'''1,124 086 initiates (as of 1969 closure)'''
'''1,611 912 initiates (as of June 20132018)'''
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'''Charter members:'''
'''Some of Chapter’s Outstanding Alumnae:''' (If you have chapter alumna who have received recognition in any of these three categoriesJessie Jane Cassidy, please list them with the date(s) of recognitionAnnie Neale Curtis, Linnie Gambee, Helen Kittredge, Charlotte Smith.)
Psi Deuteron Chapter celebrated the centennial anniversary of Psi Chapter’s founding at Cornell during the 1983 homecoming weekend. Although the Psi Chapter had been inactive from 1969 until 1977, the Kappa tradition was maintained by the local group, Kappa Psi. This was a special celebration of the 100 years since the 1883 founding of Psi Chapter.
The weekend kicked off with a Friday evening banquet at Cornell’s historical Moakley House with alumna Dale Arrison Grossman as keynote speaker. She was a Cornell professor in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences as well as Psi Chapter’s Finance Adviser. Pamela Hanna Haggin was toastmistress.
Awards and gifts made at the banquet included a women’s crew shell by Germanine Miller Gallagher to the women of the crew team, as a tribute to the ongoing sisterhood and success of Psi Chapter. This was accepted by Psi Deuteron actives and crew members Rhonda Alexis and Susan Reusswig. The presentation of a commemorative scholarship to Cornell University was made by Eloise Moore Netherton, Texas, Director of Philanthropy, and was accepted by Janice Oblack, Assistant Dean of Fraternities and Sororities. The evening ended with special recognition given to Kappas in attendance, such as Jewel Shaw, who was the eldest Psi alumna to travel to Ithaca for the celebration.
In 1988–89 a new house family arrived, Dave, Anna and (three year old) Whitney Brown. The chapter served as the Big Sister sorority for Alpha Omicron Pi, a new sorority on campus. Each of the six schools at Cornell was represented by members of Kappa Kappa Gamma this year. The chapter participated in the Greek-wide clean-up and planted crocus bulbs in front of the women’s dormitory.
==Highlights of the 1990s==
'''Housing:'''
In 1990, a window with the Kappa Kappa Gamma crest was installed in the foyer, designed and constructed by alumna Debra Yelverton. In addition, the living and dining rooms were redecorated with wall paper and curtains and the basement was repainted.
The chapter participated in fall rush for the first time, recruiting five new members to compliment the 26 women pledged in the spring. New house parents, David and Debbie Passey announced the expectation of a new baby, due in April of 1998.
==A New Millennium - Highlights of 2000-2010==
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== During our Spring semester to Fall semester 2011, we had several events, highlights, sources of pride, and an overall enjoyable year for the members and officers of Psi Deuteron as we continued and enhanced the high quality of Cornell'''Chapter goals:''' s Kappa Kappa Gamma. It all began after Spring semester rush 2011, where we had several sisterhood bonding activities for the new members to get to know each other and the already active members to get to know them. Later, a conference, "Emerging Leadership Experience," was held by the Fraternity and Sorority Affairs Program specifically for two representatives of each Greek organization where we learned how to be a better leader for our organization.
The chapter goals of This year the philanthropy chairs organized several events: the academic year from 2012 to 2013 are to 1) Improve academic standing compared 4th annual Kappa Dogs to raise money for the all sorority average and 2Family Reading Partnership (a local literacy organization) Create more chapter unite ; Trick or Treat at Kappa; and service by way of collaboration through committeesreading with kids at the Tompkins County public library. The nature of chapter also participated in philanthropic events held by the chapter is full of spirit and pridecommunity, involvementcampus, and warmth by being funother Greek houses to raise money for various charities. These events included Relay for Life, a charity dinner at Alpha Gamma Rho, welcominga charity dinner at Alpha Delta Phi, and down-Jog for Jill 5K toraise money and awareness for Ingred Nunez against lung cancer. Members participated in the College Town Clean-earthup and participated in "Into The Streets" where volunteers completed valuable and beneficial community work throughout Tompkins counties. Kappa Kappa Gamma was actively involved in campus Greek life at Cornell University.
