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They've come a long way since "Swat the Fly." What started out almost 100 years ago as the "Collegiate Club" is the Tucson branch of the American Association of University Women, standing up for women in education and in professional development.

Today, one can join with a two-year associate degree. But back then, members had to be college graduates — despite a Harvard doctor's claim more than 100 years ago that "higher education jeopardized women's health."

Judging from early written accounts, it appears local members were more concerned about Tucson's health.

Organized in 1909 as the first branch in Arizona, the Collegiate Club met in a private home that would later become the Cushing Street Bar.

Within a year, its members were working on several community projects. Among them: enforcement of a ban on spitting on the sidewalks or in public buildings.

The ladies also agitated against flies, with a "Swat the Fly" campaign that included the installation of fly traps on Tucson street corners and in front of restaurant entrances.

In 1910, the club awarded its first scholarships to graduating high school students heading for college.

When statehood was granted in 1912, members again agitated, this time for women's right to vote.

In 1917, club members, wrote member Clara Fish Roberts, "devoted our energies to war work," including the making of garments and surgical dressings for the Red Cross.

Despite suffering through the Spanish influenza epidemic, club members in 1919 still managed to award two $100 scholarships to girls at the University of Arizona.

They still do that sort of thing today.

"As early as 1945, we set up a scholarship for Native American women," says Connie Harrison, treasurer of the Tucson branch and a 40-year member of the national AAUW, which Tucson officially joined in 1946.

"You had to have five branches in the state before you could go national," says Patricia Spoonamore, Tucson branch historian and past president.

That finally happened, thanks to branches springing up over the years in Phoenix, Flagstaff, Nogales, Gila Valley and Tempe.

By 1970, the Tucson branch was boasting 500 members. Today it's down to 140 members, but only because two other branches have sprouted forth in Green Valley and Casas Adobes, for a three-way combined membership of about 500.

Besides offering college scholarships, the Tucson branch also supports a legal advocacy fund, fighting sexual discrimination in college.

"There was one case that gave everyone chills," says Spoonamore. The woman, she says, "was sexually harassed while trying to get tenure. Her office was bugged; there were false accusations."

On a lighter note, the Tucson branch also works with the Casas Adobes branch, the League of Women Voters, the Pima County/Tucson Women's Commission, and Las Adelitas on a project called "Running and Winning."

The daylong project teaches high school girls the ins and outs of politics by meeting one-on-one with women in politics.

This year's event, held Nov. 16 at Catalina Magnet High School, drew 56 girls from three Tucson high schools who met with 15 women involved in local government, including city councilwomen Carol West and Nina Trasoff and Pima County Recorder F. Ann Rodriguez.

"It was fabulous, and the girls were very enthusiastic," says Tucson branch board member Wanda Conley, who helped organize the event.

Incidentally, men do belong to AAUW, including two in the Tucson branch.

Says Harrison: "I went to a national convention two years ago. A man was there. I asked him why he joined. He said he had four daughters and he wanted them all to be educated."

'Nuff said.