As many of you may have heard by now, the charter of the Delta Omicron Chapter of the Tri Delt sorority at Indiana University was pulled by Tri Delt Nationals earlier this month. They did so just two weeks after offering bids to new members. As you can imagine, terminating a sorority chapter is a much longer process than just two weeks, especially when terminating a sorority at IU is unprecedented.

For those of you wondering why the Executive Board withdrew the chapter, weeks later, your guess is still as good as ours. We’ve sent countless emails, made hundreds of calls, and even sent representatives to the headquarters in Dallas, Texas only to be left with more questions than answers. The girls in the house, their parents, and over 1,000 alumni are completely in the dark.

We have, however, confirmed that the decision was made solely by the Executive Board – NOT INDIANA UNIVERSITY. IU confirmed that they were not made aware of any wrongdoing or violations by the girls. In fact, IU said Tri Delt was viewed positively around campus, in good academic standing, and very involved in numerous volunteer and academic organizations at the school. So what, then, has the Executive Board told us?

The Delta Omicron charter has been revoked due to "activities that do not represent our high standards or align with Tri Delta’s purpose". And that’s it. Period. That is literally as much as we know.

"Activities that do not represent our high standards or align with Tri Delta’s purpose" WITHOUT citation of “activities” is not acceptable when disbanding a 100 year-old chapter in phenomenal standing with both the university and the community. We all deserve more of an explanation than that, especially the current members and the 55 girls who rushed Tri Delt less than 2 months prior. Why were specific instances and details cited publicly when other Tri Delt chapters were terminated, but we can’t even get an explanation privately?

As you can imagine, this leads us to an immense amount of speculation focused on National’s dislike of the diversity within the house. Are we not the cookie-cutter sorority that the Executive Board wants us to be? Is National’s money-hungry and looking to collect on the sale of the prime real estate that the historic 100-year-old house sits on? Are there elements of discrimination at play here? The lack of transparency has created a vacuum of speculation.

Most recently (Monday, March 27th at 8:28pm EST to be exact), Nationals sent an email to all current members stating that everyone is being EVICTED by this Sunday, April 2ND. Yep, you read that right, EVICTED. Can you imagine being 19-22 and getting evicted? Oh, and did we mention finals are in two weeks and uh… they only have FIVE DAYS to pack up and ship out! The girls are left to fend for themselves and find housing for the remainder of the year because apparently, National’s doesn’t feel they deserve to live in their home for just five more weeks. And again, there was NO EXPLANATION. Are you seeing a recurring theme here?

As you can imagine, this put the girls into a panic. Instead of focusing on studying for finals, interviewing for internships, finding apartments for the summer, and enjoying the last few weeks of school, they’ll be looking for a new apartment, arranging for movers, setting up utility bills, etc. As if this entire experience hasn’t already been emotionally traumatizing enough, the Executive Board proves they are completely heartless by ruthlessly enforcing this eviction. And they do appear to be enFORCING quite a bit these days. We can’t forget the two security guards National’s has stationed at the house. Does National’s really think they are going to do any harm to their home? We wish we were joking as we ask ourselves these questions.

Now the other super funny thing is that Tri Delt regularly contacts alumni to collect donations and provide us with national updates, but do you think we ever heard about any potential trouble in paradise with our chapter? RADIO SILENCE. The same alumni they pester for money (many of whom are local) were never notified of a problem or asked to help. Instead, we discovered the loss of our beloved chapter via Facebook and an e-mail. Now isn’t that just sentimental?

Why didn't Nationals provide more support to this chapter? Were they setting the girls up to fail? The chapter advisor was an alumni of a different sorority, from a different alma mater, with no prior experience at large chapters, and less than 1 year of experience working for the Tri Delt organization in general. So why on earth would she be the advisor at one of the largest Greek systems in the nation? Once again, your guess is as good as ours. Problem is, a lack of National support has been a recurring theme dating back DECADES at our chapter. We have countless emails from past presidents to prove that we rarely received responses from National’s about retreats, scheduled visits, chapter improvements, conferences, etc. The overwhelming theme in our alumni discussions – we have never felt supported by Nationals. They have always treated us with disrespect and gone out of their way to find ways to aid our failure.

The most ironic part of this entire thing is that National’s seems to be violating their own principles. In fact, we’d go as far as to say their actions could be considered hazing. Taken from their very own bylaws, hazing is considered to be “any action which may be interpreted as producing, in any member, new member or other individual, mental or physical discomfort, embarrassment, harassment or ridicule…without a constructive purpose”. The emotional torture they have put these girls through is unfathomable, and to move forward with such a rash decision with ZERO EXPLANATION in the midst of finals is completely unacceptable.

We ask you, Tri Delt Nationals, how can you possibly defend your heartless actions against these young women? Why on earth would you enforce these extreme measures during a time when you know very well it can have a devastating effect on the girls’ academics? How can you go to sleep at night knowing you are completely disrupting the lives of these 150 women without explanation? You tell us this decision was difficult and extremely thought out, yet all we see is a complete disregard for the emotional and academic well-being of current members. And YOU are the women making decisions about the future of Tri Delt chapters around the country?!

On a more positive note though, it's been incredible to watch the current members, their parents, alumni, and more come together to save this chapter and protect the current members. Together we have collected over 7,000 signatures, assembled a group of over 1,000 alumni dating all the way back to 1960, and reignited the lasting friendships we’ve formed decades back. These girls are good people, and the way they have supported each other during this mess is truly inspiring. Not to mention, they’ve done some pretty amazing things for the Tri Delta organization, including increasing their fundraising for to St. Jude’s Children’s Hospital by over 110%! We are extremely proud of the maturity and grace of the current members during such an unfair situation at probably the most inopportune time.

The Delta Omicron chapter is a unique place at IU. It’s a chapter that attracts ambitious, caring, thoughtful girls from ALL different backgrounds. It’s one of the first places many of us were privileged to get to know women of differing religions, cultures, beliefs, and backgrounds. It provides a safe place for these girls to be themselves and develop into the fearless women we know our alumni to be today.

The decision to discontinue this chapter was clearly made by our “leaders” without any consideration for the loyal alumni base or current members. And, for the first time ever, we are ashamed to be members of Tri Delt, not because of the perseverance and love we’ve seen from our current members and alumni, but because of the way the Tri Delt Executive Board has handled this entire process. We have no desire to associate with an organization that chooses to judge and abandon rather than model grace and support toward the young women that have been futilely trying to please Nationals for over 100 years.

We will continue to live by the purpose of Delta Delta Delta (that same purpose National’s felt we didn’t uphold) and will continue to cherish the perpetual bonds of friendship just like our founders taught us. We’re going to leave the purpose here for you to read, Executive Board. It doesn’t seem like we’re the ones who need the refresher….

The Purpose of Delta Delta Delta shall be to establish a perpetual bond of friendship among its members, to develop a stronger and more womanly character, to broaden the moral and intellectual life, and to assist its members in every possible way.

It shall also be the Purpose of Delta Delta Delta to promote and develop mutually beneficial relationships between the Fraternity and the colleges and universities where the Fraternity has established chapters, to develop qualities of unselfish leadership among its members, and to encourage them to assume, with integrity and devotion to moral and democratic principles, the highest responsibilities of college women.

Delta Love,

A Couple of Delta Omicron Alums