Gamma Xi
| Gamma Xi | |
|---|---|
| ΓΞ | |
 | |
| Founded | May 8, 1925 |
| College | University of California, Los Angeles |
| Location | Los Angeles, CA |
| Homepage | Gamma Xi Homepage |
| Media related to Gamma Xi Chapter | |
2,843 members as of (June 2015).
Charter Members: Marion Roberta Adams, Ruth Allison Cannon, Marian Cooper, Helen Strothers Davenport, Helen Gwendolyn Davies, Jane Elizabeth Farish, Okla Alice Glass, Marian Barbara Henshall, Kathryn Chenalls Hocking, Frances Hockmeyer, Isabel Mushet, Elizabeth Barbara Park, Pauline Peipers, Miriam Reid, Beryl Alla Souder, Lucile Elspeth Stone, Norma Grace Stoner, Evelyn Mae Temple.
Some of Chapter’s Outstanding Alumnae:
Fraternity Council Officers:
Fraternity Loyalty Award Recipients:
Fraternity Alumnae Achievement Award Recipients:
Lucy Guild Toberman, 1972; Donna DeVarona, 1980;
Additional Outstanding Gamma Xi Alumnae:
Contents
The Early Years (Excerpted from The History of Kappa Kappa Gamma Fraternity: 1870-1976)
Webster would have us believe that a sorority is, "A club of girls or women, as in a college." To the Gamma Xi Kappas at the University of California at Los Angeles, this definition lacks much. It tells nothing about the human qualities that had made Kappa so special to so many women.
To the founding sister it was seeing the chapter's beginnings back in 1925. Originally, she had been a member of a local group, Phi Delta Pi, established in 1918, but on February 14, 1925, received the news that Kappa Kappa Gamma had accepted the petition of the local group. Phi Delta Pi had just concluded a most successful rushing season, and was entertaining the prospective pledges with a formal dinner at the Los Angeles Athletic Club. The president, Betty Park (Drake) announced, after all the toasts were over, that she had been given a wonderful valentine that afternoon from Kappa. Gamma Xi was installed as Kappa's newest chapter on May 8 by Georgia Hayden Lloyd Jones, Eta-Wisconsin, then Fraternity director of provinces, and Pi Chapter, assisted by Beta Eta.
Gamma Xi became the first chapter in the history of the Fraternity to attend as hostess chapter its initial convention at Mills College in Oakland the summer of 1926.
The chapter's first major problem was finding adequate housing. In 1929, when UCLA moved to its present site, the fledgling sisters left the rented house on the original downtown campus. With the permanent location established for the university, the Kappas entered into a round of fund-raising projects, enlisted help from alumnae, and the Mothers Club to garner the necessary funds for a chapter house. With a loan from the Endowment Fund to supplement the money already raised, ground was broken in June of that year.
A Kappa alumna from those days remembers, "We were so fortunate to purchase perhaps the most ideal corner site on Sorority Row. It was decided that our beautiful new home would be Mediterranean in style to blend with the new UCLA buildings. What fun we had establishing and developing new traditions. Among the most enduring have been pledge presents, Dad's Dinner, and a breakfast to honor graduating sisters. We established a fine tradition of academic excellence. First on the Row."
"The mood of Gamma Xi changed as our men left for Europe and Asia in the 1940s," reflects another sister. "Our activities focused on the war effort. Along with the university, we revamped and accelerated our goals to adapt to war time conditions. Now, we emphasized our philanthropic aims. I remember that each member contributed in her own way- whether it was as chairman of a paper drive, or knitting, or packing Red Cross boxes. We blackened our windows, wrote 'V' letters and waited for the postman to bring us news of our men. The war seemed to foster even closer bonds of sisterhood."
