TKE-Bowling Green -- OH
 

I helped install Zeta Lambda chapter of TKE at Bowling Green
on 30 May 1958. It had about 60 charter members and was not
ever a strong chapter. We had one of the smaller school-built houses on the quadrangle. I do not recall the system as being
a good one. Attempts to reactivate failed; the greeks there not a model by anyone's rating. No reason, though, that it could not be. Perhaps we shall return, but our record at BGSU was simply
awful. Many others have failed there, too.

I am not sure if they are going to tear down sig ep and phi tau, its supposed to be part of the whole renovation of wooster st. Sorority row is goign to stay the way it is.

ANd replying to the post about hwo greek life at bgsu isnt a model to go by. I dont know if I agree with that, while it is different from some bigger schools, I believe that there is a lot of heart and motivation in the members of all the organizations. If the campus did not have us it would be far worse off. In the last coupel of years a lot of things have changed and the chapters are a lot more organized now. The only problem I have with the greek system is the school owning the houses, and the over colinization. A lot of chapters are strugglings and basically the new chapters are killing off older ones.

I have a problem with people who say things like that.

If you're part of an older organization that feels its #'s are being threatened by a startup group, you have FAR more resources at your disposal to succeed.

If your chapter has become obsolete, it's time to change.

On the other hand, it sounds like the university doesn't take a real active role in who colonizes, etc.

If there are a number of chapters failing, why allow new ones to colonize?

I guess what I'm asking is, if the system can't support what it currently has, (with the existing resources kt points out), why "expand?

The last time I was on the BG campus, the Delt House was just off campus and not part of what seemed like a kind of "cookie cutter" Greek Row. I don't know if that's good or bad, but it looked pretty good. (I didn't see inside because it was during summer break and the house was closed.)

When I was at Valpo I did a project on researching all of the groups that had been on campus. My best resource? Yearbooks!

Go to your library, and find the yearbooks. Usually there's an archive or a set in the reference collection under local history. A librarian can help you find them if they're off in some local history archive.

Usually you can flip through to find the photos of organizations, and greek orgs are often in a clump. Sometimes it's just alphabetically by org, but often the photos will be sports teams, greek orgs, service orgs, business/academic orgs, general clubs, etc.

This is also a great way to find out what locals may have been on your campus. In our case, there were some men's locals that became fraternities in the 1950s and 1960s, but our sororities were local until 1997-2000. You can find out a lot of interesting history that way.

Also, it can give you clues as to why orgs left-- sometimes you can see the number of members in the photo get smaller and smaller, and then the next year there's no photo. :(

wow - four years left for conklin?!?!?!

my initiating chapter is at BG, and wow, we have a house (errr, unit) in the conklin area...

so are these new places going to be very big? or are all of the conklin greeks screwed?

i gotta say i feel bad for KKG - they've got an awesome house on that row

marissa

Unless they've done major work to the Conklin row (which I doubt), I won't be sorry to see something new. The first floor space that is decorated and organized by the groups are generally nice but the living spaces upstairs is not. It is dorm space built in the early 60s with inadequate closet/ electricity/ bathrooms........ 20 women with 2 showers was a recipe for disaster prior to formal or pref party! I didn't live there but helped with the original renovation/ decoration when Pi Phi moved into the Conklin row across from KKG. I still remember cleaning out the snake pit when we got our house (it previous had been Sigma Nu)!

Why not expand? If groups that have resources are not using them, and someone else can do a better job with less, then why stand in their way?

Those who do not compete are doomed to fail.

Well, I'm assuming that the present chapters, and at least some of the ones that have failed, did try to compete. I don't think I could, in good faith, recommend spending the money it costs to colonize at a school where there seems to be so many failures.

Were they all bad chapters, or is this not a place where the Greek System will thrive? It appears that there are a fair number of chapters for the size school, but something seems pretty fluid there to me.

When I'm back at my alma mater, which is about the same size and in the same area of the country, it doesn't seem like there's that much churn. By and large, most of the same houses as when I was there in the 60's are still there.

Of course I'm not there often, so maybe that's an illusion.

Alpha Sigma Phi's Gamma Zeta chapter was chartered in 1950 and is currently active today.

We've been approved to recolonize in the Fall of 2006. :)

The thing is everyone competes but we have a ton of chapters and only 12% of the student body is greek.

We have had 2 chapters as colonies for 4 years too, delta sigma phi and Sigma Nu. Sigma Nu has 11 guys. Delta Sig slowly grows, but not that fast. basically greek affairs has approved 4 more colonizations for fraternities, no sororities, and the last chapter to form an intrest group had to wait a semester because they were only able to find 5 guys (theta chi). When the interest groups cant even be formed because of lack of interested people, then I think its time to lay off of colonization.

the rate of fraternity colonization has always amazed me at that school...

however, the number of sororities seems to hold stable...

marissa

Thank you, Thats exactly what I have been saying for a long time... Too bad the people in charge dont think that way.

There is just this big push to recreate the look of the greek system at BGSU but its not really working for them, the groups that were breaking the rules just keeping gettting pushed underground, and the groups who try and do things the right way and play by the rules end up getting hurt, Then replaced by a new chapter. In the case of Sigma Nu it doesnt even look like they will get their charter back :(

Nothing improves a greek system like competition. Nothing causes stagnation and decline like closing it from expansion.

Let the strong survive, and let the weak go on hiatus for several years.