Talk:Alpha Chi Alpha (recognition)

Correct classification

I am not sure that Baird's classification of this group as a "recognition society" is correct. All of the yearbooks that I looked at called it a honorary sorority or fraternity. As I start to go through newspaper articles, it is called a fraternity. Earlier Baird's also seem to considier it a honor society. Rublamb (talk) 00:00, 12 January 2026 (UTC)

Our standard problem there. The 1940 Baird's (which is sitting next to me) has both Alpha Chi Alpha and Pi Delta Epsilon as Recognition or Departmental Societies. For Pi Delta Epsilon, "Membership is chosen from students who have served for at least one year on one or more of the accredited campus publications in either the editorial or business departments" (and can't be pledge or initiated until after the second year). Alpha Chi Alpha is somewhat similar. As far as I can tell, Baird's restricts honor societies to "you have to have done better than X in these classes (or overall)". Being on the school newspaper gets the groups in the same category as Alpha Phi Omega.Naraht (talk) 00:09, 12 January 2026 (UTC)

I think it best fits as a professional fraternity. In any event, it seems to be a fraternity rather than a society. Rublamb (talk) 01:15, 12 January 2026 (UTC)

Rublamb, one might think that was the case, but some years ago, Baird's took the option that recognition societies were a subset of honor societies. A person could self-select into a recognition society with little or no difficulty. But as Naraht pointed out, full honor societies had a more significant bar of scholastic excellence that prevented most students from entry. The amount varies by academic discipline, but ranges from upper 50% to upper 10%. We are probably at a juncture where our Project group should decide whether to follow Baird's tactic here, or if we should split Recognition societies off. The societies themselves have largely ceased using the Recognition term, and prefer Honor. The first section of Baird's 20th has an essay about all this. Jax MN (talk) 02:10, 12 January 2026 (UTC)

This is one of those cases where the group called itself both an honorary and a journalistm women's fraternity (profdessional). In these cases, we have looked at the organization's activities and membership guidelines to make the determination. I found several mentions of new recruits receiving bids, which is more like a professional fraternity. The group also held professional and social events, and also generated numerous campus publications. If it just gave memberships to anyone with 2 years of service and had no activities, it would clearly be a recogniation society. But I feel like the scale tips toward fraternity rather than honor society. Rublamb (talk) 06:32, 12 January 2026 (UTC)

Women's society?

The successor group's article, Pi Delta Epsilon, notes that Alpha Chi Alpha had been formed as a women's organization. We should mention this in the History section with citation, and note whether this policy was abandoned prior to the merger in 1944. Jax MN (talk) 02:17, 12 January 2026 (UTC)

I am confused. The article already says that Alpha Chi Alpha was a women's organization. It also has an efn noting that Phi Delta Epsilon was a men's group that later became coed. Rublamb (talk) 06:19, 12 January 2026 (UTC)

I probably missed something in scanning it quickly. I noticed that the lede and/or short description didn't mention the nature as a women's group. Looks good now. With Pi Delta Epsilon becoming coeducational in 1937 this must have been the first nail in the coffin of Alpha Chi Alpha, leading to the merger seven years later. Jax MN (talk) 09:59, 12 January 2026 (UTC)

20 year old discussion on Alpha Chi Alpha's CoA on Wikipedia

Rublamb, Jax MN Decided to do a google search for the text on the coat of arms and found the following: Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Language/2006 November 5 . I'm not sure there is anything in there we can use, but thought it was bizarre. :) Naraht (talk) 14:28, 12 January 2026 (UTC)

How strange. We may be able to find a digitized copy of the magazine or another yearbook that mentions the motto. I stopped looking once I found the COA, but there are more yearsbooks that I did not search. Rublamb (talk) 17:13, 12 January 2026 (UTC)

Active chapters in 1940

Can someone who has access to the 1940 edition, confirm which chapters were active in 1940? I have one too many. Rublamb (talk) 17:11, 12 January 2026 (UTC)

1940 version simply says Active chapters 9, inactive 5. Does *not* have any in list with either year in parentheses *or* (inactive). Quite unusual.Naraht (talk) 05:08, 13 January 2026 (UTC)