| Beta Mu | |
|---|---|
| BM | |
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| Founded | April 5, 1901 |
| College | University of Colorado |
| Location | Boulder, CO |
| Homepage | Beta Mu Website |
| Media related to Beta Mu Chapter | |
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University of Colorado established in 1861, Boulder, Colorado
4,018 initiates (as of June 2015)
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Charter Members:
Harriet Virginia Allen, Alberta Mabel Carey, Mabel Mae Carroll, Neata Clark, Eva Beatrice Corley, Jeanne Coulter, Edith Delong, Della Gardner, Theophania Huntington, Mary Edna Snodgrass Keyser, Carrie Elizabeth Orton, Harriet Emma Pollard, Willabelle Royce, Nettie Jannette Schwer, Era Edna Sweeney, Katherine Sharrard Todd, Nellie Williams, Daisie Huntington Wood, Mary Ella Wood.
Some of Chapter’s Outstanding Alumnae:
Fraternity Council Officers:
Fraternity Loyalty Award Recipients:
Phyllis Brinton Pryor, 1984; Marjorie Cross Bird, 1990;
Fraternity Alumnae Achievement Award Recipients:
Wilfreda Heald Lytle, 1960; Camille Perkins Lavington, 1994; Barbara Lemmon Bartocci, 2002;
Additional Outstanding Beta Mu Alumnae:
Contents
Highlights of 2011
This past February, Colorado State hosted the Eta Province meeting in beautiful Fort Collins, Colorado. It was such a fun experience to attend all of the leadership workshops while meeting our sisters from New Mexico, Utah, Wyoming, and Colorado College. Beta Mu was honored to accept the award for Achievement in Standards, and was very proud of our supportive Boulder Alumnae Association who took home many fantastic awards as well. All the actives that we were able to attend were a blast; proving that sisterhood knows no boundaries, even between states! It was also especially exciting, because we announced that Beta Mu would be hosting the Eta Province in Boulder, CO in 2013. It was also a year of great accomplishment within the Greek Community!
We hosted a Kappa Kappuccino event in the spring, where we sold cappuccinos to students and raised approximately $3,500 in which we donated to the Creekside Elementary RIF program. And in the Fall, we hosted Kappa Koral, where we sold burgers and fries and raised about the same amount and donated half of the profit to Adult Congenital Heart Association and part to a private charity for a girl with cancer. Beta Mu took first place in CU’s Campus-wide Dance Marathon, a philanthropic event for Children’s Hospital, by raising the most money for the second year in a row. We also had an amazing recruitment this past fall and initiated 64 new wonderful members to our chapter. Our new members really got to bond together through a sisterhood sleepover where they got surprised with a trip to the rollerskating rink. The theme of homecoming this year was decades, and we were selected to work with the years of our childhood, the 90's. Our chapter had a blast getting to work together with Sigma Pi, creating props and preparing awesome costumes for our homecoming parade. We also raised the bar by winning Homecoming for the second year in a row- here’s hoping for a three-peat next year!
Campus:' University of Colorado at Boulder has always been a beautiful place to live and get an education. Throughout the past years, including this recent year, the Greek community has gained a more present place on campus through bigger requirements, and a large presence of philanthropy throughout the school. This past year, CU Boulder topped the rankings for party schools in America; this “achievement” has really put things into perspective for the Panhellenic community, and has prompted a focus on the safety of our sorority women. Our campus’ “party atmosphere” has definitely had its complications for the Greek Community, however it will be through the leadership shown by student groups such as CU student government and the Panhellenic sororities that we will combat any negativity associated with our University and its students. Beta Mu specifically hopes to up its risk management education, and worked closely with the Boulder Police Department to make social events as safe as possible for our members. We even recently had two Boulder police officers come and talk to our girls about safety, and drug and alcohol abuse. We hope to continue to better our school through the presence of the Greek Community.
Chapter: Beta Mu is definitely a unique chapter of Kappa Kappa Gamma; we pride ourselves on our eclectic pledge classes and many individual personalities that give us the character we have grown to love so much. For one thing, the majority of our Chapter Council Officers consist of Sophomore members. It has been our goal to diversify our officer team by electing upper classmen, as well as reelecting members who have held previous offices. The 2011 Chapter Council consisted of a freshman and two senior members, and this recently elected team will boast two freshman members as well as two seniors mixed in with the rest of the sophomore council. Slowly but surely we hope to encourage older, more seasoned actives to continue to contribute to the leadership that runs this chapter. This will increase upper classmen participation, bonding between pledge classes, and hopefully give chapter council some valuable experience to use to better the chapter as a whole. Also, as a chapter we have managed to be among the top three ranked sororities on our campus for our GPA. This makes us proud, as we have made many measures to boost our GPA including, "Geek of the Week", study tables after our weekly meetings, and new revisions to our study room in the house. We are excited for a great year with a great group of girls, and hope to grow together and help portray the values we hold in Kappa Kappa Gamma to the community.
