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Gamma Phi Beta
Gamma Phi Beta
ΓΦΒ
Founded	November 11, 1874; 150 years ago; Syracuse University
Type	Social
Affiliation	NPC
Status	Active
Scope	International
Motto	Founded on a Rock
Member badge
Colors	Blush and A-la-Mode
Symbol	Crescent moon
Flower	Pink carnation
Jewel	Pearl
Publication	The Crescent
Philanthropy	Building Strong Girls and Girls on the Run
Chapters	190 collegiate, 175+ alumnae
Members	260,000+ lifetime
Headquarters	9155 E. Nichols Avenue; Suite 330; Centennial, Colorado 80112; United States
Website	gammaphibeta.org

Gamma Phi Beta (ΓΦΒ, also known as GPhi, GPhiB, or Gamma Phi) is an international college sorority. It was founded in Syracuse University in 1874 and was the first of the Greek organizations to call itself a sorority.^[2]^[3]^[4] The term "sorority" was coined for Gamma Phi Beta by Dr. Frank Smalley, a professor at Syracuse University.^[5]

The sorority's international headquarters are located in Centennial, Colorado. As of 2023, Gamma Phi Beta listed more than 246,000 initiated members, 137 active collegiate chapters, 190 chartered collegiate chapters and more than 155 alumnae groups in the United States and Canada.^[6]^[3]

History

Founders

Frances Haven and three friends organized their own society. Gamma Phi Beta Society was founded on November 11, 1874, at Syracuse University in Syracuse, New York, by Helen M. Dodge, Frances E. Haven, E. Adeline Curtis, and Mary A. Bingham.^[7]

The founders had originally selected light blue as the official color but changed it in 1875 to brown and mode (dark and light brown).^[8] The society's first initiate, Clara Worden, joined in March 1875.

Colleges and universities admitted few women students in the 1870s. Against that tendency, Erastus Otis Haven, Syracuse University chancellor and former president of the University of Michigan and Northwestern University, maintained that women should receive the advantages of higher education and he enrolled his daughter, Frances, at Syracuse. For its first several years, Gamma Phi Beta was simply known as a society; it had never used the term fraternity. It was the first of the national women's organizations to adopt the word "sorority", coined in 1882 on behalf of the Syracuse chapter by one of the Latin professors on the faculty, Dr. Frank Smalley.^[5] From 1882 on, the organization was known as Gamma Phi Beta Sorority.^[2]^[3]

Gamma Phi Beta is a member of the Syracuse Triad, the name given to the three women's sororities founded at Syracuse University.^[9] Alpha Phi was founded first in 1872 by 10 of the original 20 women admitted to Syracuse University. Gamma Phi Beta came along two years later in 1874 and Alpha Gamma Delta completed the triad in 1904. Syracuse Triad ceremonies or events are held on most campuses with chapters of all three groups.^[10]

Later history

The sorority's second chapter, the Beta chapter at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, Michigan, was placed in 1882 and was followed in 1885 by the Gamma chapter at Wisconsin. Over the next ten years, the sorority expanded into the Midwest and into eastern schools. In 1894, Gamma Phi Beta expanded to the West Coast at the University of California and to Washington, Oregon, and Idaho.^[2]^[3]

Gamma Phi Beta's first convention was held in Syracuse in 1883, followed by annual sessions held until 1907. After that year, conventions became biennial, offset by a Leadership Training School held in the off-convention years.^[2] In 1891, Gamma Phi Beta joined the National Panhellenic Conference (NPC) as a founding member.

Frances E. Haven went on to assist in founding the Omicron chapter at the University of Illinois in Champaign, Illinois, in 1913. Omicron is the only other chapter established by one of the original founders. In 1919, the establishment of the Alpha Alpha chapter at the University of Toronto in Toronto, Canada, made the sorority international.^[2] The current crest was designed by Gertrude Comfort Morrow at University of California, Berkeley in Berkeley, California, in 1913. The crest was adopted after it won a national crest design competition following the 1915 Convention. In 1965, the use of color was officially included in the crest.

Symbols

Coat of arms and motto

The Gamma Phi Beta crest, or coat of arms, is in the shape of a shield featuring three pink carnations on a white background, an open book on a light brown background, and a waxing crescent moon on a dark brown background. At the top of the shield is a golden oil lamp and at the bottom of the shield is a banner displaying the Greek letters Γ, Φ, and Β.^[11] The crest is only to be worn by initiated members.