The Key, February, 1942, stated that Roxanna Jackson, Delta Zeta- Colorado College, United Services Organization director at Long Beach, had sent word that the members of Gamma Xi had been "very generous and cooperative with the USO of Los Angeles and nearby military posts...Reports regarding the Sunday afternoon activities which have come back to me from individuals who have attended these parties have been very glowing..."
Gamma Xi's Jean Bartel (Hogue) became "Miss America, 1943." The Key recorded: "The 1943 winner had to be the kind of girl the American servicemen think of as the ideal young woman, with talent, intelligence, poise, personality, as well as beauty." PM magazine reported that: "...she really does look like the average American mother's idea of a perfect daughter. She doesn't smoke or drink, of course...during her first year at UCLA she joined Kappa Kappa Gamma sorority and is very proud of golden key, fleur-de-lis, etc. In fact she is particularly eager not to do or say anything in her new role that would embarrass KKG." Miss Bartel sold two and one-half million dollars worth of war bonds on a tour of 33 key cities for the Third War Loan Drive that fall.
During what the historians called "the silent '50s," Gamma Xi was anything but quiet. A sister from those days ponders on their activities: "Our chapter was the most active ever/while I was at UCLA. We had good times! There was the annual Kappa-Fiji Formal, Kappa-Beta Formal, and each year we had two formal initiation dances. We continued a recent tradition of a University of Southern California and University of California at Los Angeles Kappa breakfast following the cross-town football game. We had fun helping our USC Kappa sisters with their newly founded chapter, Delta Theta. We were the busiest house on the Row. We were a house of boomers! Every school organization had at least one sister on its roster. We had the president of Red Cross Productions, editor or our school year book, Rally Committee chairman and so many more. We had the Homecoming Queen three years in a row, and we won first place in the Panhellenic Parade, staged before the USC-UCLA football game. Those years reflected the Greek supremacy on campus."
An excerpt from The Key, October, 1953, states: "Highlighting the year are the bi-annual scholarship banquets. A diamond Key rewards the highest average; a silver ashtray, the greatest improvement; and silver spoons are presented to all those making a minimum C+ average and improving averages of a .3 grade raise."
A Kappa sister of the 1960s has a far different view of what Gamma Xi means. "I remember my four years at UCLA as ones of retrenchment and revaluation of traditional values." The house reflected the world in miniature. Generally, there was little interest in the Greek on campus. "We never wore our keys to class. The Greek news section in the Daily Bruin withered and vanished."
Among the Kappas themselves, there was dissension. Rush meetings became mandatory. Those not attending the spring dance were fined five dollars. Dress standards were reviewed and changed, but not until many meetings were devoted to discussion.
A "no lock-out policy" was refused by the Mothers Club. Gradually, as the number of actives dwindled it became clear that the Gamma Xi's must insist that all members live in. The Greeks were losing out to UCLA's new coed dorms and apartment living. Many Kappa sisters were distressed to see other sororities close their doors. One charter after another was revoked.
UCLA was pared some of the more violent forms of anti-Establishment activities. A more recent alumna reflects, "Kappa has always shown an interest and concern for the welfare of others. It was through Kappa and Gamma Xi that I truly found a mode for service. I shall always be grateful to my Kappa training and proud to associate myself with Gamma Xi."
Fortunately, for this generation of Kappas, Gamma Xi traditions are alive and well. With a renewed interest in sororities, all the houses that weathered the lean years filled their quotas last rush. "We even had to have eight pledges room elsewhere. Unheard of!" the chapter president exclaimed.
The house still has the best location on Sorority Row. There are problems accommodating the members' cars and the beautiful house has been redecorated and modernized many times. In the almost fifty years that Gamma Xi has been at UCLA, the University has grown and prospered from a small enclave in the bean fields of Westwood Hills to a fine university. And with the university, Gamma Xi has prospered and grown, continuing its fine social, educational, and philanthropic traditions.