Additionally, Kappa Kappa Gamma participated in other Greek houses' events: Sigma Chi's Derby Days and Delta Gamma's Anchor Slam. Furthermore, Kappa participated in Greek Week, which is an event designed to raise awareness of the Greek community to freshman as well as to promote a positive image of the Greek community. Also, this year Psi Deuteron put in a lot of effort to unify the chapter and promote a positive image of Kappa Kappa Gamma. Sisterhood bonding events included a coffee tab at libraries, rotational dinners, a senior-sophomore dinner, an alumni event, and Founders Day where local alumni were invited to the house. Also at every chapter, Kappa Kudos were given out to recognize women for various achievements. Women were also recognized for good grades and received "Smart Cookies" for obtaining a 4.0. The girls of Psi Deuteron promoted KKG by wearing Kappa-related clothing for "T-Shirt Tuesdays". Lastly, Kappa Kappa Gamma members had the opportunity to participate in a program, "Reflections," to raise awareness about the dangers of fat talk and the impact it has on women's self-esteem and confidence. '''PhilanthropyCampus:''' Cornell University, one of seven Ivy League institutions, was founded in 1865. Cornell is composed of seven individual colleges, with more than 13,000 undergraduates attending the university. Academic rigor is the hallmark of the University as its commitment to diversity with "Any Person, Any Study" being its creed. Thirty percent of the student population is involved in the Greek community, consisting of 12 Panhellenic organizations, 42 fraternities, and 16 Multicultural Greek Letter Council chapters. Due to these numbers, Cornell University is currently the second largest Greek system in the country.
During 2011, the chapter members participated in the College Town Clean-up and participated in ‘Into The Streets’ where Kappas completed community work throughout Tompkins County. In the academic year from 2012 '''Chapter:''' Kappa Kappa Gamma continues to 2013, be a strong house within Cornell Kappas participated in Relay for Life, supporting the fight against cancer's Greek community. The Psi chapter received 3rd place fundraising team for was founded at Cornell and were awarded as "Gold Team" by the American Cancer Society. In additionUniversity on November 24, Psi Deuteron also came in 2nd place in a Penny Wars competition and raised over $800 for its national philanthropy Reading is Fundamental1883, which promotes childhood literacy by providing books to those in underprivileged communities with little opportunity for education and reading. The philanthropy chairs also kicked off a new philanthropy event call Kappa Kickball in April 2013 to bolster its support towards Reading is Fundamentaltoday consists of 111 active members.
Despite the high standing position Kappa Kappa Gamma is, there still are a few chapter challenges that can be improved. During our last council meeting of the semester, we talked amongst our group to figure out a few main goals for the following year. First, we stressed the importance of improving our communication skills by having a group email for our council to achieve convenience for our officers, form clarification for clearer transmission to each member, and a cohesive council voice to all the members during chapter. Next, we would like to concentrate on programming in general such as adding interesting and fun events to get more senior attendance, a better new member period program to allow the new member group to quickly become as comfortable as possible.
'''Chapter Convention Awards:'''
During 2011-2012, Psi Deuteron members had the opportunity during the year to participate in a program called ‘Reflections’ which raised awareness about the dangers of fat talk and the impact it has on women’s self-esteem and confidence. In the academic year from 2012 to 2013, Katie Solomon-the chapter's past president-received the John S. Dyson Citizenship Award. The award is given annually as a part of the A.D. White Leadership Conference to a student within the Cornell University fraternity and sorority community who has exemplified exceptional leadership within the Greek community, and who has demonstrated a strong commitment to community service, philanthropy, scholarship, and citizenship. In addition, Psi Deuteron chapter also received Most Spirit During Recruitment Award.
