The new chapter might have to fight an old, undesirable reputation more than a group that's coming back after a longer hiatus would. They also might have to deal with members who are early alumnae, and depending on how the sorority and the members tend to deal with it, it can sometimes end badly.

However, the sorority has obviously deemed this a risk they're willing to take or they wouldn't be recolonizing.

Gotcha. Thankies!

^^^I can only speak for my sorority as I don't know about others, but as for us, it's the same as any other colonization, no matter how long the chapter was closed.




1.) You don't really go out looking for seniors, per se. When you're drumming up interest for a colony, you emphasize that all classes are needed, and there are always a few senior ladies (who are maybe transfers or are going to be in school for an extra year) who are interested.

2.) I've seen it asked on colony interest forms (ex: if you go to a colony website to sign up for colony recruitment) if the PNM has ever participated in formal recruitment or other recruitment before. Also, if you're working closely with Panhellenic, they may provide colony teams with a list of women who maybe dropped out of recruitment or didn't get bids. Now as to the crazy part, it's just like any other recruitment process, it's a roll of the dice and hoping that that person isn't a crazy girl who just wants letters. I find that the process tends to "shake out" those kind of women (as being part of a colony requires more than say, being a NM of an existing group) They're usually all "OMG all this work! I just wanted letters. I'm out of here."

Gotcha -- makes sense.

RE: Seniors
 

I have no idea if the is common practice, or becoming common practice, but I know when ZTA recolonized at Louisville this year, they asked to have seniors be "free," meaning they could recruit as many seniors as they wanted without them applying to their total membership numbers. The motion was defeated by the college panhellenic.

That's really short-sighted, IMO. How could that possibly hurt the other chapters? All it does is make sure they have an instant alumnae base, and to deny them that seems a bit petty.

The reasoning I heard was that then they would not have any graduating members, making them larger than the other groups entering FR next year. ZTA presented a compelling argument, I thought, about their attrition numbers over the first two semesters of their colonies, which (if they held true) would have basically equaled the average number of seniors graduating from the other chapters. However, I think the impossibility of knowing for sure there would be attrition scared some of the chapters into thinking ZTA would be significantly larger entering FR next year.

They were allowed to recurit to total of 94. If they could take 94 freshman/sophomore/juniors (and seniors were free) then technically there was a chance ZTA could have 100% retention and enter fall FR with 94 members. This isn't a campus where total is 94 but most chapters are at 130 or something, most of the chapters are around 94, so when the Panhellenic polled the number of women graduating from each chapter, for some it was going to be 15-20 women. So, they would be returning to FR with say 80 women to ZTA's 94. That was their logic, anyway...

ETA: So, the other chapters were betting that ZTA would take some seniors in their colony of 94, to help make it more even. I haven't actually seen the class breakdown of the colony to see if that came true or not.

Question.

If campus total is 200 (as in, each sorority is allowed to have two hundred girls), would the re/colonizing chapter take 200ish (or 3/4 that, as with what y'all have said above)? Or would they take less than the 3/4 or..? I know this is going to be different per sorority and each case, but would they try to colonize a "full" chapter or just do partial?

One would assume full, but I just wanted to make sure I am understanding. :]

Yeah, I would have DEFINITELY voted thumbs down on this.

You don't know what people know, and wouldn't it have just been a giant "coincidence" when all the seniors turned out to be double majors who were staying for another year.

CaffeinatedPNM: Typically a chapter will try to recruit up to total. If they don't, there's a reasoning behind it.

Some campuses have allowed a colony to go to average cahpter size - such as Delta Gamma at Alabama. Total or average chapter size are the norm.

The issue here is stated versus actual total. Some schools go into rush with every chapter being at/above total already. Obviously if they only let a chapter colonize to total they'd be in a world of hurt. But typically (I think) a colony will pledge around the stated total. However, as I stated earlier, they they seem to be taking 10-15% fewer than that lately.