Highlights of 2011
It was another amazing year at the Gamma Xi chapter of Kappa Kappa Gamma! With lots of hard work and dedication from our membership chairs as well as the house, we swept the row this fall and have an amazing, full pledge class that add so much to our house. We won the award for best philanthropy of our whole Greek system again, as well as created a new philanthropy called "Krismahanakwanzaka", bringing in hundreds of new toys to donate to the Mattel children's hospital for Christmas. We also hosted an alumni day, combining alumni day at UCLA with a Kappa alumni day and were able to meet many Kappa alums and hear their stories of when they lived in the house. Additionally, we had part of our house redone this summer, leaving us with beautiful blue and blue decorations that is hard to take your eyes off of!
Campus: The only big changes around campus is the tuition spikes at UCLA, and John Wooden passing away last year.
Chapter: I would say the tuition spikes definitely have effected our sorority, as Kappa is very expensive to be involved in as well so with the two combined we are having trouble with people paying their dues on time or even at all. Although this hasn't caused a high drop rate, I can definitely say we will expect to see more people applying for associate and special status in the near future.
The main problems that our chapter has are getting people to pay their dues and getting people to attend meetings or events. Luckily the establishment of Bill Highway has helped immensely in the accuracy of paying dues, however we are still in debt but are working on it extremely hard and will hopefully be able to get back on track in no time. For the attendance issue, Chapter Council talked to nationals and was able to get a program approved where if a member does not attend a certain percentage of mandatory events, we will be able to take away their privileged of attending an event from them. This helps immensely because we have always give empty threats because we never could actually take anything from them, but now we can positively reinforce them to attend mandatory events so they can go to the events they are looking forward to!
Highlights of 2012
This year has been very successful for the Gamma Xi Chapter. For the first time in several years we are no longer in debt. After implementing the BillingHighway system, the number of members that pay their dues has climbed drastically. This has allowed us to partake in many more sisterhood events, such as class retreats and a fancy dinner in Hollywood. At the UCLA Panhellenic Awards night, Kappa Kappa Gamma received more awards than any other chapter, including Best SOE Chapter Management, SOE Panhellenic Chapter Council Enrichment Award, SOE Panhellenic Council Gold Laurel Recognition, SOE Panhellenic Council 4th place, and Best Philanthropy Programming and Single Philanthropy event.
Three new sororities were approved to join the Panhellenic sororities at UCLA. One chapter will be implemented next year and the two other chapters will be implemented within the next few years. The Pauley Pavillion basketball stadium was completed this year. All sororities were required to have a minimum number of members attend the stadium opening.
Our PR Chairman hosted our second annual Alumni Day event. This particular event was very successful in connecting with alumni in the LA county area. This year our chapter established more chapter council positions so that more members can be involved in leadership roles. Some of these positions include Day Heads for rush, a Key Points chairman, and an assistant Treasurer.
Highlights of 2013
It has been a great year for the Gamma Xi Chapter! Our Billhighway system is still very successful in collecting the chapters due. This allowed for new renovations in the house, including tiling in the kitchen and hardwood floors upstairs, making our house is more beautiful than ever! We have participated in many sisterhoods this year, such as biking together in Venice, bringing our chapter even closer. Our philanthropy was very successful, as always, with our Day in the Life. Our chapter also supported a member in house in creating philanthropic run that fought human trafficking. The run actually started and ending at our chapter, and we helped raise $3300 and implanting plans to make this a yearly event with Kappa’s support. We also had a great recruitment this year and are so happy for the new additions in our chapter! Describe the recent changes on your campus and describe the overall nature of your chapter.
A new sorority, Alpha Gamma Delta, has joined the row this year. Kappa has been very supportive in helping this girls begin their chapter by attending many of their events and creating welcome baskets for the girls. Kappa continues to support UCLA’s athletic teams with chapter attendance at basketball, football, and other extracurricular events. Kappa has also put more importance on academics this year, asking girls to log the amount of time they spend studying each week. We also implemented a Monday night study time for all girls to come together and help each other with various academic issues. Each week we reward a girl who demonstrated great academic activity or success, in order to show how important school is to our girls. We also received a lot of help from Nationals in the last year, causing our chapter to grow and strengthens in ways we never imagined. We have created much better relationships with our advisers, allowing us put more meaningful time and effort in the keep up of our Chapter.
