“Animal House” is the stereotype that most high school students envision when they daydream about their college experiences. Keggers, toga parties, and out-of-control antics normally accompany the vision of American fraternities and sororities.
Plymouth State University has not always escaped the umbrella of this stereotype. Several Greek organizations lost their recognition on campus due to hazing, providing alcohol to minors and underground pledging- among other violations.
The University is currently looking into the situation concerning all Greek Life in the form of a Greek Life taskforce designed to create a recommendation to administration at the end of the moratorium currently placed on all Greek organizations.
PSU currently does not recognize any fraternities but does remain the home to four sororities: Kappa Delta Phi NAS, Tau Omega, Psi Beta Gamma and Delta Zeta.
Delta Zeta is one of the two Greek organizations that never lost recognition at PSU, and it’s not difficult to see why.
Delta Zeta, according to the sorority’s website deltazeta.org was founded in 1902 by six women at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. The sorority has been affiliated with Plymouth State since (1987?). All Delta Zeta chapters are closely associated and receive supervision from their headquarters, still located in Oxford.
The PSU chapter of Delta Zeta, under the Presidency of junior Childhood Studies major Ashley Shaw, has been working to donate to their philanthropies, raise funds around campus and improve the stereotypes associated with Greek Life.
“It’s really hard to face all of the bad stereotypes that do come with sororities,” said Shaw. “We have 30 years of bad stuff behind us, we are just trying to get our positive image out there for us and all the other Greek Life on campus.”
The DZ chapter held ice cream socials and bake sales, helped on-site to build a Habitat for Humanity household, sold calendars for Habitat for Humanity, helped to sponsor the Bone Marrow Drive and participated in the Cancer Walk and Walk of Dimes. The sorority also donated to philanthropies including the Faith, Hope and Love Foundation and The Painted Turtle in California, a camp for terminally ill children.
They did this all the while maintaining good grades; the overall scholastic average for the sorority is a 3.13 GPA.
This year, the chapter traveled to Marlboro, MA to attend a regional conference with seven other DZ chapters from around the Northeast. The group received three awards for their achievements; two for grades and a third for outstanding campus relations.
“No other chapter in the region understands what it is like for us,” said Shaw. “We are trying to get them to understand what we are going through [at Plymouth]. The regional conference helps because they see what we do. We talk to them through Facebook and get ideas for different things that we can do.”
The University of Hartford in Connecticut is another University that has a thriving DZ Chapter, but also has a thriving community of Greek Life with 13 fraternities and sororities. Northeastern University, another school associated with DZ, has 17 recognized Greek organizations. The University of Rhode Island has 20 Greek organizations affiliated with the college, with 10% (1,100) of the overall undergraduate population participating in Greek life.
UNH, a university that is not associated with Delta Zeta, has a much larger Greek Life presence on campus. According to the school’s website, unh.edu/greek, almost 10 percent of the overall population of students is associated with a Greek organization, resulting in numbers totaling 950.
“It is a big part for us because we are a national organization and have sisters all over the country and all over the world,” said junior Graphic Design major and Chapter Vice President of New Member Education, Phoebe Brown. “We are an international sorority and it is nice to know that we have sisters all over the world supporting us.”
So what is in the future for Delta Zeta? It won’t be a loss of their recognition.
“If we lost campus recogntion, we could not still remain an underground chapter,” said Shaw. “We can’t be DZ and lose recognition.”
“Basically, we can’t look over our shoulder without someone checking up on us,” said senior Studio Art major and Vice President of DZ membership, Keelan Murphy.
“Every move we make is approved,” added Brown. However, that approach hasn’t been too bad thus far.
“We are really lucky because we have support from the Police Department and in return, support them,” stated Murphy. “Whenever we go out, we think of Chief [Chief John Clark, DZ Advisor] and wear our letters proudly because of him.”
In the near future, the Delta Zeta sorority will be holding a “Family Day” for the sisters’ families so that they can better understand the organization. The chapter will also be helping out Spring Fling and holding a community service day with other fraternities and sororities.
“We are proud to wear our letters and what they mean to us,” said sophomore Marketing major and Chapter Historian/Academic Motivator, Eileen Tracy. “Some other organizations wear them just to wear them, but our letters are what we stand for.”
“We wear our letters because we want you to know,” said Brown. “If you’re wondering, just ask us.”
Anyone seeking additional information can contact Ashley Shaw at aeshaw@plymouth.edu or look at the Delta Zeta national website www.dz.org.