St. Elmo's celebrates 150 years

Members of the coed St. Elmo's fraternity, also known as Delta Phi, have prided themselves in their heritage for decades. But the fraternity saw tradition at its best this weekend when current members and alumni, spanning more than 40 years, gathered to celebrate the chapter's 150th anniversary. The oldest fraternity on campus, St. Elmo's kicked off the weekend's festivities with a black-tie affair at Fairmount Boathouse Friday night. The more than 100 alumni who attended the event reconvened for brunch Saturday morning at the St. Elmo's house at 3627 Locust Walk, where those in attendance reminisced about times spent in the only coed fraternity officially recognized by the University's Greek system. St. Elmo's President Ann Gallagher, a College senior, said, "150 is just a number, but the idea to have something to celebrate and to make such a milestone is just great." St. Elmo's Vice President Kyle Moran said that while alumni return to the house every Homecoming, it has been years since such a large gathering has taken place. "We have people coming back to the house who haven't even been back to the campus in decades," the College junior said. "It's neat that an event of this magnitude pulls them back." Bill Carey, a 1953 Wharton graduate who was president of St. Elmo's in 1952, said the alumni always have maintained their ties to the fraternity. "There was a strong Philadelphia-area alumni group that entertained us in their homes," added Carey, who chairs the St. Elmo's Foundation, a non-profit organization that provides financial support for students in the fraternity. Representatives from the 20-member board meet about three times a year with current members to discuss undergraduate issues and assess the state of the house. A four-month long renovation project on the house was recently completed. "[St. Elmo's] has reached an auspicious threshold? and it was time to spruce up the house, which was built as a replacement house 40 years ago," said Graduate Board President Lisa Armstrong, a 1982 College and Wharton graduate. The house was previously located where Van Pelt Library now stands. Many alumni agreed that St. Elmo's has not only amassed a great deal of tradition but a number of firsts as well. As the first and only fraternity on campus to include women as official members, St. Elmo's will celebrate in 2001 its 20th anniversary as a coed organization. "[Including women in the fraternity] was a controversial issue for an organization that had a lot of tradition and experience behind it," Armstrong said. "It's much more in line with our world today, in which men and women live and work together." And according to 1981 St. Elmo's President Renny Ponvert, because a strength of the University is its "diversity and breadth," it made sense to include women in the fraternity officially. "It's a more mature environment," said Ponvert, a 1982 College graduate. "Men and women are equal in intellect and ability."

Please note All comments are eligible for publication in The Daily Pennsylvanian.