I don't know why this made me laugh so hard LOL

You can tell a lot about how strong greek life is going to be on campus without ever seeing greeks.

It's a commuter school? Well subtract all the commuters, two-thirds of the people living in dorms, take 5-10% of what's left and that's probably in the same hemisphere as your totals.

What's the entertainment access? If you're in the middle of nowhere, there's very limited options to go out both locally and in commuting distance, there's not public stuff (river/lake/beach/etc), etc.. and the majority of students are going to hate life. Then, you'll have a massive greek system, cause the motivation and value of being part of it are huge. You're in Hawaii, so I'm pretty sure you're on the other end of that spectrum. Most people probably don't need you to have a good time, either in reality or perception.

What's the housing situation? You said you don't have a greek row, which is fine, most places don't. But I don't know what houses you do have. If they're either none or crap hole little run down places, then that's no motivation to join. If they're nice places with big common areas and lots of rooms that people want to live in (especially if you can have meal service and make it cheaper than campus while getting better quality), then that'd be a draw.

What kind of greek tradition is there? Is it a lot of international students or first generation college students? Do a high percentage of students have parents that were greek? Is a large chunk of the faculty or administration greek? What about alumni support? So, pretty much bad on all that right?

You're also in Hawaii (we got that established right? :) ) which means most nationals aren't going to consider expansion there just because of the cost of doing business. Having a consultant drive a rent car a hundred miles to from a visit at an existing chapter to another school that would potentially bring in another 10k a year is reasonable. Buying tickets to Hawaii while still only getting that same income is just not worth it.

My point is the accepting the things you cannot change part of who you are. Once you've done that then you can understand what you can realistically improve and what you have to do to accomplish that.

So... I like your idea of getting with the University to conduct a session during orientations. Talk to your headquarters about year round recruitment, both on campus an in high schools. You need to not wait around to see what shows up to formal rush. You need to make recruiting automatic and part of your constant culture. That gives you a good chance to do values based stuff which can make your chapter better fast. Marketing is good too.

Strategically though, you need to look at why your members are willing to pay dues. That's probably because they just stumbled into rush and learned to love it in pledgeship. But, if you asked them if they'd be willing to pay their dues amount to get intramurals, the social events you do, etc without a fraternity being part of the equation, most would say no. I'm in the slightest saying your fraternity should be about those things, but you need to make members feel like they're getting their money's worth. When they don't that hurts collections and retention, which screws your finances. But, from the outside, if the perception is the benefits are not worth the costs, then people aren't going to join. You need to work on those perceptions and be able to sell the economies of scale you get by pooling resources that makes things possible no other student can have access to.

That and just learn to rush & retain better. Make the best of what you got and leave it better than you found it. Don't try to turn Hawaii into Ole Miss, or even USC, cause it'll never happen.

YES. This is totally it. Please include the hula girls, fire eaters, you know, all that crap they drag the tourists at the resorts to so they actually feel like they're in Hawaii. On a mostly commuter campus, I'm sure that will go over exceedingly well.

Don't forget your coconut bra!

I like this.

But definitely make sure that you are settled within your GLO before trying to make everything OK across the system.

For starters, the groups hazing the shit outta their pledges need to stop hazing the shit outta their pledges. You think you're gonna get people attracted to you if they constantly see half-naked guys parading across Campus Center carrying a keg? Having to run across Varney Circle just to address an initiated member as Mr. and Ms. So and So? What are the girls doing these days? The Gammies are no longer around, so the carrying of the pumpkins are no more, I imagine.

Just be glad you have a Greek Week. Greeks before you didn't have that opportunity. National groups were pretty independent from the KEOs and other locals.

While they were around, Imiloa Fraternity did not limit membership to Native Hawaiians. Though Wakaba Kai was Japanese in tradition, members did not have to be Japanese to join. As the OP said, that website is about 10 years old and I don't know why they haven't taken that crap off.

What she said. NPC groups are very hesitant to consider a Hawaii colony. AGD had an alum chapter in the islands since the 1930s. The AGD chapter wasn't chartered until 1992. Several NPC groups have good alumnae groups, but getting a new group on campus would be a massive undertaking and too much of a gamble. I've seen NPC interest groups spring up over the years -- I'm assuming members initiated on mainland schools transfer/come home and they want to establish their group in Hawaii. They're basically SOL, IMO.

Local sororities have been around since the 1940s. Every now and then they go dormant, only to come back to life again when alums decide they want to put in the effort to do a semester's rush. BBG was dormant for a while, but they've since restarted the group and have been putting in some solid numbers the last few years. They only rush in the Fall. AGD, being the only NPC on campus, holds informal recruitment both semesters.

I don't think they "folded" because of hazing. I think it's because members no longer really wanted to put in the effort to recruit new members. Some of the existing groups still openly haze despite the Non-Hazing policy set forth by CAPS. Greek organizations are considered Registered Independent Organizations (RIO) by UHM. Basically they're not even recognized by the university. In all publications (including website), groups need to disclose this information.

I also need to note that Sigma Phi Epsilon used to be on campus from the late 80s (I think) to the mid 90s. I'm pretty sure they didn't close because of hazing. I think it was a numbers issue. Kappa Sigma coming to campus a few years ago was a big surprise and I'm glad they're doing well.

For crying out loud....Hawaiian Barbecue (you might be familiar with L&L if you're in Southern California) does not = Hawaiian food. So if you don't know shit about Hawaiian food, I suggest you STFU.

To HawaiiTKE, I've read your other posts. Seriously kid, you need to slow down and learn to play nice because these people will eat you alive and feed your carcass to the wolves. Is it worth making an ass of yourself and potentially having your chapter and other Hawaii Greeks find out? That's up to you. There's no such thing as KEYBOARD COURAGE under a thin veil of anonymity. Greek Life is that small, and it's only a matter of time before you're outed.

That said, ALOHA. And Go Warriors.

I don't see how a newly-initiated member of Fraternity A would have any impact on Fraternity B's practices.

Quite comfortable and entertaining for a supposed newbie.

Either a sock puppet; someone who has been reading GC and finally decided to register; or a true newbie who loves trash talking. Aloha, regardless. :)

You're right. I obviously wasn't implying that he could. Fixing my post now.

;) \m/

Wellllll, perhaps we would be surprised what goes on in some instances. Pillow talking and any derivative thereof.

Thanks for the advice and help everyone.

I was thinking we needed a Hawaiian sock for this thread and here you are.;)

Even someone who's legally blind but wearing really good glasses could see who that one is.

Of course.

I think a lot of it has to do with good public relations. Your IFC should develop a PR plan. First things first: update the Greek Life website. Your chapter should also have an active and regularly updated website.

Next, the Greeks should have a presence at Freshman Orientation. Set up a booth, hand out fliers with dates for fraternity rush and info about the organizations.

Another way to improve your presence is to require your members to get involved on campus. For example, in my chapter, each member had to be involved in at least 2 non-Greek organizations on campus. You could require involvement in one.

Stop the hazing. Period.

Host events that the entire campus is invited to: like a lecture series, intramural sporting event, or sponsor a study break snack table at the library during finals.

Pick one day each week where all Greeks wear letters on campus-- at UCF, for example, we did this on Wednesdays, when IFC and Panhellenic had their meetings.

Put signs up on campus to promote your GLO's name, promote your philanthropy, etc.

When your pledges initiate, put an ad in the school newspaper.