ZTA closes at KU

[exlurker]

Originally posted by Tom Earp
Lurker, did not know a bout W Jewell!

Yeah, Tom, ZTA is at William Jewell; I believe the chapter history goes back to about 1931 when it was founded as a chapter of Beta Sigma Omicron, which merged into ZTA in the mid-1960s.

[Tom Earp]

exlurker, since I cannot PM or Email You, will you do PM or EM to me!?

Take it you are in the Area somewhere! Well Metro KC!

We do need to get a KC area GC gathering some time in the Near Future!

[AOcutiePi4ever]

)-:

i hate it when chapters have to close bc of "low numbers"

schools are stupid... getting members takes A LONG TIME, and even then, who cares if you have 2 girls, or if you have 200. if the motivation is there, its worth it. everything has potential and everything will grow if given the chance

[PSK480]

I've cut and pasted this email from my UIFI Sister who was a colony member at KU:

Hello All,
Today was the day that took me by surprise. The KU colony had a
wonderful recrutment. I felt so close to my sisters at our
Preference ceremony that I cried. I was so proud to be a Zeta Tau Alpha and a member of the Panhellenic system. However, this morning we were given the news that our efforts for recrutment came now where close to our goal of 160. National council decided that 96 women was not enough and have decided to shut us down. I'm having a super hard time with this and I just wanted to tell all of my UIFI brothers and sisters. Sometimes things just don't work out. I hope everything works out in your Greek lives.
Sincerely,
Sarah

now I'm sure that ZTA's National Council has their reasons for this action and I don't want to seem judgmental, but, if every other colony member was even half as dedicated and outstanding as Sarah they would have 96 excellent women at KU. It's just a shame to see this happen. But, I can say Sarah will always remain a sister to those of us who went to UIFI.

[Jhawkalum]

I can speak firsthand about KU's greek system.

I can understand why ZTA nationals pulled the plug on the colony. First of all, there is no land anywhere, for the chapter to build a house -- the women would have had to move into a pre-exististing structure or get some residential houses rezoned for a sorority (a concept that is almost impossible to achieve in Lawrence, AGD is having many hurdles trying to do this). Many of the existing greek houses have property values that range from $900,000 to $ 3 million, and I would say all of them are beautiful (for many women, it's the nicest house they've ever lived in). If there are not enough women to help pay the mortgage, then live-in fees would be so high no one would want to join.

Many women at KU do put a great deal of value on the actual sorority house when going through recruitment -- I know there were many factors that affected my decision (i.e. sleeping dorms vs. rooms, air conditioning, the decor, parking, cost). Many women at KU are also very excited about living in the sorority house during their sophomore and junior years, so not having an actual house put ZTA at a major disadvantage.

In my opinion, if another sorority is ever to colonize at KU, it better have a big beautiful mansion ready and waiting for its new members.

[SparkliiQTMTSU]

This is really sad and it upsets me that they didnt really give the chapter a chance to really get up members. They really can't expect to bring in a new sorority granted it is an excellent one, and hope to achive 160 members in its first year of recruitment. It takes some time to build up to those numbers. Im not trying to sound judgmental I just think they should have at least given them 3 years to see if it picked up which im sure it would have. and housing shouldnt matter I know that there are alot of people eho do look forward to living in a sorority house but Im sure that in time they would find a way to get one. My heart goes out to all the girls who are affected by this.

Nichole

[OrigamiTulip]

Originally posted by Jhawkalum
I can speak firsthand about KU's greek system.

I can understand why ZTA nationals pulled the plug on the colony. First of all, there is no land anywhere, for the chapter to build a house -- the women would have had to move into a pre-exististing structure or get some residential houses rezoned for a sorority (a concept that is almost impossible to achieve in Lawrence, AGD is having many hurdles trying to do this). Many of the existing greek houses have property values that range from $900,000 to $ 3 million, and I would say all of them are beautiful (for many women, it's the nicest house they've ever lived in). If there are not enough women to help pay the mortgage, then live-in fees would be so high no one would want to join.

Many women at KU do put a great deal of value on the actual sorority house when going through recruitment -- I know there were many factors that affected my decision (i.e. sleeping dorms vs. rooms, air conditioning, the decor, parking, cost). Many women at KU are also very excited about living in the sorority house during their sophomore and junior years, so not having an actual house put ZTA at a major disadvantage.

