Gamma Xi
| Gamma Xi | |
|---|---|
| ΓΞ | |
 | |
| Founded | May 8, 1925 |
| College | University of California, Los Angeles |
| Location | Los Angeles, CA |
| Homepage | Gamma Xi Homepage |
| Media related to Gamma Xi Chapter | |
2,843 members as of (June 2015).
Highlights of 2011
It was another amazing year at the Gamma Xi chapter of Kappa Kappa Gamma! With lots of hard work and dedication from our membership chairs as well as the house, we swept the row this fall and have an amazing, full pledge class that add so much to our house. We won the award for best philanthropy of our whole Greek system again, as well as created a new philanthropy called "Krismahanakwanzaka", bringing in hundreds of new toys to donate to the Mattel children's hospital for Christmas. We also hosted an alumni day, combining alumni day at UCLA with a Kappa alumni day and were able to meet many Kappa alums and hear their stories of when they lived in the house. Additionally, we had part of our house redone this summer, leaving us with beautiful blue and blue decorations that is hard to take your eyes off of!
Campus: The only big changes around campus is the tuition spikes at UCLA, and John Wooden passing away last year.
Chapter: I would say the tuition spikes definitely have effected our sorority, as Kappa is very expensive to be involved in as well so with the two combined we are having trouble with people paying their dues on time or even at all. Although this hasn't caused a high drop rate, I can definitely say we will expect to see more people applying for associate and special status in the near future.
The main problems that our chapter has are getting people to pay their dues and getting people to attend meetings or events. Luckily the establishment of Bill Highway has helped immensely in the accuracy of paying dues, however we are still in debt but are working on it extremely hard and will hopefully be able to get back on track in no time. For the attendance issue, Chapter Council talked to nationals and was able to get a program approved where if a member does not attend a certain percentage of mandatory events, we will be able to take away their privileged of attending an event from them. This helps immensely because we have always give empty threats because we never could actually take anything from them, but now we can positively reinforce them to attend mandatory events so they can go to the events they are looking forward to!
Highlights of 2012
This year has been very successful for the Gamma Xi Chapter. For the first time in several years we are no longer in debt. After implementing the BillingHighway system, the number of members that pay their dues has climbed drastically. This has allowed us to partake in many more sisterhood events, such as class retreats and a fancy dinner in Hollywood. At the UCLA Panhellenic Awards night, Kappa Kappa Gamma received more awards than any other chapter, including Best SOE Chapter Management, SOE Panhellenic Chapter Council Enrichment Award, SOE Panhellenic Council Gold Laurel Recognition, SOE Panhellenic Council 4th place, and Best Philanthropy Programming and Single Philanthropy event.
Three new sororities were approved to join the Panhellenic sororities at UCLA. One chapter will be implemented next year and the two other chapters will be implemented within the next few years. The Pauley Pavillion basketball stadium was completed this year. All sororities were required to have a minimum number of members attend the stadium opening.
Our PR Chairman hosted our second annual Alumni Day event. This particular event was very successful in connecting with alumni in the LA county area. This year our chapter established more chapter council positions so that more members can be involved in leadership roles. Some of these positions include Day Heads for rush, a Key Points chairman, and an assistant Treasurer.
Highlights of 2013
It has been a great year for the Gamma Xi Chapter! Our Billhighway system is still very successful in collecting the chapters due. This allowed for new renovations in the house, including tiling in the kitchen and hardwood floors upstairs, making our house is more beautiful than ever! We have participated in many sisterhoods this year, such as biking together in Venice, bringing our chapter even closer. Our philanthropy was very successful, as always, with our Day in the Life. Our chapter also supported a member in house in creating philanthropic run that fought human trafficking. The run actually started and ending at our chapter, and we helped raise $3300 and implanting plans to make this a yearly event with Kappa’s support. We also had a great recruitment this year and are so happy for the new additions in our chapter! Describe the recent changes on your campus and describe the overall nature of your chapter.
A new sorority, Alpha Gamma Delta, has joined the row this year. Kappa has been very supportive in helping this girls begin their chapter by attending many of their events and creating welcome baskets for the girls. Kappa continues to support UCLA’s athletic teams with chapter attendance at basketball, football, and other extracurricular events. Kappa has also put more importance on academics this year, asking girls to log the amount of time they spend studying each week. We also implemented a Monday night study time for all girls to come together and help each other with various academic issues. Each week we reward a girl who demonstrated great academic activity or success, in order to show how important school is to our girls. We also received a lot of help from Nationals in the last year, causing our chapter to grow and strengthens in ways we never imagined. We have created much better relationships with our advisers, allowing us put more meaningful time and effort in the keep up of our Chapter.
