That was a slightly different situation. SigEp probably owned that house so they had input on who could live there. At W &L they don't own the house.

True, if that is the case and Sig Ep doesn't own it, then they should be able to do what they want.

LOL. I don't think W&L wants them *that* bad. Yes, W&L does own all Greek housing, but I don't think they'd have a local fraternity here in a million years. That's the mentality of the school--they want to be able to say they have national groups and that they're regulated, etc. So either:

1. Some miracle will happen and they'll colonize as another national
2. W&L will close the house for three years and they'll recolonize after that
3. W&L will turn the house into alternative housing, effectively ending the house's chances of ever coming back. This is what happened to the Delts, for example. Their house is now the international house. And I think ZBT is now the outing club house.

I think that it's going to be option 2, but we'll see, I guess.

A National came in and did a “House Cleaning” after an off campus incident about two years back. Those members who could no longer be active within their chapter chose to form another National GLO colony by deeming it an organization. This didn’t require IFC approval and in a sense circumvented the expansion policies. Now that this organization is seeking IFC recognition as part of their chartering requirements their getting voted down. From my perspective though I feel their more concerned with being recognized by IFC so they can start having social events with Panhellenic sororities.

Does that mean Panhellenic sororities are not permitted to have social events with non recognized organizations even though the members of the fraternity are all students? How could they enforce that one? I would bet the sororities socialize with athletic teams, non-greeks, service orgs, ect all the time.

Many campus Panhells make an agreement they will not hold mixers with a fraternity unrecognized by IFC. That doesn't mean they'll ignore the ABs all the time, they just won't hold a mixer/social with them.

Yes, it sounds like a good idea to me. Who would turn his back on his brother? Not my brother.

It’s an unwritten rule as mentioned above but I know of two sororities that have it outlined in their insurance policies that they cannot hold a mixer/social event with any unsanctioned GLOs.

Why doesn't the chapter close, all the guys move out, and a new fraternity colonize on campus and W&L rent out the "physical house/structure" to them? Like Theta Xi (or whomever isn't at W&L) would start a chapter and move into the existing house.

Well, that's another option, I guess, but the thing is that W&L isn't really looking to just get new fraternities right and left. The feeling is that the school wants to reduce the number of groups because we have so few options for non-Greek living, and because we can barely support 15 groups anymore. However, SigEp wasn't really a group that had been 'marked for elimination' in anyone's minds. It'll be really interesting to see if a new group colonizes, with or without the current SigEp brothers in it. They have a decent amount of clout on campus (the dean of the college is an alum) and I don't know how it will be handled. Our school, which is rabidly Greek, is trying to find ways to be nicer to non-Greeks. It's really, really tough if you're a non-Greek here. Everyone here is paranoid about the administration looking to cut groups or regulate GLOs and discourage people from rushing, but they're really just trying to prevent the independents from feeling so stigmatized...

WHOA
 

The latest development in the story is that all the guys I have on my buddy list in from the former Sigma Phi Epsilon chapter are now sporting profiles like:

"Establishing dominance... ADF"
"I'm in a fraternity again ADF"

I guess they're going through with this. This is gonna be INTERESTING in a few weeks, especially since the school has no news of it posted on the website.

Charter revocation
 

Sigma Phi Epsilon, as a national fraternity, has zero tolerance for a lot of things, alcohol abuse and mediocre chapters included. (I'm not trying to insult the bros at W&L, I'm just stating a point) About two years before I joined, our chapter had a membership of about 24 men two semesters in a row, and nationals put them on notice to close. We got our numbers up, and we're been fine ever since. A few times, we've been told by our Regional Directors that we need to increase numbers, but we've never been formally put on notice to close. HQ has never been shy about pulling a chapter's charter if they feel it is needed. I guess since we feel we are the leaders in the fraternity world, we must always be improving, so HQ is sometimes harsh
As to the brothers joining another national fraternity, I was always under the impression that once you have seen a fraternity's ritual, you cannot join another fraternity. At least, that's how it is on my campus. If you pledge a fraternity and drop without seeing their ritual, you must wait a certain amount of time. If you've seen ritual, no other fraternity will even touch you.
I hope everything goes well for the bros at W&L, whatever happens.

In Phi,
Sigep 653

Well, I'm now back at school--right now the only people here are Dorm Counselors like me, athletes, and freshman who are going on pre-orientation hiking or service trips...

All the SigEps are being pretty tight-lipped about their plans right now (which is probably pretty wise of them), but I think there's something brewing.

Classes start September 11, and full-out freshman orientation (along with the massive rounds of parties) starts Saturday.

News is sure to break soon. I'll keep you all updated.

I'm about to go to a 21st birthday party for a SigEp :D

OK, it's definite. The SigEps are now calling themselves Alpha Delts, having visits from Alpha Delt nationals, and rushing guys from their off-campus (non-official fraternity) house. They are going to petition the IFC and the student administration to get status as a recognized fraternity. If they don't get recognition, they say they are going to keep up. Additionally, they can't get back their official house because SigEp has it leased from the school for at least the next 3 years. I don't see how they expect their rush to go well without recognition or a house, but whatever. There's also the potential that SigEp nationals are going to take some action. Additionally, if SigEp still decides to come back in 3 years, there will be 16 fraternities on campus--which is way too many for the size of our school.