The Story of Chi Omega
In 1895, fraternity men recently acquired secrets and talked of nothing else. Women did not have any Greek organizations and enviously observed the fun and camaraderie the men shared. Determined to have the same sense of belonging and status the fraternity men enjoyed, one small band of young women, with the help of a local dentist, established the secrets, symbolism and rites that today bind together the sisters of Chi Omega. In 1894-95, men’s fraternities were established at the University of Arkansas and interest in Greek organizations was high among students. The new members of Kappa Sigma, Sigma Alpha Epsilon and Kappa Alpha fraternities were most mysterious about the affairs of these new societies with their secrets and cryptic lapel pins.
Jobelle Holcombe and Jean Vincenheller were close friends and decided to create their own Greek organization with secrets. The first secret of Chi Omega was that there were no secrets. They reached out to Ina May Boles, another friend, and were approached by Dr. Charles Richardson to make the organization more concrete. Through him, they met Alice Cary Simmonds and created the rituals and secrets that sisters all over the world hold near to their hearts to this day. Chi Omega was officially founded April 5, 1895 at the University of Arkansas.
"...even though we were very young, we were a sincere group of young women who had very definite ideas of the womanly ideal and definite ideas of what an intelligently trained woman could do in society. We thought often of our privileges in the social order and of our responsibilities to our fellow students and indefinitely to our society in the large. If we were discussing our ideals and our purposes in life, we would emphasize the influence of group living as a beginning for understanding our position in a democracy where people are bound together with a clear understanding and a sympathetic heart."
-Jobelle Holcombe
Jobelle Holcombe and Jean Vincenheller were close friends and decided to create their own Greek organization with secrets. The first secret of Chi Omega was that there were no secrets. They reached out to Ina May Boles, another friend, and were approached by Dr. Charles Richardson to make the organization more concrete. Through him, they met Alice Cary Simmonds and created the rituals and secrets that sisters all over the world hold near to their hearts to this day. Chi Omega was officially founded April 5, 1895 at the University of Arkansas.
"...even though we were very young, we were a sincere group of young women who had very definite ideas of the womanly ideal and definite ideas of what an intelligently trained woman could do in society. We thought often of our privileges in the social order and of our responsibilities to our fellow students and indefinitely to our society in the large. If we were discussing our ideals and our purposes in life, we would emphasize the influence of group living as a beginning for understanding our position in a democracy where people are bound together with a clear understanding and a sympathetic heart."
-Jobelle Holcombe
The Chi Omega Symphony
To live constantly above snobbery of word or deed;
to place scholarship before social obligations
and character before appearances;
to be, in the best sense,
democratic rather than 'exclusive',
and lovable rather than 'popular';
to work earnestly,
to speak kindly,
to act sincerely,
to choose thoughtfully that course which occasion and conscience demand;
to be womanly always;
to be discouraged never;
in a word, to be loyal under any and all circumstances to my Fraternity
and her highest teachings
and to have her welfare ever at heart
that she may be a symphony of high purpose and helpfulness
in which there is no discordant note.
Ethel Switzer Howard, Xi Chapter
1904
to place scholarship before social obligations
and character before appearances;
to be, in the best sense,
democratic rather than 'exclusive',
and lovable rather than 'popular';
to work earnestly,
to speak kindly,
to act sincerely,
to choose thoughtfully that course which occasion and conscience demand;
to be womanly always;
to be discouraged never;
in a word, to be loyal under any and all circumstances to my Fraternity
and her highest teachings
and to have her welfare ever at heart
that she may be a symphony of high purpose and helpfulness
in which there is no discordant note.
Ethel Switzer Howard, Xi Chapter
1904