Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Inc. celebrated 30 years of service to both Northwestern and Chicago-area communities earlier this month with a weeklong celebration that included campuswide forums and activities.
The annual May Week events culminated May 6 when more than 100 alumnae, including five original DST members, attended a rededication luncheon at the Holiday Inn/Evanston. Gwendolyn Boyd, national DST president, spoke at the luncheon, praising NU’s Theta Alpha chapter members for their history of service and urging them to continue.
Kimberly Offord, graduate adviser of the historically black sorority, said the sorority’s emphasis on service makes it a valuable part of the campus.
“Everything we do, internally and externally, we try to turn into some type of service project,” said Offord, Medill ’92, who became a DST member while attending Columbia College in Chicago.
DST’s legacy of service began in 1971 with an exchange between Evanston junior high school girls and girls living in the Cabrini-Green housing projects.
Along with their own ongoing projects this year, DST members teamed up with Phi Delta Theta to create a program using students’ extra Bonus Bucks to buy food for the Chicago Food Depository. The program raised $21,500 for the food bank before it was canceled in March.
NU’s DST chapter, which has 18 members, represents the sorority’s national philosophies, said Domonique McCord, DST president and an Education senior.
“Our legacy of service to both the Northwestern and Chicago communities speaks to the level of commitment that the founders had in mind,” McCord said.
Until a few years ago, DST was a member of the Black Greek Council at NU, which was replaced by the National Pan-Hellenic Council.
“Delta and all the other NPHC organizations bring necessary diversity to Northwestern’s campus,” said Allison Nugent, acting president of NPHC and DST member.
DST has strived to branch out into the community and do things that are not “necessarily African American,” Nugent added.
DST has co-sponsored events and activities with sororities and fraternities in the Panhellenic Association and Interfraternity Council, developing relationships that go beyond fleeting service opportunities, McCord said.
DST has worked with Delta Chi on homecoming floats for the past two years, including this year’s first-place float. Members of Delta Chi admire the impressive philanthropy hours logged by DST.
“They put in a ridiculous amount of work for their size,” said Phil Ordway, an Education junior and former Delta Chi president.
DST member Vernesha Williams was named Homecoming Queen this year, as one-half of NU’s first black royal couple.
Outside of community service, DST also focuses on cultural awareness and the arts, as well as on having a strong sisterhood, Offord said.
McCord also said that although step shows – performances where sorority members mix dancing with rhythmic stomping – tend to receive a great deal of NPHC publicity at NU, they actually represent only a small portion of DST’s campus presence.
While DST’s participation in step shows and other events on campus might help increase diversity awareness, it is not always the sorority’s first objective, McCord said. She said DST has a genuine desire to improve the NU community.
“We do (activities) because we want to be involved in the NU community,” McCord said. She added, however, that the group is dedicated to raising cultural awareness.
Offord said the group works to have a positive impact on the NU community and succeeds in projecting a positive image of sororities across campus.
“They’re very sincere about everything they do,” she said.
