Alpha Delta Phi Society, also known as The Society or Adelphi Society, is a United States
Greek-letter literary and social society that is gender-inclusive.
[Lurding, Carroll and Becque, Fran. ]
Almanac of Fraternities and Sororities
'. Urbana: University of Illinois, September 27, 2022. Accessed December 4, 2022. The society formed in 1992 when four chapters withdrew from the all-male
Alpha Delta Phi fraternity.
Legally, the two groups are separate entities with different ideologies but continue to share traditions.
History
Alpha Delta Phi
Samuel Eells and four others founded the literary society Alpha Delta Phi at
Hamilton College
Hamilton College is a private liberal arts college in Clinton, Oneida County, New York. It was founded as Hamilton-Oneida Academy in 1793 and was chartered as Hamilton College in 1812 in honor of inaugural trustee Alexander Hamilton, following ...
in 1832.
[Baird, William Raimond (1879).]
Delta Psi". ''American College Fraternities: A Descriptive Analysis of the Society System in the Colleges of the United States, with Detailed Account of Each Fraternity''
(1st ed.). Philadelphia, PA: J. P. Lippman & Co. pp. 25–30 via The Hathi Trust. The fraternity quickly expanded to other colleges across the United States and in Canada.
Coed debate
In 1968, the ''California chapter'' at the
University of California, Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...
began initiating women in violation of the fraternity's constitution.
Soon, the ''Chicago chapter'' at Northwestern University also started admitting females.
At the Alpha Delta Phi national convention in 1972, the ''California chapter'' proposed an amendment to the constitution, eliminating the all-male restriction and allowing women to become full members.
The debate was contentious, with most chapters opposed to the change. As a result, the proposed amendment was tabled.
Brother Robert Price was tasked with finding a solution to the conflict.
More Alpha Delta Phi chapters became coed, including ''Brunonian chapter'' at
Brown University and the ''Middletown chapter'' at
Wesleyan University
Wesleyan University ( ) is a private liberal arts university in Middletown, Connecticut. Founded in 1831 as a men's college under the auspices of the Methodist Episcopal Church and with the support of prominent residents of Middletown, the col ...
in 1973.
That same year, Price came up with the Brown Compromise that allowed women to join as "local" members but not as national fraternity initiates.
The ''Bowdoin chapter'' at
Bowdoin College went coed in 1976, followed by the ''Columbia chapter'' at
Columbia University
Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...
and the ''Amherst chapter'' at
Amherst College.
However, the ''California'' and ''Chicago chapters'' returned to male-only status.
In March 1975, the ''Brunonian chapter'' elected the first female president in the fraternity's history.
This resulted in a great deal of media coverage and hostility from the fraternity and its alumni. Alpha Delta Phi sent a letter stating its plans to suspend the ''Brunonian chapter'' at the next national meeting.
In 1978, the coed chapters held a Co-Ed Caucus in Middletown to develop strategies.
They developed the home rule policy and introduced it at the 1978 national conference.
However, the proposed home rule policy was defeated; it would have given each chapter the right to decide whether or not to initiate women fully.
At the 1981 convention, the Trinity Compromise was adopted, allowing those "non-constitutionally qualified for membership" to be inducted as full members of a chapter and participate in the initiation ceremony as long as they did not hold an elected office or vote on new members.
Although women could now be full members of individual chapters, they could only be associate members of the national fraternity.
The coed chapters immediately began circumventing the resolution, allowing women to serve as officers by creating new offices or submitting male names to the national fraternity. Some chapters submitted female entries to the fraternity's literary contest under male members' names.
In 1985, female members from the ''Middletown chapter'' were denied entry to a business session at the national convention.
Not only were the women not allowed to stay for the business meeting, but there was also pushing and shoving when they tried to participate in ceremonies at the annual banquet.
The next year at the annual convention, the ''Washington chapter'' and the ''Berkeley chapter'' presented a resolution to revoke the charter of any chapter that initiated women after August 1990.
In 1988, half of the ''Middletown chapter'' members were female''.''
By the next year, the option of splitting Alpha Delta Phi had supporters. In 1989, the ''Brunonian chapter'' passed a resolution to cut ties with the national fraternity if it did not stop its discrimination of women by the fall of 1990.
