September 20, 1917

One of the most elaborate and brilliant affairs in University life was the installation of Arizona Alpha Chapter of the Pi Beta Phi Fraternity during the first week in August. Members of the local, Gamma Delta, journied from all parts of the state early to attend this important occasion. Dr. May L. Keller, grand president of Pi Beta Phi and Dean of Westhampton College at Richmond, Virginia, and Mrs. Ford J. Allen, grand vice-president from Oak Park, Illinois, were the installing officers. They were assisted by the resident Pi Phis. Mrs. A. O. Neal, inson, Mrs. R. W. Sprague, and Miss Frances Wells.

Pi Beta Phi is the oldest national organization of its kind, being founded in 1867, and has an enrollment of about 9,000 members, 1,700 of when are now active. The Fraternity maintains scholarships and loan funds for undergraduates, in addition to a fellowship for a year’s study in Europe.

However, aside form this prominent socially of the Pi Beta Phi Fraternity, the members are alert to the needs of others. The most important adjunct or institution that is sponsors is the settlement school at Gatlinburg, Tennessee. In that out-of-the-way place thirty-five acres of land have been prepared. Four buildings are maintained with four resident teachers who are constantly training some two hundred children for citizenship.

During all its activities, the local, Gamma Delta has been prominent in scholastic and social enterprises. It was organized in 1906 and numbered thirty-two alumnae and eighteen active members. Arizona Alpha is the 55th Chapter of Pi Beta Phi and the first women’s national to enter the University of Arizona.

The Pi Beta Phi installation occasioned a week of social gaiety in the Old Pueblo. The guests were entertained with numerous luncheons dinners, an information reception. and a trip to San Xavier Mission.