4,264
edits
Changes
Chi
,→The Early Years (Excerpted from The History of Kappa Kappa Gamma Fraternity: 1870 to 1976)
==The Early Years (Excerpted from The History of Kappa Kappa Gamma Fraternity: 1870 to 1976)==
Minnesota Territory was created in 1849 and the university chartered by the Territorial Legislature. The population of the area, scarcely 6000, not including an estimated 5000 Chippewa and Sioux, hardly warranted this move, but the redoubtable Yankee settlers who forged Minnesota statehood were determined to establish a university second to none.
In 1856, two years before statehood, a fine building was contracted for, known as "Old Main" until it burned to the ground in 1904. In this three story building a school of sorts was conducted, but the panic of 1857, the Civil War, and the Sioux Wars took their toll. Old Main, overlooking the Falls of St. Anthony, was turned into apartments, used as a barn, and was not restored until fall, 1867, when it became a preparatory school with a faculty of three. Students had to be at least 13 years old and were required to pass exams in basic subjects. They paid $6 per term- three terms a year, $2 per term room rent, and $1 per term fuel charge. Female students had to find rooms with nearby families.
In 1869, the Collegiate Department was opened. Until 1890, when the preparatory school was phased out, both departments were served in the same building, by the same faculty. The necessity of preparing students for college while striving to establish a university directed the growth of both the university and Chi Chapter. For, when the Collegiate Department was opened, it could not deny entrance to the girls who had been preparatory students. It was common to find among Chi initiates young ladies not yet qualified for the university.
Chi Psi, the first Greek organization on campus, was established in 1874. Kappa was the second -- and the first female fraternity- in 1880. Between 1881 and 1904, six more women's and seventeen men's fraternities were chartered on campus - all of which remain active. Fewer than half of the 40 fraternities and sororities established since that time have survived.
During Chi's first decade, membership ranged each year from 5 to 20.
==Highlights of 2011==