The Office of Student Life announced the formation of several new student organizations this week, among these a group of women aspiring to become a chapter of Sigma Alpha.

Sigma Alpha is a national professional agriculture sorority with 60 chapters and more than 4,000 initiated members According to Sigma Alpha’s national Web site, the organization was formed at Ohio State University in 1978 as “an alternative to the social Greek sorority system.”

“I always wanted to start an agriculture sorority on campus,” group president Pamela Bartholomew, a senior Agriculture Education major from Decaturville, said.

Bartholomew said the impetus to start such a sorority came when the UTM chapter of Collegiate FFA attended the national FFA convention last fall. Sigma Alpha had a booth at the convention. “We just started talking, and by this time last semester we had a letter back from [the national sorority],” Bartholomew said.

The group is currently considered a Sorority in Development chapter. While it is not and will not be a member of the Panhellenic Council, it will be participating in sorority rush in the fall.

Sigma Alpha does not allow dual membership in the organization and in a Panhellenic sorority.

Any woman with a sincere interest in agriculture, regardless of major, may join Sigma Alpha. However, a minimum of 70 percent of the group’s membership must be agriculture majors.