Expansion

Each new chapter of life brings opportunities to seize, challenges to overcome and relationships that encourage growth. For our Founders, their drive to establish Alpha Phi as a society for women in 1872 launched the start of a transformative chapter that has connected all Alpha Phis for the last 150 years. Each generation of our members has blazed a trail ahead to light the way for the next inspired and innovative women to step forward.

Martha Foote Crow was thinking ahead as she reflected, “Now that we have founded the Alpha Chapter of the Alpha Phi Sorority, is this all there is to do?... No indeed...We have all the Alphabet to go through, and to go through again and again...Can we not be a World Society as well as a National One? Yes, there is work enough for all of us and today is no time to be idle.” Our Founders dreamed of a sisterhood that would grow and develop right alongside its members.

Growth began slowly, spanning nearly a decade as a single-chapter organization before the Beta chapter was founded at Northwestern University in 1881. From that very first growth into a second chapter, it was the friendships we built and the ones we wanted to build that guided our expansion.

Once Beta was established, the Eta chapter in Boston soon followed, and then the Gamma chapter at DePauw all by the summer of 1887. At the 1888 Convention, Alpha Phis discussed expansion and members continued to proceed with caution as we engaged members whose values aligned with those of the Fraternity.

In the early 1900s, following the successful establishment of the Delta-Cornell chapter, Alpha Phi capitalized on the excitement and momentum to establish the Epsilon chapter at Minnesota, the Zeta chapter at Goucher, the Theta chapter at Michigan, the Iota chapter at Wisconsin and, in 1899, founded the Fraternity’s first chapter that was truly in the West – the Kappa chapter at Stanford. That led to more growth with the Lambda-Berkeley, Mu-Barnard and Nu-Nebraska chapters. With the establishment of our Xi chapter at Toronto in 1906, Alpha Phi became an international Fraternity.

From there, the sky was the limit. Connections from member to member only grew as we reached out and welcomed chapter after chapter. By March of 1955, more than 80 years after our founding, we welcomed our 57th chapter – Gamma Iota – at Texas Tech. From coast to coast and into Canada, members were making their communities better by lifting one another up.

By Alpha Phi’s 100th anniversary in 1972, before it became a well-loved phrase, we saw the truth in the saying “the future is female.” Throughout the rest of the 1970s and early 80s, that same drive and determination continued to inspire tremendous Alpha Phi growth.

By Alpha Phi’s 125th Anniversary, Alpha Phi had initiated more than 100,000 members. Throughout the beginning of the new millennium, Alpha Phi continued to grow with Iota Gamma at University of the Pacific, Iota Delta at Rhode Island, Iota Zeta at Colorado School of Mines and Iota Theta at Canada’s Wilfrid Laurier. The Iota Tau chapter at Harvard was established in 2013, and fought sanctions imposed by the university on all single-gender social clubs and Greek life organizations. By working together, steadfast in their resolve and valuing the camaraderie of sisterhood, they stood up to the restrictions and they won.

Some of our most recent chapters, like Kappa Iota at Wyoming, Kappa Kappa at Angelo State and Kappa Lambda at CU Denver reflect our desire to welcome new Alpha Phis who believe in the foundation our Founders set out for us: nothing is impossible – if only we have the courage, the determination and the support to see it through.