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=Alpha of Delta Zeta=

History
The First Greek letter organization, Phi Betta Kappa, was established in 1776 at the College of William and Mary. This secret fraternal society gave themselves a Greek name since Greek was considered indispensable in higher education. But war interrupted their studies. After the war was over, Congress saw a need for more institutions of higher education. They bought land in the southwestern Ohio farming community of Oxford in 1809. Miami University was established and first enrolled 20 students in 1824 and enrollment climbed to 100 the following year. Five years later, Miami’s first fraternity Alpha Delta Phi was established. Later came Beta Theta Pi in 1839. The University complained that the fraternal secret societies had no place on campus. Robert H. Bishop the first president of Miami saw the positive aspects of fraternities and sided with them. In doing so, he was replaced by George Junkin who temporarily banned fraternities. Three years later in 1845, Erasmus D. MacMastert took Junkin’s place as president and allowed the fraternities return to campus.

The students of Miami had a lot to do with the return of fraternites. In 1848, students organized what is now known at the “Snowball Rebellion.” Students protested and blocked the buildings with large snowballs in front of the doors. Many students were expelled and took their fraternities with them. Peace was restored in 1849 with William C. Anderson and he and his son founded Phi Delta Theta. Another fraternity, Sigma Chi, was founded soon there after in 1855. Beta, Phi Delt and and Sigma Chi became known as the “Miami Triad” and led way to another alpha chapter.

47 years later in 1902 Guy Potter Benton (of Phi Delta Theta) became the 13th president of Miami. His main goal was to “modernize” the university and ultimately gave women full academic access. The women enjoyed their education, but soon became bored with no campus organizations solely for themselves.

Six women, Julia Bishop Coleman, Anne Simmons Friedline, Mabelle Minton Hagemann, Alfa Lloyd Hayes, Anna Keen Davis and Mary Collins Gallbrath along with President Benton started organization of a women’s society on Sept 19, 1902. Less than a week later, they chose a name of Delta Zeta an colors of rose and green.

On October 3, the six women met at Alfa’s house to talk about the girls they wanted to pledge and on March 1, 1903 the women of Delta Zeta had their first “bid day” with an initiation at the end of the month.

In 1905 Delta Zeta prospered and had enough girls to rent a house but ultimately wanted to reach their goal and become a national sorority. Delta Zeta combined with the women of Phi Tau and petitioned to be a chapter of the national Kappa Alpha Theta sorority but their proposal was denied.

The women took matters in their own hands and in 1907 wrote a constitution of their own and recovered the land lost with the brief alliance with Phi Tau. Delta Zeta was finally admitted and installed into the National Panhellenic Conference in 1910 and the sorority began to grow rapidly, spreading to universities all over the country.

The first Delta Zeta National Convention was in Indianapolis in 1911 and from then on, they decided to hold a National Convention biannually.

In the summer of 1927, marking their Silver Anniversary, Delta Zeta presented Miami University with a memorial sundial to commemorate their 25 years of success. The sundial was returned to Delta Zeta for safe keeping due to renovations on Miami’s campus. It now resides at National Headquarters.

The first Delta Zeta founders day was celebrate in 1959 at Sesquicentennial Chapel located on Miami’s campus. Delta Zeta presented a gift of chimes to the chapel.

In 2002 National Convention was held in Oxford to commemorate Delta Zeta’s centennial. Just like the original “parade” of the founders, convention attendees paraded down Main Street carrying flags representing each chapter in the first ever “Parade of Chapters.”

National Headquarters
The first national headquarters opened in the fall of 1922 in Muncie, Indiana as Grace Mason was the Executive Secretary and this is where she resided. Headquarters moved to in Indianapolis in 1924, San Antonio in 1928, Cincinnati in 1934, back to in Indianapolis in 1940 and Columbus in 1960.

At the 1981 National Convention in New Orleans, discussion began of returning headquarters back to Miami University. Convention approved a purchase of a 100-year-old Victorian house in Oxford, that was within walking distance to the University.



