Today Mortar Board celebrates its 93rd anniversary! From its inception as the first national organization honoring senior college women to its present-day status, the evolution of Mortar Board keeps pace with scholar-leaders on United States campuses. Here is the story of Mortar Board's founding:
Mortar Board’s rich history and time-honored traditions have shaped the organization over the years. Like a block of marble carved into a masterpiece, the trials and accomplishments of Mortar Board have helped its leaders and members mold it into the prestigious national honor society it is today. Unlike most masterpieces, it will continue to evolve, an ever-changing entity destined to serve its members as they so choose.
In 1892, Mortar Board’s oldest chapter, Der Hexenkreis at Cornell University, was formed by six female students. The German-named society, which translates to "the witch’s circle," was a highly secret society for senior college women complete with clandestine customs and rituals, similar to the secret Ivy League societies of men such as Skull and Bones. Members each received an ominous badge bearing a gold skull with red eyes and the number seven on its forehead, designed by Tiffany of New York. For years after its inception, members of the group were forbidden to refer to Der Hexenkreis or anything concerning it.
Over the next several years, numerous other societies popped up at campuses across the nation, honoring senior college women that strove to render service to other students and administrations. It wasn’t until 1915, however, that these women realized their respective associations were part of a national phenomenon. Specifically, a brisk autumn afternoon on the campus of the University of Chicago that same year brought forth the birth of the organization that was later to be known as Mortar Board.
Eliza Ulrich Ullman, an alumna of Swarthmore College’s Pi Sigma Chi society for women, remembered that fateful meeting well. "A titian haired coed from Ohio State University greeted me by saying, ‘I see you’re a Mortar Board.’ I must have looked very blank for she pointed to my pin and repeated." Ullman’s pin, Pi Sigma Chi’s symbol of a mortarboard, was displayed prominently on her lapel. "Our pins were very similar, in fact almost identical, and our methods of election, ways of working, ideals and traditions seemed to be one," Ullman recalled.
Soon after, Ullman wrote to her Pi Sigma Chi classmates at Swarthmore regarding this interesting coincidence. She believed this may be much more than a coincidence, and that there may be similar societies out there. After much debate, the class of 1916 decided to send a letter and questionnaires to universities across the nation.
Societies from five universities were interested in unifying into a national group, and were able to meet on February 15, 1918 in Syracuse, N.Y. The meeting, referred to as the "Convention for Nationalization of Honorary Societies for Senior Women," brought together Carolyn Archbold of Eta Pi Upsilon of Syracuse University, Ernestine Becker from Der Hexenkreis at Cornell University, Helen Hobart of Mortar Board at The Ohio State University, Ester T. Holmes of Pi Sigma Chi at Swarthmore College and Anita Kelley from Mortarboard at The University of Michigan.
Holmes, Swarthmore’s delegate, was elected the first national president of the organization and oversaw the convention. The meeting went swimmingly, with the women deciding on a motto (taken from the Greek words meaning service, scholarship and leadership, to be represented by the Greek letters Pi Sigma Alpha - PSA); a pin (a small black mortarboard with the motto); national dues ($3 per chapter); an initiation service (that of The Ohio State University was used, as a result of its adaptability); and a constitution (adopted article by article from a tentative plan outlined by Swarthmore).
Conversely, when the time came to formalize a name for the society, a dilemma occurred. Throughout the two-day meeting, the five representatives debated whether to choose a Greek letter name or otherwise. Disparate points and fervent discussion lasted the duration of the convention. The final vote was formally left unresolved, but the minutes stated that "the sentiment of the convention go down as favoring a Greek letter name (3-2)."
After the close of the convention and returning to Swarthmore’s campus, though, Ester Holmes changed her vote, choosing that the name of the organization should be Mortar Board. Her vote, the deciding vote, was cast by mail. Officially, the society’s name was made "Mortar Board" at the second convention in 1919. Because of their strong opposition to a non-Greek letter name, Eta Pi Upsilon at Syracuse University chose not to affiliate with the national society. As a result, we today recognize four founding chapters instead of five. Eta Pi Upsilon still exists as a local society on the campus of Syracuse University.
Before the close of the first convention, the present delegates compiled a list of 22 universities that hosted societies with comparable ideals, and drafted a letter to invite these groups to petition to join the national society. By 1920, the national organization had grown to 11 chapters in a few states. Five years later, societies across the country had affiliated with Mortar Board, further nationalizing the organization. Today, 228 collegiate chapters have been granted charters.
0 comments:
Post a Comment