==Highlights of 2020s:==
From chapter’s History Report: Scholarship==Highlights of 2013== This year, Psi Deuteron made great strides. We had several members of our chapter apply for Kappa scholarships and six of them were awarded aid. In addition, we were awarded the Alpha Province award for Most Spirited Recruitment for our work during recruitment week in January of 2013. We had two of our sisters elected to the Cornell Panhellenic Judicial Board, and three new members served on Cornell Junior Panhellenic Board. Our current president, Corey Matthews, participated in the Kappa Kappa Gamma Leadership Academy in October of 2013, honing her leadership and interpersonal skills in preparation for her term. Psi Deuteron took on several new philanthropic projects in support of Reading is Fundamental. These included Cornell’s first ever annual Kappa Kickball in which the chapter invited all members of the Cornell community to participate in a kickball tournament for a fee which benefited RIF; a visit from The Nomad Truck, a boutique on wheels which generously donated 10% of the proceeds from a day of shopping. We have continued to work closely with a local Ithaca elementary school, Caroline Elementary to provide day care services, to read with children and to participate in mentor and peer-to-peer programs. One of our sisters, Erica Baevsky brought her charity work for GoPink, an organization benefiting breast cancer, to Cornell and to Kappa, putting together a gala and awareness seminar, both of which were sponsored by and participated in by Psi Deuteron’s members. We have been challenged by new changes to the Cornell guidelines for new member education and are working hard to make sure that our chapter abides by both the standards of the University and of the Fraternity. We are also working hard to improve our leadership, working closely with Leadership Consultants and Kappa Trainers in addition to instituting extensive committees. In addition to providing services to the chapter, these committees have also served to educate and train members to take on new positions. As a chapter we have also been working to improve our recognition of exemplary members who contribute to our Cornell, Panhellenic and Kappa communities, instituting several award and incentive programs including the “President’s Key,” in which we recognize members of our chapter council who have gone above and beyond their duties to improve out chapter. Recently, Cornell has been working very hard to make greek life as safe and positive as possible for all students. This has included a re-working of new member guidelines to include a shorter new member period as well as a dry period that closely resembles the Kappa program, in which new members are asked not to be in the presence of alcohol. This has been an excellent contribution to greek life, making the new member education period a safer and more comfortable experience for all greek chapters at Cornell. We were also very pleased by Cornell’s recent dedication to eliminate hazing on campus. Psi Deuteron has been working very closely with greek advisers to make sure that our commitment to anti-hazing is upheld and that it inspires other chapters to be vigilant about reporting and eliminating hazing. Our chapter is happy to be more integrated with the rest of the greek community, instituting women’s social and educational events, and co-sponsoring philanthropic events. Psi Deuteron’s greatest strength, however, has always been our genuine relationships with one another and our overwhelmingly strong sisterhood. We firmly believe that, despite whatever challenges we face as a group honors/awards, traditionsour dedication to one another will make us successful. Most members of Psi Deuteron would agree that our Sisterhood Dinners are the best events of our semester, where we invite all members to come out to dinner together at a local restaurant. Having all of our members in one place at one time in an informal setting is a wonderful experience and reflects our deep bond. ==Highlights of 2014==2014 was a great year for Psi Deuteron Chapter. This year we sought to improve our academic records and keep promoting sisterhood. After hard work from the Academic Excellence Committee and chapter members, our chapter improved the overall GPA and became ranked third among our Panhellenic sister in grades. This achievement helped us to gain an honorable mention for improvement in grades at convention this summer. We were pleased to have our president, Corey Matthews, special attend and represent our chapter's interests at the convention. We have promoted sisterhood through more informal sisterhood events. Pizza and movie nights at the house and study days have helped the sisters of Psi Deuteron to be closer than ever. We have also seen a great increase in leadership for the women of Psi Deuteron. We had two sisters participate in a class that had a curriculum focused on increasing Greek involvement in service and leadership on campus. This class is open to all members of the Greek community and helped Psi Deuteron to learn about new ways to integrate the curriculum into our chapter goals. We also were thrilled to have two members of Kappa Kappa Gamma elected to Panhellenic Council in November. They will serve on council for the 2015 calendar year. Psi Deuteron has also kept busy through our philanthropy work. We have continued our partnership with Caroline Elementary. This program gives sisters the opportunity to give back to the Ithaca community by tutoring and mentoring children. Psi Deuteron also raised the most money for the Cornell Relay for Life. We received the "Jade Award" for our commitment to the event through