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|Image= [[File:Zeta_Rho.jpg|200px]]
|Founded= {{start date and years ago|1988|03|19}}
|College= [httphttps://www.colgate.edu/home Colgate University]
|Location= Hamilton, NY
|Homepage= [https://wwwcolgate.facebookkappa.comorg/pages/Colgate-University-Kappa-Kappa-Gamma/186177531413076 Zeta Rho Homepage]|Media= [httphttps://wiki.kappakappagammakkg.org/index.php?title=Category:Zeta_Rho Media related to Zeta Rho Chapter]}}
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'''Zeta Rho, Colgate'''
80 charter members
1,510 564 initiates (as of June 20172018)
==History and ColonizationEstablishment==
'''Colgate University (from the Summer 1988 issue of The Key)'''
'''Colonization Establishment and Installation'''
Eighty women were pledged to Zeta Rho colony at Colgate University, Hamilton, NY, on November 15, 1987. These women were members of the local Delta Sigma Upsilon, formed on the campus in 1980. The chapter consultant was Lisa Higham, Missouri, and the coordinator for chapter development was Mary Clarke, Colorado College. Kappa’s 117th chapter was installed the weekend of March 18-19, 1988. Marin Laidlow LeFevre, Syracuse, was the local installation chairman. Active members serving as big sisters came from Cornell, St. Lawrence, Syracuse, McGill, Penn State and Lafayette.
The chapter was still working to improve unity in 1995, which they felt was a challenge in part because they were unhoused. To address this, dinners and other activities were organized to initiate friendships between new members and sisters who were overseas during rush. Also, sisters participated in intramural sports together.
Other challenges facing the chapter included the university initiative that, within 1-2 years, only 250 Colgate students would live off campus. As the majority of Zeta Rho sisters lived off campus, and because the chapter was unhoused, the hunt was on for a campus home for the chapter. Additionally, as many as half of the sisters in the chapter were studying abroad each semester, making chapter unity, recruitment and slating difficult. Zeta Rho was hostess for Alpha Province meeting in 1995 and received the award for Most Improved Chapter
The chapter initiated 38 members in '''1996''', making quota. As in previous years, Zeta Rho continued to be involved in campus athletics year round. Kappa was represented on the 1996 Colgate Crew, Soccer, Tennis, Field Hockey, Swimming and Cross Country teams.
This year Zeta Rho again honored one sister with the Marian LeFevre Key, which is presented each year in honor of the chapter’s long time, and tirelessly devoted, advisor. And at the 1996 Convention, the chapter received an Honorable Mention for Membership.
==Highlights of the 2000's==
We participate in school wide panels to promote Greek Life. As a chapter we make sure the girls within the chapter feel included with every event that we participate in. With the recent sexual assault cases coming to light Kappa Kappa Gamma has been making sure that our sisters feel safe and comfortable on campus. Colgate's Student Government Association (SGA) is working on creating changes to the campus and we have active members in Kappa who sit on SGA to make sure our voices are being heard at those close door meetings.
==Highlights of 2018==
This past calendar year has been very eventful for Colgate's Zeta Rho Chapter of Kappa Kappa Gamma. The VP of Academic Excellence awarded 8 sisters 4.0 awards last Spring to reward their hard work and dedication the previous Fall Semester. We are still working with our administration to release the GPA's from the Spring Semester so those women will also be rewarded for their high achievement. Last spring we sent about 16 sisters abroad, and this semester an outstanding 31! Each semester, the VP of Academic Excellence also plans an event called Professor's Tea, where we invite Professors to learn more about the women in our organization; this semester we joined forces with the other Sororities on campus and hosted an joint event. Last semester we had the incredible opportunity as a chapter to assist with Binghamton's initiation and chapter installation, it was a truly rewarding experience. Our calendar year has also been filled with numerous Philanthropy events such as, Kappa Kisses (where we sell chocolate kisses), Birthday Klub (that we host for children in the surrounding community), Parent's Night Out (where we volunteer to babysit Professors' children), and Kappa Kickball. Last semester we were challenged to develop a more robust Risk Plan following our University Action Status. Through the continuous help and support of our Kappa Advisors, we are in very good standing with the administration and better prepared in the future with our newly develop Risk Plan. We have recently elected a new Chapter Council and are excited to help them transition into their new roles! One of our chapter goals over this past year have been to foster a stronger relationship with Colgate's Administration; in an effort to accomplish this we have invited several Deans, and the University President, to dinner with the chapter council in order to foster a strong relationship. Another one of our goals, is to promote and increase the number of Sisterhood events to build an even stronger sense of belonging amongst sisters. This is just a snapshot of what the year of Zeta Rho has looked like over the past year.