Highlights of 2014
2014 began with a triplet meeting for all of the newly elected officers in Gamma Xi (President-Alex McKenna, VPS- Isabella Hanulik, VPO- Gina Giordano, VPAE- Olivia Hayward, Treasurer- Mindy Wheeler, Recording Secretary- Megan Couch, Corresponding Secretary- Maggie O’Leary, Registrar- Natalie Dolloff, Marshal- Grace Olson, Philanthropy- Julia Bennett, House Manager- Erin Miley, Risk Management- Nicole Guffy, Event- Courtney Louie, Education- Erin Becker, New Member- Stephani Domako, Membership- Fiona Davies, Panhellenic Delegate-Hadley Nolan, and Public Relations- Emily Wheeler). The first order of business was to appoint assistants (Assistant Event- Sarah Sanders, Assistant Membership- Andi Bernardoni, Assistant Treasurer- Michaela Monaghan). Winter Quarter was a slow social quarter for Gamma Xi, but was filled with sisterhoods and Greek community events. Gamma Xi competed on the Red Team for UCLA’s annual Greek Week with partners Sigma Alpha Epsilon. Following Greek Week, Gamma Xi won the award at the Greek Gala for Best Greek Week Delegates. Our winter sisterhoods were spent at both a roller blading rink and on a yacht in Marina del Rey, making them some of the coolest sisterhoods our chapter has ever had. Gamma Xi also participated in a plethora of other chapters’ philanthropies in the winter including Sig Ep Kicks for Kids, Sigma Chi Derby Days, Theta Chi Hair Salon, Tour de Pi Kapp, ZBT War of the Roses, and Wings for Life by RedBull.
Spring Quarter was an eventful quarter for Gamma Xi. Almost 20 girls started their quarter participating in UCLA’s Dance Marathon on the Blue Team, partnered with ZBT. Our dancer captain and sister, Monica Avakian, led us for the full 26 hours beautifully in Pauley Pavilion for the first time ever. Our PR Chair, Emily, put on a wonderful Mom’s Day brunch at the Luxe Hotel on Sunset Blvd. Our sisterhoods included watching a movie and making s’mores in the Kappa Kourtyard and a wonderful pool party to send off our seniors at the W Hotel. Gamma Xi also was honored to host two different pinnings for our girls, Roxy Thrapp (Sigma Chi) and Sam Varchetto (SAE).
Fall Quarter began, as always, with Kamp Kappa and our big fall recruitment. Fiona and Andi led us fearlessly through Kamp and prepared us fully for recruitment and were rewarded with our wonderful new 59 members. Stephani planned an amazing Alice in Wonderland themed Bid Day that was a huge success. Erin B. put on a fantastic Founders Day celebration in collaboration with Formal Meeting and was able to educate the new members on the founding of Kappa Kappa Gamma and our beginning as a fraternity. Stephani also planned bonding class sisterhoods in the fall for each grade: Freshmen went to Sky Zone, Sophomores went ice skating, Juniors went to Disneyland, and the Seniors had a brunch at the penthouse of a hotel on the beach. Presents came around quickly and Emily threw a fantastic Dad’s Day tailgate with catered Chipotle. Gamma Xi put on another successful and exciting A Day in the Life (of a Bruin), our chapter’s philanthropy event with more kids in attendance than ever before! Gamma Xi was also able to bring back our holiday philanthropy party to raise money for the Kappa Foundation and Reading is Fundamental and also collect toys for Toys 4 Tots.
