tkes at u of l have like 100+ guys
we went with some of their new pledges to one of their parties
and the guy wouldn't let them in because he 'didn't know who they were'
i was like, 'omigod, he's a tke. . .'
he was like, 'well, our chapter is pretty big. . .but i don't think we pledged any new guys recently'
thank goodness, i knew the vice president and he was like, 'dude, you know these guys!'





in a chapter with 60 members and above, i don't see how you can call it a brother/sisterhood because you really don't know your members. you just know their name and maybe their fave color. . .so numbers mean crap to me. . .after seeing that at a party, i'm convinced small chapters rule.


'We ain't going nowhere. . .we can't be stopped. . .we're Phi Sigs for life. . .'

He is speaking of Oklahoma. The University of Oklahoma Beta Theta Pi chapter is notorious for 60 man pledge classes. Oklahoma State was the same way a few years back before they got into trouble. They are now back on track and will be huge again in the next few years.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

My school only has 1,200 undergrads. Only 450 girls, so the 3 sorotities combined only have 120, that's smaller than some Chapters! But I think having a small chapter is great because you know every one of your sisters by name and can easily form close bonds with then.

my chapter is average sized for our campus (about 50 guys) but I dont think being big takes away the uniqueness. I think it depends on the dynamics of the particular greek system in question. Ive seen big chapters that have a much stronger brotherhood than smaller ones

Re: I agree
 

Now,a friend of mine is in the same national as i am, but on another campus and her chapter has like 15 girls. It sucks! they barely have enough people to fill all the officer positions. Rush is good if they take three or four new girls. Everyone knows everyone but, it stinks because they let girls in they don't really like because they need the numbers. There is only one other sorority on campus and they' re tiny too.I tell her about the things we are doing (date night, crush party, trips to know where, pledge retreat, big sis recognition, senior ceremony etc.) and she's like " Oh we were going to have that, but no one came", or "we thought about that but its too expensive" or whatever. They have to pay so much more for t-shirts and stuff because their orders are always below the minimum for that company. Formal is a struggle because they don't have the bank roll to have it at a hotel or whatever. They had to have it in the student center one year (lame) and another year they had a formal with the other sorority b/c neither could afford on their own.FORGET intramurals or greek week or anything. It's just way toooooo much work for such a few people. I feel bad for her. She's always wanting to come to our suff-we let her!

I think medium sized is good. Not too big ,not too little ,just right! [/B][/QUOTE]



maybe it's because her school isn't behind the greek system. i know dozens of sororities that functioned on 18 or 19 people. . .and still threw parties, did community service, and had a hell of a time. . .
now, i think their sorority is the largest on our campus.

Sigma Nu is recognized by Florida State..but the chapter isn't that big

I can't imagine holding chapter with 200 girls! It's hard enough with our 25 (25 is GOOD for a Greek org at my school). Same goes for new member education.

The thing about smaller chapters (less than 15) is that they CAN NOT operate in the traditional presidential-hierarchical structure. In a period of less than 6 months, we lost about 20 girls to graduation, transfers, and study abroad. At that point, we had about 8 people. Our national headquarters realized that those 8 did SO much for the chapter (and all had at least one office), it was killing us. So, before the next Recruitment (we rush in the Spring), National came in and completely reorganized us and placed an Oversight Committee in charge of us. We no longer had officers, but we were divided into teams of Internal Affairs and External Affairs. Our chapter advisor, who was an accountant, did our books. Our traveling consultant was basically stationed at our chapter that entire year. Members of the committee (consisting of alumnae in the area and various national council members) required us to update them weekly about events, chapter relations, etc. It actually cut down on all the work we had to do, as they wanted us to focus on getting our numbers to a healthy size (but keep in mind, a woman from Alabama's idea of what a "good chapter size" is didn't go too well with a New England liberal arts college's realities). We've kept the structure, but the committee has decided that because we've grown to a healthy size for us and chapter relations are better, we can go ahead and reform into a traditional chapter structure.

White_Chocolate, I'd suggest your friend's chapter contact National. I've heard that Phi Sig is really good about getting consultants and others to help with chapters. It may be that the chapter size is great at 15, but they seriously have to do way too much work. I've been there. :)

Is it just me, or are there a LOT more offices than there used to be? When I was in school we had 9 people on exec, and about 10 other positions that didn't take a lot of work or were seasonal (like Homecoming Float or Greek Sing). Now it seems like there are twice that many positions to fill, and no one can have more than one because they're so time consuming. How are these smaller chapters supposed to get out and rush girls and increase their size when they are bogged down with all these offices?

To clear some things up:
DG is no longer the largest sorority at USC, this year Kappa Kappa Gamma became the largest at USC with around 230.
The smallest chapter at USC still has over 100 in it.
My house has around 130 and I would like to say that I certainly do feel that I know my sisters well. I don't think anyone was trying to brag about having a big chapter, they were just stating that there are some big chapters out there. Having a big chapter can be an advantage and a disadvantage. For instance, most of the frats at USC do not have nearly as many guys as the average sorority and so when they do excahnges or so forth, things can get kind of unequal. However, we have enough sisters to go around during rush so that each PNM can meet at least 3 sisters individually during any round. And with that many different girls you usually always have someone with the certain aspects the chapter may be looking for in any officer position.
On the note of the last post, my chapter certainly does have a lot of offices, but only 6 of these are on exec. There are around 30 offices total though including things like spirit chair, and alumni relations, and t-shirt chair.

Largest Chapter
 

At UT-Austin in the mid 1980s the ZBT's had 170-180 members. They had a 62 man pledge class my Jr. Year if I remeber correctly. Sammy and Sig Ep each were at about 150.

I attend Middle Tennessee State University in Murfreesboro, TN. There are around 20,000 students (give or take a few hundred); about 18% or less are greek. There are 7 sororities:

AXO=91
ADPi=112 (give or take a few; I know that they are over 100)
AOPi=116 (they are the biggest)
XO=100
DZ=65
KD=101
ZTA=80

As you can see there are huge jumps in numbers; quite frankly, it is difficult to be competitive. However, I can honestly tell you that we are an awesome chapter! We won 13 awards last year, including a national award for our philanthropy efforts, we were 2nd in grades, we are the current flag football champions (we've never even made it to finals so wer'e pretty excited!) and we placed 3rd in the Homecoming float this fall.

Last fall, half of our chapter graduated or got married. This past fall, we DOUBLED our chapter! No easy thing to do. Plus, we recently raised total from 65 to 80; we are going to have a formal spring recruitment in 2003 to raise our total to 80.

I love being a Delta Zeta and wouldn't have it any other way! Plus, I think we have GREAT sorority relationships; my best friend is a KD and I love many AOPis and ADPis as well as XOs.

Woops....almost forgot; there are 12 fraternities (sorry guys! I don't have the time to put them in alphbetical order!)

ATO
BETA
PI KAPPA PHI
TKE
KAPPA SIGMA
PI KAPPA ALPHA
KAPPA ALPHA
SIGMA NU
SAE
AGR
SIG EP
SIGMA CHI

I know that back in the day my chapter was well over 150 man chapter but that was 30-40 years ago from what im told. I think thats the biggest thats ever been on my campus, but im not sure.

Well, back in 92 when we had 150 guys, Sigma CHi has 200.

Things have changed.