Zeta Phi Beta and Phi Kappa Tau
Zeta Phi Beta uses sisterhood to make positive impact in community
By: Casey Northcutt
Issue date: 3/16/06 Section: Lifestyles
The Murray State News
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In the midst of economic hardships of the Great Depression and the racial tension that plagued the 1920s, five women founded Zeta Phi Beta to uplift women.
Arizona Cleaver, Myrtle Tyler, Viola Tyler, Fannie Pettie and Pearl Neal established the sorority at Howard University in Washington, D.C., upon the principles of scholarship, service, sisterly love and finer womanhood.
The founders, whom members call the Five Pearls, wanted to create a sorority open to all women regardless of race, creed or color, according to zphib1920.org.
"We're an equal opportunity sorority," said Zeta treasurer April Gilbert, senior from Lexington. "This is not (just) for black people or minorities."
Since it's beginning, Zeta has created a legacy that includes many alumnae including author Zora Neale Hurston.
The sorority also boasts several firsts in Greek organizational history. It became the first to charter a chapter in Africa and centralize its operations in a national headquarters.
It also became the first to constitutionally bind itself to a fraternity, Phi Beta Sigma. Vice President Nicole DeFreeze, senior from Bowling Green, said the two organizations are the only two in Murray State's National Pan-Hellenic Council that have such a bond.
"That's a unique fact," DeFreeze said. "Everybody else, they can say they're brothers and they're sisters, but really, they're not. We're the only ones that are constitutionally blood brother and sister."
Zetas established a chapter at Murray State Nov. 18, 2000. Six women came to Murray knowing they wanted to join the organization, so they established their own chapter. Six years later, the sorority remains small with an enrollment of five members.
"Just because we're small doesn't mean we don't do (anything)," DeFreeze said. "We're out there."
The Zetas have worked hard to raise funds for their philanthropies, The Stork's Nest, a program that buys baby products for mothers who can't afford them, and the March of Dimes, a program that benefits premature babies.
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Fraternity returns after nearly 20 years of dormancy
By: Casey Northcutt
Issue date: 3/16/06 Section: Lifestyles
The Murray State News
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The national Phi Kappa Tau will celebrate its 100th anniversary Friday.
For the Murray State chapter, this event will mark a century of the organization's existence and celebrate victory in its own struggle for establishment.
Four men founded Phi Kappa Tau in 1906 at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. According to phikappatau.org, the founders established the fraternity with the mission to "champion a lifelong commitment to brotherhood, learning, ethical leadership and exemplary character."
The fraternity boasts an impressive legacy, possessing such alumni as actor and philanthropist Paul Newman and Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky. It also ranks with the top 25 fraternities in the North-Atlantic Interfraternity Conference regarding active members and total living alumni.
Phi Kappa Tau originally established itself on Murray State's campus in the early 1980s. However, the University shut down the fraternity, and it stayed inactive for about two decades.
"I think it was mainly, from what I've understood, from financial reasons and the University having some issues with the national fraternity," said Terry Burgess, faculty adviser. "We have heard from past members that there's a lot of hard feelings toward the University."
The organization reemerged on campus when Murray State alumnus Shane Williams, now considered the founder of the chapter, established it as a colony. The fledgling fraternity started to garner a few members with the first faculty adviser Ross Malone, one of the original Phi Kappas.