Our Chapter, just like others, had to overcome challenges and continue to improve upon our chapter as a whole. One of our main challenges of the year was being put on a focus letter. For various reasons our chapter was put on a focus letter, which I believe that if anything was actually very helpful to Beta Mu. It made us realize how important and special our organization is and helped us get the extra encouragement to make our chapter even better. Other smaller issues that remained in our chapter were attendance to greek events including philanthropies, panhellenic meetings, and even our own meetings. To try to help avoid bad attendance, we have made all of the girls at the beginning of this year sign a form in which states all of our chapter rules including events they must attend. We hope that having the girls see in writing all the rules they must abide by will help them remember to remain a loyal kappa sister. One other issue we have struggled with this past year was organization of our formals and date parties. We have brainstormed and come upon new and improved ways to make all of our events run more smoothly. Our chapter council plans onbeing more involved with the process of getting the girls and their dates signed in and onto the busses, and we also plan on hosting our spring date dash in a venue without a bar. We hope that all we have improved upon will help the upcoming year be our best yet!
Highlights of 2012
This past year has been one filled with growth and accomplishment in the Beta Mu Chapter of Kappa Kappa Gamma. The year started off with a Skate City date dash where all of the girls paired up and skated the night away filled with fun music and their sisters. Our formal also went with ease. It was held at the CU stadium overlooking our great football field. The theme was informal but formal; this gave a fun twist to everyone’s outfit where everyone was dresses in their best with one item that was informal. This made all the girls outfits fun when they walk in the house with a stellar dress while rocking there Nike running shoes.
Later in the spring we put on our philanthropy Kappa Italia. The philanthropy had pizza and entertainment for guests at the Kappa house, and raised money for KKG’s nationwide philanthropy, Reading is Fundamental. As the semester went on we had a mixer with Sigma Alpha Epsilon where we enjoyed a my-tie dinner where each girl pick a random tie that matched up with the guy that they would sit with at dinner. Then we had a spa day sisterhood at the house where manicures, massages, and facials were given. Finally, Greek week rolled around where we were paired up with Sigma Phi Epsilon.
We were awarded second in field games and on our banner leaving us in seventh place overall.This was the end of spring 2012. As the fall semester rolled around the girls got together for workweek and after all the hard work they put in they enjoyed a day at Water World together before the semester began. In September we had an amazing fall recruitment adding 71 lovely ladies to our house. We can thank our new member chair and event chair for making that possible. We then also had the honor of having the lowest drop rate on our campus and initiated 66 ladies into Kappa Kappa Gamma. The girls in Kappa made it very easy for the new members to feel comfortable by having fun bonding sisterhoods. The first one we did was a mural panting where we had women from a local arts center come by and teach all the girls how to paint a masterpiece. Then we held a new member retreat at Jump Street in Denver fallowed by a sleep over. The last sister hood we did was a bachelorette themed sisterhood where we took goofy pictures in bridesmaid dresses and painted fun wine glasses.
In the fall our first fun filled outing with our sisters was a date dash to the restaurant Barco, where the theme was girls in pearls and guys in ties. Then came homecoming, where we were partnered with Kappa Sigma. The Homecomings theme was the Olympics and we were to represent the rowing and sailing section. It was a good homecoming for us coming out with third place over all. Next, we had a mixer with Kappa Sigma where the theme was typical sorority girl/frat guy. They joined us in a wonderful spaghetti dinner that everyone enjoyed. We also had a mixer with Pi Kappa Phi where the theme was "vamos a la playa"; we served chips and salsa while doing a fun speed dating exercise that allowed us to make a lot of friends in Pi Kappa Phi house. We also involved ourselves in some philanthropy activities. The first was for Race for the Cure where several of us went and participated in the race or walk giving our donation to the cause and then we staying after to help put on the survivor ceremony.
The next thing we did was put on our annual children’s Halloween house where kids and there family’s came and enjoyed trick-or-treating, fun games and crafts in the holiday spirit. All of our proceeds went towards, Reading is Fundamental. We also participated in our schools Dance Marathon where proceeds went to Children’s Hospital, we spent the day with a young boy and his family and many others raising money to support other families like them. Lastly, we have volunteered our time to Creek Side, which is a school that we go and help kids with their reading and give them books that we were able to donate.