fundraising. We are excited to continue our community involvement and plan new ways in which we can serve our community. Psi Deuteron has had many successes this year, and we are eager to see the changes that 2015 brings to our chapter. Cornell has had a few notable changes in regards to Greek life this year. The first is the takeoff of Tumblr! This social media platform became very popular among our panhellenic sisters and we enjoy posting pictures that showcase our spirit of sisterhood and adventure. Our PR Chair is responsible for the project, and we are so grateful for her commitment. (The tumblr can be seen at kkgcornell.tumblr.com) The second great change to our Greek system was expanded with the addition of Phi Mu to Cornell University! We looked to welcome the new chapter by recommending women for their fall recruitment and attending their benefit concert later in October. We are thrilled to see more women choosing to go Greek at Cornell and commend the achievement of Phi Mu at Cornell thus far. In January, our chapter grew by 58 women after an extremely successful formal recruitment. The New Member program helped to integrate these women into our chapter in the 4 week long new member period. Cornell shortened the allowed new member period once again to accommodate the needs of Cornell's students. These changes have helped our chapter to become more active in the panhellenic community. We have enjoyed getting to know the other chapters on our campus or within and look forward to continuing to increase involvement during 2015. We hold our chaptermeetings in our lovely house on 508 Thurston Ave. here in Ithaca, overall nature New York. The meetings are held in the living room of our house, as the chapterhas seemingly outgrown our chapter room downstairs. Chapter meetings are held on Sunday mornings with a chapter brunch that follows. During the 1890s, the meeting place for the chapter goalshad shifted from Sage College to rooms in different parts of Ithaca. In the fall of 1917, a first house was rented and by 1921 sufficient funds had been raised to buy. Janet Balch gave $5,000 “with her usual Kappa-Cornell generosity,” and other alumnae contributed. The house, 508 Thurston Avenue, had been the home of Beverly Baines, romantic partner of early film idol Francis X. Bushman at a time when Ithaca had been the center of the motion picture industry (1912–1920). This house was razed in 1936 and a modern brick house was built on the site. It was opened in the fall of 1937 for the Alpha Province Convention, and was famed as the first Kappa house for which steel construction had been used. We are still located in the historic 508 Thurston Ave. house and enjoy owning the house as a chapter. The house is such an integral part of our sisterhood as it is where we hold many events. We feel very lucky to have so much history contribute to our chapter life daily. ==Highlights of 2015== 2015 was a great year for Psi Deuteron Chapter. This year we worked hard to transition our communication to the GIN system while continuing our strong focus on sisterhood. After hard work from the technology and standards chair, all chapter communication is now posted on the GIN system and nearly all sisters have downloaded the GIN app onto their phones. This has increased our attendance to weekly chapter meetings and sisterhood support events (fives) within the chapter. We hope to continue finding new ways to use this system to benefit our chapter in the future. We have promoted sisterhood through more informal sisterhood events. The younger member classes enjoy bonding at our house, challenges while the senior member class has had an increase in programming that has been beneficial to them. The seniors have gone on trips to the orchards near Ithaca and to local art classes to make sure their last year in kappa is one full of memories. We have also seen a great increase in leadership for the women of Psi Deuteron. We had two sisters participate in a class that had a curriculum focused on increasing Greek involvement in service and leadership on campus. This class is open to all members of the Greek community and how they helped Psi Deuteron to learn about new ways to integrate the curriculum into our chapter goals. We also were overcomethrilled to have two members of Kappa Kappa Gamma elected to Panhellenic Council in November of 2014. Having two member of Panhellenic Council in our house increased our responsibility to the Greek community and in turn helped us to increase turn out to Greek service events in the community like "Collegetown Clean Up" and "Day of Demeter."Psi Deuteron has also kept busy through our philanthropy work. We have continued our partnership with Caroline Elementary. This program gives sisters the opportunity to give back to the Ithaca community by tutoring and mentoring children. Psi Deuteron also continues to help sponsor Relay for Life and GoPink! at Cornell. These event increase awareness and support for cancer on campus. Psi Deuteron has had many successes this year, etcand we are eager to see the changes that 2016 brings to our chapter. ==Highlights of 2017==2017 was a great year for the Psi Deuteron Chapter. This year we focused on making improvements in several areas including sisterhood and academics. We also continued to thrive in our annual philanthropy events.:
This year to further promote sisterhood we held severl informal events throughout the year. We had movie nights, dinners together and had our new members spend more time at the house. We also had several opportunities for our sisters to study together. We had times for academic bigs and littles to study together and coffee and bagel tabs at libraries.
