Alpha Phi
Texas Tech University
Members of Alpha Phi with Dr. Comfort Pratt, Chapter Adviser (extreme right)
Chapter Alpha Phi was founded on February 14, 1944 and installed on March 8 of that year, when the university was known as Texas Technological College. The ceremony was conducted by Dr. Eunice Gates, Dr. T. Earle Hamilton, and Mr. A. B. Strehli, of the university, assisted by Ms. Ruth Overton, a member of the Texas University Chapter and Mrs. Raymond P. Swofford, a member of the Stanford University Chapter. There were 14 charter members and three honorary members. At that time, there were 43 chapters of Sigma Delta Pi. Since then, the Chapter has initiated a total of 1,490 members and held an average of two initiation ceremonies every year. The first President and Secretary-Treasurer were Florence Noack and Doris Higley respectively, and the advisors were Dr. Eunice Joiner Gates, Mr. Alfred B. Strehli, Dr. T. Earle Hamilton, and Dr. Charles B. Qualia. Dr. F. Dewey Amner was the National President and Dr. Harry J. Russell was the Executive Secretary.
From 1946 to 1970, the advisor was Dr. T. Earle Hamilton, who became the National Vice-President from 1951 to 1959 and then National President from 1960 to 1968 and 1972 to 1977. Dr. Hamilton was the one who in 1951 conceived the idea for The Texas Plan to Encourage the Study of Foreign Languages which culminated in the formation of the Texas Foreign Language Association on November 27, 1953. Early that year, Dr. Hamilton had founded the TFLA Bulletin, and the meeting for the founding of the association was announced in an issue of the Bulletin that was assembled by members of Alpha Phi. Dr. Hamilton went on to make very significant contributions to Sigma Delta Pi.
Immediately following its inception, the Chapter started to organize activities to foster the study of Spanish and knowledge about the Spanish-speaking world. To commemorate the fourth anniversary of the birth of Cervantes, they established in April 1947 an annual essay contest for Lubbock High School students and awarded Cervantes medals and certificates of the Instituto de las Españas to the winners. One of the Chapter’s honorary members, Mrs. Roscoe Wilson, also established a scholarship which was awarded to one student a year. The Chapter invited the Consuls of Spanish-speaking countries to Lubbock; gave awards to Spanish majors for academic excellence; launched performances such as El chaleco blanco by Miguel Ramos Carrion in 1953; showed Spanish movies including Sesenta segundos de vida on December 7, 1964 and La mano en la trampa on April 7, 1965; sponsored the production of the Mexican comedy Rosalba y los Llaveros in November 1969, and sponsored a visit by the Spanish novelist Ana María Matute to give a lecture titled “La guerra civil española en los escritores de mi generación” on November 1, 1964. Matute visited the university on another occasion and was in touch with faculty interested in the 20th century Spanish novel. The Chapter received many recognitions during those early years, including the Texas Technological College Recognition for Scholarship in 1954, 1955, 1956, 1962, 1965 and 1966.
From the 1970s to the end of the century, the Chapter continued to focus on its goals and received numerous corresponding recognitions to include the Leadership Tech Recognition Awards for Advisor of the Year and Leader of the Year in 1997, and Sigma Delta Pi Capítulo de Honor y Mérito awards in 1989, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998 and 2000. The advisors for this period included Dr. Harley D. Oberhelman, Dr. Stephen S. Corbett, Dr. Susan Stein, Dr. Ted McVay, Dr. Eliverio Chávez, Dr. Laura Beard, and Dr. Julián Pérez.
The Chapter’s activities included movie nights and Film Festivals, bi-weekly tertulias, book sales, participating in the First Hispanic State Conference organized by the Mexican American Student Organizations in March 1989; scholarly events such as the establishment of a scholarship fund in observance of the Chapter’s 50th Anniversary in 1994; the “Conference on Women Writers of the Spanish Golden Age and Latin American Colonial Period” in October 1996; a talk on “Crisis in Contemporary Mexico” by Dr. John Tuman of the Political Science Department in 1997; a presentation on “El Día de los Muertos” by Dr. Roberto Bravo in 1999; and participation in the Paul Whitfield Horn Fellowship Fund.
The Chapter also carried out various community service activities including teaming together with the American Red Cross to help raise funds for the disaster-stricken victims of Hurricane Mitch in Central America in 1998; volunteering for High School Learning Cycle programs; raising funds for Upward Bound Programs and mentoring the students; providing financial support for programs benefiting the local Hispanic community; sponsoring public talks by renowned professors on Hispanic topics both academic and cultural for the community; and reading stories in Spanish to elementary school children.
Chapter Alpha Phi is still very strongly dedicated to preserving and spreading awareness of the Hispanic culture and language. Under the continued able leadership of professors of the Department of Classical and Modern Languages and Literatures of this university, it has continued to carry the torch until the present, and has started the new century with more vigor and enthusiasm than ever. The advisors for this period have been Dr. Eduardo Cabrera and Dr. Comfort Pratt, who has been the advisor from August 2004 to the present.
Alpha Phi currently has 28 active members, 5 honorary members, and 4 affiliate members. The Chapter continues to carry out very important activities including weekly tertulias where everyone is welcome to have conversations about any topic of choice with native speakers; a free walk-in tutorial service for all Spanish students held throughout the week; Film Festivals which provide an opportunity for everybody in the university community to watch films in Spanish and learn through them the language and the culture; Salsa Nights, where students learn various Latin dances; organizing and supporting lectures given by professional members of the local communities and visiting professionals, and departmental theatre productions; collaborating with local schools for various activities; donating school materials to schools; and realizing presentations in celebration of occasions such as Hispanic Month.
The Chapter also serves in various community outreach projects. It has continued to support Upward Bound programs. Members of the Chapter serve as teachers, mentors and helpers in the Spanish in Action Super Saturdays program which was established in 2005 by the advisor. Through the program, children in grades K through 6th selected from local schools attend Spanish classes in the Department on Saturdays for four weeks every semester and learn Spanish language and culture. Alpha Phi members have also become a very important part of the Wiley’s Way Community Outreach program which was started in the fall of 2004, whereby 5th graders in all the local schools are given copies of a Spanish-English bilingual book called Wiley’s Way in order to encourage them to read in both English and Spanish and also to attend college. Members of the Chapter also volunteered their services at the Salvation Army and Red Cross relief centers in Lubbock in the aftermath of the Hurricane Katrina disaster in 2005.
In September 2004, the Chapter helped establish a Club de Español for the first and second year Spanish students. The club went on to win the 2005 Student Organization Newcomer Award and has been a great success. It now has members from all levels of Spanish who will eventually become members of Sigma Delta Pi. In commemoration of the 2005 Columbus Day, the Chapter launched a new program called “Viaje Fantástico”, whereby our members visit Lubbock schools to meet with the students and talk to them about the importance of studying Spanish and continuing it beyond high school. Members of the Chapter and a group of Spanish majors have already visited all the four high schools and will also be visiting the middle and elementary schools.
In 2001 and 2005, Alpha Phi received Capítulo de Honor y Mérito awards for its outstanding programs. In 2005, the advisor, Dr. Comfort Pratt, was the recipient of the inaugural Minaya Álvar-Fáñez Award which was established to recognize yearly one chapter advisor for exemplary initiative in encouraging and assisting with chapter activities; and this year, the Chapter won the Ignacio y Sophie Galbis Award, granted to the most outstanding chapter. Alpha Phi has laid a solid foundation for many more successes and paved the way for fulfilling more goals in the future, and we look forward to many more years of opportunities to promote the study of the Spanish language and the spread of the culture of the Spanish-speaking world.