To end the fall semester before break we had a holiday sisterhood where we took a holiday postcard to send out to family, friends, and other Kappas around the nation. We also had reindeer, a phsycic, and prizes for all of the girls to enjoy. Overall, the 2012 year was one to be remembered, and with a new group of Chapter Council members, Beta Mu hopes use the new leadership to continue to be a presence among the Greek Community as well as on campus.
This past year on our campus at the University of Colorado Boulder the Greek life has really tried to connect and work along with the campus. Over all on the campus the Greek life continues to grow. One of the things I have really enjoyed watching is how the other students on the campus support the Greek life by attending the philanthropies that was all put on. Another thing that I have really liked about our campus is how much the school involves us.
At the beginning of the fall semester we had one of the athletic directors come and talk to us about how important it is to have us in the crowd cheering on our teams. This is one of the times I was able to really see that the university cares about our involvement. Also, in the fall semester one of the girls that is in Kappa and on the university’s student government board tried to get a bill passed that would enable the Greek system to have equal opportunities to rent cost centers on our campus. The bill was dismissed but has been addressed and will hopefully be passes in the future. As the university grows so has the Beta Mu Chapter of Kappa Kappa Gamma.
We have begun to make improvements in bringing our chapter together as a whole by supporting each other and doing activities that allow us all to bond. We are also on the rise of improving our chapter GPA through the hard work of our education chair getting the girls excited in studying and by rewording them for all the progress they make. Overall Kappa has made leaps and bounds in the year of 2012 and will be continuing at this rate in the year of 2013.
Highlights of 2013
The 2013-year was absolutely spectacular for the Beta Mu chapter! We have grown tremendously as a chapter and have experienced some great things throughout the year. The Beta Mu chapter would like to point out some of the things our chapter and school have done this year. The Beta Mu chapter received the Emerging Leader award, Campus Involvement award and most outstanding senior. We also received Province awards that were academic excellence, standards and public relations. We are very excited to have received these awards this year. We started out our fall semester of 2013 with a great workweek. We were very productive and focused. All the girls were excited and we had an amazing recruitment in September. In October, we held out annual Halloween House, which is where we invite kids of all ages to the house to participate in games, face painting and reading. We ask for donations of books that we distribute to elementary schools throughout Boulder. This year was a great success and had so much fun doing it. Homecoming theme this year was Colorado and we decided to do the Buffs vs. the Broncos.
It was so much being able to support the buffs and the broncos together, which make up two very important aspects of Colorado! Our chapter had so much fun working with Sigma Alpha Epsilon, making floats for the parade and coming up with a skit/dance routine. We held our fall philanthropy, Chili Con Kappa, in November. We sold tickets for all you can eat Mexican food at the house and we raised $5,940. It was such a great turn out! We initiated 71 new members in December and we could not have received a better group of girls. Headed into the New Year, we, as a chapter, decided on a few goals for the year. Our main focus will be raising our overall GPA. We have asked the girls to set 2-3 goals for themselves and hold themselves accountable. We have already seen improvement thus far. We ended 2013 with a holiday sisterhood and said our goodbye’s to juniors studying abroad and wished the best of luck to the seniors graduating early!
The University of Colorado Boulder has always been an amazing campus. It provides its students with not only a great place to live, but also an amazing education. The Greek community is gaining more respect on campus through bigger recruitment and a large presence of philanthropy through the school. With Greek life growing as much as it is, the Panhellenic community as made an effort to focus on the safety of its members. Beta Mu specifically hopes to up its risk management education and work closely with Boulder Police Department to keep our chapter as safe as possible. We recently received a new police liaison that we are very thrilled to work with. We hope to better our school through the presence of the Greek Community.
Colorado experienced dramatic floods in late September. Boulder was hit particularly hard but the community came together and is on the fast track to a great recovery. Many houses were flooded and some of our parks, rivers, and roads were destroyed. Luckily, our chapter house was not affected from the flood. We felt very lucky so our chapter planned something called the boulder Greek-Wide flood relief that was a huge success. The Greek community all came together and raised any money we could and donated it back to the community. The University was very supportive of those who’s houses were flooded and worked with those students to help them manage school and getting through such a difficult time. CU Boulder’s campus was not hit as hard as most other areas were but there were a few small incidents that were fixed promptly so school could get back in session after missing only one day.
