Local History

In the spring of 1920, three University of Idaho students approached the Dean of Women with respect to the organization of a new sorority group on campus. The three women were Vera Luse and Helen Ramsey of Spokane, and Ann Paige of Nez Perce. Dean French encouraged the women to go along with their plans.

Accordingly, a chapter of ten to twelve women was established with the name of OMEGA PHI ALPHA. To this day, members of this local group have never divulged the significance of their name. Some have guessed it to have meant that the last will be “First”; others have speculated that the Omega and the Alpha of anything denotes “perfection.” Colors chosen were gold and dark blue and the torch became the pin.

Then the women, encouraged by leading faculty members, resolved to wait and strive for the first national organization among campus women. At Ester Park Convention, Helen Madden from Caldwell and an active member of Oregon Alpha, presented the Omega Phi Alpha Petition. This is the same convention which initiated Grace Jordan, who was later to become the first lady of Idaho. The Idaho Alpha chapter of Pi Beta Phi was installed September 28, 1923 by Agnes Wright Spring, then the Arrow editor, and Grace Hancher Beck, the province president. The first person initiated was Margaret Springer of Boise, Idaho who went on to become Idaho Alpha’s first president.

When Omega Phi Alpha first organized they leased a small yellow house from the University on the site where French Hall is now located. Fraternity and sorority groups on campus sent the women gifts of silver and framed pictures; otherwise it was very simply furnished by the University. Idaho Alpha’s first house was at 720 Deakin on the lot now occupied by Alpha Gamma Rho. In the fall of 1926, the Omega Phi Alpha building corporation of Pi Beta Phi erected the present brick dwelling for AGR. In May 1958, ground was broken for the present structure. This was also the year that Idaho Alpha received the Philadelphia Bowl given at the convention to the chapter placing third among 106 chapters throughout the nation and Canada. No other sorority on campus has built as many establishments as rapidly as PI BETA PHI!

History

Pi Beta Phi Fraternity was founded by 12 women at Monmouth College in Monmouth, Illinois, on April 28, 1867, as I.C. Sorosis. The name Pi Beta Phi was once regarded as a secret motto, until 1888 when the founders officially changed their name to Pi Beta Phi. Pi Beta Phi was the first national collegiate society of women to be modeled after the Greek-letter fraternities of men. Pi Beta Phi created a feeling of unity among pioneering women that has lasted through the years.