The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
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2 — Wednesday, March 10, 2021 

MEGAN OCELNIK/Daily

Cherished thrift finds, such as this Canon film camera, allow visitors to hold on to the past while creating something new with the present.

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Phoenix, a secret society at U-M, 
votes to disband permanently

Organization discontinues as another society Order of Angell considers potential dissolvement 

CAMPUS LIFE

BROOKE VAN HORNE

Daily Staff Reporter

Phoenix, a co-ed secret society at 

the University of Michigan, voted to 
discontinue their organization on 
Feb. 21, according to a statement by 
the current Phoenix class obtained 
by The Daily March 1. The society, 
which formerly went by the name 
Adara, has been in existence since 
1979.

Senior 
Phoenix 
members 

usually “tap” students in their 
junior year to join the society for 
the upcoming academic year. This 
year, however, they voted “by an 
overwhelming majority” to forego 
that responsibility after months of 
studying the organization’s history 
and debating its future, according to 
the statement. 

“Though we make no judgments 

on Adara / Phoenix’s past, we do 
not believe that we have a future to 
play on this campus,” the statement 
reads. “This decision was not taken 
lightly by our class, nor was it made 
out of convenience.” 

According to their statement, 

Adara/Phoenix was formed after a 
Title-IX complaint was filed against 
Michigamua — now known as 
Order of Angell — the University’s 
previously male-only secret society. 
Phoenix aimed to give women 
leaders on campus a space for 
support and empowerment and was 
founded on principles of “character, 
achievement, leadership, loyalty and 
service,” according to the statement, 
as Order did not accept female 
members until 2000. 

“When we were first tapped for 

Phoenix almost a year ago, we were 
told that ‘P’ was what we made of 
it,” the statement reads. “The only 
purpose of our organization was 
to anonymously improve campus 
through our roles as campus 

leaders. We were to launch our 
own projects and initiatives for the 
improvement of the University as a 
whole. We were to build friendships 
in the process, taking advantage of 
relationships that would otherwise 
not have been formed.”

In their statement, Phoenix 

also urged Order and “all other 
secret societies” at the University 
to dissolve indefinitely. Phoenix 
specified that their decision was not 
made in connection or influenced 
by Order’s “recently publicized 
outreach to it’s alumni regarding its 
future.”

The Michigan Daily obtained an 

email Feb. 23 from Order’s current 
class to the group’s alumni saying 
that the organization is considering 
disbanding 
and 
has 
already 

suspended its “tapping” process. 
The email sought feedback from 
alumni on the role the organization 
plays on campus. 

A group of Order alumni of 

color also drafted a letter on Feb. 
23 urging the organization either 
permanently disband or at the very 
least institute a series of five reforms 
due to its history of appropriating 
Native American culture and claims 
of a continued hostile environment 
for members of color. According to 
the letter, “race-based aggression 
was assumed to have been limited 
to ‘the past,’ even while racialized 
power dynamics continued to shape 
the day-to-day of the organization.”

The extent of Order’s misuse of 

Indigenous artifacts and culture 
was brought to light in February 
2000 when protestors from the 
Students of Color Coalition occupied 
the seventh floor of the Union, the 
organization’s former meeting place, 
for more than a month. According to 
The Daily’s reporting at the time, 
two other secret societies also met 
in the tower, and the new Phoenix 
statement acknowledged that Adara 

was one of them.

“Adara occupied the upper floors 

of the Michigan Union’s tower 
alongside Michigamua in what 
was known as the Tower Society,” 
Phoenix’s statement reads.

In 2006, Michigamua went 

through 
a 
series 
of 
reforms, 

including changing its name to 
Order of Angell, a tribute to the 
University’s former president James 
B. Angell. This choice has also been 
criticized, since it went against 
the wishes of the Angell family 
and Angell himself negotiated the 
Angell Treaty of 1880 that restricted 
Chinese immigration to the US. 

In Fall 2019, racial justice groups 

at the University — including 
the 
United 
Asian 
American 

Organizations, La Casa and the 
Arab 
Student 
Association 
— 

released statements condemning 
Order and all other secret societies 
at the University. The Michigan 
Daily voted to prohibit any of its 
editors from joining Order or any 
other exclusive senior honor society 
on Feb. 7 — this vote came before 
The Daily was aware that Order was 
considering disbanding. 

In their statement, Phoenix 

pointed to the cognitive dissonance 
that BIPOC members and potential 
members feel in joining their 
organization and discussed what 
they called “the inherently elitist” 
nature of all secret societies on 
campus.

“We 
believe 
that 
our 

organization’s mandate of ‘campus 
leaders’ 
as 
a 
prerequisite 
for 

membership is inherently elitist,” 
the statement reads. “Leadership 
roles are obtained through and 
sustained by privilege. The meaning 
of this phrase has never been 
defined. In reality, each class of 
Phoenix is tapped by friends in 
previous 
classes, 
compounding 

issues of elitism and homogeneity 

that 
have 
long 
plagued 
our 

organization.”

A BIPOC Phoenix member of 

the class of 2021 — who remains 
anonymous in the statement for 
fear of professional retribution — 
wrote that joining the club raised 
ethical concerns for them and made 
them question their place in the 
organization.

“It is weird and discouraging to 

have to think, ‘Am I joining a racist 
club?’” they wrote. “It is even more 
unnerving to be actively told while 
being recruited that Phoenix is 
not racist. I did and still do believe 
that Phoenix is not a racist society. 
However, it is modeled after one and 
I think that it is time to realize that 
distinction.”

Suzanne Saunders Hecker, a 

1989 University and Phoenix alum, 
wrote in an email to The Daily 
that Phoenix alumni are “deeply 
saddened” upon learning that the 
current class has decided to disband 
the organization.

“Adara/Phoenix 
has 
helped 

the 
leadership 
path 
of 
many 

underserved and underrepresented 
constituencies at the University 
of 
Michigan,” 
Hecker 
wrote. 

“The current classes of students 
on campus are struggling with 
enormous social upheavals in our 
nation and world and are trying 
to be as responsible as possible in 
this environment. We respect the 
time and care that these seniors 
took in making their decision. 
We look forward to reflecting 
on our experiences within the 
organization. We will strive to 
listen and continually learn to 
better understand the University 
of Michigan students, leaders, and 
community.”

Daily Staff Reporter Brooke Van 

Horne can be reached at brookevh@
umich.edu. 

RYAN LITTLE/Daily

The secret society Pheonix has reportedly voted to discontinue the organization, as Order of Angell considers potential dissolvement.

