Dear Theta Phi Alphas,
I love August and September. Not only is it my chance to savor the last few weeks of summer weather in Nebraska, but it is also the start of Husker football and volleyball (I'm a huge college football fan), and my social media feed floods with pictures of our members and chapters returning to campuses and welcoming new members during recruitment. I love to see the themes, the t-shirts, the balloons, and all the smiling faces. I like as many posts as I can. However, I'm always a little sad when I can't like a post because of something in the pictures that does not represent Theta Phi Alpha.
I'm referring to TPA, Theta, hand signs, and calling our new members babies. I've started seeing posts where chapters call our new members babies. Our official term is New Member. Our New Members are young adults in college who have joined Theta Phi Alpha to find a place of belonging and friendship and to help navigate their collegiate experience. These are definitely not babies! Please use the correct terminology, as it shows respect to our new and existing members.
Have you ever been asked, "Is that a local sorority?" when you tell someone you are a member of Theta Phi Alpha? I have. Too many times to count. Then, I proudly tell them about Theta Phi Alpha. I've been asked if we go by Theta. I explain that Theta is Kappa Alpha Theta, one of the other 26 NPC sororities, and we go by Theta Phi. I've also been asked if we go by TPA. My response is no because the letters T and P in the English alphabet are the letters Tau and Rho in the Greek alphabet. Unlike other NPC organizations who use their English alphabet letter initials because they all stand for their full name in the Greek alphabet, or the letter is not represented in the Greek alphabet, that is not the case for Theta Phi Alpha. TPA means Tau Rho Alpha, not Theta Phi Alpha.
I recently talked with Jennifer King, our Director of Communication, about something the Penguin Shoppe (our official merchandise store) wanted to add to our apparel page for them. It was a collage of pictures of our members in Theta Phi Alpha shirts. One of the pictures in the collage also showed our members using a hand sign. Jennifer explained that we don't have an official hand sign and asked for that picture to be changed. The Penguin Shoppe representative apologized and said they assumed this was our hand sign because they see our chapters post pictures with this sign often on social media. I agree. I have seen a huge uptick in photos with a hand sign that members use to represent ӨФA. In fact, I have seen several different hand signs.
Theta Phi Alpha does not have an approved hand sign for our members. Using a hand sign that does not officially represent our organization leads to further confusion about our identity and being recognized by others. Nationally, we do not publish pictures with our members using a hand sign on our social media posts, in our newsletters, in our magazine, The Compass, or in any of our publications. There are some cute photos out there that we can not reshare on our national platforms due to using TPA, Theta, or a hand sign. Please be proud to be a Theta Phi Alpha, Theta Phi, ӨФA!! If we can't be true to our identity, how can we expect others to know who we are?
To provide some clarity, I've included a set of examples below. These will help you understand what kind of posts accurately represent Theta Phi Alpha, Theta Phi, ӨФA, and what kind of posts we should avoid sharing. This should serve as a helpful guide for all our members regarding social media representation.
Do you have a picture to share that represents Theta Phi Alpha? If yes, submit it using our Photo and Video Submission form.
Yours in the Bonds of Sisterhood,
Kristin Henkenius
National President