'''Housing:''' ==Highlights of 2019==
This past calendar year our chapter made a commitment to further understand the rituals and history of Kappa Kappa Gamma. We have increased the amount of activities that support this commitment, such as song practices, while also upholding the traditions of the sorority. We have also continued traditions important within our chapter specifically, such as philanthropic involvements.
We were not only engaged within our chapter, but also among the greater Cornell community. Our chapter also enjoys being involved in the local Ithaca community as well.
'''Philanthropy:'''While our campus culture is always changing, our chapter always strives to maintain the same values of Kappa Kappa Gamma. No matter what is happening on campus, our chapter is reliable in its kindness, maturity, and strength. While we all have diverse interests and backgrounds, at our core, our chapter all holds similar values and morals.
The two main philanthropic organizations that our chapter supports is the Kappa Kappa Gamma Foundation and Reading is Fundamental. Our chapter chose these organizations because, like other Kappa chapters, we are encouraged to donate to them. Since the values of these organizations strongly align with the values of our chapter, we have continued to be inspired to volunteer with other organizations, including but not limited to the Caroline Elementary school in our local community.
During our last Founder’s Day, our school was on break. While we could not all be together, we emphasized the importance of Kappa’s history and the day through messages to the chapter, and in person once we were all together.
'''Chapter Convention Awards'''==Highlights of 2020s:==
==Highlights of 2020:==
Our chapter was able to conduct major events, such as initiation and recruitment, before COVID-19. Nevertheless, the pandemic impacted our chapter’s experience tremendously. Without being able to meet in person, chapters looked a lot different. Women in our chapter took to planning events virtually (we will be conducting virtual recruitment early next semester). While we were virtual, Psi Deuteron was still able to conduct some of our typical events. For instance, we held virtual fundraisers on social media for our philanthropy. Most importantly, the women of our chapter were still connected, even though we were physically separated.
--------------The two main philanthropic organizations that our chapter supports is the Kappa Kappa Gamma Foundation and Reading is Fundamental. Our chapter chose these organizations because, like other Kappa chapters, we are encouraged to donate to them. Since the values of these organizations strongly align with the values of our chapter, we have continued to be inspired to volunteer with other organizations, including but not limited to the Caroline Elementary school in our local community.
'''Note In response to Chapter Registrar:''' Please refer the events of summer 2020, our chapter examined our diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives. While we took small-scale measures to your address issues of equity, such as posting on social media, our chapter archives including wanted to implement more long term, meaningful changes. Through formal and informal conversations, our chapter meeting minutes and back issues emphasized the importance of ''The Key'' being an inclusive chapter. We even brought the wider Cornell community into our conversations to see what we could do better. While these conversations were difficult to fill in any gaps have, they serve as a small step in the above historical highlightsright direction. If your chapter archives are not completeWe will continue to have these discussions, please research your university libraryand in the coming years, campus newspaper and yearbook archives for newsworthy information about your chapter. Please double check your work for accuracythey will mobilize into more direct action. Contact Our chapter Advisory or House Board is looking forward to trainings and other events that will make us more conscientious members, local Alumnae Association members, or your Province Director of Chapters for assistanceour community.
Your efforts will ensure a complete and accurate history While we were apart because of COVID-19, we were still able to reflect on the importance of your Kappa’s 150th anniversary. These past few years, the Psi Deuteron chapter for future generations has taken the initiative to truly value our traditions. On this anniversary, we all took the time to reflect on the significance of this day and what Kappa means to enjoy!us.
