From 1921 to 1951, Hillwood was the home of Post Cereal Company heiress and socialite Marjorie Merriweather Post. The estate’s lavish Tudor-revival mansion was a symbol of wealth and social prominence that embraced Long Island’s Gold Coast in the early 20th century. In 1947, Marjorie Post put her estate up for sale and Long Island University became interested in purchasing the property and transforming it into a small liberal arts college. In 1951, Long Island University purchased the 177-acre estate for $200,000. The university's Board of Trustees named the college for the great American breakfast cereal inventor Charles William Post. The Post campus now covers 307 acres and comprises 47 buildings, 10 residence halls, and three historic mansions. With a wonderful history also comes rumors. “‘There is one rumor that I have tried to change for years and it never seems to really go away. It’s about the former rose arbor. [The brick arches south of the formal gardens] have for years been called The Seven Gates of Hell by more students that I can count.”’ Some students were told that the rose arbor, haunted the school with ghosts at night, but of course those were just rumors to try and scare new classes. Other rumors include Marjorie Post haunting The Seven Gates of Hell every night at midnight, and the Fine Arts building as well.

Beginning in fall 2014, athletes and students began to gather at the new Bethpage Stadium, the most modern building on campus. Which will, as of Fall 2019, house outdoor Division one sports.

Sources: http://liupostpioneer.com/this-is-our-history-liu-post/ http://www.liu.edu/CWPost/About-LIU-Post/Campus-History

In the Spring Semester of 2018 the Greek Community already established at LIU Post voted on allowing Kappa Kappa Gamma create a chapter at LIU Post in the following Fall semester. Leadership consultants visited LIU Post in the Fall to inform, interview and recruit eligible women to be charter members of Theta Gamma chapter at LIU Post.

On December 2, 2018 Theta Gamma was officially chartered at our first initiation. The initiation was conducted by Kappa President Gail Owens, Fraternity Vice President Mary Pat Brennan, and assisted by Denise Rugani, Ritual and History Director. The initiation was attended by active sisters at Yale and New York University, as well as various alumnae, consultants and specialists from the Alpha District. Based consultants Erin Cerutti and Becca Stevenson presented the 43 new members to be initiated and installed as a chapter. Theta Gamma chapter was formally installed by Fraternity president Gail Owen during our first initiation ceremony.

The founding officers were installed into their positions: President: Katie Ginty Vice President of Finance: Jackie Ginty Vice President of Membership: Morgan Taboada Continuous Open Bidding Director: Brianna Saverino Vice President of Operations: Maddy Porteous-Nye Risk Management Director: DeAnna Aguinaldo Vice President of Internal Affairs: Taylor LaPorta Member Experience Director: Angeline Carlo Vice President of External Affairs: Bailey Lubrano Philanthropy Director: Beth Hillman Events Director: Holly Reddy Public Relations Director: Courtney Scanapico Vice President of Member Development: Briana Frandina Member Education Director: Alex Holdridge Standards Chairman: Julie Caputo

Fall Semester 2018 was an exciting semester for Theta Gamma, as it was the semester we were founded! Our sisters had fun getting to know each other better and learning about Kappa as we navigated the new-member experience together.

On Friday October 12th, we had our bid day. Sisters arrived in formal attire and accepted their bids before changing into bid-day shirts and casual attire for pictures and a bid-day party! The event took place in the Gold Coast Room of Winnick Student Center, and included food, music, icebreakers and a photo-booth! Members of the campus Panhellenic community, as well as Kappa Leadership Consultants and HQ Staff, attended to welcome our sisters. We had a great time getting to know Kappa and meeting everyone!

On Saturday October 13th, Formal Pledging was held with Patty Gesell, NPC Representative for KKG, presiding.

On October 25th, we had our first sisterhood event, arranged and hosted by our Based Consultants, Erin Cerutti and Becca Stevenson, where we met to paint boxes for our pins! We all got to know each other better through crafting, listening to music, and snacking!

On October 30th, we had our Panhellenic Big/Little reveal in the Tilles Center Patron’s Lounge! Sisters from the other chapters on campus volunteered to be our Panhellenic Bigs, since we did not have the opportunity to have them within the sorority! A great time was had by all, and we were so grateful to the other sisters on campus for being so welcoming to us!

