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'''==The Early Years:'''==
'''==Installation of Epsilon Chi Chapter'''==
'''==Highlights of the 1980s'''==
'''==Highlights of the 1990s'''==
'''==Highlights of 2000-2010'''==
'''==Highlights from 2011-2019:''' == (Information from chapter history reports, 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 the 2020s:''' (Information from chapter history reports, 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.)
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|Image= [[File:Epsilon_Chi.jpg|200px]]
|Founded= {{start date and years ago|1978|09|30}}
|College= [httphttps://www.dartmouth.edu/ Dartmouth College]
|Location= Hanover, NH
|Homepage= http[https://wwwdartmouth.kappa.org/ Epsilon Chi Homepage]|Media= [httphttps://wiki.kappakappagammakkg.org/index.php?title=Category:Epsilon_Chi Media related to Epsilon Chi Chapter]}}
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'''1,300 759 initiates (as of 2011June 2018)'''
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'''Charter Members:''' Barbara Anderson, Ann Beringer, Kathleen Bourque, Laurie Branch, Cameron Crone, Alicia Fritz, Jill Frommer, Lizanne Galbreath, Mary Gose, Cynthia Greco, Catherine Haley, Margaret Hall, Kathryn Harper, Elizabeth Harris, Nanette Hart, Margaret Kimball, Anne Minnich, Laura Murphy, Sheila Murphy, Susan Myers, Letitia Pemberton, Sandra Perkowski, Rebecca Randall, Ingrid Schmakel, Jan Smedly, Julie Wallin, Susan Weiss
'''Some of Epsilon Chi’s Outstanding Alumnae:'''
'''Fraternity OfficersCouncil Members:''' Adrienne Draper (Olson), Leadership Consultant 2004-2005
'''Fraternity Alumnae Achievement Award Recipients:'''Kirsten Rutnik Gillibrand, 2014, politics
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The Reverend Eleazar Wheelock, a Congregational minister from Connecticut, founded Dartmouth College in 1769. He had earlier established Moor’s Charity School in Lebanon, Connecticut, principally for the education of Native Americans. In seeking to expand his school into a college, Wheelock relocated his educational enterprise to Hanover, in the Royal Province of New Hampshire. Samson Occom, a Mohergan Indian and one of Wheelock’s first students, was instrumental in raising substantial funds for the College. The Royal Governor of New Hampshire, John Wentworth, provided the land upon which Dartmouth would be built and on December 13, 1769, conveyed the charter from King George III establishing the College. That charter created a college “for the education and instruction of Youth of the Indian Tribes in this Land...and also of English Youth and any others.” Names for William Legge, the Second Earl of Dartmouth - an important supporter of Eleazar Wheelock’s efforts - Dartmouth is the nation’s ninth oldest college.
On September 30, 1978, Epsilon Chi Chapter of Kappa Kappa Gamma was installed at Dartmouth College. Kappa Kappa Gamma became the second sorority on the Dartmouth campus, colonizing in the spring of 1978. Sigma Kappa was the first national sorority to be established on the campus in the spring of 1977.
This decade saw the following: election of President Ronald Reagan; Sandra Day O’Connor selected as the first woman justice to the Supreme Court; first Space Shuttle, Columbia, lifted off; Beirut barracks bombing occurred killing American and French servicemen; Lockerbie Disaster when terrorists blew up the plane over Scotland; Chernobyl disaster in the Ukraine filled much of the world with radioactive debris; Challenger disaster left six astronauts and one woman school teacher dead; protestors at Tiananmen Square were crushed by the Peoples Liberation Army; fall of the Berlin Wall was the most momentous event of the decade; oil tanker Exxon Valdez caused one of the worst ecological disasters ever; War on Drugs accelerated; worldwide the beginning of the AIDS pandemic; and rejection of smoking based on health issues. Personal computers experienced massive growth.
In 1985 the College passed Minimum Standards expected of all fraternities and sororities. These standards presented many challenges to the Greeks and a stress level to meet those expectations. The faculty and administrators began to exam the role of fraternities and sororities on campus as the system was thought to be racist and sexist. A new College Alcohol Policy went into effect to have Alcohol Monitors at each party.
