Okay, I came from a colony. We colonized the Eta Kappa chapter of DG here at NCSU. We were chartered in November and promised the house would be done by January, in time for informal rush. Then it was announced that the house wouldn't be done until March. And now it will not be done until August. But it WILL be done in August. Anyway, we had to hold informal rush in different rooms around campus and it was a HUGE problem. It would have been so much easier with a "home base." People got the locations mixed up and missed parties...even some of our sisters got the locations mixed up. I'm thankful that when formal rush comes along we will have a house. Cut DZ a break. It's hard to be new somewhere. Like other people said, not having a house in the first place on a good Greek campus is going to hurt them enough! Don't be selfish. It's unbelievably hard to colonize and get things up and going. Everything has to be built from scratch. Plus, on most Greek campuses, certain sororities and certain fraternities tend to pair off. I know at NCSU there are certain sororities that tend to do things with certain fraternities and vice versa. As a new group on campus, it's natural that all the fraternities want to do things with them, including ATO. You just sound selfish by saying you don't think they should be allowed to use their house. Like everyone has said, the girls will know it's not their house...and it'll hurt them enough already. The Greek community is about helping eachother out. ATO is just trying to help.

Here's the actual paragraph from the Alligator (I was getting concerned I misspoke so I got off my duff & searched):

This is not the first time the chapter has recolonized. In 1990, the sorority had difficulty recruiting new members because of the fear of being out at night at the time of the Gainesville murders.

I think this may have been some editorializing on the part of the paper.

I was at UF from 1985-1989, and I went back during Rush (okay, to party - hey, I was in grad school) from 1989 - 1991.

Pi Phi, who did not have a house at the time, rushed (or at least preffed) at ATO. It might've been AGR at some point - yes, there is a difference between ATO & AGR - but a sorority using ATO back in my days sounds really familiar. Pi Phi was the only group without a house, so i'm pretty sure it was them.

I think after that (early 90s), they rented out the Phi Mu house for a couple of years.

Just so you all know, the ATO house is a block away from the Kappa house - neither are on Sorority (or Fraternity) Row.

AZD had an old house, but they always claimed they were getting a new one. But they had low numbers since the early 80s. They finally DID get their new house in the mid/late 90s, but that couldn't save the chapter.



The murders happened the weekend before classes started - Rush had ended by then. The murders did not affect rush.

Thank you. Please people, let's not create moral outrage where there isn't any. I seriously doubt any GLO would tell a student newspaper that this was the sole reason their efforts were not what they had hoped.

I think its fine if we use the ATO house....and just an fyi the ATO house was used for our recruitment in september when we were first colonizing so why wouldnt it be used again? Yall didnt have a problem with it then why now? And if I am not mistaken Panhellenic is made up of girls from every different chapter on campus and they all had to decide where to let us have recruitment, so if the representatives of 15 different sororities on our campus thought it was okay....id say its fair.

Please don't judge UF's ENTIRE greek community by a thread started by ONE member.

I agree that DZ should be given a fair chance at recruitment and holding parties in a fraternity house seems to be the way. UCF has done it for a while, and they've been successful.

The only thing I wonder is how a new chapter participating in rush is going to affect the smaller houses?

Also... if DZ took in about 150 girls for their colony... and there are only a few girls graduating this year.... how will this affect their numbers? If they meet quota the next two years... they're going to be huge, and only negatively affect the smaller houses (as mentioned in a previous rush thread somewhere....)

UF Panhellenic would not have invited DZ to colonize if it would hurt smaller houses...houses must be making quota and at total before they would consider opening up a new house. Panhellenic had to vote to let DZ on campus...so it's their issue. I say, best of luck to them.

WRONG
 

Being a UF Greek Alumni I can tell you that there are 2 houses who haven't gotten quota in years and are no where near total.
The big houses were bitching that they were getting too big! That's all that mattered to them and PHC, because the exec board of PHC are from the bigger houses!! The smaller houses didn't matter when I was there and matter even less now. What the big houses don't realize is if the smaller houses close, someone is going to have to take their place at the bottom and oh what a reality check that is going to be.

As I said before, the big houses are getting bigger and the smaller houses are getting smaller.
UF PHC does not give a crap about the smaller houses!!
:mad:

These are facts- from someone who spent four years living it!!!

I agree that it SHOULD be this way, and I don't know specifically what the situation was at UF, but there is no rule that says all groups must be at total and making quota before expansion occurs, and it does often occur when there are struggling houses, and does often hurt those houses.

hey curlygirly nice to see you still around....hope everything is great for you in kappa. DZ is not made up entirely of 150 freshman. The way the recruiting was done was so that our chapter was made up like most other chapters on campus. If anything we have way more juniors than any other class. There are four seniors actually graduating this semester but there are still like 20 other seniors plus another 20-30 juniors who will all be graduating next year just like every other chapter. So we wont be giagantic...besides a lot of chapters at UF are way bigger than we are with 200-210 members. And I disagree about the heads of panhellenic just coming from the big houses because I know of a couple of girls in panhellenic that are influential that are from the smaller houses. And UF is just like any other school the chapters are cyclic and in the four years I have been here I have seen two chapters in particular go from the middle popularity region to the top and likewise seen two kind of fall in stature. But I honestly believe that UF has a great greek system and being new we have felt very welcome. 154 girls from other chapters signed up to be our big sisters for two weeks and treated us like they would their own within their own chapters. We have been invited to dinner from a couple of other houses and have started planning with other sororities to have social events together next year. We have also felt welcome by the fraternities as well including ones letting us use their houses for banners and events. So maybe a lot of the groups are very about theirselves but it seems many more are doing bigger philanthropies and doing them in groups together and not by theirselves. And if that doesnt isnt unity i dont know what is.

Re: WRONG
 

I'm sorry to hear that, but to the best of my knowledge, expansion requires a UNANIMOUS vote.

But remember that even if they only have a few girls graduating this year and next . . . they could have a hundred girls graduate the year after that! :eek: Even if they do pick up quota the next two years, they might be big for a couple years, but it will even out by the time you graduate, so I wouldn't worry too much about their size.

I think DZ may have some trouble attracting girls because of their lack of a house, however. Even if they're having a gorgeous one being built, most girls want to live in when they're sophomores or juniors . . . not seniors. If the house won't be built for a few more years, girls may bypass DZ for that reason alone.

Yes, you're right about this point. Some girls want to join a sorority that has a house, a campus tradition, etc. But other girls like the excitement of starting something "all new".

I know I keep saying this, but when I was @ UF in the 80s, Pi Beta Phi did not have a house. Twenty years later (yes, I know, sounds like a long time), they have the most modern house of all sororities and are still going strong. :)

Re: Re: WRONG
 

This varies by campus. The by-laws of the campus Panhellenic Council govern this...it is quite often a 2/3rds vote. The school in my current home town follows this rule. For them to expand, 7 of the 11 existing sororities would have to vote affirmatively. Sooo, it is quite possible that a very small house could be out-voted by the groups that are way over total and obvsiously quite strong.

Re: Re: Re: WRONG
 

I stand corrected. Either way, however, I think that bringing a new group is good for everyone, if the smallest group can stick it out a few years.