In November, the ''
Stanford University chapter'' became the first fraternity on its campus to go coed, initiating fifteen women.
At the 1990 national convention, the adoption of the Berkeley-Washington resolution was delayed in favor of a new proposal to create two separate, but connected, organizations.
According to this proposal, Alpha Delta Phi would remain an all-male fraternity and the new Alpha Delta Phi Society would consist of the coed chapters and any interested all-male chapters. This proposal convinced the ''Brunonian chapter'' to delay its disassociation by another year.
In 1991, the ''Bowdoin chapter'' offered its local female members full fraternity status to comply with the college's new equality guidelines.
Although the chapter had been coed for fifteen years, its compliance with the college's guidelines put it at odds with the national fraternity that had yet to create an official solution for its coed chapters.
The Society
In August 1992 at the fraternity's annual convention in
Brainerd, Minnesota
Brainerd is a city in Crow Wing County, Minnesota, United States. Its population was 14,395 at the 2020 census. It is the county seat of Crow Wing County. Brainerd straddles the Mississippi River several miles upstream from its confluence with ...
, the "Agreement Between the Alpha Delta Phi Fraternity and the Alpha Delta Phi Society" was ratified.
Under this agreement, the fraternity and the society separated and became independent, legal entities with their own governing bodies.
The two organizations would not share membership, except for male members of the society chapters who joined the fraternity before 1992. The groups would share the license for the Greek letters ΑΔΦ and intellectual property, including history and songs.
The agreement also limited where new chapters could be established and the society's use of the name Alpha Delta Phi.
As a result, some chapters could not use the society name, instead operating as the Adelphi Society.
With the adoption of the agreement, the ''Brown'', ''Columbia'', ''Stanford, and Wesleyan chapters'' withdrew from the fraternity.
These four chapters established the Alpha Delta Phi Society that granted each of its chapters home rule to determine its gender makeup.
The ''Bowdoin chapter'' joined at the society's first convention in 1993.
The society adopted a constitution in October 1997 at its annual convention, ratifying it in 1998.
Its first affiliate was formed in 1994 at
Middlebury College.
Between 2008 and 20015, affiliate chapters and chapters opened at
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of high ...
, the
University of New Hampshire
The University of New Hampshire (UNH) is a public land-grant research university with its main campus in Durham, New Hampshire. It was founded and incorporated in 1866 as a land grant college in Hanover in connection with Dartmouth College, m ...
, the
University of Pennsylvania
The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universitie ...
,
Binghamton University,
George Washington University
The George Washington University (GW or GWU) is a Private university, private University charter#Federal, federally chartered research university in Washington, D.C. Chartered in 1821 by the United States Congress, GWU is the largest Higher educat ...
,
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, and
Ursinus College
Ursinus College is a private liberal arts college in Collegeville, Pennsylvania. It was founded in 1869 and occupies a 170-acre campus.
History
19th century
In 1867, members of the German Reformed Church began plans to establish a college wh ...
.
In August 2017 at the Alpha Delta Phi fraternity's annual convention in
Minneapolis, Minnesota, the fraternity and the society replaced the 1992 agreement.
The new agreement brought greater parity and removed geographic restrictions on the use of the name Alpha Delta Phi Society.
The language of the agreement was also simplified.
Nomenclature and insignia
The Society continues to use the badge and crest of the Alpha Delta Phi fraternity.
Chapters
The Alpha Delta Phi Society has seven active chapters, three graduate chapters, and three affiliate chapters.
All chapters are gender-inclusive. Active chapters are noted in bold; inactive chapters are noted in ''italic''.
Notes
Activities
As a literary society, members write, read, and discuss literature.
It also publishes a literary magazine, ''Echoes From On High''. Its members participate in undergraduate and graduate literary competitions, supported by the Samuel Eells Literary and Educational Foundation, a separate nonprofit corporation. The Bowdoin chapter also hosts the Alpha Delta Phi Visiting Writers Series. Other chapters have co-hosted the production of a play or co-sponsored the Queer/Art/Poetics Conference.
The chapters also hold social events, such as open mic nights and band concerts.
The society also participates in charitable activities, such as Blind Date With a Book or Book Fairs which raise funds for various organizations, including Books Behind Bars and Seacoast Reads.
