Alpha Delta Phi Society (ΑΔΦ) also known asThe Society orAdelphi Society, is a United StatesGreek-letter literary and social society that is gender-inclusive.[1][2][3] The society formed in 1992 when four chapters withdrew from the all-maleAlpha Delta Phi fraternity.[1] Legally, the two groups are separate entities with different ideologies but continue to share traditions.[4][2]
Samuel Eells and four others founded the literary society Alpha Delta Phi atHamilton College in 1832.[5][2] The fraternity quickly expanded to other colleges across the United States and in Canada.[5][2]
In 1968, the California chapter at theUniversity of California, Berkeley began admitting women in violation of the fraternity's constitution.[6] Soon, the Chicago chapter atNorthwestern University also started admitting females.[6] 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.[6] The debate was contentious, with most chapters opposed to the change. As a result, the proposed amendment was tabled.[6]
Brother Robert Price was tasked with finding a solution to the conflict.[6] More Alpha Delta Phi chapters became coed, including the Brunonian chapter atBrown University and the Middletown chapter atWesleyan University in 1973.[7][8] That same year, Price came up with the Brown Compromise that allowed women to join as "local" members but not as national fraternity initiates.[3]
The Bowdoin chapter atBowdoin College went coed in 1976, followed by the Columbia chapter atColumbia University and theAmherst chapter atAmherst College.[9][6] However, the California and Chicago chapters returned to male-only status.[6]
In March 1975, the Brunonian chapter elected the first female president in the fraternity's history.[8] This resulted in 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.[8] In 1978, the coed chapters held a Co-Ed Caucus in Middletown to develop strategies.[6] They developed the home rule policy and introduced it at the 1978 national conference.[6] 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.[6]
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.[6] Although women could now be full members of individual chapters, they could only be associate members of the national fraternity.[6] 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.[7]
In 1985, female members from the Middletown chapter were denied entry to a business session at the national convention.[6] 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.[6] 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.[6]
In 1988, half of the Middletown chapter members were female.[7] 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 against women by the fall of 1990.[6] In November, theStanford University chapter became the first fraternity on its campus to go coed, initiating fifteen women.[10]
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.[6] 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.[6]
In 1991, theBowdoin chapter offered its local female members full fraternity status to comply with the college's new equality guidelines.[9] 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.[9]
In August 1992, at the fraternity's annual convention inBrainerd, Minnesota, the "Agreement Between the Alpha Delta Phi Fraternity and the Alpha Delta Phi Society" was ratified.[11] Under this agreement, the fraternity and the society separated and became independent, legal entities with their own governing bodies.[4] 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 lettersΑΔΦ and intellectual property, including history and songs.[6] The agreement also limited where new chapters could be established and the society's use of the name Alpha Delta Phi.[6] As a result, some chapters could not use the society name, instead operating as the Adelphi Society.[3]
In August 2017, at the Alpha Delta Phi fraternity's annual convention inMinneapolis, Minnesota, the fraternity and the society replaced the 1992 agreement.[3] The new agreement brought greater parity and removed geographic restrictions on the use of the name Alpha Delta Phi Society.[3] The language of the agreement was also simplified.[3]
In August 2023, the Lambda Phi chapter atMassachusetts Institute of Technology announced that they would go co-ed and begin recruiting and initiating new members of all genders, effective immediately.[14] The Alpha Delta Phi Fraternity Board of Governors responded by promptly revoking Lambda Phi's charter.[15] Within days, the Alpha Delta Phi Society Board of Governors announced that the Lambda Phi chapter had been granted affiliate chapter status with the society.[16] Lambda Phi was accepted as a fully chartered chapter at the Alpha Delta Phi Society annual convention in March 2024.[17][18] This was the first time since the formation and establishment of the society that a presently active Alpha Delta Phi Fraternity chapter voluntarily went co-ed and transitioned to becoming a society chapter.
The society continues to use the badge and crest of the Alpha Delta Phi fraternity. Its motto isManus Multæ Cor Unum or "Many Hands, One Heart". Its colors are emerald and pearl. Its flower is theLily of the valley.
The Alpha Delta Phi Society has seven active chapters, three graduate chapters, and three affiliate chapters.[19] All chapters are gender-inclusive. In the following list, active chapters are noted inbold and inactive chapters are noted initalics.
As a literary society, members write, read, and discuss literature.[13] It also publishes a literary magazine,Echoes From On High.[29] Its members participate in undergraduate and graduate literary competitions, supported by the Samuel Eells Literary and Educational Foundation, a separate nonprofit corporation.[30][31] The Bowdoin chapter also hosts the Alpha Delta Phi Visiting Writers Series.[32][33] Other chapters have co-hosted the production of a play or co-sponsored the Queer/Art/Poetics Conference.[34][35]
The chapters also hold social events, including open mic nights and band concerts.[13] 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.[2][36]
The Wesleyan University chapter house was designed byCharles A. Rich in 1906 in collegiatecolonial revival style.[37] The house is located at 185 High Street in Middletown, also the site of the chapter's 1884 house that was demolished in 1904.[37] An addition was added to the rear of the building in 1925.[37]
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.
^abcCheater, Mark (1988-11-11)."Men, Women Stand Up for Fraternity".Hartford Courant. Hartford, Connecticut. pp. C5. Retrieved2022-12-05 – via Newspapers.com.
^PSUC hosts an experimental play. (2015, May 8).UWIRE Text, 1. via Gale.
^"Queer/Art/Poetics Conference Explores Themes of Pleasure, Pain, and Representation at CAAS."UWIRE Text, April 27, 2015.Gale Academic OneFile (accessed December 7, 2022).
^"Fundraising Book Fair Held to Benefit Seacoast Reads."Targeted News Service, November 10, 2011.Gale OneFile: News (accessed December 7, 2022).
