Sigma Alpha Iota is back from the brink of death.

The women’s music fraternity has had a home at Hillsdale since 1925. Last semester, members of SAI told the Collegian the chapter planned to disband due to low membership and difficulty recruiting. SAI alumnae found the Collegian story and were shocked by the chapter’s imminent shutdown. Alumnae started writing letters to administrators at the college and to the fraternity’s national chapter. They raised funds and started mentoring current members.

Senior Mikela St. John, the president of SAI, said there are currently four active members of the chapter, including herself.

“We didn’t have the manpower to make it work,” she said. “Then, the very last week or two of the semester, we had a whole bunch of alumnae show up to our chapter meeting with a signed letter.”

St. John said she and the other members had not been aware there was a network of active alumnae who would be willing to help, and multiple alumnae said they were unaware the chapter was struggling. 

“We had to evaluate and ask, ‘Even with their support, can we make it work?’” St. John said. “We decided it was worth trying.”

Maggen Dixon ’05 was a member of SAI  her junior and senior years of college. She and other alumnae have been working to create an SAI alumnae database to connect with current members for information on leadership, recruitment, and fundraising.

Hillsdale SAI alumna Victoria Matsos ’02, a lecturer in theater and dance,  now serves as the SAI’s faculty adviser. She hosted a recruitment event in her home last week and will continue to advise the current members as they rebuild the chapter.

Another alumna who is reviving the chapter is Cate Bryan ’06, who was president of SAI while at Hillsdale. When she learned about the chapter’s intention to deactivate, she talked to college President Larry Arnn about preserving it. 

“We had excellent conversations about the current situation and ways to help SAI stay on campus and maintain its 100-year tradition of encouraging musicianship,” she said.

With the support of the alumnae network, SAI hopes to keep its long tradition alive at Hillsdale, which alumnae said enriched their college experiences. Dixon said she loved SAI even before she joined.

“It was because of the friendships that I struck up in other quarters with the SAI women that I remembered how much I loved music,” she said. “I started taking piano lessons again. They encouraged me to take voice because I really enjoyed singing. My last two years at Hillsdale were so much richer and better for having joined.”

Dixon was a member of Hillsdale’s Alpha Xi Delta chapter, a sorority that deactivated in 2004. They voted to deactivate while Dixon was a member, and she said her experience as one of the last members of AXD inspired her to give support to SAI as it works to rebuild.

“I was talking about what SAI had been and then assuring them that they had the support Alpha Xi Delta didn’t,” she said. “The alumnae are here, and we want to be here. We would find ways to help from wherever we are.”