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Honoring Chi Omega at Indiana
Gates honor Chi Omega
By_IDS reports _|_From IDS reports | Tuesday, October 11, 2005
When Chi Omega turned 50 years old in 1972 (at Indiana Univ.), the sorority celebrated the milestone by building gates at the entrance to fraternity/sorority row on North Jordan Avenue. Dedicated during Homecoming week, the limestone gates feature wrought iron Chi Omega seals and bronze identifying plates. When the planning for the gates began, the Chi Omega committee wanted them to be placed where the Sample Gates are now. That space, however, had already been promised and would not be built until 1987.
Then-University Chancellor Herman B Wells announced the plan for the gates in a letter to Chi Omega when their house was built in 1968:
"Ladies of Chi Omega: The fraternities and sororities of Indiana University have, for more than a century, been rich contributors to student life at Indiana University. Immediately following World War II with the rapid expansion of the student body and the shrinkage of available building sites, the University decided that some tangible provision should be made to help our Greek letter organizations keep pace with University development. To meet this need we conceived a major fraternity and sorority subdivision north of Tenth Street by bridging the Illinois Central Railroad and extending Jordan north toward the University Golf Course.
"We dreamed of the greatest fraternity street in America. We assumed that it would take decades for this dream to become a reality, but the response astonished even those of us who always expect great things from our Greek letter chapters, and so in a little more than a decade this dream has taken tangible form.
"One of the jewels in this group of new houses is Chi Omega's beautiful house built by generous alumnae just prior to the Chapter's 50th Anniversary. But now these alumnae are in the process of further adorning this street. To mark the Chapter's 50th anniversary and to express their joy and gratitude for its growth and strength they have contributed the funds to build handsome Chi Omega Gates which will frame the entrance to the fraternity-sorority area and will look out upon our scenic University Golf Course. And as a further measure of the Chapter's dedication and loyalty to the University and inspired by rare insight into student needs in this era, it is now proposed to raise a Chi Omega Scholarship Fund, the terms of reference of which will be described elsewhere in this brochure.
"So I salute the ladies of Chi Omega in gratitude for their imaginative gifts which in spirit and in face are a fitting climax to the realization of our dream of Greek Letter Renaissance at old IU.
Sincerely yours,
Herman B Wells
Chancellor"
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