Pi Alpha Tau

The exact founding date of the sorority is uncertain. The Oracle of Adelphi College (1937) gave the date as 1917, while the 1929 edition of The Oracle gives it as 1918; Baird's Manual of American College Fraternities (1940) claimed 1918; a handwritten summary of the sorority, written by national president Harriet Brown, stated 1919. Nevertheless, Pi Alpha Tau grew slowly and steadily as a national organization.

According to the 1937 Oracle, a group of girls created a new sorority on the Hunter College campus. "Sorority life was so congenial and agreeable to these modern pioneers that their associates in other college[s] were encouraged to follow the Greek letter path." ΠΑΤ established chapters at schools in the New York City metropolitan area, as well as Cincinnati and Madison, Wisconsin. The Delta chapter was established at Saint Lawrence University in Canada.

By 1950, Pi Alpha Tau ceased to exist. Circumstances of the dissolution are not known.

According to Harriet Brown, "Sorority conforms with the set rushing rules of the college but deviates in the initiation ceremonies." First, there was an informal pledge ceremony, where the "new girls" attended a party and were "allowed to submit their sorors to all sorts of tests." Then came the formal pledge ceremony, which lasted for six weeks "during which time the new members must submit to the wishes of the older sorors."[2]

Initiation occurred as a "formal installation ceremony, which takes place bi-annually, in December and in May, is presided over by the President of the Grand Council of Pi Alpha Tau".[3]

The convention formal was held annually on Christmas Eve.[3]

The sorority's values, to be inferred from the Oracle article, were "high standards of scholarship and fraternity".[4]

The pledge pin was a diamond divided in half horizontally into two equilateral triangles. The top half being dark colored, the bottom light colored.[5]

The membership badge was a black enamel shield surrounded by jewels. The Greek letters, in gold, were inscribed vertically on the shield. A jewel was between the enamel and the surrounding jewel photo.[6]

Baird's showed most of these chapters in the 12th ed., supplemented by information from the Baird's Manual Online Archive.

• Alpha - Hunter College - 1919 [7][8]
• Beta - New York University - 1920[8]
• Gamma - Adelphi College - 1918-1938[8]
• Delta - St. Lawrence University - 192x-19xx (?) [9][8]
• Epsilon - New York State Teachers College at Albany - 1925[8]
• Zeta - New Jersey Law College - 192x-19xx [9][8]
• Eta - University of Cincinnati - 1927-1941 [10])
• Theta - Long Island University - 1929-193x (?) [9]
• Iota - University of Wisconsin–Madison - 1929-193x (?) [9]
• Kappa - St. John's University - 1929
• Lambda - CUNY, Brooklyn College - 1930-1960 (?) [11]
• ____? - Brooklyn Law School - 1923
• Mu - Syracuse University - 1950 [12]

• List of Jewish fraternities and sororities

• Baird's Manual of American College Fraternities, 1940 edition.
• The Oracle of Adelphi College, 1937, p. 89.
• The Album of Washington Square College, 1934, p. 91.
• The Badger, 1931, University of Wisconsin, p. 385.
• "Pi Alpha Tau Sorority Alpha Chapter" housed in Box 19, Folder 4, Sara Delano Roosevelt Memorial House Collection, Archives and Special Collections of the Hunter College, City University of New York. (Written by Harriet Brown, undated)
• Sanua, Marianne Rachel (2003). Going Greek: Jewish College Fraternities in the United States, 1845 - 1945. Detroit; Wayne State University Press.