In other related news back at my first school, Lion closed their chapter sometime in the mid-90s - I’m not sure why and have never listened to the pure speculation I’ve heard over the years.

I moved back to my hometown and joined the advisory board of the Gamma Phi Beta where I was initiated in 2010, becoming their chapter advisor in 2011. I grieved a lot when that chapter was closed earlier this year (the closing meeting was held in the same room in which I attended the preference party for Bears which had some crazy emotional resonance for me). It was a very sad day but I also recognize that Greek life had just changed too much on that campus.

Bears just concluded successful fall recruitment and welcomed home eight new women. I’m glad the campus still has a wonderful NPC option alongside the various locals and multi-cultural sororities that have opened over the last two decades.

The end.

No really, I promise. If you read this far, thank you for letting me share my story!

This was a phenomenal story. I really enjoyed it.

Great story, jenidallas!

Is the Lions chapter the only NPC group left there? And the 2 cheerleaders who later got a bid--did they go to Bid Day and find an empty envelope?

Bears is the only NPC group left on campus. This year was their first year to do fall recruitment alone.

This school has a lot of commuters so before the days of guaranteed-bid-if-options-maximized, they didn't want to make people wait around so they posted a list of names who received a bid. The cheerleaders would not be receiving a matched bid so by the list, they should have stayed home. But the sororities were ready with blank COB bids so by showing up, the chapter they had ISPed picked them up with a COB bid right after everyone else got their bid cards.

I have to say, I know later they said they felt so strange standing there with no envelope and then getting an envelope shoved in their hands 30 seconds later... both eventually dropped out right before initiation. One said she could never get over knowing she was not "first choice". The other one went back through recruitment again the next year (and was rushed hard by Bears... she's ironically the one who dropped them the first time, but ended up pledging Tigers AGAIN... and initiating that time!)

This was a great story--I really enjoyed reading it!
I know the campus you transferred to because that's mine--but I have no idea the campus you were initiated at? So they only have one NPC now?

Correct... just Bears.

Loved your story JeniDallas!

Thank you for sharing your story! I really enjoyed it.

Did you SIP? Is that why your friends were surprised?

Great story!

I did SIP. So did my roommate.

I will admit that I knew enough about the Greek system at that point to know that all the chapters would still be below total (which back then was 40... but no chapter had been above the low 30s in years) and that COB would be a possibility.

I still think back and wonder what would have happened if I had not gotten a bid initially. That happened to three girls and they all got bids at 4:01 pm. I think my 18 year old self would have accepted it but my 41 year old self wonders if I would have felt bad about myself knowing I was not that high in the bid list? (And now being WAY involved on the other end having watched manual bid matching, I very fully understand why it's never a great idea for bid ranking to be seen by too many eyes!)

I wonder if I might have been persuaded to join Bears but I don't think so. Funny, but today my mom days she just cannot picture me being in her sorority at all. (She always says this like its going to offend me somehow!). I remember that my perceptions changed a bit as I grew older but I never came around to feeling a bond. It's funny too - their ladies would often be over at our house during the summer when I was home from college (my mom was later their Rush Advisor) so i'd help them paint banners and listen to Greek life stories but I never did feel any "click" like I'd fit in with them. The two girls from my high school were super-popular so high school friends thought I was crazy not to pledge them. And the girl who I'd gone to Russia with eventually became my "sister" when she married my step-brother. Funny, huh?!

Also - this school struggled with finding a good balance of Panhellenic recruitment rules for years. The "suicide loophole" which apparently became very popular in years after mine (and apparently actually promoted to PNMs in later years) did a lot to harm the stability and equality of the Greek system on this particular campus.

For my part, I am very sad that ever occurred and really hope that the SIPs in my year were not the start of a horrible trend although I suspect they were.