4,269
edits
Changes
→2012
(From chapter’s History Report: Scholarship, group honors/awards, traditions, special events, changes on campus or within chapter, overall nature of the chapter, chapter goals, challenges and how they were overcome, etc.)
==Highlights of 2011== The year of 2011 was quite eventful for Beta Zeta. We had a lot of successes through our philanthropy work and our involvement in Greek Week and Homecoming. To start off the year, we participated in Informal Recruitment. We continued the spring with our semi-formal, Kappa Krush, in February, Ladies weekend, Providence Convention, and Formal in April. Around campus, we participated in Greek Week in which our members provided needed leadership with our pairing with a fraternity. After summer break, we started up with Fall Formal Recruitment for the 2011-2012 school year. We added a new edition to our work week, by adding themes to each day to keep everyone from getting burnt out during the week. We had a very successful recruitment which was aided by our new use of clickers in the voting process. Through a fun bid day and getting to know our new members, the moral of the chapter was very high. We hosted our fall philanthropy, Kappa Kickoff, which was a week long including fun events for fraternities that were involved. These activities included a badminton tournament, trivia, dance-off, a fashion show, and a pizza party for the winners of Kappa Kick-off. This event raised $2,000 for our Room To Read, our philanthropy. Through an eventful season for Hawkeye Football, we finished it with Homecoming week which we were heavily involved in as well. Our members participated in Fiji Dodgeball, and succeeded in winning the tournament. We ended the semester with Barndance and studying diligently for finals. All in all, a very eventful year for kappa on our social calendar and mostly with our philanthropy. '''Campus:''' Around Iowa City, things have settled down since the change in age for bars downtown. The police have been cracking down on underage teens in the bar after 10 which has hurt not only the schools reputation, but the Greeks reputation as well. Thankfully, our members have found alternative ways to spend their nights and have been above the influence when it comes to the downtown night scene. '''Chapter:''' Throughout Beta Zeta, the unity of our chapter has grown substantially. This unity not only comes from the hardship of finding alternatives to going downtown, but also the chapter struggle to get our grades up. We have been successful in keeping the moral in the chapter high, which is much needed with the Greek life here at UIowa. Starting out the year with an amazing philanthropy got Beta Zeta’s name out positively which has improved our relationships with other Fraternities. The chapter as a whole is continuing to improve Greek life in a positive manner around the campus. Unfortunately, the past year for Beta Zeta has been a struggle with the University and Kappa National Headquarter. We were placed on two focus letters; one for grades and another for tickets for members unfortunate to get caught underage downtown. In the spring, we had an all-time high ticket count, but thankfully that number went down substantially in the fall. Through this difficulties, we came together as a chapter and worked to get ourselves on the right track. Our chapter GPA went up a couple points to the all womens average, which was a goal for fall, 2011. We are still working to get our GPA higher and continue to help each other with study hours and having members come to the house for a more quiet place to study. Because of the increase in tickets in the spring, we have incorporated more sisterhoods, non-alcoholic events with fraternities, and educational programs that show our members that there are positive alternatives to going downtown. The fraternity is getting back up on it’s feet and are ready to make some big changes on campus for years to come! ==Highlights of 2012==This year in the Beta Zeta Chapter of Kappa Kappa Gamma, many accomplishments have been achieved. The Beta Zeta Chapter raised money and awareness for the Children's Miracle Network through the "Kappa Kickoff" event held in the fall. This was an extremely successful event with a terrifc terrific turnout from the Greek community at the University of Iowa. The Beta Zeta Chapter also held many successful social events including Semi Formal and Formal. Formal was held at the Marriot and this turned out to be a favorite location among the chapter. Throughout last year, the Chapter placed special emphasis on improving our academic standards. This led to a stricter recruitment process in August, however, Recruitment was still once again a wonderful success, as we were able to welcome forty-five classy new women into our Beta Zeta Chapter at the University of Iowa.
Recent changes on the University of Iowa campus include a new dorm being built on the west side of campus. This new dorm is being built while trying to remain energy efficient. This is being done through various specific plans including the installment of "green" electrical outlets that shut off power when not in use. Hopefully some future Beta Zeta Kappa Kappa Gamma women can reside here, as the dorm plans to open in fall 2015 and will house approximately five hundred students.
Recent changes specifically in the house of Kappa Kappa Gamma on campus include the hiring of a new chef, William. There has been nothing but rave reviews regarding this new addition to the home, as William is truly a very talented chef. The overall nature of the Beta Zeta Chapter remains extremely positive. All the women of the Chapter clearly have Kappa Kappa Gamma's best interest at heart and everyone is committed to helping this Chapter become the best Chapter it can be. Right now the main focus of the Chapter is to improve the grades. There have been many new systems regarding stricter study hours, put into place so that this goal will be achieved. All of the women in the Chapter understand the importance of this and support the new systems.
==Highlights of 2013==
The year was marked by a challenge for our chapter as it was the beginning of Kappa being on a FOCUS letter for our academic standing. Our VPAE implemented a new system with study hours that counted as points for members that wanted to live in the house. Depending on the person’s grade point average they were assigned a set number of study hours, the members on period of concern were to have extra study hours with the VPAE. There was also a system for earning gift cards for every A received on a big exam or paper to reward all people’s hard work. Not only that but people who were on Dean’s List as well as people who improved their GPA by .4 were awarded kappa jerseys.
While we had our challenges we also found a lot of success in our philanthropies, awards for both group and inter chapter relationships. We had a lot of exciting development with our philanthropies and with our biggest success yet, Kappa Karaoke for which we raised money for the Joy Recovery Project. It is a fund that goes to the family of Ellie Cizek, who was a Kappa at Kansas. She was in a ski accident which lead to traumatic brain injury. We rented out Sam’s Pizza at which there was a karaoke set up and we asked all the fraternities to take on singing in groups or as solo artists. We selected judges and awarded the winners with a trophy. Our other successful philanthropy was Kappa Kones in which we raised money for Reading is Fundamental, our national philanthropy. It was held when the weather was warm so we were outside in the pedestrian mall where we offered free ice cream and asked only for donations. We also had face painting for the kids and we had members going around downtown to promote our philanthropy while it was going on. It was during the bike races so the turnout was spectacular. In regards to honors and awards, It is with pleasure that I say we had so many members involved in other clubs that really showed their talents. Dance Marathon, Rho Lambda honors sorority, Sigma Alpha Lambda, and Medicus were just some of the clubs that members were a part of. Some even help positions in office. Finally, our chapter became a lot closer as a whole through our various sisterhoods and the new member retreat.
Our campus has adopted a tier system in which sororities and fraternities have to uphold certain rules in order to uphold expectations of receiving under the all-women’s average of citations. We as a chapter are currently on tier two and have given strict guidelines for how our members must proceed so that we go back down to tier one and then after a year hopefully be off the tier. We have told our members that they cannot go to bars at which the age is 21, they are not to use an ID that say they are older than their actual age, and they are to be out of the bars that allow people over the age of 19 at ten p.m. We as a chapter have also added numerous sisterhoods such as making tie blankets for the hospital and making valentine’s day cards for the nursing homes. We feel that we are providing alternatives on weekends that keep members away from the downtown area. We also have a full chapter 24 hour retreat coming up that we hope inspires our members to uphold all the standards of this women’s fraternity. We hope that they learn the value of sisterhood and the true meaning of being a member of the Kappa Kappa Gamma sisterhood and the life-long benefits that are available if a member so chooses to grasp them.
==Highlights of 2020s:==