This 2014 spring semester, Mizzou Greek life got a new addition! Delta Xi Nu Multi-Cultural Sorority has now landed on the MU territory. The intriguing and unique sorority, founded in 1997, inducted 8 new members at the University of Missouri. They are called the Magnificant Mu Colony. Her Campus Mizzou got the chance to talk to senior Julie Dimas, one of the newest MU initiates to Delta Xi Nu about the exciting new sorority on campus.
Her Campus Mizzou: What is Delta Xi Nu and what does the sorority mean to you?
Julie Dimas: To me it means a lot. Simply, because it is something that is more than an organization. It is an accomplishment that my sisters and I made, and it will lay a foundation for Mizzou and future Mizzou. We wanted something different for Mizzou’s campus, and it embraces different cultures. It provides diversity. It is a great way to educate others about the celebration of culture.
HCM: What makes Delta Xi Nu a multi-cultural sorority?
JD: It is basically our mission statement. A place for a woman of all backgrounds to feel safe and secure; this is what we strive to do. You don’t have to blend in or fit into a certain type of demographic, and you don’t have to lose your culture because you will be embraced for who you are already. We want everyone to be comfortable. This organization embraces all different types of woman.
HCM: How did you become a colony?
JD: We started our process in the fall, and we were required to work as a group throughout all of it. Members of the National Executive Board, as well as other sisters visited Mizzou before the start of this semester and that is also when we had our Induction Ceremony, which was held on January 18, 2014.
So the next step is to be a chapter, how do you do that?
We are a colony now but hope to become a chapter. To become a chapter, there are a few requirements we have to complete, such as events, service hours and definitely recruitment. That is going to be our main focus this semester since we know that we will need all the help that we can get.
How did you find interest?
My sisters and I back then were just a group of friends, who started this idea about two years ago. Initially, we wanted to be ladies of Sigma Lambda Gamma National Sorority Inc. (SLG) but then that didn’t work out, they had been at MU in the past, but because of lack of interest, they lost their charter here so it was nearly impossible to bring back. We didn’t know where to go from there, so we just started researching other sororities. We figured that one of the reasons that SLG was not successful on this campus was because it is a sorority mainly geared towards Latina women. We realized that a better idea to not only broaden interest but be more inclusive is to find a sorority where everyone felt accepted and comfortable. This allowed us to decide to look into different multicultural sororities. While looking for a sorority we wanted to make sure we didn’t choose based off image or colors. We did a blind vote based off of multiple sororities’ mission statements, philanthropies, and their mottos and it was clear that Delta Xi Nu was our choice and we never looked back. We chose a sorority whose mission embodied bringing in all different types of woman, which is exactly what we were looking for.
Did you need a supervisor or an advisor?
Initially we were a campus organization known as Ladies Empowering and Advocating Diversity (LEAD). We wanted to promote sisterhood and multiculturalism on campus. We needed an advisor to continue on with becoming a sorority and we picked Tara Jackson. She works in the women center. She was very supportive of us, and we automatically went with her when the choice was needed. She has helped us out immensely throughout this process and we are honestly glad to have chosen her as our advisor, there is no one better.
What are your sorority sisters and line like?
It is 8 of us on our line, and I was number 5. We have ladies representing many different ethnicities, including: Caucasian, Black, Vietmanese/Chinese, Latinas, etc on our line. Our line embodies what we stand for. We have different religions and backgrounds but at the end of the day we all stand together for the same thing.
What are some things you plan to do on campus as a organization?
We have a lot of big ideas, but nothing is set in stone. But right now, we are really focused on recruitment. Honey week will be the week of February 17-22, which is a week of social events focused on us (current sisters) getting to know potential interest ladies of Delta Xi Nu, as well as the ladies getting to know us and learning more about what the sorority stands for. We are really excited for this because we can’t wait to increase our presence on campus!. Once we have more members, we’re going to focus more on coming together and doing events. We are really interested in putting together a conference, open to everyone at Mizzou. We also hope to do more socials with the Greek community and we want to participate in as many discussions on racism, sexism, etc as we can.
What do you hope to see for Delta Xi Nu at Mizzou, 50 years down the line?
I hope Delta Xi Nu is bigger and better than ever. I want it to be thriving. I want everyone to know what we do and what we stand for. I want to see us do big things. I want us to provide culture awareness and inclusiveness throughout campus. We want to make everyone feel like they belong and we want Mizzou to become that much more unified.