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In March of 1962, the original five young women began a series of meetings, trying to find others who shared their ideals, and also to inform the campus of their desire to form a new sorority. These meetings took the form of informal get-togethers where each of the girls brought others whom they considered as prospective members of their sorority. After two months of holding such meetings, eleven girls joined them, and they continued to work on the formation Iota Gam, sharing the responsibilities.
In consulting with Mrs. Gonon, Assistant Dean of Women, they were advised as to the necessary steps to be taken. The first of these steps was to inform Dean Curtis and the Panhellenic Council as to their intentions. The second step was to write a constitution, which was completed and ratified by the University at the end of May, 1962. The next step was the choosing of advisors. Four women from the community agreed to take on this task. The fourth and final step was to initiate themselves as sisters of Iota Gamma Upsilon, which was done on May 29, 1962.
While these steps were being followed, the young women were also in the process of choosing their name, Iota Gamma Upsilon, their colors, ultramarine and green, and their flower, the daffodil.
On October 3, 1962, the sisters of Iota Gamma Upsilon held their inaugural tea, with the purpose of formally establishing the sorority on campus.
This part of the history should answer the question: And then what happened?
As we started the founding process, Tri Sig also started a chapter at UMass. Their experience wasn't exactly the same because they had a national organization behind them, but we were not the only new house that year. During the first year of IGU, the sisters lived in their regular dorm rooms. The rushes held in Memorial Hall lacked the normal amenities of a house which caused some embarrassment like when the ice cream melted and the strawberries stayed frozen, but mostly we thought that the prospective sisters might have been relieved not to have to troop through yet another house. They could just relax and get to know us. We had only ourselves and our ideals to offer.
We were amazed that first rush brought us thirteen new pledges and that somehow we figured out what to do with them. Furious writing sessions produced a pledging ceremony, songs and instant traditions. We were a real sorority with a future.
The second year the IGU sisters lived together in a basement corridor of Van Meter set aside just for us. Having recently been converted to a girls’ dorm, we guessed the University was trying to fill it up any way it could. But what the Spartan dorm corridor lacked in gracious living was more than offset by the opportunity to cement our sisterhood. By the second semester that year we moved into our very own house.
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We couldn't believe our luck. Kappa Kappa Gamma had just built a big new house and offered their old house, 314 Lincoln Avenue, to us at a very nice price for the good of the Greek system. The one big advantage to this house was that it was already set up as a sorority. It was a huge and very scary leap for us at that point, but our corporation (consisting of a couple of parents and advisors) somehow made it happen. We were across the street from Chi Omega. Now we felt like a grown up sorority.
Eleven of the original sisters were freshmen in 1962, which gave the house good continuity those first few years. Some of the founding sisters thought that when they graduated in 1965 that IGU would die a quick death if it didn't go national. Serious talks with Tri Delta were held after they left, but nothing came of it. IGU had already surmounted its initial trials and tribulations, and sisters reasoned that aside from losing our identity and financial independence, what could a national do for us that we hadn’t already done for ourselves?
The
house has gone through various stages over the years and moved into a bigger
house on North Pleasant Street, but after more than 40 years, the sisters of
Iota Gamma Upsilon are still a group of independent, capable and feisty women.
By, Helen Tefs Marshall, member of IGU's
first pledge class &
Ginny Mallison Stibolt, founding sister
Excerpt
of Helen's letter to her parents dated March 15, 1963. Some of it
was devoted to Iota Gam, including the prospective purchase of 314 Lincoln
Avenue:
"We have the
most wonderful news. A house is almost in the bag for us.
We'll know definitely tomorrow sometime. We want to by [sic] Kappa
Kappa Gamma's old house. We've had it appraised and it's worth
$26,000. The best offer they've had is $22,500, so there's a good
chance that we'll get it. A bank in town has agreed to loan 80%, and
Kappa, the other 20% in the form of some kind of mortgage or
something."
I then went on to sell the parents on my living in
the house by telling them that for only $10 more than a 5-day University
meal ticket, I could eat on the weekends too. The closer was cheaper
housing because UMass was raising dorm fees by $100, but our house was
holding the line.
Eventually, I went for the emotional closer:
"You
know, when I stop to think of what we're doing, it simply amazes me.
Because all of this work for the sorority house isn't just for us -- we're
building something that's really going to last -- as long as UMass, which
at the rate the school is going, is going to be for a long, long time.
I'm just so proud of all of us, and I love Iota Gam so much... We have
something in our sorority that no other group on campus has. We've
taken nothing and we're building it into more than something. In
some respects, it's everything. Girls who joined other sororities
just walked into the empty places of the girls who had left. But
we're building something, and because of that, we're closer than you could
ever imagine. We've become sisters in more than the ordinary
sorority sense of the word. I truly love every one of those girls,
and to call them Sister is something that makes me very proud, and a
little humble all at once. I only hope that I'll be worthy enough to
be a sister to them.
"When I first pledged Iota Gam, you both kind of wondered why.
I think I've explained it now. And every single day, I realize more
and more just how lucky I was to have made the decision that I did.
I wouldn't change places with any other pledge in any other house on
campus because, as I see it, for me, there isn't any other house on
campus. In a way, I didn't pick Iota Gam, it picked me; because all
I had to do was look, and after I had done that, I realized what it was.
And it was wonderful."
So if that doesn't take you back and make your eyes
mist just a little, what will? Helen
For more information on The Long View of IGU.
The names of the original sisters: First
row: *Cheron Laboissonniere, Claudia Kelly, Nancy Jansen
Second row: Susan Barrett, *Virginia Mallison, Janet Jablonski, *Susan Morash,
Kay Johnson
Third
row: Janet Rosata, Lynda Kretschmar, Carolyn Sakakeeny, Patricia Genetti,
Advisor Mrs. Higgins, Advisor Mrs. Glover, Advisor Mrs. LaBranche, *Lynne
Knubbe, *Judy Reiker, Carol Rose, Judith Ferris
* founding sisters
