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→The Early History (Excerpted from The History of Kappa Kappa Gamma Fraternity: 1870-1976)
==The Early History (Excerpted from The History of Kappa Kappa Gamma Fraternity: 1870-1976)==
Purdue University, the Land Grant College of Indiana, was established by the legislature in 1865 following the signing of the Morrill Act in 1862 by President Lincoln. Not until 1869, when the Board of Trustees accepted a gift of land and money from John Purdue and Tippecanoe County, was the site of the university permanently chosen and the building program begun.
Classes began September 16, 1874, with six instructors and 39 students. At the time of the chapter's founding in 1919 there were approximately 300 faculty and 1,600 students. In 1973 this number had multiplied to 2,200 faculty and 28,000 students, with regional campuses making a total of 37,000. In 1875 the university admitted women but enrollment did not grow rapidly.
An anti-fraternity rule was adopted in 1877 which prohibited students connecting themselves with or organizing societies not approved by the faculty. This caused trouble which was not adjusted until after 1883. Friends of the fraternities had been working through the legislature and a "rider" attached to the Appropriation Bill was intended to prevent payment of the appropriation to Purdue unless the rule against secret societies was rescinded. When the bill was finally passed, university President Emerson E. White resigned. Later the House reconsidered its vote and the session expired without an appropriation bill being passed. Purdue was thus left without a president, without an appropriation, and with a burden of ill-will that required years to overcome. Although fraternities were finally admitted, the question of university control over them was definitely settled in the affirmative, a control that removed many of the objections formerly urged against them.
A Kappa key first appeared on the campus in 1885, worn by Rose Wagner, who previously had been enrolled at the University of Kansas. Two Purdue girls visited Butler and were initiated into Kappa Alpha Theta, but a local fostered by girls of Ladies' Hall was rejected. Two locals eventually were successfully established. One became Kappa Alpha Theta and the other, made up of the girls living in the Marsteller street Annex, became Mu Sigma Alpha, and finally Kappa.
In 1914 sorority houses were unknown at Purdue, but Mu Sigma Alpha gained President Stone's consent to try such a project. The house which was rented on Russell Street was managed so well that the way was paved for other sororities to acquire houses.
In January of 1919, Mu Sigma Alpha's petition to the Grand Council of Kappa was accepted, and Gamma Delta chapter was installed. Twenty charter members were initiated on January 24. Mu chapter from Butler was the installing group and three national officers were present.
A highlight of Gamma Delta's early years was the initiation of Dean of Women Caroline E. Shoemaker. At first she had felt she was needed as dean to give advice and support to all the fledgling national organizations, but a few years later when sororities were on more substantial footing, she accepted Gamma Delta's invitation. She was pledge on June 3 and initiated June 6, 1921. A loyal and tireless worker for Purdue, she had been instrumental in gaining the consent of the president and faculty for the admission of national sororities.
The site of the present chapter house was obtained in 1929. The minutes of May 20, 1928, read, "It was passed we buy the lot back of the ATO House." ...No mention of the street, the size of the lot, or boundaries- just "back of the ATO hosue." The house on Waldron Street became a reality in 1936-37. In the 1940s the mortgage was burned with appropriate but wartime-curtailed activities.
In the mid-1950s the Kappas and the Delta Gammas purchased the lot between them and made plans to enlarge their houses. The Gamma Deltas moved into their addition in the fall of 1958. However, since the kitchen was not finished by the opening of school, the were forced (!) to eat at the various fraternities. The new chapter room was dedicated to Inez Richardson Canan, who had been both province president and vice president and who was the author of the Gamma Delta history which appeared in the 1930 ''History of Kappa Kappa Gamma Fraternity.''
==Highlights of 2011==