Chi Omega

With 300,000 total initiates and over 170 active collegiate chapters, Chi Omega (ΧΩ) is the largest women's collegiate fraternal organization in the world! The fraternity's headquarters is located in Memphis, Tennessee. For information on the Umass Amherst Chapter, please visit the Umass Greek Affairs web site. or Our Chapter's website

[edit] National History

Chi Omega was founded on April 5, 1895 at the University of Arkansas by Allie Simonds, Jean Vincenheller, Jobelle Holcombe, Dr. Charles Richardson (an initiate of Kappa Sigma Fraternity), and Ina Mae Boles. In 1915, Chi Omega established its Executive headquarters in Lexington, Kentucky - pioneering the use of office space among all national women's fraternities. The Fraternity's colors are cardinal and straw, the flower is the white carnation, and the mascot is the owl. Chi Omega made the Make-A-Wish Foundation its official philanthropy in 2000.

[edit] Chi Omega Symphony

The Chi Omega Symphony was written by Ethel Switzer Howard, of the Xi Chapter at Northwestern University, in 1904 on the eve of her initiation. It has since been adopted nationally as a symbol of the fraternity, exemplifying the goals to which every Chi Omega aspires:

To live constantly above snobbery of word or deed; to place scholarship before social obligations and character before appereances; to be, in the best sense, democratic rather than 'exclusive', and lovable rather than 'popular'; to work earnestly, to speak kindly, to act sincerely, to choose thoughtfully that course which occasion and conscience demand; to be womanly always; to be discouraged never; in a word, to be loyal under any and all circumstances to my Fraternity and her highest teachings and to have her welfare ever at heart that she may be a symphony of high purpose and helpfulness in which there is no discordant note.

[edit] Notable Alumnae

[edit] Entertainment

• Kathryn Crosby (Iota) - Actress
• Joyce DeWitt (Phi Epsilon) - Actress, Three's Company
• Sylvia Hitchcock (Nu Beta) - Former "Miss Universe"
• Lucy Liu (Eta) - Actress
• Taylor Miller (Rho) - Actress, All My Children
• Mary Ann Mobley (Tau) - Former "Miss America" and Television Actress
• Sela Ward (Nu Beta) - Actress, Sisters, The Fugitive, Once and Again, Dirty Dancing Havana Nights
• Joanne Woodward (Phi Gamma) - Academy Award Actress Philadelphia, The Three Faces of Eve

[edit] Government

• Marsha Blackburn (Phi Delta) - U.S. House of Representatives
• Martha Layne Collins (Lambda Alpha) - Former Governor of Kentucky
• Susan Helms (Pi Gamma) - NASA Astronaut; 1st woman to live on the International Space Station
• Shirley M. Hufstedler (Pi Gamma) - Former Secretary, United States Department of Education
• Blanche Lambert Lincoln (Psi) - United States Senator from Arkansas
• Carole Keeton Strayhorn (Iota) - Texas Comptroller, running for Gov of TX (2006) as an independent

[edit] Literature

• Ellen Gilchrist (Sigma Epsilon) - Author
• Harper Lee (Nu Beta) - Author, To Kill A Mockingbird

[edit] Sports

• Pat Summit (Xi Zeta) - Coach, University of Tennessee Lady Vols