Sigma Alpha Iota

22 Winter 2025 • sai-national.org In the spring of my freshman year at Hillsdale College, our school's chapter of SAI announced that they would be disbanding. The Sigma Mu chapter was established on campus in 1925, but membership had dwindled down to only six members and recruitment was generally unsuccessful. After almost one hundred years on campus, the life of SAI at Hillsdale seemed to be grinding to a halt, and the six remaining actives made the difficult decision to deactivate the chapter. The imminent dissolution of Sigma Mu was announced in the college newspaper. I was not connected with SAI at the time; I was hardly even involved with the Hillsdale music department, but music was and has always been an integral part of my life—both my external and internal life. When I heard that Sigma Mu was disbanding, I felt a pang of regret. SAI had such potential to provide a beautiful musical community for women like me, who were not as involved with music formally or academically but still wanted to foster their musicality. And yet, here it was shutting down. Though I was not a member of the music fraternity, I felt its loss keenly. Two of my dear friends, fellow freshmen women, were feeling the same way. The three of us talked at length about what we might do to help keep SAI afloat. Just before the end of the semester, we met with SAI's president over lunch. We informed her of our interest in membership for the following fall, hoping that the promise of at least three new members could carry SAI through the year. We were not the only ones startled by the announcement of Sigma Mu's deactivation. The newspaper article caught the attention of alumnae at the national level who were unaware that the chapter had been struggling and were dismayed by the news. Alumnae and donors leapt into action, begging the active members to fight a little longer and petitioning the college to help. The chapter was Breathing New Life into a Beloved Old Song: T H E M E TA MOR P HO S I S OF S IG M A M U C H A P T E R

• Cover