From November 5th -9thth, we participated in the campus’ preliminary Greek week events, which were held in preparation for the full Greek Week in Spring Semester! On Wednesday November 7th, we joined the other Greek organizations in campus in a Peanut Butter and Jelly making contest to support local food shelters. We all had the opportunity to bond as we rushed to make as many Peanut Butter and Jelly sandwiches as possible, and were so happy to be able to give ou time to help the less fortunate.

On November 9th, members participated in the Medal of Honor obstacle course to support veterans. The girls had fun and others sisters enjoyed cheering them on!

On November 8th, we had our next sisterhood event, a pajama pizza party paired with the reveal of our chapter founding families! We all had fun hanging out and enjoying pizza, and tears were all around as we found out who would be in our families!

On Sunday November 18th, the brothers of Tau Kappa Epsilon hosted a brunch to welcome us to the Greek community on campus! We were all so grateful to TKE for being so welcoming, and had a great time bonding with and getting to know the brothers!

November 26th began our chapter’s first Inspiration week and we were all so excited as we prepared for our initiation!

On Tuesday, November 27th we enjoyed some sweets at a “blue and blue” dessert bar. Sisters dressed in blue and blue and enjoyed deserts together! It was certainly a sweet beginning to what would be an amazing week!

On November 28th, we had “wishful Wednesday”. We wrote letters to ourselves to be opened in a year. It was a fun, relaxing opportunity to hang-out, chat and get to know each other better! We also got to snack on some delicious cupcakes!

On Thursday, November 29th, we got together for a game night! We all bonded and had a lot of laughs playing games such as Family Feud and Cards Against Humanity! Friday, November 30th wrapped up I-Week with a movie night in the Gold Coast Cinema! We all got cozy with blankets and pillows and kicked off the holiday season by watching “Love Actually.” It was an exciting send-off for our initiation weekend, which we were all so excited for!

Spring Semester 2019 has been our first full semester together as a chapter, and we’ve been incredibly excited to establish not only our chapter’s place in Kappa, but also Kappa’s place on campus! We’ve had many successful sisterhood events that have strengthened our bond as sisters and made us proud to be Kappas!

We kicked off the semester on Saturday, January 26th, when we went to Round 1 at the Broadway Mall with the brothers of Sigma Alpha Epsilon. It was a wonderful opportunity to get to know the brothers while enjoying all that Round 1 had to offer, including bowling, arcade games and fried food!

On Tuesday, February 5th, we had our major event for Spring Recruitment, “Kappa Kandyland”. It was a “sweet” way to meet all of our PNMs, and the candy-especially the Trolli sour worms.

On Friday, February 9th, we had bid-day for our new members! The theme was “Kappa Blue Looks Good On You”. Clad in blue tutus, antennae, wigs and tattoos, we had a great time showing our Kappa spirit and welcoming our new sisters!

Our first sisterhood event of the semester took place on Wednesday, February 13th, when Member Engagement Director Angeline Carlo, as well as VP Internal Affairs Taylor LaPorta, planned and hosted a Kappa “Galentine’s Day”. The event was a great way to celebrate our love for our sisters, and we had a great time decorating cookies, playing with fortune tellers, taking pictures in the photo booth and drinking pink drinks.

On Wednesday March 6th, we collaborated with the brothers of Tau Kappa Epsilon and hosted a Dr. Seuss party! The event was open to all students on campus, as well as members of the community. The event was a huge success, including a book drive to support the Boys and Girls club, Dr. Seuss themed treats, cotton candy, and lots of dancing! The week of March 17th- 23rd was our second inspiration week! We were so excited to prepare our new members for their initiation!

On Wednesday, March 20th, Member Engagement Director Angeline Carlo worked with the brothers of Theta Chi to plan and host “Kappa Coffee House”. The event was a huge success, featuring fresh-made coffee, an art showcase, raffle baskets and live music. Additionally, we also hosted our Big Little Reveal for our new members. The new members were so excited to find out who their Big Sister was. Our Spring 2019 new member class was initiated on March 24. Attended by alumna, active members, and our leadership consultants. Theta Gamma welcomed 3 new members.

