Changes

Throughout the 2018 year, many girls bustled in and out of the big, blue door of the white, Kappa house at the 616. With a total of 168 active women in the chapter many activities, clubs, majors, jobs, and athletics kept Kappa’s members busy. At the beginning of the year, 18 new officers were installed at Formal Meeting, and Summer Baldwin became the 2018 Kappa Kappa Gamma Sigma Chapter President. The new council members became acquainted with their positions and advisors as they met with previous officers.

Within the Greek Community at the university, Kappa’s presence was made clear throughout the year. Sigma’s Panhellenic Delegate, Kali Dodd, attended weekly meetings with fifteen delegates from other chapters, acted as the liaison between Kappa and The National Panhellenic Conference, and created opportunities for Sigma Chapter to build relationships with other chapters on campus. For International Women’s Day, Kappa teamed up with Kappa Alpha Theta and handed out goody bags in front of the Student Union in the spring. This event was a huge success, and Kappa plans to do it again next year in 2019! Kappa had the pleasure of being paired with Beta Theta Pi and Delta Delta Delta for Greek Week in the spring. The Homecoming Week theme was “Bringing Tradition Home” in honor of Scott Frost’s first season as head coach of the football team. Kappa had very high involvement in all of the events and placed in the top three for the blood drive and lawn display competitions. Kappa was paired with FarmHouse, Sigma Chi, and Pi Alpha Chi for Homecoming. Sigma Alpha was added to the Panhellenic Community this year, and Theta Phi Alpha is no longer recognized as a Panhellenic chapter. Sigma chapter received an honorable mention for Panhellenic at the National Conference in Denver, Colorado. Kappa’s very own, Andrea Harris, was elected to serve as the 2019 Panhellenic President.

During Formal Recruitment in August of 2018 over 1000 women participated in the action-packed week, visiting a total of 16 chapters each. Kelsey Martinez, Sigma’s Membership Chairman, hosted all Potential New Members throughout the week and prepared for their arrival all summer. This year, Kappa had 5 members volunteer as Rho Gammas during the week, mentoring small groups of women and guiding them throughout the week. Bid Day came at the end of the week planned by Emma Tuttle, Sigma’s New Member Chairman. Bid Day was “Kappa Kandyland” themed with pascal colored props, tank tops, glitter, colorful lipstick, hair dye, and many excited new members and actives. Chapter Registrar, Andrea Harris, organized Bid Day photography to commemorate the special day. After 52 women ran into the arms of joyful Sigma Members, 51 of them successfully completed the new member program with Tuttle throughout the beginning of the 2018 fall semester. On October 26th and 27th, alumni came to initiate the 51 new members composed of daughters, sisters, granddaughters, and nieces. Jessica Moore, Sigma’s Marshal, planned a successful, exciting, and well-rehearsed initiation ceremony for the chapter. She emphasized Kappa’s songs and traditions throughout the process.

Many changes to the UNL campus happened this year. One was that the Cather/Pound Dorms behind Neihardt Residence Hall were demolished in late December of 2017. The lot on which both buildings resided has been vacant and blocked off for a year after. Just this December, nearly a year after the implosion, there have been workers cleaning up the site and adding sidewalks through the still roped off area. Another change to the atmosphere of UNL is the Tobacco-Free and Smoke-Free Campus Policy. This new policy at the university was approved back in August of 2017, and it was put into full effect starting on the first of the year in January of 2018. In the fall of 2018, the Nebraska Huskers welcomed back one of their own, Scott Frost, to be the head coach of the Nebraska Huskers Football Team. Many excited fans anxiously awaited his influence on the team which has not been performing as well as they would like. After the Huskers finished their 2018 season with only four wins and eight losses, Nebraskans are not as pleased with Frost as they expected they would be. The Husker Volleyball and Basketball teams have been doing well during their 2018 seasons, and other UNL teams continue to exemplify success and embody what it means to be a D1 athlete at UNL. Finally, the Cather Dining Center and College of Business recent builds have been easily accommodating students and contributing to academic success and university comfort this year.

Another project that’s projected to be done in the next month or so is the addition to Sigma Phi Epsilon across 16th Street from Kappa. The fraternity has been making an addition on the south side of their house and ensuring that it matches the rest of the house’s old, genuine, brick exterior aesthetic. Fraternity, Sigma Nu, just to the North of Sigma Phi Epsilon, remains abandoned and unkept. Fraternities Phi Gamma Delta, Delta Tau Delta, and Phi Kappa Psi still remain in band standing with the university and are working to rebuild and reconfirm their fraternity values and status in the Greek and University communities.

