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A New Beat
A sorority started at Texas Tech to promote women in music has spread across the nation to include more than 200 chapters.
Written by Gretchen Pressley
Texas Tech was one of the first college bands to allow female performers.
If it weren't for the pioneering women at Texas Tech, there would be no Tau Beta Sigma, a national sorority that provides service to collegiate bands, encourages the advancement of women in band and promotes and enriches an appreciation of band music.
About 70 years ago, several women in the Texas Tech band took it upon themselves to create a band sorority that would equal the male counterpart in prestige and rewards.
The result was the creation of the Tau Beta Sigma, now an institution at Texas Tech and other colleges and universities across the nation.
Starting on the Downbeat
Jenny Clines, a recent graduate, and former president of the Texas Tech Beta Chapter said Tau Beta Sigma was started at Texas Tech in 1937 by a female band member named Wava Banes.
“She decided to start the sorority because the men’s band fraternity wouldn’t let her in,” Clines said. “The Goin’ Band was one of the first bands to let women in at all, so at the beginning there were very few. Those few women were actually our founders.”
Doris Kochanek, the first national president of Tau Beta Sigma, who attended Texas Tech in the early 1940s, said that women became more common in band because the Second World War took away so many men from colleges and universities.
“We didn’t have very many young men at that time,” Kochanek said. “so girls were allowed to march in the band for the football games. I don’t think anyone liked the idea, but there really wasn't much choice.”
Just after she graduated, Banes began campaigning to make Tau Beta Sigma a national sorority equal to the national band fraternity, Kappa Kappa Psi. However, because of difficulties with the Texas corporation laws at that time, Banes and her friends decided that Oklahoma State University would host the national organization.
“We didn’t particularly like that,” Kochanek said. “We thought we should be the alpha
chapter because we organized it. But we agreed to be the beta chapter if they would
let us have the first president. So I was the first president of Tau Beta Sigma, but we were the
beta chapter.”
Then and Now: The Refrain
Tau Beta Sigma provides service to collegiate bands, encourages the advancement of women in band, and promotes and enriches an appreciation of band music.
Though Texas Tech is not the alpha chapter, they have maintained the tradition of promoting women in band and helping others.
Michelle Lessing, a senior music education major and member of Tau Beta Sigma, said that at each meeting the active members learn about influential women in music as part of the mission statement.
“The historian comes to every meeting with a blurb about a woman in music,” Lessing said. “It gives us insight on what women are doing in music. It’s still pretty new for women to become a director or take other leadership positions.”
Another facet of Tau Beta Sigma is community service. The sorority teaches the importance of serving the community, not just Texas Tech or the Goin' Band.
The Texas Tech chapter helps maintain the band halls and music buildings, but they also do a lot of other service activities, said Kelly Wykoff, a junior music education major and member of Tau Beta Sigma.
“I think it’s a great organization,” Wykoff said. “We do a lot of things for the band, the school of music, the community and for woman in general.”
Previous service projects include playing at Covenant Hospital and volunteering at the Ronald McDonald House, Charity’s Choice, Adopt-a-Highway, Relay for Life and the Haven Animal Care Shelter.
Because of all the service projects and the special bond between members, Wykoff said that Tau Beta Sigma is not a typical sorority.
“It’s good to be part of an organization in college that provides service to the school and the community,” Wykoff said.
Story produced by the Office of Communications and Marketing, 806-742-2136.
Web layout by Gretchen Pressley