History
Historically, the society was male-only, founded as the "The Highest Honor Attained by Men". In 1937 Nu Kappa Tau, a sister but distinctly separate organization, was founded as "The Highest Honor Attained by Women", but in 1966 its members chose to affiliate with the national women's honor society, Mortar Board, and as Randy Femmer wrote in his book Iron Arrow: A History,"leaving Iron Arrow to carry the tradition alone".
In 1976 the federal government notified the University of Miami that it was providing significant assistance to Iron Arrow in violation of Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972. The university responded by having Iron Arrow move its tapping ceremony off campus and negotiated with it to accept women members. In turn, Iron Arrow sued the federal government seeking the right to continue on campus as a male-only organization. In 1982 University President Edward T. Foote II wrote to Iron Arrow stating that regardless of how the court case came out, Iron Arrow would not be allowed back on campus as a male-only organization. This rendered the court case moot before it was scheduled to be heard by the U.S. Supreme Court, in Iron Arrow Honor Soc. v. Heckler, 464 U.S. 67 (1983)
In 1985 the society's all-male membership voted to admit women, and Iron Arrow was allowed back on campus.
Read more about this topic: Iron Arrow Honor Society
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“When the history of this period is written, [William Jennings] Bryan will stand out as one of the most remarkable men of his generation and one of the biggest political men of our country.”
—William Howard Taft (1857–1930)
“There is a constant in the average American imagination and taste, for which the past must be preserved and celebrated in full-scale authentic copy; a philosophy of immortality as duplication. It dominates the relation with the self, with the past, not infrequently with the present, always with History and, even, with the European tradition.”
—Umberto Eco (b. 1932)
“The greatest horrors in the history of mankind are not due to the ambition of the Napoleons or the vengeance of the Agamemnons, but to the doctrinaire philosophers. The theories of the sentimentalist Rousseau inspired the integrity of the passionless Robespierre. The cold-blooded calculations of Karl Marx led to the judicial and business-like operations of the Cheka.”
—Aleister Crowley (1875–1947)