In 1987 a major issue at Dartmouth was the treatment of women at the College and ways needed to be implemented to help all women feel more comfortable, while eliminating subtle areas of sexism around campus. An issue arose in the sororities regarding affiliation with a national organization and what that affiliation meant. Epsilon Chi needed to decide which was better for the sisters to continue to belong to KKG or to become a local. Fraternity President Marian Williams, Missouri, visited the chapter to discuss the issue. After a lengthly lengthy meeting, the chapter voted to stay with Kappa Kappa Gamma. To those on the opposing side, they made chapter unity an issue. All chapter goals during the later part of the decade centered around the value of the individual, sisterhood, and working together for the benefit of the chapter.
In 1988 the College imposed a new policy of delayed rush. It wasn’t held until spring term of the sophomore year. As a result, each chapter lost one entire pledge class during that year. The chapter viewed this policy as one more step on the part of the administration toward decreasing the role of sororities and fraternities on campus.
The 1990s is often considered the true dawn of the Information Age. Info-age digital technologies became widely used by the general public. Highlights include: Gulf War with Iraq began in 1991, same year as the Soviet Union’s dissolution ended; funeral procession of Diana, Princess of Wales, was mourned worldwide; World Trade Center and the Oklahoma City Federal Building bombings led to awareness of domestic and international terrorism as a real threat; Columbine High School massacre occurred; President William Clinton was a dominant political figure and scarred by the Lewinsky scandal; Youth culture embraced environmental issues. Record numbers of women were elected to high office in the US.
Globalization continued to influence the world. A prime contributor was the growth of the Internet. Wireless Internet became prominent and email became the standard form of communicating. Highlights included: George W. Bush was elected President; 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Centers led the US War on Terrorism at home and abroad; U.S. was once again involved in war with Iraq and limited engagement began in Afghanistan; Mexican Drug War saw armed conflict between rival drug cartels which would eventually dominate the wholesale illicit drug market in the U.S.; Virginia Tech Massacre became the deadliest shooting on a school campus. Climate change and global warming became household words, and population growth skyrocketed. In 2008 Barack Obama became the first African American elected as U.S. President.
The economic crisis made it difficult for college graduates to find jobs; students graduating with accumulated debt found their future bleak; the war in Iraq officially ended.
During sophomore summer, the chapter raised more than $10,000 for cancer research, the most raised by any Greek organization at Dartmouth.
==Highlights from 2014==
This past year, our house partnered with the Panhellenic Council to expand the scholarships that we as a house can offer. So far this year, we have not won any awards as all of the awards depend on how our chapter scores on the AXiS report, however, we will have those by the end of the spring. In the meantime, we plan on nominating a few of our women for the GLOS Awards, which will also awarded at the end of the term. At the first Chapter Council meeting of spring term, the Chapter Council discussed their vision for the house and brainstormed goals for leadership. We hope to foster sisterhood through organic, supportive relationships among members through things such as family lineages, Women of KKG Panel (now termly), weekly sisterhood dinners, sisterhood breakfast, Sister of the Week, tributes, and regular sisterhood outings and events.
In addition, we hope to improve accountability by ensuring that each member contributes equally to KKG’s operations and maintenance and by holding each member responsible for adhering to the fraternity’s standards for behavior . Our final goal is to increase freshman outreach and community engagement. We hope to bridge the gap between underclassmen and upperclassmen women at Dartmouth, with the hope of expanding our network and exerting a positive influence on these women. By appointing a Freshman Outreach Chair responsible for organizing events geared towards freshmen we hope to extend our connection to other women on campus. We also hope to open our space for educational programming in order to foster stronger relationships with others on campus.
From the summer of 2014 through the winter of 2015 our chapter has completed 1,613 hours of philanthropy. These hours were accumulated through Kappa Philanthropy projects such as the Prouty Fundraiser for the Norris Cotton Cancer Center where we raised about $10,000, the Children's Hospital at Dartmouth 5k/Half Marathon where 38 sisters participated and we raised $3,480, and the 5k fundraiser for the Selamta non-profit. Many sisters also contributed to the Epsilon Chi chapter's philanthropy through many of their own initiatives such as participating in the Big Brother Big Sister program or the Summer Enrichment at Dartmouth program.
