Talk:List of Pi Beta Phi chapters

List updates

I've updated this list to meet Fraternity and Sorority Project standards. Now sorted by charter date, but note that all the columns are sortable. Some remaining questions:

1. Throughout the table I’ve consolidated as a naming convention the names of Pi Beta Phi’s early and/or long-dormant ‘city’ chapters, calling them “Community Chapters”. If Pi Phi staff have preferred nomenclature, just let me know.
2. Would someone confirm when the state names were added to the chapter names? Was this in the transition to call the organization Pi Beta Phi, or did this come later? (I understand both names were used by the fraternity, and that they were essentially switched.)
3. Was the combination of Illinois Beta and Illinois Delta, Lombard and Knox respectively, considered a merger, an absorption, or a consolidation? Our syntax defines these that a Merger would be two relatively equal groups, and Absorption would mean the affiliation of a small number of members, in ratio significantly fewer than those who are part of the main group, and a Consolidation, like a Merger, but with obvious weakness on the part of one group. Both were active at the time, in 1930.
4. Was Nu chapter, at Clarinda, Iowa associated with a school or seminary, or was it purely a community chapter?
5. Some chapters were given state-name modifiers, while others remained unchanged. Was there a protocol for this? For example, Omicron chapter was later named Iowa Delta chapter, in Burlington, Iowa. While Nu, Xi, Phi, and Rho were not changed.
6. Short-lived “Sigma 1” chapter is listed at being placed at “Pella College”. The only school I see that was present in that community is Central College of Iowa, founded in 1853. Was that the school?
7. How did Iowa Eta at Drake get an early name in that naming series? Did it adopt a charter from a previously closed Iowa chapter? Callanan was of course connected to Drake by 1886, but the name of its chapter was later in the series versus Drake’s. Was there a merger?
8. Was Lambda chapter at Coe given a “state series” name?
9. Nebraska Alpha is curious. The chapter was formed in 1884, but the school itself was not created until 1891. I cannot square this. Can you clarify?
10. The Archive notes Cincinnati Wesleyan College, 1842-1892 as the home for both a Kappa Alpha Theta chapter and the Psi chapter of Pi Beta Phi. It appears this is another school for which we need to draft an article. To add confusion, there was an Ohio Wesleyan Female College, formed in 1850 which merged into Ohio Wesleyan in 1877, so the Cincinnati school appears to have outlasted it by some fifteen years. Do you have any clarification? For now, I added this one to our list of missing school pages. (Project editors plan to write new articles for all the redlinked school names.)
11. Your University of Texas chapter, TX Alpha, had evolved from a previous local(?) group called “Delta Delta Delta”. Was that a local chapter, or was it poached from the national sorority of that name? As no chapter formation there at that time is noted on the Delta Delta Delta national article on the Archive website, I assume this was a coincidental naming of a local. Perhaps they knew of the national of that name, but eventually chose Pi Beta Phi for affiliation. Interesting.
12. Three chapters formed about 1919 all show that they came from a local called “Beta Psi”. See NY Delta, OK Beta and ME Alpha. Unless these were captive locals, formed for the purpose of creating Pi Beta Phi chapters, it would otherwise be too much of a coincidence. Was that a correct guess?

Jax MN (talk) 11:32, 8 March 2024 (UTC)

Two more:

• Nebraska Alpha chapter was at York Methodist College in York, Nebraska, not at Nebraska Methodist College in Omaha, as was previously noted on this list. I have since adjusted this line, but the matter may need attention, and the Baird's Archive should be alerted as it appears their records are incorrect (the online Archive, as of 10 March 2024). Note, earlier versions of Baird's (4th, ed, for example) show it at the correct school, and correctly note it closing in 1888 in the same year the York Methodist College itself closed. Another apparent error in the Baird's Archive shows that the chapter ceased operations in 1892. Nope: It should be 1888 per contemporaneous citations. I should point out, there is a very thin linkage between the two schools, which may merit inclusion of York on the Nebraska Methodist article. For about four years, York was the nominal 'parent' institution for the newborn medical school in Omaha, but this had nothing to do with the Pi Beta Phi chapter. I've left references for those with access to look up an interesting dissertation that investigated the early history of the York school.
• There were two chapters named Nebraska Beta. Regarding the first one, Nebraska Beta (1) at Hastings College, the 2017 Arrow reference notes that this college closed in 1888, citing this as the reason that the chapter was closed. Yet the school remains open today. Did it cease operations but then get revived somehow? I didn't see an indication of this on the college's website, nor on the WP article about the school. They simply may have elided over this historical nugget, when summarizing.

After mulling it over, I moved the long-dormant community chapters to a separate table, below the main table, taking them out of the main sequence. It is thus less cluttered. Jax MN (talk) 23:29, 9 March 2024 (UTC)

Two recent installation dates needed

I used a 2017 Arrow list to update most of the chapter installation dates. Two additional chapters were created since that issue went to press. If someone has access to the installation dates for Florida Eta chapter at the University of Florida, and Wisconsin Epsilon chapter at Wisconsin-Green Bay, please add them. They presently only cite the year of installation. Jax MN (talk) 01:13, 10 March 2024 (UTC)