Alpha Omicron Pi sorority, which was one of NIU’s first sororities in the 1950s, is coming back to reinstate its chapter here.

NIU’s Panhellenic Council voted April 3 for expansion of the Greek system. “Everybody is in favor of expansion,” said PHC President Karen Wilkinson.

Wilkinson said Alpha Omicron Pi stated an interest in coming back to NIU about three years ago.

Alpha Omicron Pi owns the house at 918 Kimberly Drive and currently rents its house to Delta Phi Epsilon sorority, said Alumni Chairman Mary Diaz.

Delta Phi Epsilon President Cathy Taylor said the sorority has a lease with Alpha Omicron Pi through June 1991.

“We made it (the lease) in good faith with D-Phi-E and we will honor it,” Diaz said. “We have the options of taking the house when the lease is up, selling it or buying a new one.”

Taylor said, “We’re for the expansion. We know that our nationals (chapter) would not leave us without housing.”

Recolonization of the sorority could begin “as early as the fall of 1990,” Diaz said. She said the proposal from PHC is being sent to the international executive board of Alpha Omicron Pi.

When the sorority came to NIU in 1954, it was one of the original sororities at NIU, Diaz said. She said the sorority closed in the spring of 1982 because of declining membership.

Diaz said alumni “always want to revitalize a chapter. We have been watching NIU since the chapter closed. We’re very pleased with the progress Panhellenic and IFC (Interfraternity Council) have made over the past eight years.”

Wilkinson said there is a group of women who are interested in starting a sorority. “We would certainly like to meet these young ladies,” Diaz said.