I just spent a long time composing a post speculating about why PKA and KA had national reputations, but then I goofed up posting.

I don't know what the deal is with TKE, but PKA, KA, and Sig Ep all seem to have national programs and/or public history that they promote to achieve that.

Can you think of any NPCs that do?

ETA: would you have named Sig Ep before the Balanced Man program?

EATA: Do you feel that all IFCs have national reputations/stereotypes or just the ones you listed?

I never really had any experience with SigEp before the Balanced Man program, but the non-balanced man chapters seem to fit into the reputation pretty well too in my experience, so probably so.

EX and SAE are both generally very good, but they don't necessarily have a national reputation or stereotype. If I had to say one for them I guess SAE is a kind of southern chapter, like KA light. EX is a lot of times kind of the "good boys" maybe. But they are certainly not as firm stereotypes as the others have and no, I don't think every IFC chapter has a stereotype.

And no, to the best of my knowledge I don't know of a NPC sorority that tries to cultivate a reputation or stereotype. A few have reputations that have caught on to some degree, but they are negative stereotypes that their nationals are clearly not trying to build.

Yeah, the more I think about it, the more I can see I was wrong to assert that no IFC groups had national reputations or images.

I agree about SAE in the South where they do seem to mentally go with KA somehow but they don't seem as limited to a Southern identity nationally. I think they have some elite chapters all over, but I may be wrong. I think KA's elite chapters are all typically Southern chapters. (ETA: but I have no idea how the KAs are in Wyoming. I have no idea why I'd pretend to.)

It is hard to talk about without lapsing into groups have have generally good reputation, without having the same kind of good reputation. This is going to be kind of a stupid example, but with say EX, on campuses where "good" groups are thought of as old south-y and elitist, they may have a lot of chapters that seem that way; on campuses where "good" chapters are athletic party guys, they are athletic party guys; on campuses where good chapters have emo haircuts, . . .

So if you were doing national tiers, they might be really strong, but that doesn't mean they have one national image or reputation other than being pretty reliably well-thought of.

Contrast it with KA (Order, I mean of course) who are always regarded as Southern, even on a campus where Southern might equal redneck, rather than elite. They are still pretty solid if we tried to do national tiers, I think, because they are so strong in the South, but it's a different kind of good than Sigma Chi.

I think the NPCs are all a female version of the Sigma Chi model or want to be. Nationally, they are just thought of as good if they are, but not aspiring to be thought of nationally as a certain kind of good. Spun as positively as it can, I think the idea is that the GLO's ideals unite the group and attract the best women, no matter what image those best women have.

ETA: which is not to say NPCs are all successful at it or that any of them wouldn't be happy to be thought of as old money, philanthropically minded, morally sound, fun-loving beautiful debutantes if that reputation is going to be claimed by one group.

TKE has a very aggressive expansion policy, more so than any other NIC fraternity I know of.

Just to clarify I'm only arguing stereotypes. National image is taken into account by the population as a whole, as well as people who are familiar with GLOs. In both cases GLOs will have a varied image because of chapter variations. I think this is the accurate point of view. Stereotypes, in my opinion, are 95% fostered by collegiate Greeks simply because nobody else really cares who is old money, who is fat, who is slutty, etc. And, as I've argued, amongst collegiate Greeks I think there are a couple stereotypes that have jumped state lines and stuck to certain GLOs regardless of if the chapter meets the criteria for the stereotype or not. But I understand that many people apparently do not feel this way...I guess it's just differing of opinion.

...I'm not sure where exactly where you were going with this, but I assume you mean that it loses it's elitism/exclusiveness as there is likely TKE chapters in community college...hence why many say "If you can't go Greek, go TKE." Sure there are fine TKE chapters out there (I can't name any myself, but I'm sure there are). It's all fueled from the HQ's policies.

Not the NIC, but close enough, Kappa Sigma's way aggressive.

There used to be 2 TKE chapters in community colleges (both in Florida), but they were both closed.

And yes, our IHQ is very aggressive when it comes to expansion, which I don't really agree with. I think more focus should be put on building stronger, better, maybe bigger chapters than to keep trying to establish chapters at schools with 3000 kids. But whatever, that's just me.

Our stereotype is pretty much summed up by that "If you can't go Greek, go TKE" saying; non-elitist if you want to be nice. I also think we have the "alcoholic/party guys" stereotype, but maybe that's just Florida? Don't know...

But I'm fine with those stereotypes because I know I don't fit them.

Actually, this post makes it sound like instead of arguing for national stereotypes you are actually stating that there are some regional, collegiate stereotypes. I would be far more likely to accept the idea of some isolated regional stereotypes than overall national ones in terms of NPCs.

I couldn't agree with you more! Just compare some chapters in the North to the South... I have also found that many girls in NPCs buy into these "regional" stereotypes, and would agree to some degree that there may be "some" truth to it.

Regarding Michelle Obama, Congrats to her! I think it's silly to insist that AKA extend an invitation to Cindy McCain. Every organization has the right to choose who they would like to honor. This really doesn't have to be political. I would be happy for any woman who was extended the invitation of being an honorary member for any sorority. They had to have done something right! ;)

I think it would be silly (for a lot of different reasons) to insist that they extend a membership to Cindy McCain too. Where have you read that people are saying that?

Absolutely.

UGAalum94, I was referring to the following post (#53):

Thank you. I thought you meant someone on GreekChat.

Can we now give this discussion a rest, folks?

I think this release is sufficient for ALL your " 'needs' to know basis"... Thanks. :)