Story by Reagan Scott
LINCOLN (SNR) – On Sunday, Nov. 20, Pi Alpha Chi, the Catholic sorority at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL), celebrated the 10th anniversary of its founding.
The day was marked with a special Founder’s Day program attended by members of the sorority, alumnae, benefactors, friends and family.
Attendees were invited to a Mass at the Newman Center before making their way to the Lincoln Commercial Club for lunch and a program. During the event, alumnae and active members spoke about the history of the sorority, its founding and achievements and where they hope to go in the future.
When Father Robert Matya, pastor for St. Thomas Aquinas Church and director of the Newman Center, arrived at the university in 1998, there weren’t many Greek students involved at Newman. After the foundations were laid for Phi Kappa Theta, the Catholic fraternity at UNL, a group of women approached Father Matya about forming a Catholic sorority in 2008.
Dr. Mary Haschke, an honorary alumna of the sorority and member of that group of women said, “We had a strong vision of what we wanted: to be a light on campus and to the Greek community itself.”
In looking for a sorority that was Catholic in history and mission, they found Theta Phi Alpha, a sorority envisioned by Father Edward Kelly, pastor of the student chapel at University of Michigan, in 1909. He had wanted to form a community for Catholic women on campus, who weren’t always welcome in other Greek communities.
After receiving permission to bring Theta Phi Alpha to UNL in 2011, Haschke said she graduated thinking that all of the effort she and the other women who worked to bring the sorority to campus had paid off. However, the national leadership of Theta Phi Alpha began to make some changes that would bring the sorority and Newman Center to an impasse.
Father Matya said, “It came to our awareness that they weren’t interested in embracing their Catholic identity. We met with the national officers and made the decision that we would not affiliate with them anymore.”
The Newman Center split with Theta Phi Alpha in the fall of 2012.
Kelleen Browning is an alumna of Pi Alpha Chi and a member of the first pledge class. Though Browning had been part of the efforts to bring Theta Pi Alpha to campus, she, with other members, made the difficult decision to leave Theta Pi Alpha after its split with the Newman Center.
Browning said the women got together with the idea of forming a local sorority, one with a Catholic identity that would carry on year after year. The papers to have Pi Alpha Chi recognized as a registered student organization were submitted Nov. 20, 2012.
“The biggest challenge was shifting from Theta Phi Alpha to Pi Alpha Chi,” Father Matya said. “Our hope was that Pi Alpha Chi could be part of Greek life but have a distinct Catholic identity to it.”
That Catholic identity is supported by the sorority’s pillars of leadership, scholarship, fellowship and citizenship. The women of the sorority live these values as leaders both in the sorority and on campus, as students, sorority sisters and active members of their community.
Today, Pi Alpha Chi has 28 active members. The sorority is involved with the Greek community on campus, participating in events with other sororities and fraternities. It boasted a 3.5 chapter GPA in the spring semester, and implemented “Monday Night Dinners,” held twice a semester as a way to for members to grow in fellowship with their sisters.
Pi Alpha Chi’s philanthropies each semester raise funds for Saint Gianna’s Women’s Home and Project Rachel. St. Gianna’s assists women and their families fleeing domestic violence. It also helps women being coerced into an abortion. It is staffed by the Marian Sisters, and operated by Catholic Social Services of Southern Nebraska. Project Rachel is an outreach of the Catholic Church to anyone hurting psychologically or spiritually after involvement with abortion.
The sorority is also closely linked with the Lincoln Diocesan Council of Catholic Women (LDCCW), a connection that started with Ann Jansky, when she was president of the LDCCW.
The LDCCW is an organization of all Catholic women in the Diocese of Lincoln. Organized in 1932, the members have undertaken dozens of projects to fulfill the corporal and spiritual works of mercy as outlined by the Church.
Jansky met with Bishop Conley in 2013 to discuss ways that the organization could support the sorority.
In the first year of their partnership, the LDCCW sponsored the sorority’s retreat, and the organization raises funds in its annual raffle for scholarships for sorority members and sponsors seats for them at Husker Catholic Live – an annual Newman Center event – each year.
Always looking for ways to stay connected with Pi Alpha Chi, the LDCCW has had a liaison to the sorority for years. Jansky said it’s amazing to be able to celebrate the sorority’s 10th anniversary now.
Katie Lilly, the 2022 president of Pi Alpha Chi, said when she came to UNL, she was looking for a female community, and ended up finding a perfect fit in the sorority.
She said, “What better way to find the sisterhood I’d been desiring than in a sorority that would help keep me rooted in my faith from the get-go? All of my best female friendships have come from Pi Chi. I’ve grown so much in confidence in my leadership abilities, and I feel more prepared to go out into the world after graduation.”
Nicole Bauer is an honorary alumna of the sorority, and has been a chapter advisor for Pi Alpha Chi since the fall of 2013. She said the main challenge for the sorority in recent years has been growing its membership, with numbers stagnating in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic and declining Greek life participation, a national trend.
Despite this, it was Bauer’s hope that the Founder’s Day celebration would serve as both a celebration and “PR event” for Pi Alpha Chi, to spread awareness of the organization and get alumnae engaged and organized, so that they can support active members of the sorority as they continue to carve out a space on campus.
“I think there is a real need and real niche for collegiate women who want a sense of community, but don’t want to have to compartmentalize their faith to do that. It is impressive to see the Holy Spirit working in these women’s lives as they continue to live out Pi Chi’s values in their daily lives,” Bauer said.
Browning said that in the next 10 years she hopes people will continue to realize that Pi Alpha Chi is an option for students on campus.
“Most Greek organizations were founded as religious groups; their goal was to form the whole person. We wanted to go back to those original intentions,” Browning said. “It is possible to be involved in Greek life and something religious. You can work hard in school, be social, form connections and also pray.”
In the next 10 years, Father Matya said, his hope is that Pi Alpha Chi will, “become more firmly rooted and established so that they could have a housing structure where they could live together in community. The challenge of a Greek house is that it can be difficult to live out their faith. We want both to thrive.”
Bauer and Browning both spoke about the efforts of the first members of the sorority to establish systems and processes that would continue to be used for years to come. Today, Lilly can see the fruits of that foundation as she completes her term as sorority president.
“It’s crazy to think that 10 years ago we started as a registered student organization,” she said. “I’m just so thankful for all the work women did before me to set this up and get it going. They worked so hard to create a sisterhood. It’s weird to think what my life would have been like without Pi Chi.”