Kappa Kappa Gamma is known to give back in so many ways and how we do so is through three different philanthropies, Reading is Fundamental, The Kappa Kappa Gamma Foundation and Theta Gamma’s local philanthropy - The Boys Girls Club. Education is important to us and to help others is what we strive to do. With Reading is fundamental founded In 1966, try to inspire children all around the world to become engaged with the content they provide. All children should be able to pick up a book and be given the opportunity to learn from it. RIF creates awareness and helps raise money and collects books to then hand out to those who can’t otherwise afford it. Another philanthropy Kappa follows is The Kappa Kappa Gamma Foundation. This is a kappa founded foundation. It’s a way to give back to the members of KKG. They provide educational programs, scholarships and the Rose McGill grants. All this opportunities is to help our Kappa Family grow. Our local philanthropy is the Boys Girls Club. This organization allows us to help out with events, daily and activities and however else we can try and help. kappa kappa gamma is dedicated to help the children out with whatever services they need help with such as homework, art work, and providing a comfortable setting to do their work. Kappa Kappa Gamma strives to help others and better the community by doing so.

The Chapter won Chapter of the Year and Council Member of the Year for the amazing work our President and Chapter have done. We continued traditions such as Kappa Kickball, which is an annual philanthropy event we host every fall that all the Greek life organization come out to play several games of kickball. We also created new traditions such as Sister’s Giving last fall that we continued this fall. Our chapter strives to continue the amazing growth and work we have done on campus. Considering it’s such a new chapter, I think our main goal is just continuing to create traditions, and set precedents for the future of this chapter to follow and hopefully we will continue to prosper as a sisterhood.

Mental Health American is our mental health and well-being partner. We supported them through raising money. We held several events last semester such as Kappa Chiks where we sold chik-fila, the No Talent Talent Show and Pie A Kappa.

Our chapter completed service hours with our local philanthropy, Give Me Shelter. They held several adoption events at local pet stores and our girls volunteered at these adoption events. We also used one of the days in our philanthropy week to create cat toys for the animals.

For Founder’s Day our chapter had a small celebration on October 16, 2022. We had a bunch of deserts and we decorated the room with center pieces. We mingled and then we did our candle ceremony to close up the event.

We have been very efficient in our DEI initiatives, every chapter our DEI Officer gives information on diversity and equity such as statistics and informing people of the national weeks, months and days such as Black History Month. We also have had workshops with our Center of Healthy Living here on campus on how to improve our mental health and steps to take to do and feel better.

As a chapter we have done several events to celebrate the the connection we have as an organization. We attended both the Leadership and Conference. We also have gone to events to grow the connections we have with other Greek life organizations on campus such as, Pumpkin Picking with Sigma Alpha Epsilon and going to hibachi for dinner with Delta Zeta. Currently we are still having a lot of fun events to get to know our new members. We have had amazing bonding events such as paint night and speed dating so that the potential bigs and littles can get to know each other.

Chapter Summary

Theta Gamma chapter had a great year in 2023. We held so many different events, such as sisterhood, philanthropy, senior events, etc. Speaking specifically about sisterhood, Theta Gamma has really strengthened our connection as a whole and I can confidently say that we all haven’t been closer as an organization. This is reflected in how the entire chapter has come together to support our philanthropy events this year.  

Who was selected as your chapter’s mental health and well-being partner and how did you support them? Our mental health and wellbeing partner was Mental Health America. We hosted a myriad of events to support the organization, such as Kappa Kares Week. During this week we hosted food fundraisers, Pie-a-Kappa, Bid-a-Basket, and the KKG No Talent Talent Show.

What kind of service activities did you do for any local organizations? We attended the Light the Night walk for the Leukemia Lymphoma Society this year. Our sisters had an amazing time supporting this organization and cause. We also participated in service opportunities on our campus as well.

How did your chapter celebrate Founders Day? Our chapter celebrated Founder’s Day by renting out a building on our campus and having desserts, sisterhood bonding, and participating in the Founder’s Day ceremony.

How did your chapter include diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives in your programming this year (e.g., philanthropic events, social media awareness campaigns, chapter training, etc.)? Our DEI Officer is consistently giving us information at chapters that gives us more knowledge regarding inclusivity, and how we can increase inclusivity in our chapter.

In what ways have you celebrated the connection with your chapter, local alumnae association(s) and/or the Fraternity this year (e.g., celebrating a chapter anniversary, connecting with another chapter in your area, or attending Leadership Academy, Convention or Kappa Leadership Conference)? This year three of our sisters, Rebecca Gruter, Grace Demou, and Sarah Emr attended Kappa Leadership Conference in Dallas, Texas. They thoroughly enjoyed connecting with other Kappas and bringing back new ideas to Theta Gamma chapter. Within our own chapter, this year we have held sisterhood events such as paint nights, game nights, and our senior celebration.