In the last several weeks, the Oklahoma Christian University student leadership coordinator has been in search of girls on campus to restart girls club Iota Kappa Phi. As expressed to the current girls clubs on campus, this club is being started by student life as a way to create a less hostile culture between clubs than if a branch of girls were to start a new club on their own. The following interviews are with the presidents of the four current girls clubs on campus and their perspectives on the possible change.
Kathryn Murphy, a senior majoring in interdisciplinary computer science, Bible, and communications, is the current president of Theta Theta Theta. Murphy spoke about the reaction from Theta regarding the potential new club.
“When Emily Brackett came and talked to all the clubs, me and a couple of our officers were looking around. I don’t think that there’s a lot of people in Theta that Iota would cater to, but I will say, I think there’s a lot of people that could fit in Theta from other clubs. Obviously a lot of us could fit into Gamma, Lambda, Beta, 100%. I think the big shift is we didn’t want more people drawn away from us, who we think would actually thrive in our community, and so that was kind of one of the scarier sides of it,” said Murphy.
Murphy spoke about current club dynamics and how the smaller clubs on campus are already struggling to participate in campus activities.
“I think there is kind of an issue, just from an outside perspective, Gamma is gargantuan, and we love it for them. We love that they’re thriving, but I think a lot of people just go Gamma because they want to win, or because they want to be competitive, or because it is a really good community, which 100%. I think there is much to say about how having one big community affects the smaller communities. It just doesn’t compete and it can make it hard for Beta and Theta, we want to be in intramurals, we want to be able to compete for homecoming and spring sing, but we can’t because we don’t have the members for it; we don’t have the interest within,” she said. “And this is something I also talked to Emily about, most of the clubs have a niche, Gamma doesn’t really have a set niche, and I know just from talking to a lot of Gamma girls that they want to have that. But because they’re so big, it’s hard for you to look and say, well, what is Gamma? I think it would be super beneficial if the clubs as a whole started reintroducing the idea of actually saying no to people,” Murphy said.
Murphy expressed concern for a repeating pattern of clubs being brought back, only for a current club to die out.
“I do think Iota could be a really good thing, but I don’t think there has been necessarily a lot of support for the smaller clubs,” she said. “It kind of feels like we can bring back another club, but then another club’s just going to die out. So Lambda came back seven years ago or something like that, and then a few years later, Iota died. And I’m not saying that it’s like correlation or causation, but if there’s not a way to keep the smaller clubs from dying out, there’s just going to be two or three big clubs, and then one small club that dies every so often. It’s definitely hard in that perspective, and Theta is the oldest club, the longest surviving club, so it’s hard to think about because nobody wants Theta to die. But if something did happen where they brought back Iota, and then they bring back another club if Beta dies, I just don’t want it to keep happening and there not be something to try to level out the waters,” said Murphy.
Kathrine Tucker, a senior music major, is the current president of Beta Beta Sigma. Tucker spoke about her time in Beta and what the club has meant to her.
“I have been in Beta since sophomore year. I had friends who wanted me to be in Beta, and it seemed like a great fit for me if I would do club at all. At first, I didn’t think it was going to be in club, but it changed when I realized I want that social connection, but I don’t want too much of an overwhelming atmosphere. So it turned out to be fun for me,” Tucker said. “I am in charge of communicating with student life and being the bridge between student life and the club. I handle any inter club drama that happens… I haven’t been able to do much because I’ve been so busy lately. But I run meetings when I can,” said Tucker. “Beta has been a group of people that I have felt comfortable with being myself around, that I felt comfortable having conversations with that might be challenging for some people, or might be difficult for people to understand my perspective. They understand me as a person more than I feel like other people, and I really appreciated that because I didn’t realize how much I needed that until I had it,” she said.
Tucker spoke about the reaction from Beta regarding the potential new club.
“It was brought to our attention that Iota could possibly be coming back, and it was brought to just us presidents at first. But then she said that she wanted to have a talk with the clubs individually during meetings. So the next meeting that we had, she showed up. She brought a form asking about how they feel as a club, how they feel the club has impacted them, and how they would feel about possibly going to start a new club,” said Tucker. “From what I’ve heard, the response is generally optimistic, but also a little apprehensive,” she said. “It’s no secret that Beta has been a bit on the smaller side ever since we got refounded, and when we were refounded we had as much support as Student Life was willing to give us in order to be refounded as one of the original clubs that started at OC. Now that there’s been more of a push for Iota to be refounded, there’s not a lot of support given to Beta as a club for how that might impact our new rush class coming in,” said Tucker.
