Notable change to Lipscomb greek life
A long-standing Lipscomb social club will retire their letters for the second time.
One girl’s social club Gamma Lambda will dissolve at the end of the semester, joining girl’s club Kappa Chi as the second club to disband this school year. Gamma Lambda will not participate in rush or take a pledge class this semester. Gamma Lambda and Kappa Chi were both founded in 1967.
At the heart of the Lipscomb community is a version of Greek Life. Social clubs, as they are referred to, are some of Lipscomb’s most visible student organizations with nearly a third of all undergraduate students participating in one.
Lipscomb’s Greek Life history is full of clubs dying out and new ones forming. Many alumni may remember Delta Nu and their famous annual Delta Na Na Na concert. Maybe the years of Gamma Xi, or the rise and fall of Delta Sigma. All these clubs no longer exist, and Gamma Lambda will fall into this category.
This isn’t the first time Gamma Lambda has disbanded. They dissolved in 2012 and then reestablished in 2015. This leaves the possibility of revival sometime in the future.
Mia Cox is a senior education major from Wheaton, Illinois, and an inactive member of Gamma Lambda. Cox gave her insight on the disbanding of Gamma Lambda. “It’s sad but it needed to happen,” she said. “Just with where we were, and how the culture of our club had shifted significantly since when I first joined.”
Gamma Lambda currently has eight active members.
Gamma Lambda Vice President Hope Lovell, a senior business management major from Nashville, Tenn., sent the following statement to Herd Media. “This semester, Gamma Lambda decided to not participate in rush. As a historical club, who proudly claims President McQueen as one of our former members, this decision did not come as an easy one. However, we always want to put the wellbeing of our sisters first. While we are very disappointed that we weren’t able to participate in rush this semester, we are proud of the things we accomplished through our years in the club, and look forward to the rest of the semester. Our club motto, “A friend isn’t always a sister, but a sister is always a friend” will hold true for us for years to come. We look forward to the possibility of sisters in the future that feel the same way.”
With the absence of Gamma Lambda and Kappa Chi, there are now just four official girls’ social clubs at Lipscomb.
As more than 140 girls seek to find a home in Greek life, a few recognizable letters are no longer present.
[A previous version of this article identified that the club voted to disband in January. The article was changed to reflect that they are still active and will disband at the end of the semester.]
All photos courtesy of Mia Cox.
