I'm sure the 218 figure is correct, she would know out of all of us. To me it looks like there are significantly more women to our left (their right) in the bid day picture that simply got cut off by the camera.

Exactly. The APhi blog says there were "almost 220" women.

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_J7N20jOyoB...0/P1020023.JPG

Welcome to the family, ladies. :)

"Oh I am an Alpha Phi, loyal and true
I chose the Ivy Leaf 'cause nothing else would do..."

Welcome to all my amazing new sisters at Alabama!

This is late, but Congradulations.

I had a question about colonization and was hoping that its okay to ask, if not I appologize.
In a situation where there is a house already, do some of the girls move in right away or do they wait until next term?

Weird question, im just curious as to the only recolonization that i was around the chaper did not have a house until their 2nd year.

Well, I would say that the norm is that the sorority probably does NOT have a house when they colonize. Obvious exceptions are places where it is a recolonization and the sorority still owns the old house, and places like Bama and Illinois (I think it was) where the sorority makes advance arrangements to rent a house from another GLO for its first few years.

My impression is that they don't move in until the second term at least, but I'm not clear on that. I would guess the colonizing group just follows campus practice. Obviously there are some schools where all the new members move into the house immediately after recruitment. There are others where freshmen live their first year in the dorms and only move in sophomore year. At those schools, the colonizing members (or at least most of them) would probably be locked into housing contracts or leases for a year and thus unable to move into the housing...

Anyway just my own uninformed ramblings. It is an interesting situation. I mean, it would seem ideal from a financial and administrative standpoint to have at least some members, maybe the upperclassmen, move in right away (to get the rent going, to have some of the new chapter leaders living in the house and running things from a central location where they can also have frequent contact with the consultant and/or advisors)....

I haven't seen this thread in a while- I love those shirts, and am so excited for the sisters at Bama! How wonderful for the whole Panhellenic community to come together and welcome Alpha Phi to campus!

I was at Bama recently and the Alpha Phi house is no slouch compared to many of the others, at least from the outside. There are a couple of houses that appear much bigger than the rest, but frankly most of the houses looked like they'd be a tight fit for 200-person chapters. Needless to say, they're gorgeous, though.
________
VOLCANO VAPORIZER

All but the Pi Beta Phi house were built many, many, many years ago to hold anywhere from 55 to 100 girls. A few have been expanded in recent years, but none were ever meant to house every chapter member.

Freshmen are required to live on campus, but I don't know if sorority housing is included in that. It might be, since UA housing is in a crunch right now. Generally, mostly sophomores and officers required to live in fill the houses.

The house Alpha Phi is currently occupying belongs to Sigma Delta Tau and is one of the smallest sorority houses (and always has been). Since their colonization was well past the first day of classes, they probably don't have anyone except the resident colony assistants (who are probably in grad school) living there right now.

I'd love to hear from an Alpha Phi about how things are going!:D

Anyone that wanted to live in the Alpha Phi house was allowed to break/transfer their dorm contract. I'm sure it would have been more difficult for girls that had apartment leases, so it was a great opportunity to get out of the dorm and still stay on campus. If too many girls wanted to live in, they had planned to do some sort of "lottery system". I'm not sure how many chose to move in.

What a great opportunity for girls to live in the house right away. That must be such an exciting time for them, being chosen to re-colonize the chapter and then immediately moving in with pledge sisters. I'd love to get down there one day to see not only the Phi house, but all the houses at Bama.

How wonderful is that? :) It sounds like a win-win situation to me. The girls get to move into their new home, the Chapter gets its financial situation in order, and the University frees up some dorm space for last-minute acceptances.

This whole thread put a huge grin on my face! It looks to me like Alpha Phi is off to a great start at 'Bama. Congratulations, girls (you are beyond cute!) and congratulations to Alpha Phi.

Each chapter at Bama is different. In my daughter's chapter, seniors and ex live in the house. Approx 42 or so live in the house. Many of the chapters also have places off campus where sophomores and juniors can live. The sororities do not own these properties but they get passed down to other members each year.

Co-sign.

And here is a pic of the Bama Alpha Phi house that I took last August (it was pouring rain...I felt so bad for the girls going through recruitment in that deluge!):

http://spinning-head.com/south08/aphibama.jpg

myopicsunflower, thank you SO SO much for posting that! I've visited the Bama campus once when I was a little kid, but obviously I never knew to look for an Alpha Phi house then, plus it wouldn't even have been an Alpha Phi house then!

I think it's wonderful that (some of) the new members could move in right away if they wanted. I know that this house is temporary and that plans are in the works to build a new house soon, any word on the plans for that?