Highlights of 2014
This year has been an amazing year for the Beta Mu Chapter. We started off the year of 2014 with a brand new chapter council. They had some goals in mind of what they wanted to achieve and they new exactly how to accomplish them. They wanted to begin a new relationship with the Boulder Police Department. We wanted them to be advocates for us and for the Greek community to be able to work with the police rather than see them as someone they could not trust. It worked tremendously. During this past year, not one member of the Beta Mu Chapter was the victim of a crime. In March we had our spring philanthropy, Sweet Home Kappa Gamma. We had a bull riding machine, a petting zoo, and for one dollar you could "pie a Kappa". It was very successful. It attracted people from all over the Boulder community from college students to families. The money we raised went to the Cancer Research Institute. We raised over $2000. Next thing we knew, Greek Week was upon us where we were very successful. We raised $13,000, won songfest, and won the overall Greek Week. It was so exciting to see all the hard work payoff. Our girls worked so hard and we had so much dedication from our partners, Theta Xi and Alpha Gamma Omega. When our fall term began we had an amazing recruitment and gained 80 beautiful new members. Our fall philanthropy, Kappa Italia was very popular amongst the Greek community. We raised $5000 for Reading is Fundamental. In November, the new Chapter Council was selected and the entire chapter is very excited to see what the next year will bring. At the end of 2014 were University of Colorado's Panhellenic awards. Kappa Kappa Gamma won the risk management award as well as Chapter of the Year. It was an amazing year for the Beta Mu Chapter and are looking forward to another successful year.
The most recent changes made on our campus is the attempt to improve the relationship between the Boulder Police and the students of the University of Colorado. In past years, there has been very little animosity between students and the police. Officer Andrew Kirshbaum was the first to make the step in improving the relationship. He chose to work with the Beta Mu Chapter of Kappa Kappa Gamma to show that police are there to keep students safe not to get them in trouble. He wanted to show that police wanted to be advocates for students rather than work against them. It has so far been very successful. Trust is starting to build between students and the police.
We hold our chapter meetings in our chapter room. Our chapter room is in the basement of our house. It is not required for our members to live in, however we stress how amazing of an experience it can be to live with your sisters. We have a house that can house 85 girls at one time. Our house is chapter owned. The house we live in has been the house we have lived in since Kappa Kappa Gamma came to the University of Colorado.
Highlights of 2015
This has been a very eventful year for the Beta Mu chapter. We started of the year with winning a soccer tournament hosted by Pi Kappa fraternity. It was great to be able to get together with the rest of the Greek community to raise money for Pi Kappa's philanthropy. Our philanthropy chair organized a group of sisters from our chapter to participate in the Polar Plunge. It was an amazing and very cold experience.
Our philanthropy chair also successfully organized three major Kappa philanthropic events. In April we had Sweet Home Kappa Gamma where we raised money for the Ovarian Cancer Research Foundation. We chose this organization to give the money we raised, because a sister of our chapter's mother passed away from this disease a few years ago. It was really great to give to such an amazing organization that could benefit all the women of Kappa. In October we had an event to raise money for elementary schools in our community, Halloween House. In November, Kappa Kappucino was our last philanthropy event that raised money for Reading is Fundamental.
Our standards chair also helped make this semester great with all of the sisterhoods she planned. We went to J Crew and had a shopping event, we went to the pumpkin patch, a yoga sisterhood at Lululemon, we wrote letters to soldiers, we went ice skating, and we had a movie night with a lot of snacks and watched Pitch Perfect 2. All of the pledge classes got to know each other, they were great bonding experiences.
Our registrar organized a History Night in April to celebrate the history of Beta Mu as well as the history of Kappa Kappa Gamma as a whole. We placed 3rd in Songfest and 2nd overall in Greek Week, which was very successful because we won in 2014. On top of Greek Week, our event chair planned very successful formals as well as mixers and date dashes. Some of the mixers we had were Pi Kapp game night, Theta Xi Wild Wild West, and 80's Winter Olympics with Sigma Nu. One of our very fun date dashes was Oktoberfest where we celebrated the German holiday with our sisters and our dates.
Over the summer our chapter council met for a few days for a retreat in Empire, Colorado at our risk chair's cabin. We had a great time canoeing, swimming, hiking, cooking, and bonding. After a few days together we all felt a lot more close than we did before the retreat. Our advisor did an amazing job of organizing activities for us. We had a very successful recruitment where we had the largest class of legacies in Beta Mu history. Our President also started a new activity for Beta Mu's to stay active and healthy. Our President is a very athletic individual and wanted our chapter to become more active so she started the Presidential Fitness Challenge.