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Here is ZTA's press release on the closing:
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE—August 27, 2003
Zeta Tau Alpha Fraternity for women announced Tuesday (August 26) that it has closed its colony at the University of Kansas.
“We regret having to make this decision because we had hoped that we could establish and sustain a strong chapter at KU,” said ZTA National President Julia M. Hill. “Our colony members, advisors and local alumnae poured their hearts into the first formal recruitment efforts, but unfortunately, the results were not what we had hoped for.”
The Kansas Panhellenic Association selected Zeta Tau Alpha to become the 14th National Panhellenic Conference group on the Lawrence campus in the spring of 2001. The fraternity held a colonization recruitment effort in September 2002, pledging over 160 women. However, the colony struggled to maintain those membership numbers and returned this August with 85 members.
A team of Zeta Tau Alpha national officers and consultants had been in Lawrence throughout the 2002-2003 school year and since mid-August to assist the colony. After ZTA participated in formal recruitment this past week with disappointing results, it became clear to the fraternity’s National Council that the colony could not realistically obtain its installation goal of 160 members.
“We had told prospective members, our colony members and the administration from the start that if we could not be competitive on this campus, we would not continue,” said Mrs. Hill. “We had outstanding women in our colony and it breaks our hearts to let them go. However, it was apparent that the colony would continue to struggle and it would have been even more difficult to make this decision at a later date.”
Mrs. Hill and ZTA Executive Director Deb Ensor informed the colony members of the decision to close on Tuesday. Mrs. Hill and two Traveling Leadership Consultants remained on campus Wednesday to close the ZTA office and meet with former colony members.
“We thank these marvelous women for their commitment. They, along with our national officer team and Zetas across the country, had hoped for the best,” she said.
Zeta Tau Alpha expresses its gratitude to the Kansas Panhellenic Association, the Fraternity and Sorority Life Office staff, and the members and alumnae of the other NPC groups at KU for their support, and to the men of Phi Delta Theta and Delta Chi for the use of their facilities for colony recruitment events.
Zeta Tau Alpha, an international fraternity for women, was established in 1898 at the Virginia State Female Normal School (now Longwood University) in Farmville, Va., and currently has 143 active collegiate chapters and 180,000 initiated members.
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