Mirroring SK, ZTA integrates into campus life

For Zeta Tau Alpha, rush is in full swing with the new sorority’s first bid day at Penn coming up this Friday.

Potential new members are finishing their “infoviews” —interviews with national consultants— on Wednesday, and ZTA will host two open houses in Houston Hall Tuesday and Wednesday evening. An invitation-only preference party on Thursday night precedes bid day.

ZTA is the first sorority to join Penn’s Panhellenic community since Sigma Kappa colonized in 2002.

One of the last factors yet to be determined for the newest sorority is securing a house.

Like SK when they were initially colonized, ZTA has plans to reside in the former Phi Sigma Sigma chapter house until more permanent plans are made.

ZTA is “in conversation with the alumnae house corporation of Phi Sigma Sigma’s house to possibly lease that house for the next couple of years,” Office of Student Affairs/Fraternity and Sorority Life director Scott Reikofski wrote in an e-mail.

SK also stayed in the Phi Sigma Sigma house “for a year before moving to their house on Spruce,” Lea Shafer, former associate director of programming of the OSA/FSL, wrote in an e-mail. “When Phi Sigma Sigma is ready to return to campus, ZTA will have made more permanent arrangements and Phi Sigma Sigma will return to their house when they re-establish on campus,” he added.

When Panhel is ready to expand again, Phi Sigma Sigma — which officially closed its chapter at Penn last Spring — is atop the list to be invited back.

Coincidentally, the current SK house on 39th and Spruce streets became available around the time of their colonization, Reikofski wrote, adding that “it worked out well.”

A permanent residence for ZTA members has not yet been determined.

Despite similarities, SK and ZTA traveled very different paths to find their way to campus.

ZTA was selected last October, following the decision by the Panhel to expand Penn’s sorority system in April 2010.

Unlike ZTA, however, SK waited over a decade to be invited to campus.

In the late 1980s, “there was actually a list created of chapters that would be coming to campus and SK was the last one to be added,” Shafer wrote.

“College Panhellenics don’t expand that way anymore and follow a process like what happen[ed] with bringing ZTA to campus this year,” she added.

Alpha Phi, Alpha Chi Omega and Kappa Alpha Theta were also original choices and joined Penn’s Greek system shortly after the list was created. A vote to add SK in 1996 was shot down in a Panhel vote, and the sorority was not invited to campus until 2001.

The recruitment and colonization process for sororities hasn’t changed much since SK joined.

SK’s “first recruitment was separate from the formal recruitment cycle and really like what ZTA is doing this year,” Shafer wrote.

SK had consultants stay with them after colonization, Shafer added.

Looking forward, ZTA will also have two consultants stay with the new sorority until April, ZTA Traveling Leadership Consultant Harriette Baker said.

The consultants will facilitate “all programming” for the new organization, helping ZTA to get started at Penn and preparing new members to run the organization independently in the fall.

Please note All comments are eligible for publication in The Daily Pennsylvanian.