KKG - Closed Chapter History

[littleowl33]

I find Kappa history really interesting, and since I was looking at the "Where do you want to see your GLO recolonize?" thread, it prompted me to do a little research about our closed chapters.

There are only 22 of them, which is pretty good considering we currently have 136 active chapters. 13 of them have the potential for recolonization someday, and 9 of them were at schools that no longer exist or no longer allow Greek Life. Here's the list I compiled, in case this interests anyone else!

Chapters in Red could not be recolonized (in some cases, they could potentially be if the school changes it's Greek policy).
Chapters in Green could someday be recolonized.

Beta (1871-1874): St. Mary's School, Knoxville, IL
I believe the school no longer exists. It may actually be a high school - I couldn't find very good information on this. Does anyone else know?

Gamma (1872-1875): Smithson College, Logansport, IN
The school closed in 1879.

Zeta (1874-1876): Rockford Female Seminary, Rockford, IL
The school became Rockford College in 1892. It no longer allows Greek Life, but I couldn't find when it was banned or why.

Beta Gamma (1876-1914): Wooster College, Wooster, OH
In 1913, all fraternities and sororities in existence at the time were banned from recruiting any new members. The last initiated Kappas graduated in 1918. In 1918, a group of women affiliated with the old Kappa chapter formed Pi Kappa, a local "club". Epsilon Kappa Omicron, another "club", split from Pi Kappa in 1943, but still claims origins in KKG. Most National GLOs in existence at Wooster became local "clubs" around 1918, adopting their own Greek Letters. Today many of these "clubs" and "sections" (local men's fraternities) are still in existence, including Pi Kappa and Epsilon Kappa Omicron.

Nu (1879-1884): Franklin College, Franklin, IN
Currently has Pi Beta Phi, Delta Delta Delta and Zeta Tau Alpha.

Tau (1881-1882): Lasell Seminary, Auburndale, MA
Became Lasell College in 1851/2?. It no longer allows Greek Life, but I couldn't find when it was banned or why.

Phi (1882-1971): Boston University, Boston, MA
Currently has Alpha Epsilon Phi, Alpha Delta Pi, Alpha Phi, Delta Delta Delta, Delta Gamma, Gamma Phi Beta, Sigma Delta Tau and Sigma Kappa.

Xi (1882-1944): Adrian College, Adrian, MI
Currently has Alpha Phi, Chi Omega and Alpha Sigma Alpha.

Beta Alpha (1890-1977): University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA
Currently has Alpha Chi Omega, Alpha Phi, Chi Omega, Delta Delta Delta, Kappa Alpha Theta, Phi Sigma Sigma, Sigma Delta Tau and Sigma Kappa.

Beta Epsilon (1891-1917): Barnard College, New York, NY
The school banned Greek Life in the early 1900's.

Beta Iota (1893-1934): Swarthmore College, Swarthmore, PA
No sororities are allowed - they were banned in the 1930's. The school does have 2 local fraternities and Delta Upsilon Fraternity.

Beta Sigma (1905-1954): Adelphi College, Garden City, NY
Currently has Alpha Epsilon Phi, Phi Sigma Sigma, Delta Delta Delta, Delta Gamma and Sigma Delta Tau.

Gamma Lambda (1923-1969): Middlebury College, Middlebury, VT
The school does not allow Greek Life. I found that Fraternities were abolished in the 1990's, but I don't know if the same is true of sororities. The school does have "social houses", which are co-ed local orgs, some have Greek Letters. These are said to have formed when the Fraternities were closed.

Gamma Sigma (1928-1976): University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, MB
Currently has Alpha Phi, Alpha Delta Pi and Alpha Gamma Delta.

Gamma Tau (1929-1985): North Dakota State University, Fargo, ND
Currently has Alpha Gamma Delta, Kappa Alpha Theta and Kappa Delta.

