The Birth of the North Central District

Published on August 21st, 2018

Unless you are a more experienced alum (in years) you might not be aware that the NCD we know and love today is only 31 years old. While Districts have existed since 1949 they have changed over time. The current NCD was created when the Brothers and Sisters at the 1987 National Convention approved the District Realignment Plan as presented to the district presidents in 1986. Prior to the 1987 realignment the districts were identified by numbers as seen below. As a side note the 1987 convention was full of NCD significance as it was hosted in the NCD at the University of Michigan, and presided over by National President Frank Stubbs, who was then the Director of Bands at Purdue)

As you can see above, prior to the redistricting in 1987 what is now known as the NCD was mostly District VII.  

The 1987 plan took the 10 numbered districts shown above  (international district/District 10 not shown) and consolidated them into 7 districts (including international) named for regions of the country as shown in the image below.  When the changes were made to District VII to create the NCD, a state was added but no additional chapters were gained.  That state was Wisconsin which prior to 1987 was part of District IV.  The rationale for the addition of Wisconsin to the NCD was that it was a logical fit and a fertile area for colonization. (Oddly enough that logical fit and fertile area has failed to yield any chapters to this day).  

The reason for realignment was that in the former structure we had several districts with very few chapters.  At that time, Districts I and IV only had one chapter each (District I for Kappa Kappa Psi, District IV for Tau Beta Sigma). District II had 5 chapters, and District III had a handful of chapters. Realignment meant that resources could be streamlined and districts could have more chapters for interaction and business purposes. It also was driven by growth/lack of growth in various regions of the Fraternity and Sorority.

If you look closely to the image above (1987 redistricting proposal) and the image below (current district structure) you will notice one minor change if you look to the Western District. With the 1987 redistricting the lines of the Western District and its adjoining districts were based on the Continental Divide. A later revision was to make change those 3 districts borders to state lines. Also for the NCD, a slight change happened when the NCD added the Zeta Lambda Chapter at Marshall University, which is located in West Virginia. Despite accepting Marshall into the NCD, the state of West Virginia is still considered to belong to the Northeast District.

**Author’s note:  This highlight was done with a considerable amount of assistance from Ken Corbett, Past National President and a founding member of our National History and Archives Team.  Ken was the National Member at Large (current VP for Student Affairs position) at the 1987 National Convention. The graphics are all from a presentation he shared with me.  Past National President Malinda Matney also provided some input as she was the TBS District V president in 1987.  Other insights beyond those two resources were items I learned as a member of the first ZE Membership Candidate Class following the 1987 district realignment.