“Ad astra per aspera” is Latin for “to the stars through difficulty.” This is the Kappa Delta Nu motto, and already my sisters and I have been pushed to live by those words. New School students tend to complain about not having a community within our school, which is why I am confused as to why some students oppose the chance of building a community through our newest sorority, Kappa Delta Nu.
Kappa Delta Nu president Angela Luna and vice president Alyssa Gruber officially started the process of creating the Kappa Delta Nu chapter in mid-September.
“[Backlash from students] started pretty much immediately,” Gruber said. “People ripped down posters and wrote on them.”
“Someone wrote ‘Get the fuck out of this school,’” added Luna.
The New School is supposed to be a progressive university where discrimination is rare and bullying is few and far between.
“A lot of people come to this school to avoid mainstream things like Greek life, which I understand, but we’re not forcing them to join,” Luna said.
With this ideal in mind, Kappa Delta Nu should be able to exist for the students that do want to be part of a sisterhood. Creating a sorority within The New School has not been easy because of the negative connotations students are projecting on us. Kappa Delta Nu does not endorse the sorority stereotypes and behaviors portrayed in the movies; we don’t haze each other, we are not alcoholics, we are not sluts, and we are not stupid. Students are letting Greek life stereotypes taint their view of Kappa Delta Nu without researching what our sorority is actually about.
The purpose of Kappa Delta Nu, as written in our bylaws, is to “promote true friendship among the college girls of The New School by inculcating into their hearts and lives those principles of honesty, of dedication, and of loyalty, without which friendship cannot take root.”
One of the reasons The New School won’t recognize an affiliation with Kappa Delta Nu is because we would be an exclusively women-only group, which doesn’t align with The New School’s nondiscrimination policy within student clubs and organizations. Kappa Delta Nu is for all types of people who identify as women. Sorry, boys; you’ll have to create your own frat. A sorority differs from other types of student organizations and club because it is a safe space for all women to find sanctuary in. As women, we experience different issues than men do; like getting cat-called, or having to text your friend asking if she can rescue you in the bathroom of a school building because you just got your period and don’t have a tampon. Kappa Delta Nu is where you can create those bonds and establish lifelong friends.
Earlier this month, members of Kappa Delta Nu volunteered at the Saint Francis Xavier Church’s soup kitchen. The Sunday morning outing will be a tradition to be repeated every other week with rotating groups of four to five sisters.
Under no circumstances does Kappa Delta Nu participate in hazing potential sisters while they are pledging. The pledge focuses on bonding with existing members and learning the bylaws of the sorority.
“Each person interested has to go to one informational meeting, two of our events, and have an interview with the president and vice president,” Luna said.
My sisters and I will continue to push through these difficulties to the stars. We are forming a sorority to create a space for the women at The New School to form a sisterly bond and to always have each other’s backs. I’m proud to be part of a progressive effort to build a sisterhood.
Shea Carmen Swan is a junior at Lang, majoring in Journalism + Design, minoring in Gender Studies. With 4 semesters of Free Press under her belt, she enjoys writing all things LGBTQIA and currently writes for Posture Magazine, a queer arts publication. Kyriacrchy.wordpress.com & Soilscript.wordpress.com host most of her literary work.
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