Theta Nu XI - History

History

Theta Nu Xi was founded during a time when cultural Greek organizations began to proliferate on campuses across the United States. Theta Nu Xi was the first multicultural sorority founded in the Southeastern United States. The sorority has since grown to nearly fifty chapters and colonies in its thirteen years of existence.

In the spring of 1996, Melissa Jo Murchison-Blake sought a sisterhood that openly embraced all women and crossed cultural boundaries. As a bi-racial woman, she did not want to choose between historically Caucasian or African-American sororities. Murchison-Blake felt that if she did choose one, she would be denying half of her heritage.

Murchison-Blake recruited six other women who would become the national founders of Theta Nu Xi Multicultural Sorority. In the early days of its existence, the sorority met resistance from its campus of founding. The Director of Greek Affairs at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill advised the national founders to consider joining an existing organization, expressing his concern that a new Greek organization based on the principle of multiculturalism, would not survive at UNC. Despite such resistance, the national founders' continued efforts set the stage for Theta Nu Xi's presence in the Greek, non-Greek, and surrounding communities.

The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill officially recognized Theta Nu Xi Multicultural Sorority as the Alpha Chapter on April 11, 1997. To commemorate the end result of their perseverance, the national founders - now known as the Founding Monarchs - acknowledged April 11, 1997 as the official founding date of the organization. With the collaborative efforts of the Founding Monarchs and the initiates of Spring 1998, the organization grew exponentially.

The earliest members of Theta Nu Xi addressed an immediate need to develop an official process of expansion which would support new entities as well as serving the interests of the sorority. Under the visionary guidance of Anna Lamadrid, two new chapters of the sorority were founded in the spring of 1999 - one at North Carolina State University and one at UNC Greensboro. The three groups of women designated themselves Alpha, Beta, and Gamma, respectively, and thus the national organization was born.

The Sorority incorporated on April 29, 1999 and with the participation of the Alpha Chapter and Beta and Gamma Colonies, the National Organization was established at the first annual National Convention on August 21, 1999. The first out-of-state expansion effort resulted in the founding of a chapter Utah State University in the spring of 2000.