International History
| On March 17, 1917, five women at New York University Law School took a pledge of sisterhood and loyalty and so founded the Alpha Chapter of Delta Phi Epsilon, one of the first non-sectarian, social sororities and the only one founded at a professional school. Five years later on March 17, 1922, Delta Phi Epsilon was formally incorporated under laws
Delta Phi Epsilon has worked to develop a social conscience and a willingness to think in terms of the common good in order to assure for its members continuous development and achievement in the collegiate and fraternity world. With a continuing philosophy of faith in the inherent good judgment of the undergraduate membership, Delta Phi Epsilon has remained steadfast throughout its history, forward to the continued growth of a sisterhood which keeps pace with the ever changing nature of the collegiate world. Minna Goldsmith Mahler, Eva Effron Robin, Ida Bienstock Landau, Sylvia Steierman Cohn and Dorothy Cohen Schwartzman, five young law students saw Delta Phi Epsilon as a society to "promote good fellowship among the women students among the various colleges in the country...to create a secret society composed of these women based upon their good moral character, regardless of nationality or creed...to have distinct chapters at various colleges..." with the motto Esse Quam Videri: to be rather than to seem to be. |


