From the Alpha Chi Omega National Sorority Website
Our History
With Alpha Chi Omega, you get an organization built by and for
real, strong women.
Alpha Chi Omega was founded on October 15, 1885 at
DePauw University in Greencastle, Indiana. That’s about 70 miles southwest of
our current headquarters in Indianapolis.
Back when America was getting
used to the notion that women belonged in college at all, the dean of DePauw’s
School of Music, Professor James Hamilton Howe, invited seven of his female
students to form a women’s society within the school.
Our founders took Professor Howe’s suggestion a step
further and formed a women’s fraternity, only the sixth of its kind in the
country. They were the first such group in the music school and believed they’d
be the last. So they chose as their name the first and last letters of the Greek
alphabet—Alpha and Omega. They put the word “Kai” (and) in the middle, and later
changed it to the Greek letter Chi.
Our founders wanted Alpha Chi Omega
to advance “the intellectual, social and moral culture” of its members. It
worked. Today, our women’s Fraternity, the Alpha Chi Omega Foundation and our National Housing Corporation serve more than
200,000 members in more than 130 collegiate chapters and 200 alumnae chapters
nationwide.
With Alpha Chi Omega, you get an organization built by and for
real, strong women.
Alpha Chi Omega was founded on October 15, 1885 at
DePauw University in Greencastle, Indiana. That’s about 70 miles southwest of
our current headquarters in Indianapolis.
Back when America was getting
used to the notion that women belonged in college at all, the dean of DePauw’s
School of Music, Professor James Hamilton Howe, invited seven of his female
students to form a women’s society within the school.
Our founders took Professor Howe’s suggestion a step
further and formed a women’s fraternity, only the sixth of its kind in the
country. They were the first such group in the music school and believed they’d
be the last. So they chose as their name the first and last letters of the Greek
alphabet—Alpha and Omega. They put the word “Kai” (and) in the middle, and later
changed it to the Greek letter Chi.
Our founders wanted Alpha Chi Omega
to advance “the intellectual, social and moral culture” of its members. It
worked. Today, our women’s Fraternity, the Alpha Chi Omega Foundation and our National Housing Corporation serve more than
200,000 members in more than 130 collegiate chapters and 200 alumnae chapters
nationwide.