2,350
edits
Changes
no edit summary
|Image= [[File:Delta_Upsilon.jpg|200px]]
|Founded= {{start date and years ago|1948|02|14}}
|College= [httphttps://www.uga.edu/ University of Georgia]
|Location= Athens, GA
|Homepage= [httphttps://chaptersuga.kappakappagammakappa.org/deltaupsilon/ Delta Upsilon Homepage]|Media= [httphttps://wiki.kappakappagammakkg.org/index.php?title=Category:Delta_Upsilon Media related to Delta Upsilon Chapter]}}
We began last semester with our annual Kappa Crawfish Boil which is our spring philanthropy event. We had it over Parents Weekend and raised a ton of money for Books for Keeps. In March, we all left for Spring Break, but UGA announced a two-week extension of spring break halfway through the week. Eventually, classes were moved online for the remainder of the semester. In-house girls were unable to move out of the house until late April. Adjustment to online classes was difficult, but we still managed to find ways to connect with our chapter. Unfortunately, we had to cancel Cutting of the Ivy, our traditional farewell ceremony for our seniors. In the fall, we had virtual recruitment run by our incredible Recruitment Chairman, Lily Waggoner, and her assistant, Emma Simonton. They lead the chapter through virtual work week and through the confusion and complications of online recruitment. We got such an unbelievable new member class this fall! The New Member Chairman, Ella McGregor, and her assistant, Lily Nichols, put on a spectacular, COVID friendly bid day and made sure all of the new members felt welcomed. The theme was “Dropping Jaws!” Our banners got stolen by some boys from outside of the house that night and Ella tracked them down and got them back! Throughout the fall we tried to find ways to make the new members fell included and connected to the chapter despite all of the restrictions. The sophomores took all of the freshmen on big-little dates and many of the upperclassmen hosted small bachelor watch parties in their houses and included people from every new member class. Virtual Initiation went well and we tried our best to preserve all of our traditions. We still collected and handed out sleep notes to the girls even though they were unable to spend the night at Kappa before Initiation. Over 30 alumni attended virtual Initiation and many came to Athens to surprise their girls in person. A few weeks later, we had a socially distanced version of Big-Little at the Athens Classic Center where all of the girls wore funny hats. Other sisterhood events we had throughout the semester were Little Ice Cream Dude on the Kappa lawn, Sydney Parrish hosted an outdoor yoga class with smoothies, and we had a pure barre Zoom class as a chapter. Overall, despite the pandemic and all of the restrictions and stress it caused this semester, Delta Upsilon chapter had a very successful and happy year!
[[File:Delta Upsilon 2020.jpg|thumb|Delta Upsilon 2020]]
'''Philanthropy'''
We had a sisterhood event where we had a virtual trivia night with Kappa history facts and facts about the Delta Upsilon chapter. We also held Initiation on Founders Day!
==Highlights of 2021==
This past year our chapter attended a virtual convention, a handful of our chapter council attended including our President, DEI chair and other members. They came back with great new knowledge and ideas for the chapter. We did our cutting of the ivy ceremonies for our seniors in May and other ritual events in the fall including new member pinning, inspiration period, initiation and others. In the spring we did our annual crawfish boil and next week is our Biscuits for Books fundraiser. The profits of these events go to the Fraternity's philanthropy for mental health and our local philanthropy, Books for Keeps. Our chapter goals for the year have mostly been focused around continuing to keep a strong sisterhood while using safe protocols due to the pandemic.
'''Philanthropy'''
Our local organization that we support is called Biscuits for Books. They help underprivileged children stay up to date with their reading levels. They donate their time, books and other resources to help young students develop and maintain their reading skills. We support them because we truly believe that they do great work and we have always supported reading development through Kappa‘s Reading Is Fundamental mission.
Our Kappa Krawfish Boil and Biscuits for Books fundraisers are fully in support of our philanthropy charities. We have split our funds this part year with a percentage to our local charity but a large amount of our profits going towards the Fraternity's mental health mission.
'''Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion'''
During our previous election cycle (the one that I was elected in) we added a DEI chairman. Her name is Sophia and she has done a great job. As a chapter we have brought DEI speakers into chapters, done modules to learn more about being inclusive. We also did training during recruitment to acknowledge any questions about how our chapter feels about DEI. I feel that in only a short year we have done a lot to be more inclusive even though this is a topic we believe everyone can always work on improving.
'''Operating in a Pandemic'''
Last semester especially we did almost everything virtually. I lived in our house last year and even living in a community style living we were as a chapter always very Covid conscious. Last semester we did mostly virtual chapter, even some virtual chapters this semester. We never require in person events if individuals are uncomfortable. We followed national and University of Georgia specific guidelines during our recruitment period with inclusion of smaller groups, masks and other protocols. For our initiation I conducted multiple ceremonies so that all participants could socially distance.
------------------------