hoosiergirl - wait until you get you Rho Gamma in early November. She will answer all of your questions! In the mean time, plan on attending Greek Means October 28th at 7pm in the IMU. It will be a fun night to learn more about the IU Greek System. :)

I was there at the time. Of course I'm not privy to any of the official information, but based on what was reported in the IDS and the yearbook at the time, all 3 of them were struggling with low membership. ASA and Tri Sigma didn't have houses and there was no land available for them to build. As 33girl mentioned, it is a HUGE disadvantage at IU - when all the other sororities have gigantic, gorgeous houses to live in, how do you sell living in a dorm? And when a housed chapter has left, many times the University snaps up the house and the land. I know the old AOPi and Beta Theta Pi houses on 10th Street are now used for the School of Informatics, and I think the Pike house on 3rd Street was demolished (or if not, is also being used for some other purpose)

One thing that was noted in the yearbook story about Tri Sigma, when it was announced that the chapter would close, the pledge class was given the choice to be released before initiation (so they could rerush) or be initiated into Tri Sigma even though there would be no chapter next year. All the pledges chose to initiate. Sisterhood right to the end! :)

Sigma Kappa did have a brand new house (I think they moved into it in 1990 or 1991, and their former house became the IU Office of Admissions). That one was a surprise - if I remember correctly, that news came right at the end of the 1993-1994 school year. (The others were announced earlier in the second semester.) (A couple of my APO brothers were also in Sigma Kappa) Pi Kappa Phi is now in that house, but I don't know if Sigma Kappa sold it to them or if that chapter is leasing it.

Interestingly enough, lack of housing doesn't seem to affect fraternities, as there are quite a few unhoused fraternities at IU.

Sister Havanna I always love reading your posts!

Regarding the Pi Kapps/Sigma Kappa situation....I think Pi Kapps bought it from Sigma Kappa.

When ADPi was having numbers problems, a lot of off campus fraternities were spreading rumors that they would be losing their house in hopes that the same situation would happen again. Fortunately it didnt!

IU's housing problem has and has not affected fraternities.

Quite a few fraternities HAVE sprung up and gotten members without the use of a house...but for the most part...the ones that have no chance of getting housing (some of these "new" fraternities are just recolonizations waiting to get their numbers up before they return to "old" houses) arent really taken too seriously. Sororities dont usually plan a lot of socials with them and people dont really go out of their way to learn about them.

I respect a fraternity or sorority whether it has a house or not...but you have to remember that at IU, living in a house is a very central part of the Greek Life culture and it's hard for people to move past a chapter not being housed.

The good thing though is that if you want to have fraternity without the liability of a house...at least you have that option.

I think IU WILL open up land for housing expansion in the future as they'll have to put those houses on 3rd street somewhere when they eventually kick them out of the middle of campus.

I sincerely hope the University opens the possibility of new land for Greek Life. But I don't foresee that happening during this administration unfortunately.

Greek Life is very looked down on by the new Dean of Students, and the University President.

I sure hope they open up land! From how it looks on North Jordan, there is space for other houses. Obviously, I'm not sure if the land has a future purpose or not but I could invision quite a few more houses down on the ADPi/AXiD side of the extension and across from Skulls and AGD. *fingers crossed*

informal rush
 

Does anyone know of any informal rush processes at IU? I'm really interested in Sigma Delta Tau, in particular.

The whole rush process sounds a bit terrifying to me; I already know that it's important to me to me that, if I receive bids, I end up in one of the historically Jewish or secular sororities. However, I am fairly open to the possibility of finding one that may not be but is still a good fit.

I'm just not sure if it would be right for me to go through the whole formal recruitment process if it's not necessary and I already have an idea of where I belong.

Any advice/insight is appreciated! Thanks ladies!
:o

You might want to ask at Hillel or a similar organization on the IU campus. They also might be able to tell you if there are organizations for Jewish women that are sorority-like but that aren't a sorority. This might be especially good for you if you end up securing an RA position.

There really isn't any informal recruitment process during the fall for houses that already make their quota (which SDT does). However if you get cut from formal recruitment you can sign up for informal recruitment afterwards- this is where houses still have one or two bids open and they try to fill those spots. You have to have gone through formal recruitment to do this though.

One of the biggest trends I've seen in IU's rush is that girls who don't go into recruitment with an open mind are the ones that will end up hurt the most. I was dead set on being in one house before rush began but during formal recruitment I ended up finding a much better fit for my personality in the chapter that I received a bid from.

You might think you belong in one house-- but the chapter knows itself better than you do. It has to be a mutual selection process to find out which houses are better suited for you and which houses you are suited for.

Hello,

So i've registered for recruitment and everything, but I had an exam on Thursday evening at the same time as the Greek Means meeting. I was wondering if anyone could tell me what I probably missed.

<3

hoosierxgirl--
Greek Means was just another way to educate PNM's about community involvement, scholarship, leadership, and sisterhood. It was basically a series of panel sessions where PNM's could ask questions about these issues. You didn't "miss" anything as it does not affect your recruitment process and only serves to educate you more. You should be getting your Rho Gamma in the next two weeks so if you have questions, she will be more than happy to answer all of them! Get excited!

kmb--
The informal recruitment events in the fall are just for PNM's to learn more about the houses and do not impact your formal recruitment process. Houses do not give out bids during this time. As IUGreekGirl said, there is an informal process immediately following formal recruitment, but the possibilities of getting a bid during this time are slim, especially with the new party structure (19-14-8-3 instead of 19-12-6-3). Most houses will just snap bid and do not hold informal events because they may only have one or two spots to fill. Hope this helps! Also, please don't focus on one chapter and make that your sole goal. You owe it to yourself and to the sorority women to be as open-minded as possible (I learned this lesson the hard way)!

Whoa, why'd they change this? This sounds horrible!

Yeah, the 19 to 14 is better, but the 8 to 3 is HOLYFRIGGINCRAP.

I just checked Penn State's, and they also go 20-14-8-3.

They changed it to give women the opportunity to see more houses before they have to cut to 3 for pref round. It's a change that's good and bad. I think this system actually helps the "middle and lower tier" chapters more because PNM's get to see these houses more and maybe develop different opinions than they had going into 19 party. Overall though, it doesn't address the real problem at IU which is the lack of quality women getting bids. I think this system was an effort to get every chapter on campus stabilized and ready to prepare for extension *hopefully*.

I know they don't use quota/total, but are there any sort of release figures? Or can chapters invite as many women as they want to each round?