It was 1959 when the quarterly Emory Magazine reported on the “largest-scale” Panhellenic installation on record — 10 sororities earned their charters at once. Among those founding 10, five — the Delta Alpha chapter of Alpha Delta Pi, the Epsilon Eta chapter of Alpha Epsilon Phi, the Epsilon Epsilon chapter of Kappa Kappa Gamma, the Alpha Omega chapter of Delta Delta Delta and the Delta Zeta chapter of Kappa Alpha Theta — are celebrating their 50th anniversaries as chartered members at Emory University this year.

Each sorority earned its charter after going through a period of years as an affiliated club. In May 1958, the Board of Trustees, on recommendation from then-University President S. Walter Martin, voted unanimously to charter the national sorority chapters. A year later, they were officially installed.

For alumnae and current members, the experience of being in these five respective houses has provided a shared bond that defined their time at Emory.

For current Kappa president and College senior Kirsten Skillrud, joining a sorority helped her “have a home base and feel like I had a family. Kappa ended up being that for me.” She added that the great leadership opportunities and the chance to see herself and others develop throughout the years as one of the greatest benefits.

Bonnie Wunsch (’83C) now serves as the executive director of AEPhi and development director of the Alpha Epsilon Phi Foundation. She “loved being in the sorority. I realized what a great experience I had, 25-plus years later. If I hadn’t had a good experience in college I wouldn’t be doing it now.”

Italian professor Judy Raggi Moore had quite a different experience with Theta life. Arriving at Emory as a professor without any Greek experience, she was adamantly opposed to Greek life.

“They were promoters of no academic focus during the spring semesters,” she said.

However, after researching the Greek system and its ideals further, she began to enjoy them. And when Emory demanded that Greek organizations have faculty advisers, she was eager to help Theta. But a little while into her new role, a national Theta member requested she be removed because Raggi Moore was not in the sorority. So Theta decided unanimously to invite her to pledge. Raggi Moore accepted and learned why sorority life is unique.

“It’s the warmness,” she said. “The love that was shared with me was absolutely overwhelming and it was genuine and it was heartfelt, and it was one of those beautiful moments when you connect as human beings.”

This weekend, alumnae from all over the country return to campus to reflect on some of the changes sorority life has made over the years, such as the lodges built in 2004 and the raising of the drinking age in 1984.

The sorority lodge complex on Eagle Row houses 10 sororities, each with its own living space, but all connected under the same roof.

For Wunsch, the sense of community that a unified sorority lodge presents is one of the better changes she has noticed on Emory’s campus.

“The houses are a great place to call home,” she said. “They develop a nice community.”

And another thing has changed significantly since Wunsch attended Emory; the legal drinking age was 19 then.

“Many of the activities [we did at Emory] would not be acceptable today,” she said. “[We] had alcohol at events legally, so there wasn’t as much problem with as much as binge drinking.”

It’s a very touchy issue that Emory has cracked down on over the past few years to prevent students from harming themselves or making itself susceptible to any litigious action, Raggi Moore added.

Regardless of the alcohol bans, sorority life for these women helps define their Emory careers, and for some, becomes part of their identity later throughout adulthood.

Although Emory has come down on the Greeks for underage drinking, Raggi Moore believes that the stereotypical Greek does not fit at Emory.

“All of the Emory student body is very high-powered as far as career and work and making a difference,” she said. “And what these Greek organizations do is enhance that.”

— Contact Julian Snow.