Ohio State’s first multicultural sorority will soon add its first line after their founding last spring.

The Phi Associate chapter of Delta Xi Phi was created after president Lea Madry, a fourth-year in sociology, decided none of the other greek organizations at OSU matched her values.

“Ohio State was lacking something like this,” Madry said.

Although many greek organizations focus on different cultures, none were specifically multicultural.

As a member of the Program for Advising in Scholarship and Service, a part of Diversity Services, Madry researched multicultural sororities and decided Delta Xi Phi was a perfect fit.

Madry and other members of PASS began holding information events to attract potential members in spring of 2008. By winter of 2009, Delta Xi Phi had a large enough interest group and filed colonization papers.

After a year of work, 11 women became sisters on March 7, 2009 at 10:27 p.m.

The hard work did not end there. For the last year sisters have been working to build a strong chapter by making recruitment plans, voting on chapter bylaws and rules, serving the community and holding multicultural events.

“Multicultural is at the base of everything we do,” Madry said.

The sorority plans events that are not only fun but educational, striving to raise multicultural awareness. Events include learning the history of belly dancing and a few moves, watching the movie “Taken” after a speaker explains human trafficking and learning the history of Irish step dances, as well as how to perform them.

These sisters are now holding recruitment events to attract members to form their Beta line.

“We will pick as many people that we feel that we can, to have a really strong group of women, whether that’s two people or 20 people,” Madry said.

Delta Xi Phi is strictly against hazing, referring to rushing as recruitment, and pledges as associates to avoid any connection to hazing.

Madry says anyone is welcome, as long as they are committed to diversity, the pillars of Delta Xi Phi and a life-long sisterhood.

The sisters will go through a formal voting process to choose new members.

Other than having an interest in diversity, potential members should be interested in service, meeting new people and prioritizing their work.

Delta Xi Phi values higher education and has the fifth-highest GPA of the 63 greek organizations on campus.

The sisters of Delta Xi Phi are diverse on purpose, and not just diverse in the ways you can see, Madry said.

Brittany Savko, a third-year in anthropology and sociology, as well as the new member educator said, “I was interested because DXP transcends the sorority stereotype by being made up of diverse women from various backgrounds.”

The sisters plan to raise awareness about their sorority by being out in the community and doing things they already like to do.

As the sorority continues to grow, they plan to stay active on campus by teaming up with the Multicultural Center, the Multicultural Greek Council and co-facilitating the Multicultural Center’s Go There! dialogue.