History

In the 1980s, the National Headquarters had started a reorganization and realignment of the districts of Kappa Kappa Psi and Tau Beta Sigma to accommodate the growth that was occurring throughout the nation in the organizations after the final contractions of the 1970s. In 1987, at the National Convention held in Ann Arbor, Michigan, it was decided that the states of what was then District I (Idaho, Oregon, and Washington), District II(Arizona, California, Nevada, and Utah), and District X (Alaska and Hawaii), along with parts of Colorado, Wyoming, and New Mexico (the portions of those states west of the Rocky Mountains) were to be combined into one district for the Western United States. They also decided to scrap the Roman numeral designation used at that time and to adopt a new naming system based on the geography of the various new districts.

The original name proposed by the National Jurisdiction Committee was the West District. However, members of the delegation from the newly formed district did not like that name, and lobbied for a slightly different twist on the name. Their efforts paid off, and the new district was christened the Western District. This slight difference was the beginning of the reputation that the Western District would hold (and still holds today) for being just a little bit different and perhaps a little bit further ahead on new ideas.

In 1988, Psi and Epsilon Kappa chapters at UCLA hosted the first Convention of the Western District in Los Angeles, California. At this convention, the decision was made to hold a convention every year rather than two years, as had occurred in the old District II. Also changed was the length of the terms of district officers, which were shortened to a single year.

The name for the district publication, The Accent, was selected at this convention, and the first publishers for the Western District were the newly activated Iota Alpha and Eta Omega chapters from California State University, Fresno.

For more information regarding the District’s history, click here.