==Highlights of 2019==
2019 has been a very successful year for the Zeta Rho chapter of Kappa Kappa Gamma.
One of our main philanthropy events, Kappa Kisses, was hosted in February of 2019, in which we sell chocolate kisses and people can anonymously send chocolate kisses to someone else.
Our calendar was full of fun events that our chapter sponsors, such as Birthday Klub, where we open our house to local children for fun and games, and Kappa Kickball, in which teams from groups across campus will sign up to be a part of our kickball tournament. In both the fall and the spring, we hosted Professor's Tea, as a way to foster a strong relationship between the Zeta Rho chapter and our campus' professors, organized by our VP of Academic Excellence.
We had 18 members with 4.0 GPAs during the spring semester of 2019, all of which were recognized for their hard work and dedication. In addition, we won the Broad Street Challenge for the second year in a row, in which we have the most members of the President's Club out of the Greek life organizations on campus. Our philanthropy has raised a significant amount of money over the past year for Reading is Fundamental, and we are very excited to continue this trend.
In the past year, Colgate's new dean of students, Dean Flores Mills, has made a significant effort reaching out to greek houses on campus. We welcomed her into our home to bridge the gap between the Colgate administration and greek life. In addition, our Assistant Dean of Students and Director of Fraternity and Sorority Advising, Tristan Hilpert, resigned from his position this past fall. Our chapter has been adjusting to this change, since we've had to connect with different parts of the staff within the Colgate administration.
We celebrated Founders Day by opening up our chapter's archives for people to look through and understand our history through a slideshow. In addition, we had lots of blue snacks and candy to celebrate Kappa Kappa Gamma's colors.
==Highlights of 2020==
The chapter is very proud of how it adapted to the pandemic in 2020, even as it still made great strides together. For the entire semester most of the sisters were on campus at Colgate; however, we never could meet all together. We led everything virtually for the most part, including a virtual recruitment process and initiation. Our recruitment process gave us a pledge class we love and our initiation was with around 200 people, including advisers and alumnae on Zoom.
Following Covid-19 guidelines we had pumpkin carving and tye dying on Kappa’s front lawn in shifts. We focused on Kappa’s ritual and shared that via Zoom in and outside of chapter. A large focus of the semester was on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion and to stay politically aware and conscious as a chapter. We also participated in sustainability events on Colgate’s campus.
We celebrated Kappa’s sesquicentennial by live-streaming the celebration virtually and ordering in food; our celebration followed Colgate Covid-19 restrictions. We also reviewed more of Kappa’s history around this time, so we were aware of what we were celebrating and the importance of Kappa to all of us. Some chapter members shared virtually what Kappa meant to them.
We also focused on academics as we do every semester even though school was somewhat remote, and weekly acknowledged our sister’s academic achievements weekly to add a sense of motivation. We highlight on the Medusa Movement that took place at Colgate as well as sexual violence.
Diversity, equity, and inclusion played a large role in this semester for our chapter. Although we met virtually, we were all very conscious of the social movements going on around us and wanted to acknowledge that as much as possible to improve our chapter. We added a DEI officer, Caroline Haigood. We also met with other Greek chapter at Colgate to learn more about DEI and had a few meetings with just our chapter to talk about ways to stay aware and improve the chapter. These discussions were mainly led by Caroline and our sisters. They were very open discussions with a lot of participation from the sisters. I think it was a great way to make more people aware and conscious of their actions.
==Highlights of 2021==
2021 was a very exciting year for the Zeta Rho Chapter of Kappa Kappa Gamma. For starters,
we were able to hold in-person chapter meetings for the first time since the COVID-19
pandemic started, which allowed chapter members to become more familiar with traditions
and build stronger connections with fellow sisters. However, COVID-19 still had an impact on
many of our events, making adaptability, communication with leaders, and organization in
planning crucial to our chapter’s success this year.
