Aww, the pics are great(so are the shirts!!) and all the beautiful girls look so happy!! Congrats to Alpha Phi at Bama!!!

I'm not asking anyone to post it, but out of curiousity will Bama publish the pledges names like they do after formal?

Thanks for the picture. I found my hometown girl in the picture. Loved all the big smiles. :)Am also wondering if a bid list will be posted? Go to the game today and cheer for the Tide and Alpha Phi.

Delta Zeta think pink

Thanks for the picture. I found my hometown girl in the picture. Loved all the big smiles. Am also wondering if a bid list will be posted? Go to the game today and cheer for the Tide and Alpha Phi.

Delta Zeta think pink

I love our jerseys! today is the big game and we have this cute stickers that say "alpha phi <3's the Tide!" thanks to everyone, all of the alpha phi's are so excited (as well as the frats here haha, they keep asking when we have swaps with them!)!!

Great pictures. Thanks for sharing those with us! I know 211 bids were extended, but do you know how many women are officially on board in the new pledge class? I wish Alpha Phi good luck at Bama! Sounds like y'all are off to a great start.

Congratulations to all the Alpha Phi new members! The picture is great and the shirts are cute. Enjoy your new member period & your sisterhood! :)

Thank you for the pictures! I have already picked out about 4 of my hometown girls and I can tell you they are all great girls! I am so excited that recruitment went well and everyone looks so happy. Congratulations to you, and a big ROLL TIDE ROLL!!!!!!!

Clearly I'm not involved with the new chapter, but I can't imagine that many girls would go to the Preference round of Alpha Phi recruitment if they were not interested in accepting a bid.

actually, I think the official number is 218. It's really exciting and new member pinning is tomorrow night!

That will be great! How was the game?

Congratulations! Wonderful pictures! I hope you and your new sisters and advisors are having the times of your lives. Alpha Phi and the Alabama Panhellenic really did beautifully with this whole venture.

Does anyone know what is the rough breakdown of grades levels? I mean is it larger numbers of freshmen and sophomores, with smaller groups of juniors and seniors, or is it fairly evenly spread throughout the four graduating years?

I wasn't insinuating that lots of women would go to a pref ceremony if they weren't interested in accepting a bid. I was merely curious about the actual number. From what Bamagirl08 posted, it sounds like there were even more bids distributed than we originally thought. Congrats to APhi on a large pledge class!

I am curious as to how many women actually accepted their bids to Alpha Phi. I have seen numerous pictures from bid day and there does not appear to be 200+ women in the pictures. I see roughly 150. Does anyone know for sure?

I'm sure the 218 figure is correct, she would know out of all of us. To me it looks like there are significantly more women to our left (their right) in the bid day picture that simply got cut off by the camera.

Exactly. The APhi blog says there were "almost 220" women.

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_J7N20jOyoB...0/P1020023.JPG

Welcome to the family, ladies. :)

"Oh I am an Alpha Phi, loyal and true
I chose the Ivy Leaf 'cause nothing else would do..."

Welcome to all my amazing new sisters at Alabama!

This is late, but Congradulations.

I had a question about colonization and was hoping that its okay to ask, if not I appologize.
In a situation where there is a house already, do some of the girls move in right away or do they wait until next term?

Weird question, im just curious as to the only recolonization that i was around the chaper did not have a house until their 2nd year.

Well, I would say that the norm is that the sorority probably does NOT have a house when they colonize. Obvious exceptions are places where it is a recolonization and the sorority still owns the old house, and places like Bama and Illinois (I think it was) where the sorority makes advance arrangements to rent a house from another GLO for its first few years.

My impression is that they don't move in until the second term at least, but I'm not clear on that. I would guess the colonizing group just follows campus practice. Obviously there are some schools where all the new members move into the house immediately after recruitment. There are others where freshmen live their first year in the dorms and only move in sophomore year. At those schools, the colonizing members (or at least most of them) would probably be locked into housing contracts or leases for a year and thus unable to move into the housing...

Anyway just my own uninformed ramblings. It is an interesting situation. I mean, it would seem ideal from a financial and administrative standpoint to have at least some members, maybe the upperclassmen, move in right away (to get the rent going, to have some of the new chapter leaders living in the house and running things from a central location where they can also have frequent contact with the consultant and/or advisors)....

I haven't seen this thread in a while- I love those shirts, and am so excited for the sisters at Bama! How wonderful for the whole Panhellenic community to come together and welcome Alpha Phi to campus!

I was at Bama recently and the Alpha Phi house is no slouch compared to many of the others, at least from the outside. There are a couple of houses that appear much bigger than the rest, but frankly most of the houses looked like they'd be a tight fit for 200-person chapters. Needless to say, they're gorgeous, though.
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VOLCANO VAPORIZER

All but the Pi Beta Phi house were built many, many, many years ago to hold anywhere from 55 to 100 girls. A few have been expanded in recent years, but none were ever meant to house every chapter member.