Chapter houses
The Wesleyan University chapter house was designed by
Charles A. Rich
Charles Alonzo Rich (October 22, 1854 – December 3, 1943) was an American architect who practiced in New York City from 1882 until 1933. Rich was a member of the Architectural League of New York. Rich was a partner in the New York architec ...
in 1906 in collegiate
colonial revival
The Colonial Revival architectural style seeks to revive elements of American colonial architecture.
The beginnings of the Colonial Revival style are often attributed to the Centennial Exhibition of 1876, which reawakened Americans to the archit ...
style.
The house is located at 185 High Street in Middletown, also the site of the chapter's 1884 house that was demolished in 1904.
An addition was added to the rear of the building in 1925.
Alumni organizations
The society has numerous regional graduate organizations.
Notable members
Some alumni of the founding society chapters joined before the schism between fraternity and society; they are listed as notables for both organizations. This issue was deliberated as part of the separation agreement between the organizations, allowing both to claim the alumni from the earlier era.
*
John Perry Barlow
John Perry Barlow (October 3, 1947February 7, 2018) was an American poet, essayist, cattle rancher, and cyberlibertarian political activist who had been associated with both the Democratic and Republican parties. He was also a lyricist for th ...
(Wesleyan University, 1969) – poet, essayist, lyricist for the
Grateful Dead, co-founder of
Electronic Frontier Foundation
*
Arlo Bates
Arlo Bates (December 16, 1850 – August 25, 1918) was an American author, educator and newspaperman.
Biography
Arlo Bates was born at East Machias, Maine. He graduated from Bowdoin College in 1876. In 1880 Bates became the editor of the Bosto ...
(Bowdoin College, 18xx) – novelist, poet
*
Samuel Blatchford
Samuel M. Blatchford (March 9, 1820 – July 7, 1893) was an American attorney and judge. He was most notable for his service as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from April 3, 1882 until his death in 1893.
Early ...
(Columbia University, 1837) –
U.S. Supreme Court justice
*
Charles S. Bradley (Brown University, 1838) – chief justice of the
Rhode Island Supreme Court
The Rhode Island Supreme Court is the Supreme court, court of last resort in the U.S. State of Rhode Island. The Court consists of a Chief Justice and four Associate Justices, all selected by the Governor of Rhode Island from candidates vetted by ...
*
Joshua Chamberlain
Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain (born Lawrence Joshua Chamberlain, September 8, 1828February 24, 1914) was an American college professor from Maine who volunteered during the American Civil War to join the Union Army. He became a highly respected and ...
(Bowdoin College, 1852) –
Governor of Maine
The governor of Maine is the head of government of the U.S. state of Maine. Before Maine was admitted to the Union in 1820, Maine was part of Massachusetts and the governor of Massachusetts was chief executive.
The current governor of Maine is J ...
; president of
Bowdoin College
*
John David Clifford Jr. (Bowdoin College, 18xx) –
district judge of the
United States District Court for the District of Maine
The U.S. District Court for the District of Maine (in case citations, D. Me.) is the U.S. district court for the state of Maine. The District of Maine was one of the original thirteen district courts established by the Judiciary Act of 17 ...
*
Buzzy Cohen (Columbia University, 2009) –
Jeopardy! Tournament of Champions
''Jeopardy!'' is an American television quiz show created by Merv Griffin, in which contestants are presented with clues in the form of answers and must phrase their responses in the form of questions. Over the years, the show has featured many t ...
winner in 2017
*
George Fisk Comfort (Bowdoin College, 1857) – art historian, founder of
Metropolitan Museum of Art
The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the Americas. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 1000 ...
and
Everson Museum of Art Everson may refer to:
People with the surname
* Ben Everson (born 1987), English footballer
* Bill Everson (1906–1966), Welsh international rugby union player
* Cliff Everson, a New Zealand car designer and manufacturer
* Corinna Everson (born ...
*
George William Curtis
George William Curtis (February 24, 1824 – August 31, 1892) was an American writer and public speaker born in Providence, Rhode Island. An early Republican, he spoke in favor of African-American equality and civil rights both before and after ...
(Brown University, 1852) – writer, journalist, abolitionist, political editor of ''
Harper's Weekly
''Harper's Weekly, A Journal of Civilization'' was an American political magazine based in New York City. Published by Harper & Brothers from 1857 until 1916, it featured foreign and domestic news, fiction, essays on many subjects, and humor, ...
