, V.C.P., the first sorority to successfully organize at UC, dropped their long-standing adherence to remaining a purely local group and took up the charter of national sorority Kappa Alpha Theta.

In the spring of 1914, the sororities again revised their rush program. Now girls had to complete one full year of college work before being eligible to receive a bid and bidding would take place in the fall. Bidding would be non-existent for the 1914-1915 academic year and no new sorority girls would be accepted until fall of 1915. This plan was recommend to and accepted by the Faculty, who agreed with it but stressed that they took no responsibility for enforcing it, keeping the sororities self governing and monitoring. (Regardless of this lull in sorority activity, the coeds of 1914-1915 were not lacking in activities. Women were very busy that year campaigning for a women's building, developing an impressive women's athletic program, and forming a "Women Suffrage Club." The Woman's League was extremely active and the University News added an editor of Woman's Affairs to cover the increase in female activity.)

World War I had an impact on both the number of male students at the University and the time they had to devote to their groups, and thus on fraternity activity. At the end of the 1916-1917 academic year, 97 men had enlisted in the military and 16 left the university to go into agricultural service. By January 1918, the list of students serving grew to 257. Thirty-eight University of Cincinnati students were sent to the S. A. T. C. training camp at Fort Sheridan from July 18 to September 16, 1918. Male students in the College of Liberal Arts were required to perform three hours a week of military drill. (Regular physical education classes were preempted to allow time for this.) In May 1918, the students taking military drill were organized as the University of Cincinnati Battalion. By this time Engineering students had been added to the ranks of drill men. U.C. as a whole lost 38 men to the war. Fraternities announced the comings and goings of their brothers in the University News.