In a historic move, the members of Theta Kappa Pi, a local Penn State service sorority, have been offered and have accepted membership in Phi Mu National Fraternity. At the invitation of both the current members of the Beta Mu chapter of Phi Mu and the executive board of Theta Kappa Pi sorority, four representatives of Phi Mu national organization visited Penn State's University Park campus Sept. 18 and 19 to discuss the possibility of a merger between the two groups of women. At the conclusion of a presentation to the 67 members of Theta Kappa Pi on Sunday evening, the chapter was offered a blanket bid to join Phi Mu. On Tuesday, Sept. 20, 65 members of the Theta Kappa Pi chapter chose to accept the invitation of membership in Phi Mu.
In recent years Phi Mu has struggled with declining membership numbers, while Theta Kappa Pi sought the legitimacy and national backing of a National Panhellenic Conference sorority. By joining forces, the new Beta Mu chapter of Phi Mu will be able to continue its long history on Penn State's University Park campus.
Phi Mu Fraternity was founded in 1852 at Wesleyan Female College in Macon, Ga., as the Philomathean Society, and they adopted the Greek letters Phi Mu in 1904. The second-oldest sorority at Penn State, Phi Mu was founded locally in 1929 and has been in continuous operation on Penn State's University Park campus for 76 years.
Theta Kappa Pi was founded at Penn State in February 1984 and recently celebrated its 11th year as an organization. Theta Kappa Pi also has two other chapters, operating at the University of Charleston in West Virginia, and at Lewis University in Illinois. Pending the success of the Penn State merger, Phi Mu National Fraternity also will be reaching out to the Theta Kappa Pi chapters on those two campuses to gauge their interest in joining Phi Mu as well.
A ribboning ceremony was conducted for the new Phi Mu members on Thursday, Sept. 29. At that point the women officially became pledged to Phi Mu. They will participate in the national Phi Mu new member program under the tutelage of Allie Kearns, a full-time leadership consultant for the fraternity. The women will become fully initiated into the organization in January 2006.