''
*
Thomas Ewing Jr. (Brown University, 1856) – general U.S. Army, congressman, chief justice
Kansas Supreme Court
The Kansas Supreme Court is the highest judicial authority in the state of Kansas. Composed of seven justices, led by Chief Justice Marla Luckert, the court supervises the legal profession, administers the judicial branch, and serves as the st ...
*
William Russell Grace
William Russell Grace (May 10, 1832 – March 21, 1904) was an Irish-American politician, the first Roman Catholic mayor of New York City, and the founder of W. R. Grace and Company.
Early life
Grace was born in Ireland in Riverstown near the C ...
(Columbia University, 1900) – founder of
W. R. Grace and Company
W. R. Grace and Co. is an American chemical business based in Columbia, Maryland. It produces specialty chemicals and specialty materials in two divisions: Grace Catalysts Technologies, which makes catalysts and related products and technologies ...
*
Abram W. Harris (Wesleyan University, 1880) – president of
Northwestern University
Northwestern University is a private research university in Evanston, Illinois. Founded in 1851, Northwestern is the oldest chartered university in Illinois and is ranked among the most prestigious academic institutions in the world.
Charte ...
and
University of Maine
The University of Maine (UMaine or UMO) is a public land-grant research university in Orono, Maine. It was established in 1865 as the land-grant college of Maine and is the flagship university of the University of Maine System. It is classifie ...
*
Roger Howell Jr. (Bowdoin College, 1958) – president of
Bowdoin College
*
John Jay
John Jay (December 12, 1745 – May 17, 1829) was an American statesman, patriot, diplomat, abolitionist, signatory of the Treaty of Paris, and a Founding Father of the United States. He served as the second governor of New York and the f ...
(Columbia University, 1836) – abolitionist, diplomat, lawyer
*
Thomas Jenckes (Brown University, 1838) – congressman
*
Elijah Kellogg (Bowdoin College, 1840) – author
*
Pagan Kennedy
Pagan Kennedy (born c. 1963) is an American citizen, American columnist and author, and pioneer of the 1990s zine movement.
She has written ten books in a variety of genres, was a regular contributor to the ''Boston Globe'', and has published ar ...
(Wesleyan University, 1984) – author, pioneer of 1990s
zine
A zine ( ; short for '' magazine'' or '' fanzine'') is a small-circulation self-published work of original or appropriated texts and images, usually reproduced via a copy machine. Zines are the product of either a single person or of a very s ...
movement
*
Otto Kerner Jr.
Otto Kerner Jr. (August 15, 1908 – May 9, 1976) was an American jurist and politician who served as the 33rd governor of Illinois from 1961 to 1968 and a United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit ...
(Brown University, 1930) –
Governor of Illinois
The governor of Illinois is the head of government of Illinois, and the various agencies and departments over which the officer has jurisdiction, as prescribed in the state constitution. It is a directly elected position, votes being cast by p ...
*
Goodwin Knight (Stanford University) – Governor of California
*
George V. N. Lothrop (Brown University, 1838) – Michigan Attorney General
*
Monica Louwerens (Wesleyan University, 1995) – actress and
Miss America contestant
*
Robert Ludlum
Robert Ludlum (May 25, 1927 – March 12, 2001) was an American author of 27 thriller novels, best known as the creator of Jason Bourne from the original '' The Bourne Trilogy'' series. The number of copies of his books in print is estimated b ...
(Wesleyan University, 1951) – novelist
*
George Frederick Magoun
George Frederick Magoun (1821 – January 30, 1896"Obituaries", ''The New York Times''. January 31, 1896. Available fro/ref>), a member of the Iowa Band of Congregationalist ministers, was the first president of Iowa College (now Grinnell College) ...
(Bowdoin College, 1841) – president of
Iowa College
Grinnell College is a private liberal arts college in Grinnell, Iowa, United States. It was founded in 1846 when a group of New England Congregationalists established the Trustees of Iowa College.
Grinnell has the fifth highest endowment-to-stu ...