Gamma Psi (1929-1992): University of Maryland College Park, College Park, MD
Currently has Alpha Chi Omega, Alpha Phi, Kappa Alpha Theta, Sigma Kappa, Alpha Delta Pi, Delta Delta Delta, Kappa Delta, Zeta Tau Alpha, Alpha Epsilon Phi, Delta Gamma, Phi Sigma Sigma, Alpha Omicron Pi, Delta Phi Epsilon and Sigma Delta Tau.

Delta Theta (1933-1942): Goucher College, Baltimore, MD
The school no longer allows Greek Life, but I couldn't find when it was banned or why.

Delta Chi (1949-1972): San Jose State University, San Jose, CA
Currently has Alpha Omicron Pi, Alpha Phi, Alpha Xi Delta (colony), Delta Gamma, Delta Zeta and Kappa Delta.

Epsilon Theta (1963-1981): University of Arkansas at Little Rock, Little Rock, AR
Currently has Chi Omega.

Epsilon Iota (1966-2004): University of Puget Sound, Tacoma, WA
Currently has Alpha Phi, Gamma Phi Beta, Pi Beta Phi and Kappa Alpha Theta.

Epsilon Tau (1977-1984): Mississippi State University, Starkville, MS
Currently has Chi Omega, Delta Delta Delta, Delta Gamma, Kappa Delta, Phi Mu, Pi Beta Phi and Zeta Tau Alpha.

Zeta Delta (1980-1994):University of Vermont, Burlington, VT
Currently has Alpha Chi Omega, Alpha Delta Pi, Delta Delta Delta and Pi Beta Phi.

Summary:
136 Current Chapters
22 Closed Chapters
9 Chapters Closed without Possibility of Re-Colonization
13 Chapters Closed with Possibility of Re-Colonization


If anyone has additional info or corrections, please let me know!

[AOII Angel]

Technically, the chapters you listed for Barnard are really at Columbia since Barnard got rid of greek life in the early 1900s (probably 1917 given Kappa's closing date.) Your HQ may not label a new chapter at Columbia as a recolonization. I would love to see AOII back at Columbia where we were founded, but it wouldn't be our Alpha chapter since it isn't at Barnard. Excuse me for butting in!

[LucyKKG]

Ooooh I love this kind of stuff! Thanks for summarizing all of it!! Btw, San Jose State also has a colony of Alpha Xi Delta. I'm from San Jose, and I love meeting Kappas who went to SJSU. I met a few this weekend at the Santa Cruz AA, actually.

[littleowl33]

Originally Posted by AOII Angel

Technically, the chapters you listed for Barnard are really at Columbia since Barnard got rid of greek life in the early 1900s (probably 1917 given Kappa's closing date.) Your HQ may not label a new chapter at Columbia as a recolonization.

Originally Posted by LucyKKG

San Jose State also has a colony of Alpha Xi Delta.

Thanks!

[naraht]

The equivalent numbers for Alpha Phi Omega are...
Alpha Phi Omega of the United States has 738 chartered chapters. It currently has 367 chapters that are active, 14 Petitioning Groups, 19 Interest Groups, and 343 that are inactive. (Petitioning and Interest groups include both those at schools which have previously had active chapters and those that have not.) In addition Alpha Phi Omega has 16 charters at schools which have closed or merged with another school with an older charter. (From Wikipedia)

I have no idea if our National Office has ever done a complete list of which of the inactives could come back and which couldn't...

[Leslie Anne]

Originally Posted by littleowl33

Gamma Psi (1929-1992): University of Maryland College Park, College Park, MD
Currently has Alpha Chi Omega, Alpha Phi, Kappa Alpha Theta, Sigma Kappa, Alpha Delta Pi, Delta Delta Delta, Kappa Delta, Zeta Tau Alpha, Alpha Epsilon Phi, Delta Gamma, Phi Sigma Sigma, Alpha Omicron Pi, Delta Phi Epsilon and Sigma Delta Tau.

