Type Social Chapters 1 | ||
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Motto Esse Potius Quam Videri | ||
Chi Alpha Delta (ΧΑΔ) (also XAD or Chis) is the oldest Asian-American cultural interest sorority in the United States founded and chartered at UCLA. The sorority focuses to bring together girls of all different descents together into a close-knit bond of sisterhood to last a lifetime. Chis are one of the four Asian-American interest sororities and/or fraternities at UCLA, with the others being Theta Kappa Phi, Omega Sigma Tau, and Lambda Phi Epsilon.
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History
Chi Alpha Delta was founded in 1928 at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) by Helen Tomio Mizuhara and Alyce Asahi. The sorority originally had 14 Japanese-American students. On April 5, 1929, the sorority was officially recognized by UCLA. In 2002, the sorority had 65 members, of which less than 10% are Japanese.
The sorority was founded due to racism and segregation. The 14 Japanese-American students were rejected from a Panhellenic Greek sorority, so they decided to form one for the Japanese women and those of other Asian descents. These women created Chis because they felt the need for "a same-sex, same-race organization in order to feel at home in the university."
In the 1940s, during the yearly Faculty Tea, members wore kimonos and used Japanese styles to fix up their hair. During the 1940s, members were primarily second-generation Japanese Americans who conversed in English. From 1942 to 1945, the sorority was rendered inactive due to World War II. In 1946, after the war, Chi Alpha Delta was reorganized and since then has been gaining more and more members each year. Today, the sorority spans over 80 years of sisterhood.
Members of the sorority celebrate their Asian-American identity through food and fashion with traditions such as cooking foods from different countries and hosting fashion shows to recruit new members.