Kappa Kappa Gamma

The Eta Kappa Chapter of Kappa Kappa Gamma became the newest national sorority on campus when it was installed on March 4, 2007.

The chapter currently has 34 members.

Kappas at Spring Formal 2007

History

Kappa Kappa Gamma was founded October 13, 1870, at Monmouth College, Illinois. The founding members of Kappa Kappa Gamma were Hannah Jeannette Boyd, Mary Moore Stewart (Nelson, Field), Anna Elizabeth Willits (Pattee), Mary Louise Bennett (Boyd), Martha Louisa Stevenson (Miller), Susan Burley Walker (Vincent). As collegiate at Monmouth College, they were determined to form a greek letter organization for women. Founders Minnie Stewart, Jeannette Boyd, and Louise Bennett first met around 1869-1870 in the Amateurs des Belles Lettres Hall, a literary society of which the women were active members when they first decided to form a new society. They determined that nothing short of a greek letter fraternity, equal to men’s fraternities, would satisfy them. Since chapel exercises were required for all students, the founding members announced the formation of the new group by wearing their golden key pins to the Chapel service on October, 13, 1870; hanging back so that they would have to sit in front after the other students were seated.

Symbols

The membership badge is represented by the Golden Key.

The key was adopted as the sorority's symbol at its founding. The original keys were larger han the modern key. The current badge is a one-inch gold key, sometimes jeweled. On the front of the key are the Greek letters ΚΚΓ (on the stem) and ΑΩΟ (on the ward). The badge is worn strictly as an emblem of membership and only by initiated members.

New Members of Kappa Kappa Gamma wear a different badge, a Sigma within a Delta enameled on silver in the two colors of the Fraternity, dark blue and light blue. The new member pin is only worn during the new member period, after which it is returned to the chapter.

The owl is the official mascot of Kappa Kappa Gamma. The owl is the bird of wisdom as well as the bird of Minerva, the Goddess of Wisdom. As the official flower, the Iris, or fleur-de-lis combines the fraternity's colors of dark blue and light blue.

The fraternity jewel is the sapphire. The colors of the Fraternity are light blue and dark blue, which have been described as those shades which in light and dark tones reproduce the “soft velvety blue approaching the cornflower in shade,” which is also a description of the sapphire, the Fraternity jewel. The sapphire is recognized as a symbol of truth, sincerity and constancy. The fraternity Coat-of-Arms combines all the elements of Kappa Kappa Gamma: the key, the Greek letters, the new-member pin, the fleur-de-lis, the owl and the two blues.

Mission statement

Kappa Kappa Gamma is an organization of women which seeks for every member throughout her life bonds of friendship, mutual support, opportunities for self growth, respect for intellectual development, and an understanding of and allegiance to positive ethical principles. (The mission statement was drafted and adopted by the 1984-1986 Fraternity Council.)

Preamble

We, believing a closer union in the bonds of friendship to be for our mutual benefit, appreciating the advantages to be derived from a secret fraternity, and feeling that in union there is strength, hereby form ourselves into an association for the development of nobler qualities of the mind and finer feelings of the heart, and for mutual helpfulness in the attainment of individual and social excellence. (The Preamble remains much as it was written in 1892.)

Kappa Timeline

• In 1881 Kappa Kappa Gamma was the first women's fraternity to publish a quarterly magazine – The Key.
• In 1891 Kappa Kappa Gamma was the first to call a meeting of all the other women's fraternities – thus the precursor to the National Panhellenic Conference.
• In 1942 Kappa was the first women’s fraternity to set up Service Women’s Centers during World War II.
• In 1952 Kappa Kappa Gamma was the first to purchase a Headquarters building, and base their operations permanently in Columbus, Ohio.
• In 1980 The Heritage Museum was established, and Kappa became the first fraternity to own a Museum.
• In 1989 The Minnie Stewart Foundation purchased the Stewart family home, which was then merged into the Kappa Kappa Gamma Foundation in 2000.
• Kappa is the first and only women’s Fraternity to own the home of a Founder AND operate two historic house museums.
• In 2000 Kappa Kappa Gamma launched Pathways – Kappa’s Continuous Education Experience, leading men’s and women’s fraternities into new frontiers of education and training.
• In 2002 Kappa Kappa Gamma released The Voyage of Discovery, a virtual tour through women’s history.

William Urban et al, Monmouth College, a history through its fifth quarter century. Monmouth College, 1979