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About Sigma Alpha Iota*
In early spring of 1903, Mrs. Fredreka Howland, wife of William Howland, head of the Vocal Department of the University School of Music, Ann Arbor, Michigan, suggested that a musical sorority be organized which would aim for high standards of musicianship and for promotion of the highest type of music. She felt there was a need for such an organization. A meeting was held in Mr. Howland's studio to discuss this idea. There was some talk of a musical club but finally a Sorority was decided upon as better fitting plans for close bonds of friendship. It was decided that only students of fine character and special musical talent combined with excellent scholarship would be eligible for membership.
On June 12, 1903, Sigma Alpha Iota Musical Sorority was founded. Together Elizabeth A. Campbell, Frances Caspari, Minnie Davis Sherrill, Leila Farlin Laughlin, Nora Crane Hunt, Georgina Potts, and Mary Storrs Andersen "solemnly pledged themselves to help each other with sisterly affection, to stand for the highest musical scholarship, for nobility and uprightness of character and for the maintenance of friendly and unselfish relations among women in the musical profession."
In order to have the Sorority properly incorporated under Michigan State Laws, Articles of Association were drawn by Carl Storm, Attorney at Ann Arbor, signed on December 1, 1904, and recorded on December 15, 1904.
Shortly thereafter a group of women at Northwestern University petitioned the new sorority to be charted as a chapter. This became our Beta Chapter. Since then the sorority, as it was called at the time, rightly changed its official name to an "International Music Fraternity" (explanation) and has grown to over 200 chapters and over 100,000 initiated members.
About Eta Rho
In the fall of 1989, Virginia Greenough Mautte, a third generation Sigma Alpha Iota sister and an alumna of Susquehanna University, came to the University of Delaware as a graduate student. She was surprised to find that the University had no chapter of Sigma Alpha Iota and immediately set about founding a new chapter.
Her efforts led to the formation of an interest group, and on May 6, 1990, these fourteen women were initiated and became the first pledge class of the Eta Rho chapter. That following fall Dr. David Herman, head of the music department at the time and an international performer on organ, was also made a National Arts Associate. The chapter has initiated ten other Distinguished Members in its 18-year existence.
Since its founding, the chapter has continued to grow to the current size of 25 active sisters (with over 160 alumnae) and is an important part of the music department and campus community at the University of Delaware. The chapter holds numerous musical performances, service and fundraising projects, and social events each year.
Fraternity Insignia
- Our colors are crimson and white
- Our flower is the red rose
- Our badge is the seven gold Pipes of Pan encircled by pearls bearing the Greek letters Sigma, Alpha, Iota on black enamel
- Our coat of arms is a shield of gold, with the middle third of crimson. In the center is a sword lying in an open book; at the top right a white rose, and at the left a red rose. Above the bar of alternate gold and crimson is a green wreath encircling gold Pipes of Pan. Below the shield is a scroll containing the open motto of the fraternity, "Vita Brevis, Ars Longa"
- Our motto translates to "Life is short, but Art is long", a saying made by the ancient Greek physician Hippocrates.
*Taken from ΣAI National