During the 2018 year, Sigma boosted the house GPA to a 3.476 which was above the all-campus GPA of 3.274 and the all sorority GPA of 3.473. With the assistance of Colleen Doyle, Vice President of Academic Excellence, Sigma got a Chegg account in order to provide more academic assistance to all members. Kappa tried monitoring study hours on the GINsystem App to allow for more flexible study hours. This year, Sigma had an incredible 72 active members with a GPA of 3.5 and above. Sigma has also been able to provide tutors for around 14 girls in the house this year.

Kappas were extremely involved on campus in 2018. Select senior members were a part of UNL’s Order of Omega, an all-Greek honors society. Many active members played on intramural sports teams, club sports teams, and the chapter had two D1 athletes in the 2018 year: a women’s soccer player and a women’s tennis player. Women in all colleges from Journalism and Mass Communication, to Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources, to Business, to Engineering, and many more were 2018 actives. A handful of Kappa juniors and seniors in the 2018 year attended the new UNMC College of Nursing in Lincoln, Nebraska, with some choosing to remain active members on special status instead of going to associates status. Kappa women participated in summer and semester study abroad programs that took them across Europe to places in Spain, Italy, Germany, France, Ireland, and to many more adventurous destinations along the way. In September of 2018, a Kappa senior, Jordyn Koenig, Vice President of the Big Red Chapter of Pheasants Forever at UNL, organized a Youth Mentor Hunt for college students to test out hunting and have the opportunity to learn how to shot from other Pheasants Forever members. Koenig and six other Kappa members participated in the event, creating an awareness and promotion of the sport across campus.

In June of 2018, six actives in Kappa accompanied by advisors and Sigma alumni attended the 2018 Kappa Kappa Gamma National Convention in Denver, Colorado. Those who attended were inspired by many generations of Kappas from across the United States. Women expressed their Kappa spirit with little golden keys, blue clothing, owl accessories, and a common theme of fleur-des-lis. Convention had officer training programs and the Sigma actives who attended, all members of the 2018 council, gained insight into their positions and ideas about how to implement changes to their position in the future. Kappas also learned about diversity, inclusion, and made changes to national Kappa bylaws and standing rules. In 2018, Kappa became inclusive of transgender women, a big step in Kappa’s goal of becoming inclusive to all women. Sigma Chapter submitted applications for awards at the Biennial National Convention, where Sigma received honorable mentions in House Board, Advisory Board, and Panhellenic. Attendees of the Convention left Denver with new ideas, forward-thinking minds, and more Kappa merchandise than they had when they arrived...

Philanthropies this year were organized by Aly Burd, Philanthropy Chairman. In the spring of 2018, she and her committee planned Mac and Keys benefiting the Alzheimer’s Association. Kappa raised a total of $5,500. In the fall of 2018, Kappa hosted Krispy Kreme and KAPPAcinos benefiting the John Atkinson Lung Cancer Foundation and $5,000 was raised. In addition, Kappa hosted mini philanthropies benefitting various organizations such as the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention and to Write Love on Her Arms. Kappa also hosted Reading is Fundamental events, where members would read to elementary school students at underprivileged schools in Lincoln, as well as donate books to them. In the spring of 2018, many of Kappa’s actives participated in the Big Event and Dance Marathon, University organized volunteering and fundraising events that a large portion of UNL’s student population was involved in and excited about.

Kappa had many glam formals, special events, and fun sisterhood retreats throughout the 2018 year. Elizabeth Mattern, Event Chairman, and Madison Felix, Risk Management Chairman, kept events organized and fun. Sigma was able to bring back the Sapphire Ball, a Kappa tradition in the fall of 2018. This event was a hit for all members! Events ran smoothly thanks to these two council members and were approved by national headquarters and obliged by Kappa’s sorority contract. Both council chairmen planned events with other Greek Chapters like Crush Formal and Mom’s Day in the spring and American Social, Dad’s Day, and a self-defense class in the fall.

Vice President of Standards, Sydney Hawekotte, made sure that all members were following Kappa bylaws and standing rules. She made sure that all members were reaching the standards Kappa has set in place. She also planned many sisterhood events with the help of her committee. Each member planned a sisterhood event, which occurred about every month like the October trip to Vala’s Pumpkin patch during Nebraska’s peak of the fall season. Hawekotte also hosted a public speaker, Ann Brewer, who talked about the danger and realness of sex-trafficking.

