Theta Sigma Phi - Nu Chapter records

Collection

Identifier: ua00670

Staff Only

Overview

The collection contains the papers of Theta Sigma Phi's Nu Chapter at the University of Minnesota.

Scope and Contents

The Theta Sigma Phi - Nu chapter records contain a bulk of material related to the organization's administration. This includes membership information, event programs, their constitution, handbook and meeting minutes, spanning from 1916 to 1969. Additional scrapbooks and plaques documenting their time as a student organization at the University of Minnesota are included.

Dates

Creation: 1916-1968

Creator

Theta Sigma Phi. Nu Chapter (Organization)

Access to Materials

Items in this collection do not circulate and may be used in-house only.

Copyright

Researchers may quote from the collection under the fair use provision of the copyright law (Title 17, U.S. Code). Requests to publish should be arranged with the University of Minnesota Archives.

Historical Note

Theta Sigma Phi is a national professional sorority for women in journalism and communications, founded on April 8, 1909 at the University of Washington, Seattle (1). Women students at the University of Minnesota began petitioning for a local chapter of the sorority in the Spring of 1916, as other local chapters were being founded across the nation (2). This chapter was initially considered the Thirty Club, in which Flora J. Macdonald was the president (3). But in the January 22, 1917 edition of the Minnesota Alumni Weekly, it was stated that the Thirty Club would be absorbed by the Theta Sigma Pi national journalistic organization on February 9, 1917, as the Nu chapter at the University of Minnesota (4). Theta Sigma Pi was the third professional sorority to be organized on campus and included the following members, Flora J. Macdonald, president, Lucy How, vice president, and Genevive Bernhardt, secretary-treasurer (5). During the course of the 1920s, members of the Theta Sigma Phi - Nu chapter were tasked to edit an issue of The Minnesota Daily (6). Starting in the mid-1930s, Theta Sigma Phi - Nu chapter began hosting, alongside the Sigma Delta Chi fraternity, an annual “Dogwatch” event, as a way to introduce freshman and sophomore students to faculty and upperclassmen within the School of Journalism (8). And from 1939 to 1970, a Theta Sigma Phi Fellowship was established and awarded to a junior woman student majoring in journalism (9)

By the 1940s and 1950s, members of the Theta Sigma Phi - Nu chapter held editorial roles in multiple university publications, including the magazine, Ski-U-Mah and The Minnesota Daily (7). Theta Sigma Phi - Nu chapter continued as a professional sorority at the University of Minnesota throughout the 1960s. It was last listed as a student group in the 1970-1971 University of Minnesota Student Organization Directory and by 1972 the national organization had changed its name to Women in Communications, Incorporated (WICI) (10). A University of Minnesota student chapter of the WICI continued on as a professional student organization for women during the 1980s and 1990s (11). It provided mentorship and resources for students in advancing through the various fields of communication (11).

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