Before this school year, many students were unaware that there was a chapter of Delta Zeta at the University of Idaho.
Now, everyone and their grandfather knows who these women are.
Delta Zeta has had a chapter at UI for years and has done a lot of good in its time here. Like other Greek organizations on campus, they have a national philanthropy and hold events for it each year, but the women of Delta Zeta also regularly participate in other philanthropy events run by other houses each semester.
Erin Bamer
The construction of their actual house was a long process that I can only assume started when the chapter was first formed at UI. The point is that their chapter isn”t brand new to the university, even if it is more visible.
But still, now that they have an enormous mansion in the middle of Old Greek Row, more people know of their existence.
As a member of UI”s Greek System for a little more than a year now, I”ve known about the sorority”s presence since I decided to rush. At that point, the members of Delta Zeta were still living in their previous residence – a first floor hall in one of the wings of Wallace Residence Center.
My recruitment guides made sure to tell my group not to weigh the quality of a house heavily in our decision of which sorority we wanted to call home. They told us to choose by thinking of how we would feel if the house burned down a year into our membership.
While I tried to follow the advice myself, it was genuinely difficult not to think about. I”m sure plenty of girls in my recruitment class did let it be a big factor when they ranked. Like it or not, houses do make a difference.
This is just one of the reasons why people place such significance on Delta Zeta finally getting a house of their own.
Only time will tell if the addition of a new house on Old Greek Row will increase the sorority”s membership numbers, but they certainly seem like they have the capacity to take in more members than they could last year. However, the new house will impact more than just Delta Zeta”s recruitment.
Last year, the construction of the sorority house was nearly impossible to miss if you ever stepped foot on campus, so that alone informed a good portion of the Moscow community of Delta Zeta”s presence.
Tomorrow, the sorority is holding an open house for members of the public to tour the finished product, so if the construction wasn”t enough to alert everyone, that should do the trick. And presence certainly matters.
Now that everyone and their grandfather knows about them, the women of Delta Zeta can make a bigger impact on campus and in the Moscow community. They can get more people involved in their philanthropy – these women should take advantage of this opportunity.
As a UI Greek myself, I”m personally very excited to see what Delta Zeta accomplishes in the future.
Erin Bamer can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @ErinBamer