My friend at IU just sent me this. I thought it was interesting.

http://www.idsnews.com/news/story.aspx?id=68062

Both of the changes are very artificial.
Doing an all-January rush eliminates the women who don't make grades or don't want to give up the last week of winter break for rush. Thus the affiliation rate will increase.
But on the downside- a lot of quality women decide to go though 19 party just to see how they like the system, and then decide from there where to go. By changing the date of 19 party to the end of winterbreak, you lose those women who would have rushed had they been able to attend 19 party. This was voted down- the dates are still the same.

The second change is the party numbers. It used to be 19-12-6-3... now it's 19-14-8-3. The idea is that by not having to cut so many houses off your list so soon, you get more of an opportunity to see where you might fit in the best. It also allows chapters to get a more thorough view of the PNMs.

Bed quota system is still in place- aka nothing is really changing.

The problem is that there is one very big house on campus that is half empty. I hasn't made quota in a very long time even with year-long c.o.b.ing.

Plus houses are so expensive to build that the costs for an NPC organization to come onto our campus is too much. There are 26 Panhellenic Sororities, 19 are represented at IU. And to my knowledge only one other house that at one time had a chapter on campus but does not now was Sigma Kappa. Meaning there is literally no alumni base to build a new colony or chapter on.

No one wants to be Greek but not live in a house, and the University is already stretched tight for housing so they can't house them in dorms or anything.

I've been a lurker on these threads for awhile, but I just have to put my two cents into the whole IU situation. I'm at Purdue right now, and I have to say that our rush at the beginning of fall semester was a total breeze compared to what the girls go through at IU. I have a ton of high school friends that went through this past January, and most made it past cuts (one dropped out) and it just sounded absoultely brutal. My sister is going through next year and I'm worried about her. It sounds like IU isn't really changing much, just adding more stress! One of my friends got 10 houses back for 12 party and it was such a tiring day for her. Can you imagine going to 14? I just don't see how this is changing much. One thing I will say is that living in is a huge part of IU greek like. KSUViolet, I am not certain of specific policies (IUGreekgirl would probably be better suited) but I have friends and acquaintances from high school scattered in about 8 or 9 sororities at IU and generally everyone lives in all 4 years. I believe some may have liveout policies for senior year, but living in is a BIG part of greek life at IU (IUGreekgirl, correct me if I'm wrong on this!). I'm just so glad someone brought this up. Hearing about rush at IU always leaves a sour taste in my mouth. I feel like I had it so much easier then my friends and sisters down in Bloomington.

PS. IUGreekgirl, I know what chapter you are talking about and it completely boggles my mind! I haven't met anyone from that house, but I'm sure they're great girls! They have a strong national repuation and a nice new house. I really hope they find their footing. It's such a shame--it seems like there's so much gossip surrounding greek life at IU. Chapters can really be ruined by all the tent talk! Whenever I go to visit, I'm always amazed at how all the houses seem to have their own stereotypes following them around, true or not. Hopefully there will be some improvement with IU rush in the future. The campus is gorgeous and all of the sorority houses are SO beautiful. It's a shame so many girls are cut!

another thought: I don't think there is anything in place at IU to stop cross-cutting from happening. It seems like that's what might have happened to one of those girls in the IDS story.

Is that really true? All over the country, colonies are routinely supported by actives and alum who are from other chapters or reside in other parts of the state. I wonder why it would be different for IU.

Everyone has different live out policies.

And the empty house really is sad. I remember going through rush and looking at how their composite pictures shrunk and shrunk every year. They're very nice girls, and it's sad that they're stereotyped based on superficialities. However things are looking up for this house- several girls have joined this year to help raise the house closer toward the organization's amazing national reputation. And there is a lot a buzz going around campus about "all the hot girls who joined ***" While that in itself is superficial, eventually they'll get back to the top. It's a step though!

This is what I was going to say. Alumnae don't have to come from that chapter in order to be supportive. If they did, we would never have new greek systems or new colonies. It happens all the time, in fact!

Exactly! And Indiana is a state with other schools that have strong Greek systems (Purdue and DePauw come to mind...) as well as the headquarters of several sororities.

You might find this thread by irishpipes interesting:

http://www.greekchat.com/gcforums/sh...ad.php?t=97907

It is a much-referenced comprehesive list of all NPC sororities and their tenures at US and Canadian campuses. According to it, Indiana has actually had all but one of the 26 NPC sororities present at some time. I think AST is the only house that has never been there. You are right that SK did have a longtime chapter there (1918-1994), but Theta Phi Alpha was there from 1920-1959, as well as shorter stints by D Phi E, Tri Sigma and ASA.

Ditto this and the other GCers who agreed. Obviously, if you have had a chapter in the area there will tend to be more alums available, but it is amazing how many alums come "out of the woodwork" when an expansion is proposed!! I just attended the expansion presentations for 3 houses at Kansas State, and only one had had a K State chapter and that was back in the 1930's. It was great to see LOTS of alums living in the area but initiated at different campuses come out to show their support and offer to be advisors and volunteer in other ways.

What's wrong with women going through and not wanting to join? If they want to spend their $ that way, that's their prerogative. The article made it sound like this was some horrendous crime.

And yes, if we had a colony there, we would have TONS of alums in the area to support it.

If there is one group far under total, either they need to say screw it and get a new (smaller) house, or a group of women need to pledge it as a group and turn it around. The girls in the house are probably too fried to try anymore.

I was at IU in the early-mid 90s. When I was a freshman, there were four sororities that were housed in a dorm (although the dorm consisted of several small buildings so each sorority had its own building). By my junior year, two of the sororities had built houses (Alpha Xi Delta and Alpha Delta Pi) and those sororities are still on campus today. The other two did not have houses and closed at the end of that year. I remember hearing that at least one of them had been wanting to build a house but they were not able to get any land near the University in order to do so. It really did put them at a huge disadvantage - the thought of living in a dorm (especially one of the furthest from any campus buildings) when all the other sororities on campus have these huge gorgeous houses was a turnoff to a lot of rushees. (I will admit I was one of them. Then again, I was turned off by the idea of sleeping in a cold dorm too.)

I would love to see more sororities at IU. I don't think that having alumnae support is going to be an issue. (All three of the sororities that closed in 1994 have multiple alumnae chapters in the state and two of the three have multiple college chapters in Indiana already) Unfortunately, I don't think that a new sorority would have the best chance to succeed if it wouldn't be able to have a house.

Interestingly enough, this does not seem to be a problem for fraternities at IU - there are several unhoused fraternity chapters.

I think the "bed quota" system lives on because living in is a huge deal at IU. And managing who does and who does not live in when the chapters get really huge in membership size brings on a lot of drama. Number of total beds per house does vary quite a bit and many long standing chapters are locked in to their current lot size by university ownership of adjacent property so they can't get bigger in house size or parking lot size. If newer houses are built with many more beds in the future, that may be the catalyst for abandoning the bed quota system to equalize chapter sizes through a regular NPC quota selection process.