Changes
→The Early Years (Excerpted from The History of Kappa Kappa Gamma Fraternity: 1870-1976)
The World War II years brought dramatic changes of scene to the Ohio State campus. Class ranks were drastically disrupted as men elected to enter various branches of the armed forces or were drafted into the service. Joe College, with his broad-brimmed, flat top "pork pie" hat and "zoot suit" (featuring pegged trousers, long jacket with padded shoulders) was replaced by a man in uniform, as the university geared to specialized training programs for the Army and the Navy.
Many coeds chose to enlist, also, as WAVES (Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service-Navy), WASPS (Women's Airforce Service Pilots), WACS (Women's Army Corps). Some, like Jane Emig (Ford) who served with the Red Cross in Burma and India, were sent overseas. The chapter house buzzed with excitement whenever a member on official leave returned for a visit.
Beta Nus who chose to continue their college careers filled their extra-curricular hours with letter-writing to friends and sweethearts in the service, knitting items in drab green which were requested by the government, tending Victory Gardens which sprang up in unlikely places in a civilian attempt to replace rationed and hard-to-get food products. Several Kappas participated on the War Entertainment Board, an organization of collegians who wrote and produced, sang and dance in a variety show that entertained ASTP (Army Specialized Training Program), Navy V-12, and Lockbourne Airbase trainees. Others were active SWAVes (a branch of the Student War Bond Board), which sold war stamps, registered blood donors, sponsored classes for nurses first aid and first aid.
College women wore knee-length skirts and "sloppy Joe" sweaters, many of which had been spirited away from the closets of absent service-bound brothers and boyfriends. not only did coeds borrow the men's clothing, they also took over as officers of organizations that traditionally had been headed by men. The 1944 ''Makio'' (yearbook) asked "Will they (the women) be willing to turn things back to the men when they return?"
Ohio State's wartime classes kept up their morale by contributing to a fund for a Victory Bell, which would hang in a tower of the stadium and be rung in celebration of future football victories at the Big Ten school.
Kappa actives and alumnae also volunteered at USO (United Service Organization) canteens and the Kappa Service Women's Center in the Chittenden Hotel. It was one of 14 Fraternity-sponsored centers sprinkled across the country. Nola Dysle Havens was chairman of the Columbus suite, which provided a lounge area for servicewomen to rest and relax as they passed through Ohio's capital city. Kappa projects supported the Nora Waln Fund for bombed-out families in England, and Columbus women spent countless hours creating baby clothes for layettes which were sent to Norway through the fund.
More growing pains brought about the purchase of an old house at 55 Fifteenth Avenue to be used for an annex until money could be raised to build the Kappa "Dream House" on the new site.
==Highlights of 2012==