As a larger goal for our chapter over the past year, we have worked to upkeep values of
academic excellence and diversity, equity, and inclusion, which we can see through the
wonderful work of our VPAE, Education Chairman, and DEI Chairman. Additionally, the
chapter wanted to increase our connection to Fraternity ritual and history and incorporated
ritual reviews and history nuggets into our weekly chapter meetings, as our chapter felt as
though COVID-19 largely impacted our ability to connect with our chapter’s ritual. The focus
on ritual is something that we are very proud of as a chapter and plan to continue as we
transition Chapter Council officers.
We held informal recruitment virtually during the Spring of 2021, allowing us to virtually
initiate new members into our chapter. Although COVID-19 required this recruitment
round to be virtual, we were able to successfully navigate this platform! Additionally, we
held formal recruitment during the fall, and hosted parties in the back of the chapter house
in tents for the first two nights, transitioning to inside the house for preference night, as
smaller numbers allowed us to do this. After the completion of a wonderful formal
recruitment, we were able to have a beautiful, in-person initiation ceremony where 62 new
members were initiated into our chapter. In addition, we were proud to have two Kappa
Kappa Gamma legacies attend the initiation, and pin their daughters during the pinning
ceremony.
In addition to a successful new member program and initiation ceremony, Zeta Rho was
proud to engage in many philanthropic events this semester! In the beginning of the year
Kappa sisters participated in a campus wide clean up, emphasizing our chapter’s focus on sustainability,
which we also worked hard on this year by reducing plastic waste in our
chapter house.
In terms of academic excellence and education, our council did a great job
with weekly encouragement of sister’s successes as well as organizing a great event, “Kappa
Konnections.” During this event, over the course of a week, over 30 Zeta Rho alumnae came
to speak about their experiences in various industries, offering the chapter a great
opportunity to receive insight into many different career paths post-graduation.
We also hosted an event called “Professors Tea,” where members of our chapter each invited one
professor for an opportunity for chapter members to connect with professors outside of the
classroom. In addition, it was really neat to meet Zeta Rho alumnae through this event, and
this is something that we would love to continue in the future. In terms of other
philanthropic endeavors, our chapter collected 1,157 books for the StockBridge Valley
Central School, hosted a kickball event (“Kappa Kickball”) to raise $3,185 for Active Minds
and the National Eating Disorder Association, and hosted a virtual yoga class, hosted by Pam
Miles, in which we raised roughly $13,000 for the West Penn Oncology T7 Wing, in support
of our sister battling leukemia. Lastly, we were able to coordinate a variety of sisterhood
bonding events, such as chipotle dinners and Kappa Krunch, which allowed chapter
members to build stronger connections with each other.
Lastly, we welcomed a few new advisers to our Advisory Board - a new Academic Excellence
adviser, and a new Event Chairman and Panhellenic adviser - ensuring our chapter has the
alumnae support it needs to continue to grow and improve.
Our chapter is very proud of the strides we made this year while keeping in mind our broader
emphasis on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. In 2020, we added a DEI officer and committee
to our council, and in 2021, we continued to strengthen this position while taking input from chapter officers, chapter members, and the broader Greek life community. With this, we
emphasized the importance of diversity, equity, and inclusion in chapter meetings and were
prepared to promptly respond to any issues that arose within our chapter. We are proud of
the work that our DEI officers have done over the past two years, and we continue to
emphasize the importance of maintaining a focus on diversity, equity, and inclusion in our
chapter moving forward.
Throughout many obstacles, we were able to host a hybrid mix of in-person and virtual
events this semester. Our biggest accomplishment was being able to host an in-person formal
recruitment and initiation, according to guidelines, for the first time since the start of
COVID-19. In addition, the chapter was very successful in hosting virtual/socially distance
philanthropic events, including a socially-distanced Kappa Kickball event, a virtual Yoga
fundraiser, and a virtual career workshop, called Kappa Konnections. Overall, our chapter was
successful in navigating the ever-changing nature of COVID-19, ensuring we were able to
maintain chapter events and traditions while staying safe and following local and state
protocols.
