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Zeta Tau Zeta History 1915-2007

During the school year of 1914-1915, nine women who were freshman and sophomores at Occidental and lived in houses both on and off campus found congeniality in friendship and an enjoyment in mutual good times. Accordingly, they planned to live together in a campus house. No name that they could think of or that was suggested to them either in seriousness or in levity appealed to them. Sugar Bowl, Spoon Holder, and Linger Longer were all discarded. Even by the time that the annual went to press they were nameless and were consequently known as La Casa Sin Nombre, as Spanish names were in vogue at the time.

Eventually someone suggested the name Mariposa, and though “Butterfly” hardly seemed appropriate, it was the name that would do. After all, Zetas are all social butterflies, aren’t they? It was finally announced as their name at a dinner party.

For the first two years of the house’s existence, they took in only women that lived on campus. In 1917-1918, the policy was amended to include those women that lived at home.

Congeniality was the principle idea of the founding sisters of the Mariposa Club. They realized that a similarity of ideals and tastes was a necessary basis for lasting friendship.

On May 26, 1926, the Mariposa Club became Zeta Tau Zeta Sorority. The formal installation of the sorority occurred at the Assembly Tea Room in Los Angeles. There were twenty active members and twenty three alumnae in attendance at the installation. In the spring of 1982, Zeta Tau Zeta, being faced by decreasing numbers furthered its bounds by allowing males full rights as members. This was a first at Occidental and also very short lived.

In the fall of 1996, Zeta Tau Zeta was suffering from decreasing numbers. With the help of one active, alumnae ranging from classes 1941-1996 ran a most successful rush and acquired eight new pledges. A few weeks later Zeta held open bidding and two more pledges joined the house.

After six years of continued efforts to keep the fraternity growing, the institution once again faced the issue of shrinking numbers. Although disappointed, the alumnae refused to let their beloved traditions and long history at Occidental fade away. With their renewed efforts on the part of the alumnae to make the fraternity come back better than ever, eight women were recruited to rebuild the program once again in April 2005. In the 2006-2007 year, 16 new men and women joined Zeta, bringing Zeta back to the Oxy campus in force.

Our predecessors gave few traditions to follow, but today we are proud of the history that is now 90 years in the making. We are proud of the ideals they have fostered and of the many things that have accomplished, and look forward to making new traditions of our own.