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Omicron Mu Iota Sorority

Omicron Mu Iota Sorority banner

Overview

Omicron Mu Iota (ΟΜΙ) is a social sorority at Oakridge College, founded in 1971 by seven students who had been told no. The college’s annual arts program turned down their proposals, so they staged their own in a vacant commercial space in Briarmont and called it a Happening. The Happenings kept going, drew in more women than the seven who started them, and became a sisterhood when the founders saw that graduation would otherwise end what they had built.

The house takes its character from that beginning. It recruits without a type in mind, builds its calendar around events and creative work, and holds that no sister is asked to become less herself to make the group easier to run. Its motto is Suo Modo (In her own way) and its principle is Take Up Space. Make Space. It is known for an inclusive sisterhood, memorable events, strong campus involvement, and philanthropy supporting arts access, youth opportunities, and animal welfare.

History

The Founding of Omicron Mu Iota

Omicron Mu Iota did not begin with seven women looking for somewhere to belong; by most accounts they were already doing fine. In the spring of 1971, Diana “Didi” Bellamy, Susan “Susie” Vale, Jacqueline “Jackie” Moreau, Deborah “Deb” Mercer, Kathleen “Kit” Donnelly, Valerie St. James and Margaret “Maggie” Hart moved in different circles at Oakridge College: artists, performers, organizers, socialites, writers, and women who simply had a talent for getting things done.

What brought them together was an idea. All seven were involved in the college’s annual arts program, and somewhere along the way they began imagining something considerably less polite: art you could walk through, performance among the audience, music after dark, work that was strange, provocative, funny, beautiful or hard to categorize, an exhibition and a party bleeding into one another. Oakridge said no. The ideas were too ambitious, some impractical, some a poor fit for the program, a few simply deemed inappropriate. The story passed down through the house says that after one particularly frustrating meeting, Didi Bellamy gathered her things and said: “Fine. We'll do it somewhere else.”

So they did.

The First Happening

The seven found a vacant commercial space in Briarmont that they could use for a night. It was not much to look at, and they did not have enough money to change that, but they knew people. Jackie found artists willing to exhibit, Kit brought performers, Susie found musicians, borrowed furniture and seemingly invited half of Briarmont, and Deb worked out how to pay for what could not be borrowed. Valerie sought out the pieces and performances least likely to have appeared in Oakridge’s official program, Maggie arrived with armloads of enormous dahlias from her mother’s garden because the place needed flowers, and Didi kept making the plan larger.

Friends painted walls, carried furniture, hung artwork and ran electrical cords while performers rehearsed in the corners of a room still being assembled around them. Somewhere in the preparations a stray cat appeared. Someone fed her, she returned, and by opening night she behaved as though the entire production had been organized for her convenience. They called her Cherry.

Then they opened the doors, and people came: students first, then friends, artists, performers, dates, faculty members, Briarmont residents, and eventually people none of the seven could identify at all. Guests wandered through installations, watched performances, argued about the art, drank, danced, and stayed far later than anyone had planned. Something broke, someone complained, and at least one thing occurred that Oakridge was probably correct not to have authorized. Everyone talked about it afterward. The seven called it a Happening, and then they did another, and another.

The seven founders of Omicron Mu Iota with Cherry the cat
Left to right: Didi Bellamy, Susie Vale, Jackie Moreau, Deb Mercer, Kit Donnelly, Valerie St. James and Maggie Hart. Center: Cherry.

Something Worth Keeping

What made the collaboration work was not similarity but the opposite. Didi could imagine something Jackie knew how to make beautiful. Susie could fill a room Deb had figured out how to secure. Kit could turn an exhibition into a performance. Valerie would push an idea further than everyone else thought sensible. Maggie could move through a formal reception as comfortably as she could sit on the floor at midnight painting scenery. They disagreed, often, but nobody was expected to become less herself to make the group easier to manage.

More women became involved with each Happening, and friendships formed around long nights, ridiculous ideas, borrowed equipment and last-minute disasters. Before long the seven were producing events, managing money and making plans months into the future, and several of them were approaching graduation. What they had made would disappear with them unless they gave it a structure capable of outliving them. They considered forming an arts organization and chose instead to create a sisterhood, not because they needed somewhere to fit, but because they had built something worth continuing. In 1971, the seven women formally established Omicron Mu Iota (ΟΜΙ) at Oakridge College.

Its earliest members inherited a simple idea from the founders: there is room in a sisterhood for women who are not alike, and when someone says a worthwhile idea is too much, that does not necessarily mean it should be made smaller. Sometimes you simply need to find another room, and open the door.

Omicron Mu Iota Sorority crest as drawn in 1971
The house crest as first drawn in 1971.

Culture

Mission

Omicron Mu Iota brings women together through friendship, shared experiences, creative expression, service, and active participation in campus life. We foster a supportive sisterhood that encourages members to pursue ideas, create opportunities, support one another, and contribute positively to the community around them.

Principle

Take Up Space. Make Space.

ΟΜΙ believes women should have room to live boldly and unapologetically while extending that same freedom to others.

Take up space is permission to be visible, ambitious, sensual, creative, loud, quiet, conventional, strange, or whatever else you freely choose.

Make space is the responsibility attached to that freedom. Your individuality does not require diminishing someone else's.

Creed

To ourselves: A mind of our own, the nerve to use it, and no apology for either.

To our sisters: Loyalty without condition, honesty without cruelty. We stand beside one another, never in the way.

To life: Good company, high spirits, a little mischief, and no great affection for the ordinary.

Symbols

The house’s symbols are the leopard, the dahlia and the ruby. Its colors are Plum, Pool Blue and Tomato, with Butter and Cream as accents.

Plum#713B69main
Pool Blue#159A9Cmain
Tomato#E7472Emain
Butter#F2D66Baccent
Cream#FFF2DFaccent

Structure

Current officers

President: Elliana Wilde

Vice President: Lottie Sinclair

Membership is recorded on the live roster: Omicron Mu Iota on Munibase.

Credits

Written by: Elliana Wilde

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