Nikol Hristova
Staff Writer
Local sorority Alpha Tau Zeta (ATZ) announced that they will be going inactive through a post on their official Instagram page on Sept. 19, 2026.
ATZ has been an important part of the Sewanee community, with it being active since 1987 and founded by a “small group of women who felt like there was not yet a Greek organization on campus that suited their quirkiness, brilliance, and enthusiasm,” according to their website. Described as a “place that feels like home on campus,” ATZ sought to remain a small organization, allowing up to 25 members at a time in order to “encourage strong bonds and utmost loyalty between sisters.” The closing of the chapter brings disappointment as students are sad to see an organization where “the most misplaced of women will always find their place on the Domain.”
In their announcement post on Instagram, the sorority shared that they are “proud of the amazing years that ATZ has been part of the Sewanee community.” The statement did not provide a specific reason for the decision. The Instagram post’s comment section showed that alumni were confused. “This seems like a big decision without any notice or ask for assistance from Alumni. Perhaps we can help before it’s just thrown out,” said Kait Dawson in her comment.
According to Recruitment, Social and Community Service Chair Abigayle Cheney (C ‘28), who joined ATZ last year, the decision came because of the amount of executive responsibilities for her and the president of the sorority, Alex McDonald (C ‘28), as the only two on-campus members of the sorority. “When I rushed, we had six people. Four of us were sophomores, two of us were seniors. So we were strategically in a very weird spot,” Cheney explained. “The person who was supposed to be vice president wasn’t able to return. She’ll come back next semester, but she’s not here right now. She was supposed to be our vice president and new member educator. Then, as we came back, it became clear: Alex and I would have to take on a lot together. Alex was president, secretary, treasurer and new member educator. I was the recruitment chair, social chair, service chair, risk manager, which is a funny lineup of every role. And as we sat with the reality of the fact that we were two members down. We came to the conclusion that ATZ might need to close.”
Cheney explained the process as a result of a collective decision between her, McDonald, and Nancy Seiters, the Dean of Greek Life and student involvement.:“At first it was just talks about what the vitality of ATZ is. Do we keep this open and do we just not rush anyone? What does this look like? And so at that point, that’s when we really got in contact with Nancy Seiters. Alex and I met with her every week for about a month. We realized that it would not be feasible for us to rush more than two people. If we brought in anyone, it wouldn’t be fair to them because Alex is going abroad next semester. And it wouldn’t be fair to new members to put all that responsibility on them. Due to the way the ATZ bylaws work, you cannot hold an office until you’ve been in the organization for more than a semester. So they would not have been able to hold offices and would have to do the work of officers without the recognition of being officers.”
She further explained other factors in the decision. “We were hosting events every Friday and weren’t getting any turnout for them. We had a lot of great interactions during the Tour de Greeks. We got to meet a lot of people, but we also just have the realization that new members don’t deserve to go through this. We couldn’t support this infrastructure of running a sorority. There’s a reason why there’s seven exact roles. So you need at least seven people to do this. We notified Nancy, mid to late September that we were officially closing down.”
“The current ATZ chapter is undergoing dormancy for the next year. And we can revisit that in the future,” said Nancy Seiters. “If, in the future, students wanted to build a new ATZ chapter here, we would be totally open to that.”
Cheney also shared that notion: “I think it can be brought back. I think if it were to be brought back, people need to be really realistic about what membership should look like, with at least seven members. Because that longevity is really having that membership is what creates longevity. It also creates diversity and its connection and community, and that’s what it’s all about.”
“The two of us did not have the time and energy that would be needed to do as much of a recruitment drive as we needed to,” McDonald explained. They are still hopeful for ATZ’s future and would be willing to initiate a reopening if someone was interested. Being the only legacy ATZ sorority member, McDonald also asked their mother, a former ATZ member, about her opinion on the decision. “I did discuss it with her, and she wasn’t upset,” McDonald said, “My mom agreed that you cannot have a sorority with two people there. It’s not a sustainable amount of work for anyone to take on.”
Alumni have also agreed with the decision to deactivate the chapter. Katie Bellis (C ’06) shared that she found out about the news through Instagram. “My initial reaction was, is there anything we can do to fix this? The members did a Facebook post with an explanation and why it was wise for the sorority to shut down. I’m satisfied with that information. If there aren’t sufficient people interested in being in the sorority, then that’s a perfectly valid reason to close it.”
According to Bellis, the alumni are “mostly just sad because we all have a lot of great memories of being in the sorority together and the current iteration has done everything they could. If I could say one thing to the current members, I would say we are not upset with you.”
Alumna Jenae Spader (C ’11) also expressed her sadness about the news. “ATZ was the first place I really felt at home at Sewanee,” she shared, “Those girls were my everything. I’m certain I would have transferred to another college without ATZ.” She stays hopeful about ATZ reopening in the future. “ATZ technically ended once in its history and came back. Never say never to it coming back.”
For Homecoming 2026 in November, ATZ will host a farewell party and alumni brunch, where alumni will be able to reminisce about their memories and say goodbye to the chapter. Bells also expressed her appreciation for the idea: “Homecoming is still happening despite that. I reached out via social media to say that a bunch of us are coming.”
The future of the ATZ house and alumni reunions still remains undecided, as logistics are still being discussed by the executive members and the Greek Life council.