Hello Kappas! I hope you don't mind a KD dropping in on your thread. I went to the University of Maryland back when Kappa was still there. I have to tell you, Kappa was fantastic. It was the absolute pinnacle of the sororities; there was something magical about it. I was very saddened to hear of its closing a few years later. I hope you can re-colonize there some day. UMD without Kappa just doesn't seem right.

[goldendelta]

Originally Posted by littleowl33

Beta Sigma (1905-1954): Adelphi College, Garden City, NY
Currently has Alpha Epsilon Phi, Delta Delta Delta, Delta Gamma and Sigma Delta Tau.

You must have read my mind. I was looking for the name of the Kappa Kappa Gamma Adelphi chapter today. LOL.

Updates for Adelphi - it is now Adelphi University (I don't recall what year it changed) and Phi Sigma Sigma re-colonized last fall.

[thetygerlily]

I'm curious- does anyone have a list of the chapters that we have recolonized? It'd be interesting to see that rate as well.

[LucyKKG]

Originally Posted by thetygerlily

I'm curious- does anyone have a list of the chapters that we have recolonized? It'd be interesting to see that rate as well.

If you look on the list of chapters on the Kappa website, it should be all of the "deuteron" chapters. Haha, ok, that wasn't super helpful. I can think of these chapters off the top of my head:

Alpha Deuteron - Monmouth (1870-1884 ; 1934)
Omicron Deuteron - Simpson (1880-1890 ; 1990)
Pi Deuteron - Berkeley (1880-1885 ; 1897)
Rho Deuteron - Ohio Wesleyan (1880-1894 ; 1925)
Beta Beta Deuteron - St. Lawrence University (1881-1903 ; 1915)
Psi Deuteron - Cornell (1883-1969 ; 1977)
Beta Rho Deuteron - University of Cincinnati (1885-1885 ; 1914)
Beta Eta Deuteron - Stanford (1892-1944 ; 1978)

[Kappamd]

Closed and Reopened

Beta Beta - St Lawrence
Psi - Cornell
Rho - Ohio Wesleyan
Beta Rho - Cincinnati
Alpha - Monmouth
Omicron - Simpson
Pi - Berkeley
Beta Eta - Stanford


Closed

Zeta Delta - Vermont
Epsilon Tau - Mississippi St.
Epsilon Theta - Atkansas, Little Rock
Epsilon Iota - Puget Sound
Delta Chi - San Jose St.
Delta Theta - Goucher
Gamma Psi - Maryland
Gamma Sigma - Manitoba
Gamma Tau - North Dakota State
Gamma Lambda - Middlebury
Beta Sigma - Adelphi
Beta Iota - Swarthmore
Beta Epsilon - Barnard
Beta Alpha - UPenn
Xi - Adrian
Phi - Boston U
Tau - Lasell Seminary
Nu - Franklin
Beta Gamma - Wooster
Zeta - Rockford Female Seminary
Gamma - Smithson
Beta - St Mary's

[gee_ess]

Just stumbled across this thread and was wondering what transpired at U of Maryland to shut down such a good chapter (per Leslie Anne's posting).

I don't know anything about the campus or the chapter, her comment just made me curious.

[LucyKKG]

I was thinking - I've said before that I would love it if the San Jose State chapter re-opened, but I think it would have to be several years from now. It makes me sad cause it's so close, but Eta Mu (UC Santa Cruz) and Eta Nu (Santa Clara) are SO new that I think it would put a serious strain on fraternity and alumnae association resources. I'm not implying there's any potential for it to happen soon, but maybe after HM and HN are a little older it would work better. I still think it's crazy how many NPCs SJSU used to have but there are only a fraction of that still in operation.

[carnation]

I really miss the girls I knew at the Mississippi State chapter. They were great! They used to come down and see the irises I was breeding for Kappa and invited me to a lot of Kappa affairs since State had no Pi Phi chapter then. And best of all, their chapter never gave me any grief! (I was assistant PH advisor back then.)

[gee_ess]

Of course you miss them, Carnation. Kappas are great girls!!

[aab225]

does anyone know by any chance what happened to KKG at Boston University? Why did it close and when?