Alpha Gamma Delta, a sorority with a long history at UCLA that has been dormant for more than 30 years, is set to begin recruitment again this fall and reopen its sorority house.
The sorority ran a chapter in the same house on the north end of sorority row on Hilgard Avenue from the 1920s until 1982, when it was closed because of low membership, said Annie Raeder, assistant director of fraternity services at Alpha Gamma Delta.
Raeder said the sorority is reopening two other chapters in Southern California this year, including one at the University of Southern California that also closed in the 1980s because of low enrollment. She said the organization chose to reopen the chapter because they believe more women are deciding to join sororities as UCLA’s student population rises.
The sorority’s housing corporation is making finishing touches on both the interior and exterior of the house, which is expected to house 50 members, she said.
The house was only used for occasional club retreats and training exercises for nearby chapters after the sorority closed in 1982, said Troy Bartels, an adviser to the UCLA Panhellenic Council.
“We’ve been sprucing things up, making sure the house is up to code and up to snuff,” Raeder said. “The majority of the work is recent, so it should be ready for members (to meet in) by the winter.”
The chapter will start recruiting new members during the first week of fall quarter, after other sororities finish their recruitment process, Raeder said. She added that late recruitment will prevent the new chapter from directly competing with established chapters and will give them more time to reach out to potential new members.
Two leadership consultants from the Alpha Gamma Delta headquarters in Indiana will live in the house and hope to help recruit about 160 members to the new chapter, Bartels said.
The Panhellenic Council, the largest governing body for sororities at UCLA, began searching for a new sorority to join the row last year because its houses had high membership levels, Bartels said.
Alpha Gamma Delta was the only sorority chosen by the council to open a chapter this year out of three sororities that presented to the council, Bartels said.
The number of potential new members in sororities has increased at UCLA and around the country in recent years, said Chaya Turrow, vice president of membership for the Panhellenic Council and a fourth-year political science student.
“The increase in recruitment … allows more women to find a home and get involved,” Turrow said. “The bigger our Greek system is, the more opportunities we have for meeting new people and making new friends.”
Bartels said students will not live in the house full-time until fall 2014, because future members may already have living arrangements for this school year.
The new members of Alpha Gamma Delta will participate in many of the same events as other, more established chapters, Raeder said. She said she anticipates members will run service projects, hold sisterhood events and join in traditions such as Greek Week, a campus-wide event including all Greek chapters.
The new chapter’s philanthropic events will support the Alpha Gamma Delta Foundation, which advocates for diabetes awareness and eduction, according to its website.
Members will initially work in committees and under the sorority’s leadership consultants as they learn the ropes for running a chapter, Raeder added.
“We will definitely get a lot of women that didn’t go through the recruitment process, who are just interested in being part of a new group,” Raeder said. “Most of the new members will join because of our outreach on campus or by us connecting with student leaders.”
She added that the chapter will likely attract women who went through the recruitment process at other sororities and did not accept a bid.
Turrow said she thinks the new chapter will attract both women who want to feel as if they are starting something new and those who want to join an established tradition.
“In other houses, you’re a new member for a while, and are surrounded by actives who are already leading,” Bartels said. “Here, anyone who comes in as a founding member will help to build the organization from the ground up.”