delta zeta
The Delta Zeta Sorority was founded at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio in 1902 when six courageous young women joined together to form a social sorority fostered by the ideals held closest to their hearts. Though faced with derision from the male dominated student body (1902 was the first year women were given full status as students at Miami), Julia Bishop, Anna Keen, Alfa Lloyd, Anne Simmons, Mary Collins, and Mabelle Minton with then-president of Miami, Dr. Guy Potter Benton to make their dream of a social sorority a reality. Delta Zeta was officially incorporated by the State of Ohio on October 24, 1902, which was Alfa Lloyd's birthday and meant to honor the inititave and effective leadership she showed in the earliest days of the sorority.
Today, 106 years after our six founding women made their dream come true, there are 158 collegiate chapters and 182 alumnae chapters made up of 207,000 women who hold the same ideals close to their hearts that the founders did so many years ago.
National History
The Delta Zeta Creed
To the world,
I promise temperance and insight and courage,
To crusade for justice,
To seek the truth and defend it always:
To those whom my life may touch in slight measure,
May I give graciously
Of what is mine;
To my friends,
Understanding and appreciation;
To those closer ones,
Love that is ever steadfast;
To my mind,
Growth;
To myself,
Faith
That I may walk truly
In the light of the Flame.
–– Dorothy Mumford Williams, Alpha Zeta (1939)