The Gamma Phi Beta's symbol is the crescent moon.
The carnation was named the official flower at Convention 1888, while pink was designated the official color of the carnation in 1950.
The official colors of Gamma Phi Beta have long been pink and shades of brown. At first, designated by "Brown and Mode", the brown color was to honor Dr. John J. Brown's role at the sorority's founding, along with 'mode', which was meant to be used as a stylish and complementary color. In 2006, an extensive re-branding effort adopted updates to several of the symbols used along with the society's colors. The "primary palette" of "Blush" (pink) and "A-la-Mode" (brown/gray) is explained:

"To modernize our meaningful colors, we lightened the pink to blush and combined light brown with warm gray, creating a shade we call A-La-Mode. The updated colors exude femininity and strength; they are timeless and confident like our membership."

Secondary colors were chosen and are listed as Once in A Blue Moon, Pearl, Brownstone and Carnation. The branding page explains these colors as "...the perfect accessories to our primary palette."^[12]

The open motto of the Gamma Phi Beta is "Founded on a Rock".^[11]

Badge symbols

The Gamma Phi Beta badge has not significantly changed since its design in 1874. It was designed by Tiffany & Co. It features a black crescent moon cradling the Greek letters Gamma, Phi, and Beta. Badges are currently produced by jeweler Herff Jones, with customization options such as a gold or silver finish or added jewels.

The badges worn by International Council members are larger and feature white crescent moons instead of black. The international president's badge is set with diamonds on the Greek letters; other international officers' badges are set with pearls. In 1902, a triangular-shaped shield of dark brown on which rests a crescent of gold was approved as the badge for uninitiated new members.

Philanthropy and community service

Gamma Phi Beta provided humanitarian supplies during both World War I and World War II. Chapters placed donation containers throughout the United States; the funds collected were directed to the French orphans at the end of World War I.^[2]

In 1929, camping for girls was designated the official philanthropy of Gamma Phi Beta, leading to the support of Camp Fire and Girl Guides of Canada.^[13]

During World War II, the sorority raised funds that supported a mobile canteen for Great Britain, and contributions were raised for the American Red Cross, the Queen's Canadian Fund for air raid victims throughout Great Britain, and the Army and Navy Relief Societies. Its War bonds drive campaign resulted in four drives that raised $14 million, earning the sorority two U.S. Treasury citations for service rendered on behalf of the War Finance Program.^[2]

At the 2012 Convention, the sorority partnered with Girls on the Run. The current official philanthropy of Gamma Phi Beta is Building Strong Girls.^[13]

Membership

Every initiated member has a lifelong membership in Gamma Phi Beta and may participate in alumnae activities on the local, regional, and international levels. Women who have never been initiated into a National Panhellenic Conference sorority may be eligible to join Gamma Phi Beta through the alumnae initiate program. Once a woman is initiated into Gamma Phi Beta, she is no longer allowed to join any other National Panhellenic Conference sorority. One standard of membership is paying dues each semester during a member's college years and, once she graduates, paying yearly dues to International Headquarters.^[14]

Chapter houses

Many Gamma Phi Beta chapters have on-campus housing for members. Housing may be run by the Gamma Phi Beta national organization or an alumna-run local Affiliated Housing Corporation. Several Gamma Phi Beta sorority houses are registered as historical homes, including:

Chapters

Notable members

Academia

Karen Holbrook (Gamma), chancellor, University of South Florida Sarasota–Manatee^[15]

Arts

Birgitta Moran Farmer (Alpha), painter

Entertainment

Kristin Chenoweth (Beta Omicron), Tony Award and Emmy Award-winning actress^[15]
Meagan Holder (Delta Delta), actress, You Again and Bring It On: Fight to the Finish^[16]
Heather McDonald (Beta Alpha), actress, comedian, writer, Chelsea Lately
Elizabeth Pitcairn (Beta Alpha), concert violinist, plays the violin on which the Academy Award winning film, The Red Violin was based
Bailey Hanks (Zeta Zeta), Broadway actress, Legally Blonde^[17]
Susan Howard (Alpha Zeta), actress, Dallas^[15]
Cloris Leachman (Epsilon), actress, Academy Award winner^[15]
Kelli O'Hara (Beta Omicron), actress, Tony Award winner for The King and I^[15]
Kelli McCarty (Beta Chi), actress, model, and Miss USA 1991
Mary Beth Peil (Epsilon), Tony Award nominated singer and actress, Dawson's Creek^[15]
Hope Summers (Epsilon), actress, The Andy Griffith Show^[15]

