Alpha Chi Omega

Alpha Chi Omega (ΑΧΩ, also known as Alpha Chi or A Chi O) is a women's fraternity founded on October 15, 1885. Currently, there are 193 chapters and Alpha Chi Omegas represented throughout colleges and universities across the United States, and there are more than 200,000 lifetime members. Diane Wilson Blackwelder is currently the National President of Alpha Chi Omega and oversees all collegiate and alumnae chapters in the nation. Alpha Chi Omega's official symbol is the three-stringed lyre.

History

Alpha Chi Omega was formed at DePauw University in Greencastle, Indiana on October 15, 1885.

In the fall of 1885, Professor James Hamilton Howe, the first Dean of the Music School, invited seven young women from the school to a meeting with the purpose of forming a fraternity. Those young women were Anna Allen, Olive Burnett, Bertha Deniston, Amy DuBois, Nellie Gamble, Bessie Grooms, and Estelle Leonard. Howe himself was not a member of a Greek fraternity, so he consulted with James G. Campbell, a Beta Theta Pi, on the proper procedures for founding a national-based fraternity. Campbell was thus responsible for laying out the first constitution and by-laws. This first constitution read: "The object of this fraternity is as follows: To attain the highest musical culture and to cultivate those principles that embody true womanhood." On February 26, 1886, the fraternity was given its formal introduction by a soiree musical.