A new sorority, Alpha Gamma Delta, has joined the row this year. Kappa has been very supportive in helping this girls begin their chapter by attending many of their events and creating welcome baskets for the girls. Kappa continues to support UCLA’s athletic teams with chapter attendance at basketball, football, and other extracurricular events. Kappa has also put more importance on academics this year, asking girls to log the amount of time they spend studying each week. We also implemented a Monday night study time for all girls to come together and help each other with various academic issues. Each week we reward a girl who demonstrated great academic activity or success, in order to show how important school is to our girls. We also received a lot of help from Nationals in the last year, causing our chapter to grow and strengthen in ways we never imagined. We have created much better relationships with our advisors, allowing us to put more meaningful time and effort in the keep up of our Chapter.
Gamma Xi holds chapter meetings in the dining room of our Kappa house, located at 744 Hilgard Ave. in Los Angeles. Gamma Xi is fortunate to have a beautiful home on the edge of Westwood and Beverly Hills. Greek Life at UCLA was originally funded by one person and this one person said that in order to receive funding for the houses, fraternities and sororities had to agree to have their respective houses on complete opposite sides of campus, therefore, sororities reside on Hilgard Ave. while fraternities reside on Gayley Ave. and Landfair Ave. Our house is owned by the Kappa Kappa Gamma House Board of Los Angeles. Our house currently holds 51 sisters at one time, but it wasn’t always this big. The house has been added onto and renovated many times over the years since our founding here at UCLA, but we have always had this same house.
Highlights of 2015
The 2015 school year began with a triplet meeting for the newly appointed officers of the Gamma Xi Chapter of Kappa Kappa Gamma at UCLA. The newly elected members went as followed; Nicole Guffy as President, Hannah Demetor as VPS, Stephani Domako as VPO, Erin Becker as VPAE, Kylie Taylor as Treasurer, Amelia Danovitch as Recording Secretary, Annie Sasso as Corresponding Secretary, Emily Bochner as Registrar, Celeste Carswell as Marshall, Emily Hughes as Philanthropy Chairman, Bre Maughn as House Manager, Stephanie Larratt as Risk Manager, Genevieve Zimmerman as Event Chairman, Ali Welschmeyer as Education Chairman, Kevan Caroll as New Member Chairman, Michaela Monaghan as Membership Chairman, Liviya James as Panhellenic Delegate and Danielle Merrihew as Public Relations Chairman. Chapter Council then appointed assistants as followed; Julia Savage as Assistant Membership Chairman and Ariana Taghaddos as Assistant Treasurer. Winter quarter was a bit slow for our chapter, but we managed to participate in a ton of philanthropic events and put a focus on sisterhood. Gamma Xi’s Chapter Council had a blast at a sisterhood event at Disneyland. The newly elected chapter council members were able to get to know each other better and prepare for the year ahead. In addition, we participated in UCLA’s Greek Week on the White Team and ended up being the highest fundraising sorority. At the Standards of Excellence Gala, Gamma Xi proudly took home three awards for membership development, external relations, and third highest overall Standards of Excellence points. Additionally, numerous members of the chapter partook in other Greek philanthropy events such as Sigma Chi’s Derby Days, ZBT’s War of the Roses, Theta Chi’s Hair Salon, Chi Omega’s Wings for Wishes and Sig Ep Kicks for Kids. Additionally, Gamma Xi was able to surpass the all sorority and all women’s GPA.
