The Alpha Zeta chapter of Theta Xi was founded in 1928 and became one of the first fraternities at UCLA, as well as the first to have a house on campus.
Originally founded in 1864 at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Theta Xi was the only fraternity to emerge during the Civil War. It was also the first-ever professional Greek letter organization, in that it was originally founded as an engineering fraternity. Amidst the in-fighting between members of RPI's Sigma Delta secret society, eight young men--Peter Henry Fox; Ralph Gooding Packard; Christopher Champlin Waite; George Bradford Brainerd; Samuel Buel, Jr.; Henry Harrison Farnum; Thomas Cole Raymond; and Nathaniel Henry Starbuck--committed to forming a new society. On the night of April 29, 1864, the eight former members of Sigma Delta met to form the founding of Theta Xi.
In 1926, it became a general social fraternity and began accepting prospective members with all interests and backgrounds as it continues to do today. As of 2013, Theta Xi consists of over 50 active chapters across the United States and has initiated over 65,000 individuals who went on to become award-winning actors and screenwriters, College Football Hall of Fame members, inventors, Congressmen, Nobel laureates, and more. Among our notable alumni are steel tycoon Andrew Carnegie, Garfield creator Jim Davis, NASA astronaut James Voss, former Disneyland president Jack Lindquist, and Father of Scientific Management Fredrick Winslow Taylor.
The Alpha Zeta chapter of Theta Xi was founded in 1928 and became one of the first fraternities at UCLA, as well as the first to have a house on campus. In fact, since we got to choose our street address, the number of every other building on fraternity row is based on a decision our founders made almost a century ago! Today, it's not uncommon to find a brother lounging out by our pool (the only working one on fraternity row), watching sports on our projector screen TV, playing ping-pong in our living room, or even catching up on his studies in our library.
Because we are one of Theta Xi's few All True Men chapters, we have committed to regularly exceeding our fraternity's national accreditation standards. Just one of these is a strict anti-hazing policy in which we confer upon our associate members (not "pledges") the same rights and privileges afforded to existing brothers, with the exception of voting rights and knowledge of our secrets, practices, and ritual. We have won numerous national awards including the much sought-after Memorial Trophy; had several alumni elected to the prestigious Order of the Unicorn; and emerged victorious in countless intramural sports tournaments, Greek Week competitions, and sorority philanthropies. We also consistently hold one of the highest average quarterly GPAs on fraternity row—a fact attributable to our academic scholarships, comprehensive online test bank, and in-house library.
Underlying these successes, however, is a truly unifying sense of brotherhood that has come define our members’ experiences not only at UCLA but also for the rest of their lives. Through all the alumni events, sorority relations, philanthropies, road trips, date parties, bonding experiences, and even random trips into Westwood, our brothers agree that joining Theta Xi was the best decision they made in college.
If you are interested in beginning your own Quest for Theta Xi, stop by during Rush or contact any of the admins of this page! For more information about Greek life at UCLA, visit www.greeklife.ucla.edu.