This historic building was built in 1884 by Frank McCord using some bricks and woodwork from Oxford’s First Presbyterian Church. It was purchased by long time Oxford residents Mr. And Mrs. William Cullen who lived there for almost 30 years. They painted the rooms, refurbished the porches, cleaned out the fireplaces and planted gardens and landscape. They eventually sold it and it became the Delta Zeta National Historical Museum and Headquarters in 1983. It's located at 202 East Church Street.

All of the rooms, foyers and parlors are gifts and dedicated by different chapters such as the Ohio Foyer and the Texas/New Mexico Parlor.

Inside the headquarters is a historical museum including some items such as the original charter signed by all the founders and personal possessions of past members. Headquarters also includes conference rooms, bedrooms, archive rooms, DZDeZigns (sorority merchandising department), National House Corpoartion, executive offices, the Foundation Office, Cooks Conference Center and the Centennial Gardens.

Delta Zeta Foundation
The Delta Zeta Foundation is a non-profit organization that provides funding for programs and resources that promote academic success and personal and leadership development. The five pillars of the Delta Zeta Foundation are leadership, education, scholarship, philanthropy and heritage. Some of the most notable programs include GreekLikeEDU, Emmy-award winning Tell Me Something I Don’t Know video project, Tapping Into Your True Potential as well as multiple scholarships for colligate members and the overall preservation of Delta Zeta National Headquarters. 

DZ DeZigns
DZ DeZigns is Delta Zeta’s own merchandising department. 100% of the proceeds benefit the sorority and go towards educational programs. You can shop DZ DeZigns online or through an annual catalog that is published every fall. In DZ DeZigns you can find apparel, sportswear, jewelry, stationary, accessories, gifts and more for every type of Delta Zeta from collegiate members to alumnae. DZ DeZigns is located on the second floor of headquarters and is open M-F from 8 a.m.- 5 p.m.

Philanthropy
At the 22nd National Convention in 1954 in St. Louis, Delta Zeta agreed to adopt speech and hearing as the national philanthropic project. Since then, Delta Zeta adopted many organzations that support this cause. In 2007/2008 the Delta Zeta Foundation gave Gallaudet University (a four year liberal arts university for students who are deaf or hearing impaired)  $10,000 to sponsor the Gallaudet University Dancers’ Spring Dance Program, The House Ear Institute  $10,000 to sponsor HEI’s Family Camp Weekend and The Starkey Hearing Foundation  $5,000 for the purchase of 100 hearing aids for the hearing impaired in the United States. Miami University’s local philanthropy is St. Rita’s School for the Deaf in Cincinnati, Ohio. Each year the members of the Alpha Chapter organize Puttin on the Hits, a lip-syncing and dance competition for all new sorority and fraternity pledge classes. It is the biggest single philanthropy on Miami’s campus and usually raise over $14,000 for St. Rita’s.

The Painted Turtle is another national philanthropy. Founded by Paul Newman, the Painted Turtle is a life changing summer camp for children with serious illnesses.

Pink Goes Green
Delta Zeta members are working at the grassroots level to improve the environment, educate the public on what they can do and help them do it, and empower those they impact with the knowledge that just one person can make a difference to protect the environment and enrich our planet through their new website and intitiate DZPinkGoesGreen.Org. Such projects include cutting back on paper consumption and making more things available electronically, switching to florescent light bulbs, recycling alumni cans and paper and creating many of the merchandise found in DZ DeZigns out of organic material.

Facts
There are 158 Delta Zeta colligate chapters and over 200 alumnae chapters across the country and The United Kingdom and Canada. There are over 220,000 initiated members and at even given time, 10,000 undergraduate members or more. The colors are rose and green and their flower is the Pink Killarney Rose. Their jewel is a diamond and their mascot is a turtle. 

Alfa Lloyd, Arthur L. Bairnsfather and Mayme Barger designed the first Delta Zeta Badge. The official pin is now designed by Herff Jones

Miami University chapter of Delta Zeta currently has 157 members. They have weekly chapter meetings that take place in their suite in Richard Hall. Recruitment begins second semester, the Wednesday before the start of classes with bid day at the beginning of the second week of classes. Initiation is on a Sunday, usually at the end of March.