374
edits
Changes
→Highlights of 2014
All Epsilon Lambda meetings are held in the Chapter Room of our beautiful house located in the new Sorority Village on the University of Tennessee's campus. Once per month, a chapter meal is held at the house before a chapter meeting to foster deeper relationships between all members in all pledge classes. On February 23, 2013, Epsilon Lambda opened the doors to its first house, located in the beautiful Sorority Village on the University of Tennessee's campus, where all 13 sororities now have a house. Our house sleeps 33 girls, mostly members of the Sophomore pledge class. This house has been a wonderful opportunity for members to become closer to each other and develop relationships that they otherwise would not have without this wonderful house.
==Highlights of 2015==
on tests and assignments. We also continued to hold academic conferences and encouraged
members to log their study hours and contribute to the study files. Our chapter GPA in Spring 2015
was 3.18, which was higher than the all-women average on our university’s campus but lower than
the all-sorority average.
Chapter Goals:
Academic Development
- Work towards the all-Panhellenic GPA average and continue to monitor girls with
grades below 3.0.
Chapter Involvement
- Respect time of chapter members, continue to educate the chapter about the reward
system, and emphasize and promote opportunities within the chapter to help
members become more involved and develop leadership qualities.
Chapter Leadership Programming
- Utilize committees/motivate the middle, increase chapter participation throughout
Panhellenic and promote the Kappa “brand”, and emphasize and promote
opportunities within the chapter to encourage members to become more involved
and develop leadership qualities.
Chapter Knoweldge and Chapter Heritage
- Continue exposing new members to ritual immediately after initiation, increase the
enthusiasm and emphasize the importance of initiation during inspiration week, and
educate the members on the importance and uniqueness of our ritual by utilizing
spare meeting time and chapter events to practice ritual.
Philanthropic Events:
March for Babies benefiting March of Dimes
Kappa Kolor Wars benefiting March of Dimes
Chef's Auction benefiting March of Dimes
Major League Breakfast benefiting March of Dimes
THRIVE benefiting Knoxville education and children’s literacy
Kappa Sigma’s South Seas benefiting the Fisher House Foundation
Delta Tau Delta’s Battle of the Bands benefiting the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation
Lambda Chi Alpha’s Watermelon Bust benefiting St. Jude’s Children’s Hospital
Sigma Chi’s Derby Days benefiting the Children’s Miracle Network
Alpha Tau Omega’s OcTAUberfest
Beta Upsilon Chi’s Island Party benefiting TIVA water
Overcoming Challenges:
In the past years, our officers and advisors have noticed that our chapter has been over programming
the members. However, this year, we worked on the challenge of being over programmed
by increasing communication among officers to facilitate more efficient planning.
With this improvement in communication, we were able to decrease needless programming in
order to foster an environment that both encourages member involvement and enables members to
remain focused on academics.
In previous years, our chapter struggled to meet quota for new member recruitment.
However, this year we overcame this challenge and easily exceeded quota thanks to an amazing
recruitment process. Our Membership Chairman, Anna Taylor, worked tirelessly to facilitate a
positive, informative, and empowering recruitment workshop in order to successfully recruit 69
new members.
Finally, we have, in the past, been faced with the challenge of losing new members. However,
this year, our new member retention rate increased due to the wonderful new member education
program directed by our New Member Chairman, Haley Hancock.
Traditions:
Sapphire Reward System
Mother Daughter Tea
Major League Breakfast
In the past year, the University of Tennessee has worked tirelessly to create a campus environment
that is inclusive of all persons regardless of cultural, racial, sexual, religious, or socioeconomic
background. The University of Tennessee seeks to gain student participation in ongoing diversity
inclusion campaigns in order to spread the message of acceptance to all corners of campus. The
University of Tennessee especially looks to members of the Greek community to be a force of
social change and community support. One of the most prominent strengths of the Epsilon
Lambda chapter of Kappa Kappa Gamma is that we are composed of a very unique, diverse, and
accepting body of members. Our member involvement extends far beyond the walls of our chapter
room and the Greek community. In addition to having a large presence on Panhellenic council,
Kappa Kappa Gamma has several members involved in Student Government Association (SGA),
with one of our members being the Vice President of SGA. With this heavy involvement on
campus, members of Kappa Kappa Gamma are able to serve as role models to other students and
are able to provide a strong and unifying voice regarding student opinions of social and academic
changes being implemented by campus administration.
As a chapter, Epsilon Lambda has several core strengths as well as some weaknesses on which we
strive to improve. One of our greatest strengths is the uniqueness of our members. Each member
brings something special to the table, which helps to complete the chapter. Our members work
together to unify each person’s unique qualities to foster a positive, supportive, and empowering
environment in which members can wholly express themselves as well as learn new and different
things from other members. Another strength of this chapter is the commitment to our ritual.
Thanks to a well-organized new member education program, our new members are exposed to and
encouraged to learn our ritual immediately after initiation in a manner that is both fun and
informative. All members understand and appreciate the importance and uniqueness of our ritual,
which further unifies our chapter. Despite these strengths, our chapter recognizes that there is
always room for improvement. We recognize that one of our weaknesses is lack of member
participation in Kappa-sponsored events. This year’s chapter council paid special attention to this
weakness in order to discover the root of the problem. With the help of our advisors, we decided
that lack of member participation might be due to over-programming. Therefore, we carefully
planned all chapter events this year in an attempt to boost chapter interest and maximize
participation. While we have not yet been able to determine if more careful programming has made
a difference, we hope that the next council will continue to program carefully, maintain
transparency and flexibility, and work to improve member participation in all events.
Chapter Philanthropy:
What organization(s) has your chapter historically/traditionally raised money for, or donated hours to, in
your community?
THRIVE and March of Dimes.
Why did your chapter choose this organization(s) to support?
Since Reading is Fundamental is Kappa’s national philanthropy, we chose to donate our time and
efforts to a local organization that also promotes literacy in young children. THRIVE at Lonsdale
elementary is a non-profit organization dedicated to educating inner-city children who come from
minority families or families below the poverty line. THRIVE recognizes that children have
educational, physical, and spiritual needs, and in order to break the cycle of poverty, these needs
must be met. Therefore, as members of the Epsilon Lambda chapter of Kappa Kappa Gamma, we
spend one day a week reading to and tutoring the children of this after-school program in order to
promote literacy and education.
We also donate much of our time and money to March of Dimes, our local philanthropy that
supports research regarding premature births and also aids parents of premature children. Each
year we participate in March for Babies, a walk put on by March of Dimes. During this event, we
are able to interact with many of the children and parents who have benefitted from this incredible
organization. We truly enjoy the opportunity to see where our money is going and how much of an
impact is has on the people we are helping. We have several fundraisers during the year that we
organize to raise money for this organization. In the fall, we have Kappa Kolor Wars, and in the
spring, we have Breakfast for Babies or Major League Breakfast. All proceeds from these events are
donated directly to March of Dimes.
