Augustana’s second oldest sorority, Sigma Kappa Tau (KT’s), established in 1915, have disbanded as of Monday, Sept. 20. They are no longer recognized as a sorority, which has several implications within the Augustana community.  

Tia Fuhr, Greek Life Coordinator, said there is no official process at Augustana to disband a group, yet there are expectations a group must follow once they have decided to disband.

“They’re no longer involved in Greek Life. They don’t come to the council meetings, they’re out of the schedule for rush and they’re no longer a student group on campus,” Fuhr said.  

Junior Lisa Oliger, vice president of the KT’s, said one reason they disbanded was because they felt a lack of participation within the group. 

“It’s going to get to the point where we are going to be told we can’t be a sorority anymore. And so we wanted to end … on our own terms,” Oliger said. 

KT Alumni SophiaRose Brown, in agreement with Oliger, said the KT’s have faced commitment issues within the sorority. 

“When you have a group of people who are all really busy with separate things that aren’t the sorority and don’t have enough time to dedicate to the group… then it’s really hard to stay a group,” Brown said. 

However, due to the lack of participation, some members of KT felt taken for granted as well. 

“I was the vice president, and with the other president combined, we held 10 exec board positions, which is a lot for two people to handle,” Oliger said. “We asked around and there was no interest in taking exec positions for next semester. That’s kind of what got us thinking, because it is a lot for two or three people to run an entire sorority.”

Although the KT’s felt a lack of participation recently, the dissolution still came as a surprise to Brown, as she believed that the sorority was in the process of rebuilding.

“I was asked privately to join the sorority by the members [my freshman year]… It was kind of like a battle to try and get people to care… instead of saying that they care,” Brown said. “We put a lot of thought and effort into our rush [sophomore] year, and we did a second hand rush that was just for the people who didn’t want to rush, but had an interest in joining… Honestly I was kind of surprised that it didn’t really last a year [after I graduated].”

Augie’s Got Talent, a fundraiser formerly held by Sigma Kappa Tau, will now rely on other sororities to keep it going. This fundraiser raises money for Camp Kesem, a nonprofit organization that supports children whose parents have been diagnosed with cancer. 

 “Camp Kesem is an important part of our campus. I really hope that some other people might be able to step up and do their part for campus,” Brown said. 

Although the campus community will feel the loss of KT’s charity work, Fuhr does not believe that it will negatively impact rush season.

“It’s always sad when a group is no longer going to be active during rush and involved in rush because I think all of our sororities are very different and attract different individuals to them,” Fuhr said. “While this one sorority not here for rush could possibly leave a group of girls without finding the great fit for them, at the same time we have now six other great sororities on campus.”