"We Are the Alpha Chis"
(to the tune of the "Engineers' Drinking Song")

We are, we are, we are, we are, we are the Alpha Chis.
We will, we will, we will, we will, be them until we die.
Wear red, wear green, wear pearls all day, and sport the golden lyre.
Come join us from around the world; we'll set your hearts on fire.

Alpha Chi was Alpha Chi since eighteen eighty five,
and Alpha Chi will be Alpha Chi, always and ever alive.
Although few words express to you exactly how we feel,
our friendships mean so much to us, so genuine and real.

Back in nineteen eighty five, our group was seven women strong.
Known only as the Thalians, they knew that before long
they would want all the support of a major sorority.
They sought sisterhood and strength in all that Alpha Chi could be.

I love to wear the lyre badge, I love each string of pearls,
but most I love my sisters, a fantastic group of girls.
Their talents, passions, helpfulness, their warmth is ever bright:
whenever I'm around them, I'm inspir'd to seek the heights.

We'd like to welcome all new members here to Alpha Chi.
We'd love to share our sisterhood, so please do not be shy.
It's a smile, a tear, an open heart, much more than just a name.
We love what we have found in it, we hope you find the same.

We love, we love, we love, we love, we love our alumni.
Each time that they must leave us here, we all let out a sigh.
And when recruitment rolls around, we love to see them here,
so supportive and reliable, each and every year.

The sisters of dear Alpha Chi would like to invite you
to our yearly open house event we fondly call "Fondue."
Come over for a night of food, of friendship, and of fun,
dipping strawberries in chocolate until the evening's done.

--

The history of this song:

Back in the end of the summer of 2008, Kristin Uhmeyer (AXO Winter
'07, MIT '09) and I, song leaders at the time, wrote the original
three verses ("We are, we are, we are, we are, we are the Alpha Chis",
"Alpha Chi was Alpha Chi since eighteen eighty five", and "We'd like
to welcome all new members here to Alpha Chi") to this song while
compiling the song sheets for recruitment in an Athena cluster. We
wanted a fresh and creative song that had a bit of MIT flair to it,
hence setting it to the tune of the Engineer's Drinking Song.

We debuted the first two verses of this song ("We are, we are, we are,
we are, we are the Alpha Chis" and "Alpha Chi was Alpha Chi since
eighteen eighty five") as the exit sound for round two that year.

Kristin and I also taught our sisters the verse for welcoming new
members ("We'd like to welcome all new members here to Alpha Chi"), so
that sisters could sing it to all the new members on Bid Day.

During the longest night of the fall 2009 recruitment, I wrote the
verse about our wonderful alumni ("We love, we love, we love, we love,
we love our alumni"). I taught it to all the recruiting sisters when
the alums weren't in the room, and we sang it to them at the end of
the night. They seemed to love it. Kristin was one of the alums
helping us that year, and I loved seeing her smile and chuckle a bit
upon hearing it. I hope our chapter keeps learning that verse and
singing it at major events, especially recruitment, where our fanastic
alums are such an enormous help.

I wrote another verse ("Back in nineteen eighty five, our group was
seven women strong") about the history of the Theta Omicron chapter in
August 2010. I was inspired in large part by the incorporation of a
bit of this history into the Preference Party for fall 2009
recruitment by the party planners that year: Lauren Cipicchio (AXO
Winter '07, MIT '10) and Emily Houston (AXO Winter '07, MIT
'10). During that summer, I also wrote a more generic verse ("I love
to wear the lyre badge, I love each string of pearls") about how the
best part of AXO is all of your wonderful sisters and a verse about
Theta Omicron's fondue open house event ("The sisters of dear Alpha
Chi would like to invite you").

I'd personally love to keep a full history of how this song evolves
over the years. Certainly keep writing verses if they come to you! Or
if you have a topic you'd like to request a verse on, maybe you can
coax me into writing it. But either way, if you could shoot me an
email at lizdenys@mit.edu or liz@lizdenys.com (neither should go away
ever) regarding updates to it, I'd be most appreciative and will
happily maintain the song's history for the chapter.

-Liz Denys (AXO Fall '07, MIT '11)
lizdenys@mit.edu/liz@lizdenys.com