The Alpha Delta Difference
What is Unique about being an Alpha Delt?
THE HIGHEST VALUE LIVING SPACE ON CAMPUS --- A BARGAIN "PER LIVING SQUARE FOOT OF SPACE"
With spacious two-man rooms in its recently renovated facility and generous public areas, Alpha Delta offers more “value per square foot” than any other living option on campus at $502 per month. Members also receive complimentary breakfasts, Monday night catered dinners, high speed internet, cable TV, and security- monitored and lighted off street parking among numerous benefits.....all at a reasonable cost.
IT IS A HOME AWAY FROM HOME -- NOT A DORM!
Living at Alpha Delta is a world of difference from the typical "dorm environment" --- we know, many of our members first lived in the dorms! The Alpha Delta house was originally the home of a prosperous Topeka physician and has been expanded to house up to 30 residents. It offers the amenities of a fine home with two sitting rooms, two relaxing lounges, beautiful up to date kitchen with multiple microwaves, formal dining room, chapter meeting room, large lawn and a volley ball court. It offers the largest private "square foot per member" of any living alternative at Washburn.
BEING LOCAL MEANS SELF GOVERNANCE AND INDEPENDENCE
Being local, Alpha Delts have the ability to govern their own house, make their own rules and decisions in a democratic fashion central to our values, and answer to no “national fraternity”.
Alpha Delta NEVER has to worry that its reputation becomes tarnished because of a mistake or mishap at another university's national chapter.
DEDICATED PROFESSIONAL FULL-TIME ONSITE HOUSE MOTHER
Alpha Delta is the only fraternity at Washburn that offers a full-time onsite professional House Mother. Our House Mother is a successful Washburn graduate who was president of the student body when she attended Washburn and well connected with Washburn's sororities. She has decades of valuable experience to provide to incoming members. She may be one of the reasons that the brothers of Alpha Delta are considered " the gentlemen of campus".
Our History
Alpha Delta & Washburn University
The history of the oldest local fraternity west of the Mississippi is a rich and impressive one, and Alpha Delts take great pride in the tradition and legacy of their brotherhood.
Then in the late spring of 1912, a group of young men met quietly on a top floor of Rice Hall, near the center of the small Washburn College campus. They were in discussions to create a new fraternity on the Washburn campus. They had been called there that night, as several times before, by a group of men from University of Kansas who wanted to extend their "national" fraternity Sigma Phi Sigma to Washburn.
Soon after that meeting, the founders decided they didn't like the "binds" of the national fraternity. They wanted their fraternity future to be decided by the members themselves and considered the other fraternities too “exclusive”. They adopted the name “Alpha Delta” to stand for “Always Democratic”.
The Alpha Delts chose to remain always a "Local Fraternity" and forever bound their future to Washburn University, and to this day, Alpha Deltas remain proud that their fraternity and their university remain forever bound together. This drove among Alpha Delts a sense of ownership for the health and well being of their alma mater, and to this day, Alpha Delts take on positions of leadership on campus and off to ensure the well being of their dear Washburn University. In our over one hundred years, more Student Body Presidents and more Washburn Trustees are Alpha Delts than any other fraternity. Alpha Delts have also served as editors of the school newspaper and annual yearbook.
The current home at 1919 MacVicar was built in the 1890's by a Topeka-area doctor, Dr. Forest Loveland. Alpha Delta purchased the house in the spring of 1969, and after some upgrades occupied the house in 1970. The house has gone through three significant upgrade and renovation projects over the years to make it the modern facility members enjoy today.