Recently, our campus has been having many debates on the nature of the Greek system at Dartmouth. Our newly-appointed president, Phil Hanlon, has been trying to take measures to cut down on destructive behavior, especially concerning alcohol abuse and sexual assault. For instance, starting this spring quarter, President Hanlon has banned all hard alcohol consumption on campus and at Dartmouth sponsored events.
Within our chapter, this has played out in a number of ways. We are taking a number of measures to cut down on the destructive behavior that President Hanlon is trying to reduce. Our goal is to keep all of our sisters safe and following college policy.
We hold meetings in the KKG house, which is owned by Dartmouth. We have a house that is university owned. We have always lived here. 19 sisters can live there.
==Highlights from 2015==
This past year, we were given several awards by our GLOS Office. We were awarded the Service Award to recognize our chapter for our dedication and commitment to the community through service events and fundraising. Additionally, we received an award for Outstanding Performance due to our score above 85% on our AXiS report. We also received an award for completing the Million Minutes of Service Challenge. Finally, one of our sisters, received the Service All-star Award. Our Chapter Council has discussed how we hope to foster sisterhood through organic, supportive relationships among members through things such as family lineages, Women of KKG Panel (now termly), sisterhood breakfast, Sister of the Week, tributes, FaculTEA and regular sisterhood outings and events. We have worked to improve our family lineage procedures in order to bolster bonding between upperclassmen and new members. From last year, we have continued to increase freshman outreach and community engagement. We also hope to eventually open our space for educational programming in order to foster stronger relationships with others on campus. From January of 2015 through the December of 2015 our chapter has completed 2,110 hours of philanthropy. These hours were accumulated through Kappa Philanthropy projects such as the Prouty Fundraiser for the Norris Cotton Cancer Center where we raised about $10,877 where 36 members participated, the Children's Hospital at Dartmouth 5k/Half Marathon where 33 sisters participated and we raised $1,135, and the 5k fundraiser for the Selamta non-profit. Many sisters also contributed to the Epsilon Chi chapter's philanthropy through their own initiatives such as participating in the Big Brother Big Sister program or DREAM mentoring program.
There have been many changes on campus with our new president, Phil Hanlon. This year, he started the Moving Dartmouth Forward initiative. The main goal of this system was to cut down on destructive behavior on our campus and to make Dartmouth a safer and more inclusive environment. Since the spring, hard alcohol has been banned on campus and in compliance with this new policy, we have hosted panels on safe alcohol consumption at Dartmouth with both sisters and administrators. Additionally, this fall we hosted a diversity panel in order to foster inclusivity and understanding within our house.
Chapter Philanthropy:
What organization(s) has your chapter historically/traditionally raised money for, or donated hours to, in your community?
Each year we have had sisters participate in the Prouty Fundraiser for the Norris Cotton Cancer Center, the CHad Hero 5k/half marathon, Relay for Life, and the Selamta non-profit. Additionally, each year we have sisters participating in the DREAM mentoring program, the Summer Enrichment at Dartmouth Program, and the Big Brothers Big Sisters program.
Why did your chapter choose this organization(s) to support?
Our chapter chose these organizations due to their prevalence in the Dartmouth Community. These events are campus wide and have garnered support from our chapter for several years. Additionally, one of our sisters, Summer Hammond, was a consistent participant in Relay for Life events and encouraged many of our sisters to participate with her this past year.
==Highlights from 2017==
Our Chapter Council has discussed how we hope to foster sisterhood through organic, supportive relationships among members through things such as family lineages, Women of KKG Panel (now termly), sisterhood breakfast, Sister of the Week, tributes, FaculTEA and regular sisterhood outings and events. We have worked to improve our family lineage procedures in order to bolster bonding between upperclasswomen and new memebrs. From last year, we have continued to increase freshman outreach and community engagement. We also hope to eventually open our space for educational programming in order to foster stronger relationships with others on campus. We also are looking to increase the diversity of our sisterhood, and have had open discussions about diversity both on within our sisterhood and with the larger campus in the hopes of making Kappa an even more inclusive and safe environment, both for our current sisters and the campus populace at large.
