The Alpha Xi Delta chapter on this campus has no traditions, no president and no “bigs” or “littles.” It does not have a real identity — yet.
But that’s what made it so appealing to the 75 women who joined the chapter this fall, re-founding the sorority on this campus. And the new members are excited to mold it from the ground up, creating traditions they will pass down through the years.
“Every sorority has its own character, so we get to decide what people will think of us and who we want to be,” said sophomore chemistry major Caryn Gordon, a new Alpha Xi Delta member. “[I like] just the whole idea you’re starting from scratch.”
While the sorority was originally founded on the campus in 1934, it became dormant during the 1990s. However, over the past decade, Alpha Xi Delta kept a good relationship with the university by renting its house on Knox Road to students, according to Emily McCarthy, one of two Alpha Xi Delta headquarters staff members helping this university’s chapter develop.
Last year, university administrators and the National Panhellenic Conference decided to bring the sorority back to the campus.
“We’ve been working on bringing them back for a while,” said Fraternity and Sorority Life Director Matt Supple. “They had been very supportive of the university during a period of time when seven Panhellenic organization houses were being renovated. During those times, houses shut down for 15 months and oftentimes women moved into the [Alpha Xi Delta] house.”
About 150 women expressed interest in the sorority during fall rush in September, and 75 women were accepted Sept. 23, McCarthy said.
“I think it was a fantastic number of women,” Supple said. “I think it met or exceeded their expectations, and it certainly met or exceeded our expectations.”
Gordon said she thinks most new members had never rushed before, but Rachel Barron, a sophomore journalism major and member of the Kappa Delta sorority, said some students may have seen Alpha Xi Delta as a new opportunity to find a sorority that better appealed to them.
“They might’ve gone through formal recruitment and went, ‘You know, none of these are really for me,’ didn’t feel the connection,” Barron said. “So I think [Alpha Xi Delta members are] getting a larger variety of girls in their chapter.”
Such was the case for sophomore journalism major Meghan Hoffman, who had always wanted to join a sorority and found Alpha Xi Delta to be a “whole new idea.”
“I actually rushed last spring, but I dropped out halfway through,” Hoffman said. “I think if I hadn’t done AZD, I probably wouldn’t have done it again.”
This semester, Alpha Xi Delta is officially considered a “colony,” and members will focus on educating themselves about its history, electing officers and beginning to create the traditions that will later come to define the sorority.
These traditions include deciding which events the members will hold for their philanthropy, Autism Speaks. Members will also get to design their “family letters” and come up with “the little things” that make them who they are, Barron said.
“In Kappa Delta, it’s encouraged for people to come to dinner [at the house] on Mondays,” Barron said, adding members of her sorority make a basket of goodies to give each member of the new pledge class. “The little things, the intricacies of the chapter, they’re going to get to set up, and I think that’s really fun and something amazing. They get to set up their own identity, so it is a completely fresh slate.”
The sorority will also bring back some traditions from its earlier days at this university, including one where each graduate gives a teacup and pink rose to display in the chapter house, McCarthy said.
Moreover, because Alpha Xi Delta is starting anew, all officer positions — including the entire executive committee and all of the chairs — will need to be filled this semester, McCarthy said.
“We want to make it so that all the women have a role in the chapter and can take ownership of what they’re doing,” she said.
The chapter will fully participate in fraternity and sorority events this semester — it will hold its official “installation ceremony” in December and participate in spring rush in January. The off-campus house will also be renovated this year in time for members to move in by fall 2013, McCarthy said.
As Alpha Xi Delta members begin to create the chapter’s legacy, Hoffman said this first class will always remember these founding days.
“No one has bonds yet,” Gordon said. “We’re starting at the same place. I feel like for some sororities, it’s harder when you have older girls, because you don’t get to know them as much and they all have their own friends and everything. So I feel like we’re going to be a closer, bigger group of people because we’re all starting out together.”
