This is why I continue to be perplexed at the death grip these chapters have on the status quo. The reason chapters can survive with 200+ girls when the house only holds 50 is because girls really enjoy living in 1 year, MAYBE 2 and then move their membership to a different phase. I loved living in all 3 years, but my chapter lost members every year over just this issue. Because of numbers, if you were a member you were required to live in. And we had a BEAUTIFUL house with one of the best locations on campus.

I know the IU chapters are very strong, but how many members do they lose every year because someone is sick of the BS and drama of living with 100 sets of raging hormones?

It depends on the chapter--there is one that is notorious for losing 90% of it's PC by the time they're seniors, but some rarely lose more than 5 out of a PC of 40-50.

There's a chapter that continually loses about 90% of their pledge classes by graduation and the (inter)national organization isn't concerned/ hasn't intervened?

*mindblown*

- I get upset as advisor to new member education if we lose 1 out of 25ish by the time a group graduates....

You're kidding, right? I have yet to hear of an NPC that gives awards for retention. I have, however, heard of LOTS of groups that give awards for reaching quota and total.

We don't give specific awards for retention, but it is definitely considered in determining the overall performance of a chapter.

At some schools, it's every chapter -- or at least that's how it seemed. I'm looking at you, Penn.

Are you at Penn? Unless you have some numbers to back this up, don't go around talking shit about a Greek system.

Interesting. I've never heard of this happening before. Is this common? Do you know if we couldn't find the time to present or the school couldn't fit us in? Or the schedules of both just didn't work out? I wonder, if it was on us, was it because we wanted to "back out" of presenting...

I think it was more of the both schedules couldn't line up variety. That's the impression our Panhel rep was under.

The size of the senior classes in the NPC groups is visible to the general population of a campus. Penn is a campus where it's not necessarily "cool" to be involved with an NPC chapter as an upperclassman, and especially not as a senior. 90% is, of course, an exaggeration, but there has been a retention problem at that campus for a long time. Most non-officers never live in the houses, and the Penn network is so fantastic that the lifetime-membership aspect is not a big part of the sell.

Does Penn guarantee housing for all four years? Sometimes I wonder whether or not Greek life is as appealing at some of the selective schools that do since the networking and housing part is already addressed. Retention at my undergrad was pretty low after the sophomore year, when you could get equal or better housing as an independent for the same cost.

It isn't guaranteed, but people who want it can generally get it. The sorority houses (in contrast to the fraternity houses, many of which are larger and have desirable locations on campus) are rowhouses and very similar to the off-campus rentals in the neighborhood. So if you want to live in that kind of house, you can share one with a bunch of your friends and probably have a single room and boys/booze if you want them.

I think the urbanness of the school has a lot to do with the culture. There's a lot to do in town, especially once you turn 21. There's a young-professional scene, not just a college scene. Recruitment is still really popular, but it's seen as a frosh/soph type of thing.

Are you an alumna of or advisor to a Penn sorority chapter?

That's right. I do know that campus well. None of this is controversial there.