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University Archives & Special Collections, ASM92. (Patrick Hayes)

Pente Kai Deka

Pente Kai Deka was formed by the female students of the University of Saskatchewan on 8 April 1911 at the home of President Walter Murray.

From the Greek for ‘five and ten,’ Pente Kai Deka originated with the first 15 women students on campus – five “big sisters” and ten “little sisters.” Every woman entering the University automatically became a member. Eventually the group became its own directorate within the Student Representative Council, and the PKD president, the vice-president of the SRC.  Activities of the group included a Big Sister-Little Sister Dance, June in January, Jeanboree, a Spring Tea and a Frosh Week fashion show.  As the sexual revolution loomed large in the late 1960s women on campus grew increasingly ambivalent toward the group, which had been seen by many female students as irrelevant and antiquated since midway through the decade. It was this attitude, as well as the sheer increase in the number of women and students in general at the University by the late 1960s which led to the group’s demise after the 1968-69 academic year.

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