Kappa Alpha Theta
| Kappa Alpha Theta | |
|---|---|
| ΚΑΘ | |
 |
|
| Founded | January 27, 1870 DePauw University, Greencastle, Indiana, United States |
| Type | Social |
| Scope | International |
| Motto | Leading Women |
| Colors | Black Gold |
| Symbol | Kite and Twin Stars |
| Flower | Black and Gold Pansy |
| Publication | The Kappa Alpha Theta Magazine |
| Philanthropy |
Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA) Kappa Alpha Theta Foundation |
| Chapters | 135+ collegiate, 190+ alumnae |
| Members | 250,000+ collegiate |
| Headquarters |
8740 Founders Road Indianapolis, Indiana United States |
| Homepage | http://www.kappaalphatheta.org/ |
Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA)
Kappa Alpha Theta (ΚΑΘ), also known simply as Theta, is an international sorority for women founded on Jan. 27, 1870 at DePauw University, formerly Indiana Asbury. Kappa Alpha Theta was the first Greek-letter women's college fraternity. The organization currently has more than 135 chapters at colleges and universities in the United States and Canada with a total initiated membership of more than 250,000, and more than 195 alumnae chapters and circles worldwide. Kappa Alpha Theta is a member of the National Panhellenic Conference (NPC).
Kappa Alpha Theta was founded in 1870 to give women a support group in the then mostly male college world at Indiana Asbury, now DePauw University. Indiana Asbury officially opened its doors to women in 1867, thirty years after the college was first established. Four women, Elizabeth McReynolds Locke Hamilton (Bettie Locke), Alice Olive Allen Brant (Alice Allen), Elizabeth Tipton Lindsey (Bettie Tipton), and Hannah Virginia Fitch Shaw (Hannah Fitch), sought to create an organization for women that would provide the encouragement and support to draw women to coeducational colleges.
Kappa Alpha Theta's ritual, organizational structure, badge, and coat of arms were drawn in part upon two fraternities with which Bettie Locke had close connections: Beta Theta Pi, her father's fraternity, and Phi Gamma Delta (FIJI), her brother's fraternity.
Locke had many friends in FIJI, and when the members asked her to wear their badge she asked if it meant she was a member of their fraternity. They informed her, "no" it would be simply as a "mascot" or token of her friendship. Locke declined. She said she could not wear it as she did not know the secrets and purposes the badge represented. The brothers of FIJI took a vote to determine whether to admit and initiate Locke as a full member of FIJI. They decided they wished to remain an all-male fraternity, and gave Locke a silver fruit basket instead as a symbol of their special relationship with her.
At the suggestion of her father, a professor at Indiana Asbury, Locke investigated whether any fraternities for women existed with whom she could establish a chapter at Indiana Asbury. Discovering that only literary societies for women existed at the time, Locke decided to begin her own Greek letter fraternity for women, and Kappa Alpha Theta was conceived.
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Wikipedia