And it was 180? (I saw that earlier in this thread) Holy freaking crap.

33girl, that's been just about everybody's initial reaction -- mine too. But after seeing the number breakdowns it makes sense. We worked very closely with our NPC Area Advisor to arrive at this decision. To answer your earlier question, Chapters may recruit up to the new Total.

i believe that you mean total is now 225. it can be confusing!

South Carolina's total is now 252, so no big surprise there.

Buttonz: Give the Bama SDT Web site a try:

http://bama.ua.edu/~sigdelts

When I visited Bama, it didn't look like the houses were all that big...they seemed a lot smaller than the houses at other campuses with enormous membership numbers (I'm thinking of Oklahoma and to some extent Ole Miss). Even the biggest buildings, like Chi O, look like they'd be spilling people out the sides if you tried to smoosh 300 people in there. How do Phi Mu, Tri Delt, etc. fit 250+ members inside for meetings, rituals, and meals? And how in the world do they squeeze in the whole chapter plus dozens of guests at the rush rounds and on Bid Day?
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WIKI VAPORIZER

It's sort of organized chaos but the houses are bigger than they look - for the most part. However, they are cramped and that's why they added one group last year and have another in the wings.

Most houses only sleep between 40-60 I'd say. Everyone else lives out. Many of the Chapters have gone to 2 seatings for formal sit down dinners and/or buffet come 'n go style. Some hold meetings elsewhere such as a nearby church while others are still cramming everyone in.

During Recruitment houses are packed to the rafters due to both the quantity of actives and PMNs. This is why there are more parties per round than a PNM attends. For example this year there were 23 parties for the 1st round over 2 days. PNMs only attend 15 parties (each sorority), then have several off times.

As for Bid Day, well it's a zoo. Houses are bursting at the seams with people spilling out into the yards and street. We set up tables in our courtyard for people to sit and eat. We still have to encourage folks to get up when their done (trying not be rude) to give others a chance to eat.

I imagine a lot of the houses, cramped as they are, have dorm wings bolted on that aren't visible from the street.

Probably the most spacious house is Pi Phi, but then it was built in 1996.

At one point I saw on the Treanor Architects site that Tri Delta at UA was planning a reno/rebuild, but that info seems to have disappeared.

Wow. Well, clearly the crowding is not decreasing the appeal for freshman students. Some of the houses could even pass for very grand and spacious single-family homes, and you could never be confused about that at Oklahoma. Do they have basement space they use for kitchens and so on?

Does the increased number of first round parties enable the houses to have fewer actives on the floor? It is no joke to keep track of that many people. I am beginning to grasp what you've described about being up all night for days on end. Alumnae must find it easy to move into careers in corporate event planning and convention hospitality.
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HeavyWoman live

Or cattle herding. Sorry, had to let the snark free.

At times it feels like cat herding. :D

I have a question about moving total up so much in this kind of environment. It seems to me pretty counter intuitive to do so when you have a recent colonization, an upcoming colonization, one NPC chapter that's so small it is unhoused and doesn't do formal recruitment, and at least one chapter that has struggled to make quota up until this year. (At least this is the overall situation I have gathered from reading Greekchat.) Wouldn't this make the big chapters even huger and the smaller/newer/struggling chapters struggle even more to try to keep up? Can someone explain to me the rationale behind the decision? I'm not dissing it, I'm just wondering what it is supposed to achieve.

usually when total is increased, the majority of chapters are well above total and have been for some time.

Average chapter size is 235. Out of the 15 groups on campus, only 3 will qualify for COB with total raised to 225. Of those 3, 2 were only 10 or so from the new total so we aren't talking about a lot of COB activity with them...all things considered.

Is this taking into account graduating seniors? Plus, some women may transfer/drop out/go inactive/or study abroad. Even then so, I'm sure many of those chapters would still not have a lot of spots to fill regardless.