Eta Zeta Sigma and Kappa Beta Pi-First Sororities at the University of Detroit
March 16, 1928, Eta Zeta Sigma initiation. Taken on Woodward near Six Mile Road
Eta Zeta Sigma became the first sorority to be organized at the University in 1919-20 school year. Membership was restricted to women students of the school of Commerce and Finance. The first sorority function was a Christmas party at one of the University parlors. The sorority was organized to promote college spirit among women of the University and to foster true loyalty. In the 1929 Tower Yearbook, there is a description of some of the initiation rites to train the “neophytes” in the ideals of self subordination and sacrifice. “Riding “kiddie-kars” selling mud pies on the main thoroughfares, and playing marbles in the streets, are a few of the brain-children of the initiators used in the past. The remarkable thing about selling the selling of mud baked goods is that the attractiveness of the salesladies often makes up for the deficiency in the value of the product, and the male victims of their wiles inevitably fall and pay out their change like boule players at Ostend, incidentally adding cash profits to the initiation.” Eta Zeta Sigma became Zeta Chapter of Phi Gamma Nu in 1931.
Later in the school year of 1919-20, Kappa Beta Pi Legal Sorority, of the Women Law Students at UD was installed in May 1920. It was the first national women’s organization to be install at the University of Detroit.
The last item in the archive files is dated in 1966. A search on the internet seems to indicate that the sorority may have ended sometime in the 1970′s.
There are still many other sororities on the UDM campus. Check them out here.
Pat Higo, Archives and Special Collections Librarian
