Welcome to Kappa Alpha Theta at TCU!
Kappa Alpha Theta was founded in 1870 at DePauw University, becoming the first Greek-letter fraternity known among women. Since then, Theta has had a history of excellence in scholarship, leadership, service, and life-long friendship. Today, at TCU, our members are inspiring, fun-loving, and well-rounded. They strive to excel in all that they do, and I can confidently do so knowing that they have a group of over 200 women cheering them on!
During our past Grand Convention, our chapter was recognized as one of the top Theta chapters in the nation with the Bronze Kite award. We constantly rank among the top chapters in grade point average on TCU’s campus, and our academic strength is only one facet of our comprehensive talents as a chapter. Since 1997, we have raised nearly $600,000 for the local chapter of our national philanthropy, CASA, raising over $120,000 the past two years alone! Our members have an extensive and reaching presence on campus with groups such as Frog Camp, Student Foundation, Student Government, among many others.
More importantly, the women in Theta constantly remind me of what it means to be selfless, motivated, carefree, genuine, and to pursue your passions without holding back. While each of our members is incredibly and beautifully unique, we are bound together at Gamma Psi by the sisterhood we share. These women constantly amaze me at the things they accomplish at TCU and in their time after. While I am lucky enough to get to lead these women, they are the ones that I look up to! This chapter will forever hold a piece of my heart, and I hope you can also see not only what makes our members stand out, but the special bond shared by the women of Kappa Alpha Theta.
Theta Love and Mine (TLAM),
Emily Carson
President, Gamma Psi Chapter of Kappa Alpha Theta, 2022
"Less than one percent of all college-aged women in the United States were enrolled in colleges and universities in 1870. These pioneers challenged the commonly held notion that women had inferior minds. Yet they sought a delicate balance as they still ascribed to the era's belief in the values of "true womanhood."
Those who sought to study in a coeducational setting often met with hostility and harassment as did Kappa Alpha Theta's founders when they first entered Indiana Asbury University. Townspeople talked behind their backs, faculty ignored them, and male students railed at the injustice of their acceptance.
In explaining Kappa Alpha Theta's origins, Bettie Locke once said, "the Fraternity was always second in my mind to coeducation. It was organized to help the girls win out in their fight to stay in college on a man's campus. We had to make a place for women in a man's world, and the Fraternity was one means to that bigger end." In the 1870s, coeds strove to be successful in their studies and to not bring undue attention to themselves. Theta's founders wore plain calico to class. For special performances they also selected simple school frocks, rather than silk, signaling their serious purpose.
In addition to the women at Indiana Asbury, young women on ten other campuses became members of Kappa Alpha Theta in the 1870s: Indiana, Cincinnati Wesleyan, Millersburg College, Moore's Hill, Butler, Illinois Wesleyan, Wooster, Ohio, Allegheny, and Michigan.
The Kappa Alpha Theta chapter was established at TCU in 1955.