Highlights of 2014
2014 began with a triplet meeting for all of the newly elected officers in Gamma Xi (President-Alex McKenna, VPS- Isabella Hanulik, VPO- Gina Giordano, VPAE- Olivia Hayward, Treasurer- Mindy Wheeler, Recording Secretary- Megan Couch, Corresponding Secretary- Maggie O’Leary, Registrar- Natalie Dolloff, Marshal- Grace Olson, Philanthropy- Julia Bennett, House Manager- Erin Miley, Risk Management- Nicole Guffy, Event- Courtney Louie, Education- Erin Becker, New Member- Stephani Domako, Membership- Fiona Davies, Panhellenic Delegate-Hadley Nolan, and Public Relations- Emily Wheeler). The first order of business was to appoint assistants (Assistant Event- Sarah Sanders, Assistant Membership- Andi Bernardoni, Assistant Treasurer- Michaela Monaghan). Winter Quarter was a slow social quarter for Gamma Xi, but was filled with sisterhoods and Greek community events. Gamma Xi competed on the Red Team for UCLA’s annual Greek Week with partners Sigma Alpha Epsilon. Following Greek Week, Gamma Xi won the award at the Greek Gala for Best Greek Week Delegates. Our winter sisterhoods were spent at both a roller blading rink and on a yacht in Marina del Rey, making them some of the coolest sisterhoods our chapter has ever had. Gamma Xi also participated in a plethora of other chapters’ philanthropies in the winter including Sig Ep Kicks for Kids, Sigma Chi Derby Days, Theta Chi Hair Salon, Tour de Pi Kapp, ZBT War of the Roses, and Wings for Life by RedBull.
Spring Quarter was an eventful quarter for Gamma Xi. Almost 20 girls started their quarter participating in UCLA’s Dance Marathon on the Blue Team, partnered with ZBT. Our dancer captain and sister, Monica Avakian, led us for the full 26 hours beautifully in Pauley Pavilion for the first time ever. Our PR Chair, Emily, put on a wonderful Mom’s Day brunch at the Luxe Hotel on Sunset Blvd. Our sisterhoods included watching a movie and making s’mores in the Kappa Kourtyard and a wonderful pool party to send off our seniors at the W Hotel. Gamma Xi also was honored to host two different pinnings for our girls, Roxy Thrapp (Sigma Chi) and Sam Varchetto (SAE).
Fall Quarter began, as always, with Kamp Kappa and our big fall recruitment. Fiona and Andi led us fearlessly through Kamp and prepared us fully for recruitment and were rewarded with our wonderful new 59 members. Stephani planned an amazing Alice in Wonderland themed Bid Day that was a huge success. Erin B. put on a fantastic Founders Day celebration in collaboration with Formal Meeting and was able to educate the new members on the founding of Kappa Kappa Gamma and our beginning as a fraternity. Stephani also planned bonding class sisterhoods in the fall for each grade: Freshmen went to Sky Zone, Sophomores went ice skating, Juniors went to Disneyland, and the Seniors had a brunch at the penthouse of a hotel on the beach. Presents came around quickly and Emily threw a fantastic Dad’s Day tailgate with catered Chipotle. Gamma Xi put on another successful and exciting A Day in the Life (of a Bruin), our chapter’s philanthropy event with more kids in attendance than ever before! Gamma Xi was also able to bring back our holiday philanthropy party to raise money for the Kappa Foundation and Reading is Fundamental and also collect toys for Toys 4 Tots.
A new sorority, Alpha Gamma Delta, has joined the row this year. Kappa has been very supportive in helping this girls begin their chapter by attending many of their events and creating welcome baskets for the girls. Kappa continues to support UCLA’s athletic teams with chapter attendance at basketball, football, and other extracurricular events. Kappa has also put more importance on academics this year, asking girls to log the amount of time they spend studying each week. We also implemented a Monday night study time for all girls to come together and help each other with various academic issues. Each week we reward a girl who demonstrated great academic activity or success, in order to show how important school is to our girls. We also received a lot of help from Nationals in the last year, causing our chapter to grow and strengthen in ways we never imagined. We have created much better relationships with our advisors, allowing us to put more meaningful time and effort in the keep up of our Chapter.
Gamma Xi holds chapter meetings in the dining room of our Kappa house, located at 744 Hilgard Ave. in Los Angeles. Gamma Xi is fortunate to have a beautiful home on the edge of Westwood and Beverly Hills. Greek Life at UCLA was originally funded by one person and this one person said that in order to receive funding for the houses, fraternities and sororities had to agree to have their respective houses on complete opposite sides of campus, therefore, sororities reside on Hilgard Ave. while fraternities reside on Gayley Ave. and Landfair Ave. Our house is owned by the Kappa Kappa Gamma House Board of Los Angeles. Our house currently holds 51 sisters at one time, but it wasn’t always this big. The house has been added onto and renovated many times over the years since our founding here at UCLA, but we have always had this same house.
