Purpose
The purpose of Zeta Tau Alpha is to intensify friendship, promote happiness among its members, to perform such deeds, and to mould such opinions as will conduce to the building up of a purer and nobler womanhood in the world.
The Creed of Zeta Tau Alpha
To realize that within our grasp, in Zeta Tau Alpha,
lies the opportunity to learn those things which will ever enrich and
ennoble our lives;
to be true to ourselves, and to those within and without our circle;
to think in terms of all mankind and our service in the world;
to be steadfast, strong, and clean of heart and mind, remembering that
since the thought is father to the deed, only that which we would have
manifested in our experience should be entertained in thought;
to find satisfaction in being, rather than seeming, thus strengthening
in us the higher qualities of the spirit;
to prepare for service and learn the nobility of serving, thereby
earning the right to be served;
to seek understanding that we might gain true wisdom;
to look for the good in everyone;
to see beauty, with its enriching influence;
to be humble in success, and without bitterness in defeat;
to have the welfare and harmony of the Fraternity at heart, striving
ever to make our lives a symphony of high ideals, devotion to the Right,
the Good, and the True, without a discordant note;
remembering always that the foundation precept of Zeta Tau Alpha was
Love, “the greatest of all things.”
-- Shirley Kreasan Strout
Traditions
Zeta Tau Alpha is known as a fraternity, not as a sorority. The founders intended that Zeta Tau Alpha be designated a "fraternity" to distinguish the organization from the sisterhoods organized in connection with men's fraternities, called "sororities."
From its founding in 1898, the innermost meanings of Zeta Tau Alpha Fraternity have remained unchanged through the preservation of and respect for our rituals.
Members and chapters celebrate the founding of Zeta Tau Alpha on October 15th each year. The Founder's Day service offers remembrance, while turquoise and gray ribbons are worn under the badge show each member's commitment to our founding ideals. The "Zeta Prayer" is sung before dinner in chapter houses and at other appropriate times when ZTAs are gathered.