I think this is definitely a good point. The NPC rush process is designed for each sorority to have a chance to "woo" girls to their organization, thus the biggest groups are seen as the most desirable because they successfully captured the attention of more girls in the past, so they must be doing something right. By the time the NPHC groups do intake, most of their potential new members have long decided which group they want to be in, often based off national reputation or "Every woman in my family has been an AKA so there's really no other choice." So within the NPHC, numbers aren't equated with quality as much as they are in the NPC, because there's no "rush" process that makes the sororities compete for women -- the vast majority of the women already know where they're going.

As for the colony, it's definitely sad, but I think ZTA made the right decision. It sounds like, from the way numbers dropped, that there were some internal problems that could severely affect their size. I'm guessing that numbers weren't the biggest problem here, but possibly a side affect of the problem? And the lack of a house wouldn't help them either.

I know I will fuel some flames but my take is a bit different. My biological sister was a founding sister of a colony, years ago and they too didn't have a house. And the entire 18 sorority greek system did. Right there they were "set apart" from the rest. Granted, diversity is a good thing but I don't believe being different is what some young women going through rush wants.

She has very specific opinions in her colony (they have since been chartered and received a house pretty quickly but the chapter isn't what she would call one of the best on campus.) She feels that NATIONAL errorred big time with some of the women they chose.

This could be true because think about it, if the rushees are meeting subquality women AND they don't have a house, in theory they are going to have only subquality pledges. And then those new members are now initiated and still unpolished and the cycle repeats itself at rush time.

Maybe I'm shallow but when I wanted to be in a sorority, living in the house was definitely something I wanted to do. No question. So, if I were to rush a sorority which in all likely hoood wouldn't have a house until AFTER I graduated, I wouldn't have pledged them.

Even if National chose top notch girls for her colony, not having a house really hurt them and I don't believe after more than 10 years they have fully recovered.

Personally, I could go on and on and on with how I feel colonies are at such a disadvantage right off the bat since they can only get new members AFTER rush is over (and perhaps have to "settle" for those women who didn't get their first choice, any choice, etc) which then leads to potentially self esteem problems, etc. but I won't.

I applaud ZTA closing them even though my heart goes out to those women.

I also disagree with the quality over quantity in terms of how nationals look at it. They would keep the chapter open if it was financially smart. Period. National would rather you make quota every year, retain those girls for 4 years than to have half quota of only cheerleaders and homecoming queens.

Again, I don't mean to be argumentative but I think in the long run it's better for the KU chapter of ZTA to be shut down for now.

i think that this is possible, but there are plenty of women who go to school without having any ties to greek orgs. i think that one of the other differences between npc and nphc is that (and i could be completely wrong here) nphc orgs don't compete for the same pool of women. npc rush= 125 women sign up and attend parties for 6 houses (example)....so each house has to be able to compete with the others to get their "share" of the women. from what i can tell, intake for nphc is much different (duh), but that there isn't the same competition for the same group of women. i don't know if there are several orgs on the campus if they hold some sort of an open house type thing where women can meet members of all of the groups, but even if there is, it seems that in the end, the potential new members decide which group they want to pursue. to me, nphc intake sounds like npc's cob.

I think that in a lot of cases, as we definitely saw with threads on here re 2 DZ colonizations, it is announced far enough ahead of rush - usually a year for big schools like KU - that if women decide it is something they want to pursue, they have the time to think about that decision. If you have family ties to the group (which usually comes into play when groups for colonies are selected - the amount of alums in the area) it probably also plays a part. Colonies also take all classes of women, unlike formal rush, where at some schools is 90% freshmen. Some women drop out of rush because they want to be part of the colony. At any rate, I wouldn't characterize colonizing members as "leftovers."

As far as National picking the women - well, as we know, 2 people could look at the same girl and see 2 different things. I think it's very important to have women at the colony who are familiar with the type/region of Greek system there. (i.e., don't send the Belles from LSU to pick women for the Western Connecticut U colony, or vice versa)

I am saddened that our International Office decided to close the KU colony. However, I trust their judgement and know they had the best interests of the women and ZTA at heart. My hope is that the colony members are able to pursue sorority membership. I wish that they could be initiated into ZTA, but if that is not possible, I hope they find their home.