Education Chairman, Maggie DeGarmo, held both the Celebrate Sigma and Founder’s Day banquets, which both were a success. At Celebrate Sigma, Kappa honored the seniors and celebrated all the achievements of Sigma Chapter within the last year. Scholarships were also awarded to select actives of Sigma Chapter. Kappa also had a program with the seniors and the alumni where Kappa listened to a motivational speaker who was also an alum of Kappa. Kappa got to celebrate the seniors during senior week which was a great way to send them off into the real world. This fall semester, Kappa held the Founder’s Day Banquet to celebrate the founding of Kappa. Kappa also honored alums, house board, advisors, and new members, and it turned out to be a successful night. The 2018 semester ended with a senior program where the seniors did cooking classes with Kappa’s amazing cooks, Donna and Nicole, who have been working at Sigma Chapter for years. Seniors all really enjoyed it and learned a lot about making enchiladas and baked ziti.

With a new year comes new changes, and some definite changes occurred at Kappa over the 2018 year. Susan Hirt, Chapter Council Advisor, spent her last year working with Sigma actives and alumni as she prepared to move out of the state to work. However, some other advisors were introduced into the Sigma family in 2018 like Krista Hafez, Registrar Advisor. Diane Stark is still the Sigma House Mother who works hard to keep the big, white house in order and exercises her “handyman” skills, helping to fix nearly everything in sight. Kappa purchased a new blue couch, which actives call “BC”, and large chair for the living room as overseen by Alexa Berry, House Chairman. Another change of 2018 is the transitioning of paper documents to digital documents that will continue to be a change implemented throughout the coming years. President Baldwin gave other council officers a chance to look over Sigma’s bylaws and standing rules, and Sigma was able to make amendments to the way room preference works, as well as live-out parking lot time frames. Sigma also elected smaller positions for a banner chairman and a t-shirt chairman, and those selected were able to involve committees and the chapter in more events. Hannah Sickler, Vice President of Organization, kept the chapter aware of activities and events by updating the chapter calendar. She worked to restructure committee night so that it was more productive than it had been in the past. Her committee helped come up with ideas on ways to keep Sigma Chapter more organized and is working on cleaning up old files and items that are no longer of use to the chapter. Sickler also worked with two separate LCs, Leadership Consultants, from Nationals and helped host them during their visit to Sigma Chapter.

Other components of Sigma’s 2018 year included the chapter’s presence in social media. Public Relations Chairman, Sydney Lenarz, and her committee monitored all social media of active Kappas. They created new social media outlets such as VSCO, kept all social medias up-to-date for active members and alumni, put on an all-house photoshoot in the spring of 2018, and hosted a children's Halloween party called “Boo & Boo” for Kappa alumni, friends, and family in fall of 2018. The final accomplishment for Lenarz was sending out a blog/newsletter to Kappa alumni explaining what each council member had accomplished throughout their time on Sigma’s council. Andrea Harris, Sigma’s Registrar, is working to create the 2018-2019 composite, making it a tribute to the 1982/1983 composite design that depicted many mothers of current Kappa actives. Unfortunately, it was broken in the spring of 2018 when it fell off the third floor hallway wall, which lead to the idea of recapturing its design in 2018’s composite. Macie Kubat, corresponding secretary, replaced the mailboxes in the house, so that live-ins would have their own personal space to receive mail. Kubat also sent out holiday cards, gave flowers for chapters in need, and helped with house announcements. Sydney Miller, recording secretary, took minutes and attendance at chapter council meetings and every Monday night meeting. Her committee took attendance during philanthropies this year. Finally, last but certainly not least, Kappa’s finances were managed by Frannie Folson, Sigma’s Treasurer. Folsom continued to use BillHighway for member dues to be paid, was frugal and conscientious of spending, and added to and reduced officer budgets. The Assistant to the Treasurer in the spring of 2018 was Mollie Sperry and in fall of 2018 was Lauren Leapley. The assistants helped Folsom in charging freshman and other visitors for guest meals. As it is built into their dues, many juniors and seniors still eat at Kappa daily.

With the ending of 2018 comes the excitement and anticipation of what the 2019 year in the big, white house at 616 at “Dear old Nebraska U” will bring. Wonders of what the future holds for politics, social development, scientific discoveries, artistic innovation, the global community, and, of course, the legacy of Kappa Kappa Gamma keep us attentive.