Sigma Delta was installed on May 1, 1924.

Our chapter was installed at the 18th National Convention of Sigma Alpha Iota.

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Prior to our installment, ten music students and two faculty members founded the McBeth Club as a pre-SAI chapter. The following excerpt derives from the McBeth Club's chapter application, declaring their purpose and vision:

"Knowing that a National Musical Organization stands for the highest in Art and Womanhood, and aware that the object of Sigma Alpha Iota is to give moral and material aid to us members, to promote and dignify the musical profession, to establish and maintain friendly relations between musicians and music schools and to further the development of music in America, and with a view to lending every assistance possible to the end that better and greater things may be accomplished in a musical way in our school, we the undersigned do hereby name the application for the establishment of a chapter of Sigma Alpha Iota in the University of Illinois School of Music."