This spring, in memory one of our sisters, Summer Hammond, who passed in the Summer of 2015, we decided, with the help of her family, to organize and run a 4v4 soccer tournament in her memory. All proceeds from this event went to her memorial foundation, the Summer's Way Foundation, which supports childhood cancer research and is particularly focused on providing support to families facing Rhabdomyosarcoma. It was an incredibly successful event, and we were able to raise $4,888.53 for Summer's foundation. We hope that this fundraiser will become an annual event. In May, we helped run and all participated in the second annual Memorial Challenge, which is a campus-wide athletic event in memory of two students athletes in the class of 2016 who passed in the winter of 2015; one of these students was a former Kappa, Blaine Steinberg.
Additionally, after the devastational aftermath of Hurricane Harvey, this fall we organized a donation drive to send to the Houston area as aid.
The Moving Dartmouth Forward Initiative is still in effect and has been since 2015. The main goal of this system was to cut down on destructive behavior on our campus and to make Dartmouth a safer and more inclusive environment. Since the spring, hard alcohol has been banned on campus and in compliance with this new policy, we have hosted panels on safe alcohol consumption at Dartmouth with both sisters and administrators. Additionally, we have hosted a diversity panels in order to foster inclusivity and understanding within our house.
Each year we have had sisters participate in the Prouty Fundraiser for the Norris Cotton Cancer Center, the CHad Hero 5k/half marathon, Relay for Life, and the Selamta non-profit. Additionally, each year we have sisters participating in the DREAM mentoring program, the Summer Enrichment at Dartmouth Program, and the Big Brothers Big Sisters program. For the past two years, sisters have participated in the Memorial Challenge, an event focused on collective exercise in memory of two student athletes, one of which was a Kappa, Blaine Steinberg.
Our chapter chose these organizations due to their prevalence in the Dartmouth Community. These events are campus wide and have garnered support from our chapter for several years. We also feel it is important to support causes that are in memory of our sisters we have lost over the last few years, such as Summer's tournament and Blaine's Memorial Challenge, to honor their memories and support their families after their sudden passings.
We meet in the chapter room of our sorority house, the largest room in the house. It is a completely open space with furniture that we can either place in a formal manner, or push to the sides of the room for sisterhood bonding activities.
==Highlights from 2018==
During Chapter Council, we have agreed that loyalty and trust in our sisterhood are two of our most important goals we will continue to foster. Another important challenge and goal we continue to work on is increasing the diversity in our chapter. We are proud that we represent sisters from countries all over the world, different states throughout the United States and who are involved in many different places on the Dartmouth campus.
We also would like to keep many of our traditions that have been alive in our chapter to continue and grow, such as Sister of the Week, FaculTEA, Women of KKG Panel, and sisterhood outings and events among many things. In FaculTEA we invite our Dartmouth professors to come to the KKG house to get to know us better over tea and coffee as well as homemade snacks. One sister even reported that after the event, a professor immediatley let her off the waitlist for an over-enrolled class the following term!
Our philanthropic involvement is described in the following paragraphs. Giving back to the greater Dartmouth community as well as to national organizations is extremely important to our chapter, and we therefore support many philanthropic organizations. Many of our sisters were also actively involved in the recent midterm elections in November in New Hampshire, with a few helping campaign for local candidates.
Since 2015, the Moving Dartmouth Forward Initiative has been in effect. The goal of MDF is to make Dartmouth a safer and more inclusive environment. In the spring of 2015 a strict hard alcohol ban was placed on our campus to encourage students to act more responsibly when drinking alcohol. Statistics have shown that now in 2019, there have been far less drinking related accidents at Dartmouth. To support the no hard alcohol policy on campus, KKG has hosted panels on safe alcohol consumption and sexual assault prevention with Movement Against Violence administrators (many of whom are KKG sisters).
==Highlights of the 2020s:==
(Information from chapter history reports, 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.)
'''Housing:'''
'''Philanthropy:'''
'''Convention Awards:'''