20th century

In 1926, the Iron Arrow Honor Society was founded at the University of Miami as the "highest honor attained by men." Later that year, the Iron Arrow Honor Society was influential in proposing that a lake at the center of the University of Miami campus be named Lake Osceloa in recognition of Osceola, a legendary 19th century Seminole tribal leader and warrior. ^[2]

In 1937, Nu Kappa Tau, a separate sister organization at the university, was founded as "The Highest Honor Attained by Women." In 1966, Nu Kappa Tau became affiliated with Mortar Board, a national honor society, "leaving Iron Arrow to carry the tradition alone," Miami Magazine reported in 2000. ^{[3] [4]}

In 1976, the U.S. federal government notified the University of Miami that it was providing significant assistance to Iron Arrow in violation of Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972. The university then required that Iron Arrow move its tapping ceremony off campus, and it began urging the organization to begin accepting women members.

Later that year, in October 1976, Iron Arrow responded by filing a lawsuit against the federal government. In the suit, Iron Arrow Honor Society v. Hufsted, filed in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida, Iron Arrow sought a declaration of their right to operate as an all-male organization.

The case was subsequently appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court in Iron Arrow Honor Soc. v. Heckler (464 U.S. 67), which agreed to hear the case in 1983. ^[5] In 1982, however, then university president Edward T. Foote II wrote Iron Arrow, stating that regardless of how the U.S. Supreme Court ruled on the case that Iron Arrow would not be allowed back on campus as a male-only organization.

Three years later, in 1985, breaking with over fifty years of tradition, the society's all-male membership voted to admit women, and Iron Arrow was then allowed back on campus.

Iron Arrow Honor Society has been the subject of two books, Iron Arrow: A History, published in 1976, and Iron Arrow: A History, Seventy-Five Years published in 2001.

21st century

In 2022, the University of Miami's student senate passed a non-binding resolution calling for the disaffiliation of the society from the university. ^[6]