Theta Phi Alpha returns to IU

After not receiving a bid from the house she wanted during rush, senior Samantha Raab dropped out of formal recruitment at IU. However, Raab was not alone.

“Sororities turn so many girls away, and I was one of those girls,” she said. “I think girls are going to want a different experience than that.”

Raab has decided to try greek life again. The journalism and communications major is one of the first girls to receive bids from Theta Phi Alpha.

In an expansion effort by the Panhellenic Association, TPA is coming back to IU.

TPA arrived in the 1920s but left on good terms in the ‘50s due to lack of funds and interest, said Katie Jackson, the Residential Educational Consultant for the National TPA Chapter.

“We’re really excited to be back at IU,” she said, “especially since it’s the Zeta chapter.”

Jackson will live in Bloomington until April to help restart TPA. During the summer, she contacted interested women and spent the first week of classes meeting with them. Some bids were given out.

Raab said Theta Phi Alpha will be different from the other 19 houses. Unlike other sororities, TPA won’t have a house.

“We will be off campus, and that’s a new thing for IU, but I hope it doesn’t deter girls away,” Ashley Dillon, a junior majoring in English, said. Dillon has a Theta Phi Alpha bid.

Dillon said she found out about TPA from friends, and interested women are getting in contact with Jackson.

“I didn’t rush because, as a freshman, I had a scholarship that prevented me, and by sophomore year, I was really involved on campus,” Dillon said. “I’m really excited to meet and hang out with a group of new girls. I think this is a neat opportunity for people looking for something different.”

Michelle Laplatney, the National Vice-President, is in charge of extensions and new chapters at universities and said TPA is able to offer something different at IU, being without a house.

“We were so glad to be invited by IU’s progressive Panhellenic Association,” she said. “We’re all very unique and different on every campus. That’s something we’re proud of.”