Spring Quarter was especially exciting for Gamma Xi. Members of our chapter who are also involved in the Pediatric Aids Coalition were able to form a team of about 25 Kappas to participate in Dance Marathon (a 26 hour event where students pledge to stand on their feed for 26 hours to raise funds and awareness for Pediatric HIV/Aids), partnering with our friends in Sig Ep. The Team Blue dancer captain was our very own Ali Welschmeyer who led us fearlessly into the fight against Pediatric HIV/Aids. We had sisterhood movie nights in the courtyard and a yoga class led by Bridget Bruggeman (a second year member who is also a certified yoga instructor). Danielle, our PR chair, planned a beautiful Mom’s Day brunch at the Luxe Hotel on Sunset Boulevard. We also had two adorable pinnings, one for Emma Campbell (SAE) and Cassidy Pearl (Sigma Chi). Furthermore, Gamma Xi was making an important transition onto the GIN System, a new means of communication throughout our chapter in an attempt to keep all members updated in all things Kappa and UCLA. Last but not least, Gamma Xi’s Chapter Council went to the Regional Leadership Conference in April, learning more about KKG and our roles in the house, meeting fellow Kappas from other chapters, and discovering more about ourselves as a whole.
Fall Quarter came quickly and we were back at Kamp Kappa for fall recruitment. Our Membership Chairman, Michaela Monaghan, did an incredible job with rush and we ended up with 58 amazing, charismatic, and kind new members join our chapter! The house went under some renovations during Summer 2015 and all of the girls were eager and excited to see the new improvements to our already beautiful homes. Kevan planned a “Sweet Home Kappa Gamma” bid night and the entire chapter had an amazing time welcoming the new members. Ali W. planned a fun Founders Day in which the whole chapter was told about the history of our house, the background of Gamma Xi, and the founding of Kappa Kappa Gamma in general. Big Little Reveal was an exciting time for all of the members taking on little sisters, and was quickly follow by Kappa Presents and Kappa’s Dad’s Day—both of which were a blast! We also had our “A Day in the Life” philanthropy in which we had over 150 students from Brockton Elementary come to campus and learn what it was like to be a Bruin for a day, while also contributing to Reading is Fundamental. They learned our 8-clap, we read them books, they ran through campus doing an obstacle course, and were sent home with backpacks full of school supplies. The kids’ smiles and laughter brought joy to each and every Gamma Xi member. We finished off fall quarter with our second philanthropy, Kappa Krismukkah, where all of our friends on campus came to our house to enjoy holiday festivities and to either donate toys to the Mattell Children’s Hospital or donate money to the Kappa Kappa Gamma foundation or to Reading is Fundamental.
A word to describe Kappa’s nature this year: excitement. Our members took advantage of every opportunity to not only support our sisters, but also the students and organizations around us. From participating and donating to philanthropies of other sororities and fraternities, to attending baseball, basketball, football, soccer, and water polo games to support our athletes, our chapter was showing support to Bruins all over campus. Furthermore, our chapter loves to make good luck baskets during midterms and finals week and distributing them to other houses. During the stressful times of exams, Gamma Xi members unite, support, and help each other out in all academic subjects to ensure our girls do the best they possible can. This has paid off as we have continued to surpass the all sorority and all women’s GPA! We reward girls who have achieved academic success during our weekly meetings and we nominate a Kappa of the Week to a member who especially exemplified our womanly and true ideals during recent events. The chapter has also worked to further take advantage of the relationships with advisors by reaching out to meet with them more frequently and maintaining contact to ensure all of our chapter council members are on task and are doing all they can to improve our chapter as time goes on.
Chapter Philanthropy:
What organization(s) has your chapter historically/traditionally raised money for, or donated hours to, in your community? Reading is Fundamental and the Kappa Kappa Gamma Foundation
Why did your chapter choose this organization(s) to support? As UCLA students, our Gamma Xi members know how important it is to take advantage of every academic opportunity and to help others in need. By donating to Reading is Fundamental and the Kappa Kappa Gamma Foundation, we believe we are positively contributing to society by providing children with books and opportunities to be inspired by higher education. We especially try to carry and present ourselves as potential role models to those around us. During A Day in the Life, our hearts are filled with joy and warmth as we watch the kids of Brockton Elementary giggle and run around our campus as excited and potential future Bruins. Our members not only want to give them an unforgettable experience on our campus, but to also inspire them to want to prioritize academics and show them that hard work pays off.