Zeta Tau Alpha will return to California State University, Long Beach for the first time since its original charter in 1957 as one of the 26 members of the National PanHellenic Conference organization of sororities.
In an email, ZTA Extension Director Marlene Conrad expressed the organization’s desire to return to CSULB after 41 years.
“Zeta Tau Alpha looks for opportunities to reactivate closed chapters whenever possible, and our chapter at CSULB was no exception,” Conrad said. “As one of the largest institutions in the state of California and the fifth best university in the West, CSULB is an institution we want to grow with.”
Conrad described the sorority’s goals for its members as “crown chapter criteria,” which are standards that emphasize leadership, philanthropy and community involvement.
Brett Waterfield, director of Student Life and Development at CSULB, said that ZTA’s previous CSULB chapter closed in 1974 as part of “an attitudinal turn” of college students toward political activism and away from Greek life during the Vietnam War.
The last NPC sorority chartered on campus was Alpha Omicron Pi in 1965, making ZTA the first to join CSULB in 50 years, Waterfield said.
ZTA’s re-colonization will occur from Sept. 21 – Oct. 7 as a result of their successful application this past spring, Conrad said.
Because ZTA is new on campus, the sorority will hold recruitment year long as a way to establish its numbers.
Waterfield said that the increasing number of collegiate women joining sororities combined with the tangent number of organizations caused an uneven distribution of members. As a result, CSULB undertook a two-year process to charter a new sorority.
After invitations were sent out to all NPC organizations not chartered at CSULB, interested organizations submitted their applications. Waterfield said that the university then selected a few organizations to make a formal presentation.
This two-to-three-day visit consisted of meetings with sorority leadership and university administrators, Waterfield said. A public meeting was then held in the Beach Auditorium where students gave feedback about each potentially chartered organization. The university’s extension committee then gave a final recommendation on which sorority should join.
Waterfield said that ZTA’s success in the application process could be attributed to the organization’s history with the university.
“They showed a lot more enthusiasm because it was kind of like this opportunity for rebirth,” Waterfield said. “I think they came across as really seeing themselves as a really good fit.”
The sorority’s main philanthropic focus is breast cancer awareness. ZTA works with national non-profit organization Bright Pink to bring the organization’s educational workshops to each sorority chapter. Bright Pink will hold approximately 165 workshops at ZTA chapters during the 2015-2016 calendar year, said Jenn Zwillenberg, Bright Pink’s community engagement manager.
On a more local level, ZTA faces challenges that many other on-campus Greek organizations must deal with: CSULB’s reputation as a commuter school as well as the lack of a dedicated sorority row. Conrad said the sorority is working to meet these challenges.
“We will have housing in fall 2016 that is comparable to the other Panhellenic sororities,” Conrad said. “ZTA has chapters in urban areas throughout the country and we are also well established on many commuter campuses. We customize the ZTA experience to fit each campus.”
ZTA will provide students with more information via its Traveling Leadership Consultants, available on campus from Sept. 21 through Oct. 2. ZTA will also have information at two workshops, set for Oct. 5-6 at 7 p.m. in the University Student Union’s Long Beach Ballroom.
Updated on 9/23/15 at 12:24 p.m.