In my opinion, if another sorority is ever to colonize at KU, it better have a big beautiful mansion ready and waiting for its new members.

It just seems like those factors should have been considered prior to making the decision to colonize, rather than getting a year into things, and deciding the situation isn't conducive to starting a chapter.

[33girl]

Originally posted by AOcutiePi4ever
)-:

i hate it when chapters have to close bc of "low numbers"

schools are stupid... getting members takes A LONG TIME, and even then, who cares if you have 2 girls, or if you have 200. if the motivation is there, its worth it. everything has potential and everything will grow if given the chance

Just to point out that it was not the school's decision to close the colony, it was ZTA nationals' decision. As long as you pay them whatever fees you owe, schools could care less about quota/total and all the other Panhellenic rules.

[ZTABullwinkle]

I just spoke with our Greek Advisor at ODU, who was at Kansas. According to her, the women who were in the colony will be released. They can join another organization at Kansas if they choose to OR they will initiated when they graduate from University of Kansas as alumnae.

I feel bad for all of these wonderful women who wanted to charter a new chapter of Zeta Tau Alpha. I can't comment on why IO decided to close the colony. I hear that it was because of not having a house on campus. Either way, I think it is very sad for the 96 women who were there and ready to become wonderful Zetas! My heart goes out to each and every one of them. I know they worked hard to make that colony a chapter.

[Tom Earp]

I find this just to kind of ZTA

Here were 96 young women who beleived in ZTA enough to join even without a house and then have the proverbal rug pulled out from under them. Not given the time promised even under these circumstances is to me unthinkable.

Now, why would these women want to join another Organization when they pledged themselves to ZTA!

I am sorry, but to me, this places a black mark on a Fine Soroity.

[Angels&Arrows]

I think someone already mentioned this...

1) Why to ZTA start a colony when they knew the housing issue?

2) Why would ZTA start a colony with a small group, knowing that even if the colony made quota every year, it would take four years to reach campus total? I do not remember the number that started the colony (seems like it was unusually low compared to campus total), but I it seems that they came a long way with almost 100 girls in a year!

[exlurker]

Originally posted by Angels&Arrows
I think someone already mentioned this...
<SNIP>
2) Why would ZTA start a colony with a small group, knowing that even if the colony made quota every year, it would take four years to reach campus total? I do not remember the number that started the colony (seems like it was unusually low compared to campus total), but I it seems that they came a long way with almost 100 girls in a year!

According to the article in the Daily Kansan, the colony began with 160 pledges, which is not extraordinarily small for KU. It appears that ZTA made a real effort to begin with "competitive" numbers. The article -- there's a link to it in the first post in this thread -- states that the number of women in the colony declined to 85 over the course of the school year. So, even with the new pledges from fall recruitment, the colony was substantially smaller than when it began.

[Aphigal]

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.

[SunnyGirl483]

My thoughts go out to the women of Zeta Tau Alpha. I know how heartbreaking it is to have your Chapter close. My chapter closed this past Spring. Remember to keep you head up and don't forget to smile!

Love,
Sunny

[ZTAMich]

I usually don't comment on these 'meaty' topics but here goes...

I can't speak firstand about KU but I can speak as a ZTA. I think this situation has many factors that lead to the decision by ZTA IO to close the colony. I don't think we know every detail and it's wrong to think that it was the chapter, college or IO that is at fault. It appears that it was a combination of all these three as well as some other factors we may not realize. In my biased opinion ZTA is a great organization, with a long standing history as well and it will continue to do great things as a fraternity and with it's philanthropic efforts as well. An incident like this just reminds us all that building a colony is a hard thing.

I read this the free for all section of the kansan where people can comment on whatever. At the bottom it says "Screw ZTA nationals. Girls, we still love you" I hear what they are saying but it's like don't hate the player hate the game. National is the one who has to make the decision so they are the ones getting the blame. Which I don't think is right. I think every national org could give reasons why their nat. office is great and reasons why they are not so great at time, but bottom line we need them.

Still, I consider these girls my sisters and wish them nothing but Zeta Love and Mine