Tucker spoke about the way that girls on campus could be benefitted from having a new girls club and culture on campus, but expressed that she would like to see more support for her own club.
“The idea of having another club is not a bad thing for me. I appreciate having another culture for girls to want to be a part of. However, the same amount of attention should be given to the other clubs. So far, I don’t think I have been given that support just as a president. That can change; I hope it changes. I’ve been having conversations with other presidents, and we would like to have the same support that Iota is about to have. I love the idea of Iota coming back. Don’t get me wrong. I love the idea of that new culture coming in, or that old culture, I guess, coming back. But Beta is also a club that deserves that kind of attention because we have girls that want to stay in this club. We have girls that want to continue to have this atmosphere,” she said. “We would like Beta to be treated with the same amount of love and respect that we have seen received from other clubs. Especially with the situation with Iota, the situation with our girls that are already feeling so small, it’s just something that we would really love. Beta is a culture that needs to be preserved, and more attention needs to be brought to them,” said Tucker.
Ainsley Loney, a senior majoring in biology, is the current president of Gamma Rho. Loney spoke about her perspective on the potential new girls club.
“I am the president for the Year of the Purple in Gamma… I keep track of all the officers and what they’re doing,” said Loney. “I think what I have loved so much about Gamma is it has provided me a community, a friend group and opportunities beyond that like connections and the job market and things like that. I think that anyone in any other club on campus could say the same thing about their club. And so I think when I was first heard about it, my initial reaction, and I think Gamma’s initial reaction was if having another club on campus provides more opportunity for people to find that community and find their place and find those friendships, then it’s a great thing,” she said.
Loney spoke about the challenges that may arise with starting a new club on campus.
“I think starting a new club is difficult to a certain level, but it’s a cool opportunity because you get to start a new history and a new culture within the club. That’s what makes all the clubs on campus that are already existing special, is they have their own culture and they have their own history, their own traditions, their own values, and so I think the only negative feeling I would say is just the unknown of it all, and you know, but I wouldn’t even say that’s a super negative feeling, just kind of wondering, is this something that’s going to happen or not? No one has come to me personally and told me that they want to do this. Again, kind of like I said, I think starting a new club is quite a task. Having to start the new culture, it would have to be a group of people that want to start this new culture and start these new traditions. And so I think for people who are already in a club, it’s difficult to pull them away from something that’s already very rooted,” Loney said. “I have seen even just within Gamma, how people can come together to make something happen if they really believe in it. I think that’s what it would take to make it successful, even this late in the game,” she said.
Eden Tucker, a senior majoring in family science and human development, is the current president of Lambda Chi Zeta. Tucker spoke about her experience in Lambda.
“When I rushed, I saw Lambda as a really good, intimate, tight knit community. I think that that is the main thing that drove me to want to rush a club in general was just to have that kind of community, have those girls that are supportive and that you see every day, and you get to just do life together,” she said.
Tucker spoke about her reaction after learning that there is a possibility of a new girls club coming to Oklahoma Christian.
“I think the initial reaction was, whoa, that is a shocker… My gut reaction was, well, if that happens, then what’s going to happen to Beta and Theta? I think talking to Emily more and talking to student life more, their intentions behind it are really good. I don’t know the best way to go about it though, especially this year with freshmen rushing and that being such a new thing, and then on top of that, trying to throw in a new club. Especially as two clubs already express that they’ve maybe felt like they’ve been put on the back burner with a new club being started,” said Tucker. “From what I’ve been told, the goal for this new club is to be an in between of Gamma and Lambda, and that came from student life. So I think that could deter people from rushing Gamma or Lambda, but also I think that people will find their place, and if they’re supposed to be in this new club, that’s where they’re supposed to be,” she said.
Tucker spoke about the positive and negative impacts that bringing back Iota might have on club activities and involvement.
“I don’t know if I see a need for a new club. I think I see a need for a like I don’t want to say stronger club. I think when it comes to things like spring sing and intramurals and stuff like that, I think having another competitive girls club would be beneficial because I think we are lacking that right now,” Tucker said. “I do think that the intentions behind it, especially with student life, are all very positive. I do think that, to a degree, it’s feeling a little forced to certain people. And now I obviously haven’t heard back from student life if it’s happening this semester or not. I think it could be a good thing in the next couple years if things continue to go the way they’re going, just with club involvement,” she said.
No official word has been said about the final decision of Oklahoma Christian as to whether or not Iota Kappa Phi will be reestablished this rush season.
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