UPCOMING CONTEXTUALIZATION TO BRING POLICY CHANGES TO LIGHT By Christy Marx Barber, Staff Writer
Contextualization is a cumbersome word to say, to spell and to understand. To contextualize historical events and processes is to connect them to the specific political, social and economic circumstances in which they occurred with the intention of seeking understanding. Contextualization is not a tool to make excuses or pass judgment. In the fall 2021 issue of Themis, Zeta Tau Alpha will present a contextualization of our Membership Selection Policy and processes and how they resulted in the exclusion of young women solely due to their backgrounds or identities. For many years, our policy may have prevented potential members whose values reflect our values from benefiting from our sisterhood and finding a home in ZTA. ZTA strives to acknowledge and improve upon past decisions and practices. We committed to this historical review in 2020 as part of the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Strategic Plan. While the study will trace the policy from 1898 to 2021, it will detail significant national and ZTA events that prompted policy changes, with emphasis on the volatile 1960s and 1970s. Only 20% of our living members were initiated prior to that era. This transformative time is important for all members to know and understand. The Creed of Zeta Tau Alpha encourages us to “seek understanding that 6
we might gain true wisdom.” Understanding our past allows us to learn from our history and do better. Our goal is to turn a mirror on our present Fraternity to ensure exclusive practices of our past are not repeated in the future. We will continue to apply our founding principles, which are rooted in love and leadership and resonate within today’s college women, to current circumstances. Seeking Understanding that We Might Gain True Wisdom is one of our Nine Key Values. Introduced in 2016, the Nine Key Values use our founding concepts and The Creed to define the focus of chapter programming, the Annual Membership Survey and award criteria. Each Key Value has three associated expectations of how our organization and membership should live them. These Nine Key Values and their expectations serve as the framework for our research and contextualization of the history of our Membership Selection Policy. LIFELONG LEARNING: • Applying past learning to new challenges • Continuously pursuing learning about members and our purpose • Looking for new learning opportunities for our members Our purpose statement, written in 1904, pledges to build up a nobler womanhood. The archaic definition of noble is “aristocratic.” The contemporary definition of noble
Themis Summer 2021 | Seeking Understanding
is “having high ideals”—a phrase included in our Creed. The study can teach us how to apply historical words to current challenges. LEADERSHIP: • Showing authenticity by remaining true to our values and our members • Looking for opportunities to serve and build others up • Thinking critically to find root causes and enact solutions ZTA is committed to being transparent and authentic with our membership. Through contextualization, we will take a critical look at our past and work to enact solutions that build others up and open the door for more members to serve. RESPONSIBILITY: • Following through with obligations • Showing initiative • Holding our Fraternity accountable for actions and decisions We have spent the past nine months researching pertinent archival documents and have learned from webinars offered by National Panhellenic Conference member organizations Delta Gamma Fraternity and Alpha Delta Pi Sorority, which have published their own contextualization findings. We will bring forward past actions and decisions in order to hold ourselves accountable and avoid repeating them.