Government

Jocelyn Burdick (Epsilon), Governor of North Dakota appointed her to U.S. Senate seat held by her late husband in 1992^[15]
Jennifer Dunn (Lambda), former U.S. Representative^[15]
Lynn Morley Martin (Omicron), U.S. Secretary of Labor under President Bush^[15]

Military

Jeannie Deakyne (Alpha Epsilon), Bronze Star Medal recipient for service in Iraq War^[18]

Media

Carol Ryrie Brink (Xi), author, Caddie Woodlawn, and winner of the Newbery Medal in 1936^[15]
Alex Flanagan (Alpha Epsilon), sports reporter, ESPN, NFL Network, and NBC Sports^[15]
Marguerite Higgins (Eta), University of California, Berkeley professor and 1951 Pulitzer Prize recipient^[15]
Shibani Joshi (Psi), reporter, Fox Business Network^[19]

Sports

Caroline Casey (Alpha Chi), former soccer player, Sky Blue FC in Piscataway Township, New Jersey
Brooke Raboutou (Epsilon Gamma), Olympic rock climber

References

^ "Sorority Symbols". Gamma Phi Beta. Retrieved 2020-09-21.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g Anson, Jack L.; Marchenasi, Robert F., eds. (1991) [1879]. Baird's Manual of American Fraternities (20th ed.). Indianapolis, IN: Baird's Manual Foundation, Inc. p. IV-41–43. ISBN 978-0963715906.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d William Raimond Baird; Carroll Lurding (eds.). "Almanac of Fraternities and Sororities (Baird's Manual Online Archive), section showing Gamma Phi Beta chapters". Student Life and Culture Archives. University of Illinois: University of Illinois Archives. Retrieved 30 December 2021. The main archive URL is The Baird's Manual Online Archive homepage.
^ "The History of Syracuse University Fraternity and Sorority Community". Syracuse University. 2010. Archived from the original on 2008-09-05. Retrieved 2010-05-11.
^ ^a ^b Becque, Fran (2013-08-12). "Women's Fraternities, Sororities, and Dr. Frank Smalley". Fraternity History & More. Retrieved 2019-08-08.
^ "GAMMA PHI BETA ANNOUNCES NEW INTERNATIONAL HEADQUARTERS". gammaphibeta.org. Retrieved 2023-03-20.
^ "Our History | Gamma Phi Beta". www.gammaphibeta.org. Archived from the original on 2017-04-16. Retrieved 2017-03-29.
^ "1875: The Colors • History of Gamma Phi Beta". gammaphibetahistory.org. Archived from the original on 2016-06-14. Retrieved 2016-06-13.
^ Hultsch, Margaret Knights. "Syracuse Triad". Alpha Gamma Delta Quarterly. Archived from the original on 1999-04-21. Retrieved 2009-10-14.
^ "Syracuse Triad". Archived from the original on 2011-07-17. Retrieved 2009-10-14.
^ ^a ^b "1915: The Crest • History of Gamma Phi Beta". Archived from the original on 2016-05-02.
^ According to the sorority's Our Brand description, on its website. Accessed 21 Sept 2020.
^ ^a ^b Philanthropy notes according to the Philanthropy section of the sorority's website, accessed 21 Sept 2020.
^ "Gamma Phi Beta Membership". Gamma Phi Beta. Retrieved February 22, 2016.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ ^j ^k ^l ^m "Prominent Gamma Phi Betas". Gamma Phi Beta. Archived from the original on 2010-06-09. Retrieved 2010-06-08.
^ Gamma Phi Beta The Buzz^{[permanent dead link‍]}, October 2010
^ "Member to shine in Broadway musical". Gamma Phi Beta. July 23, 2008. Archived from the original on April 24, 2009. Retrieved 2008-10-19.
^ "Spotlight On: Life Abroad". The Crescent of Gamma Phi Beta. July 1, 2005. Archived from the original on 24 April 2009. Retrieved 2008-06-24.
^ "About - Shibani Joshi". shibanijoshi.com/. Retrieved 2023-03-20.