*
Thomas Merton (Columbia University, 1938) –
Trappist monk,
theologian
Theology is the systematic study of the nature of the divine and, more broadly, of religious belief. It is taught as an academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries. It occupies itself with the unique content of analyzing the ...
*
Barry Mills (Bowdoin College, 1972) – president of
Bowdoin College
*
Marcus Morton
Marcus Morton (1784 – February 6, 1864) was an American lawyer, jurist, and politician from Taunton, Massachusetts. He served two terms as Governor of Massachusetts and several months as Acting Governor following the death in 1825 of Willia ...
(Bowdoin College, 1838) – chief justice of the
Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court
*
David Packard
David Packard ( ; September 7, 1912 – March 26, 1996) was an American electrical engineer and co-founder, with Bill Hewlett, of Hewlett-Packard (1939), serving as president (1947–64), CEO (1964–68), and chairman of the board (1964–68 ...
(Stanford University, 1934) – founder of the
Hewlett-Packard Computer Corporation
*
Daniel Pearl
Daniel Pearl (October 10, 1963 – February 1, 2002) was an American journalist who worked for ''The Wall Street Journal.'' He was kidnapped and later decapitated by terrorists in Pakistan.'
Pearl was born in Princeton, New Jersey, and rais ...
(Stanford University, 1985) – journalist, ''
The Wall Street Journal
''The Wall Street Journal'' is an American business-focused, international daily newspaper based in New York City, with international editions also available in Chinese and Japanese. The ''Journal'', along with its Asian editions, is published ...
'' editor
*
J. Meredith Read (Brown University, 1858) – U.S. Minister to Greece, Consul General to France and Algeria
*
John D. Rockefeller Jr.
John Davison Rockefeller Jr. (January 29, 1874 – May 11, 1960) was an American financier and philanthropist, and the only son of Standard Oil co-founder John D. Rockefeller.
He was involved in the development of the vast office complex in M ...
(Brown University, 1897) – director,
Standard Oil and
U.S. Steel
*
Michael S. Roth (Wesleyan University, 1978) – president of
Wesleyan University
Wesleyan University ( ) is a private liberal arts university in Middletown, Connecticut. Founded in 1831 as a men's college under the auspices of the Methodist Episcopal Church and with the support of prominent residents of Middletown, the col ...
*
George Washington Shonk (Wesleyan University, 1873) –
U.S. House of Representatives
The United States House of Representatives, often referred to as the House of Representatives, the U.S. House, or simply the House, is the lower chamber of the United States Congress, with the Senate being the upper chamber. Together they ...
*
Herbert B. Shonk (Wesleyan University, 1873) –
New York State Assembly, attorney
*
Watson G. Squire (Wesleyan University, 18xx) – U.S. Senator, Ohio Attorney General
Baird's Manual of American College Fraternities
'. Menasha, Wisc.: G. Banta Co., 1879. p. 59-60 – via Hathi Trust.
*
Ben Stein (Columbia University, 1966) – actor and author
*Charles Wardell Stiles (Wesleyan University, 18xx) – zoologist,
parasitologist
Parasitology is the study of parasites, their hosts, and the relationship between them. As a biological discipline, the scope of parasitology is not determined by the organism or environment in question but by their way of life. This means it ...
with
U.S. Department of Agriculture
The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) is the federal executive department responsible for developing and executing federal laws related to farming, forestry, rural economic development, and food. It aims to meet the needs of comme ...
*
George Templeton Strong
George Templeton Strong (January 26, 1820 – July 21, 1875) was an American lawyer, musician and diarist. His 2,250-page diary, discovered in the 1930s, provides a striking personal account of life in the 19th century, especially during the eve ...
(Columbia University, 1838) – prolific
diarist
A diary is a written or audiovisual record with discrete entries arranged by date reporting on what has happened over the course of a day or other period. Diaries have traditionally been handwritten but are now also often digital. A personal d ...
See also
*
Alpha Delta Phi fraternity
*
List of Alpha Delta Phi chapters
*
List of Alpha Delta Phi members
*
List of social fraternities and sororities
Social or general fraternities and sororities, in the North American fraternity system, are those that do not promote a particular profession (as professional fraternities are) or discipline (such as service fraternities and sororities). Inste ...
References
{{Fraternities and Sororities , collapsed
Student societies in the United States
Student organizations established in 1992
Literary societies