Freshmen are required to live on campus, but I don't know if sorority housing is included in that. It might be, since UA housing is in a crunch right now. Generally, mostly sophomores and officers required to live in fill the houses.

The house Alpha Phi is currently occupying belongs to Sigma Delta Tau and is one of the smallest sorority houses (and always has been). Since their colonization was well past the first day of classes, they probably don't have anyone except the resident colony assistants (who are probably in grad school) living there right now.

I'd love to hear from an Alpha Phi about how things are going!:D

Anyone that wanted to live in the Alpha Phi house was allowed to break/transfer their dorm contract. I'm sure it would have been more difficult for girls that had apartment leases, so it was a great opportunity to get out of the dorm and still stay on campus. If too many girls wanted to live in, they had planned to do some sort of "lottery system". I'm not sure how many chose to move in.

What a great opportunity for girls to live in the house right away. That must be such an exciting time for them, being chosen to re-colonize the chapter and then immediately moving in with pledge sisters. I'd love to get down there one day to see not only the Phi house, but all the houses at Bama.

How wonderful is that? :) It sounds like a win-win situation to me. The girls get to move into their new home, the Chapter gets its financial situation in order, and the University frees up some dorm space for last-minute acceptances.

This whole thread put a huge grin on my face! It looks to me like Alpha Phi is off to a great start at 'Bama. Congratulations, girls (you are beyond cute!) and congratulations to Alpha Phi.

Each chapter at Bama is different. In my daughter's chapter, seniors and ex live in the house. Approx 42 or so live in the house. Many of the chapters also have places off campus where sophomores and juniors can live. The sororities do not own these properties but they get passed down to other members each year.

Co-sign.

And here is a pic of the Bama Alpha Phi house that I took last August (it was pouring rain...I felt so bad for the girls going through recruitment in that deluge!):

http://spinning-head.com/south08/aphibama.jpg

myopicsunflower, thank you SO SO much for posting that! I've visited the Bama campus once when I was a little kid, but obviously I never knew to look for an Alpha Phi house then, plus it wouldn't even have been an Alpha Phi house then!

I think it's wonderful that (some of) the new members could move in right away if they wanted. I know that this house is temporary and that plans are in the works to build a new house soon, any word on the plans for that?

What a great-looking house! I love that upstairs porch. I'm so glad things are off to such a rockin' start at Bama. :)

You can't tell from the picture, but that house is as deep as it is wide.
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Zoloft settlement info

I just love when a chapter returns - congratulations, Triad sisters!

how wonderful!! congratulations to alpha phi!!

i wonder how they got all those names on one charter-assuming that most of our charters are similar in design( just different in the details.)

Congratulations to my newest 194 sisters at Bama! :)

Congrats AF!

Also posted this in the 2009 Colonies and Expansions thread, but thought I'd throw it in here too (mostly because I'm really proud of my sorority :p)

Received this email this morning about our Alabama installation and a recognition of one of the women in the chapter:

Alpha Phi is proud to announce the installation of Beta Mu Chapter at the University of Alabama on March 6, 2009! The installation and initiation of more than 200 collegiate members and mothers marks a historic moment in Alpha Phi. The weekend was the culmination of the hard work of countless Alpha Phi volunteers who spent more than a year, planning, troubleshooting and guiding the growth of the colony.

Initiation was conducted on March 6, 2009 in the Ferguson Center Theater on campus. On Saturday, March 7, more than 500 Alpha Phis, alumnae, parents, and University representatives gathered in the Zone at the Bryant-Denny Stadium to celebrate at the Installation Banquet. We are excited to add Beta Mu to our roster in the Southeast!

Alpha Phi's last two semesters have be busy in Alabama! The women have been marketing Alpha Phi's brand all over Tuscaloosa by participating in Homecoming, Greek Week, and countless Greek Philanthropy events. The chapter has even hosted a few teas to get to know local women. Chapter members have also grown in sisterhood by attending a new member retreat in the Fall at Camp Cosby in Brimingham, Alabama. Beta Mu's chapter calendar has been full of sisterhood events, socials, philanthropy and community service events. The chapter members are already preparing for the upcoming Panhellenic Weekend!

I've eliminated the student's name for privacy reasons, but here is what was said about her recognition:
Last week X received the Algernon Sydney Sullivan Award. In total, there are 5 Premier Awards, and The Sullivan is considered the highest award granted by The University. Recipients are recognized at several banquets hosted by President Whitt, as well as a plaque that hangs in the foyer of Gorgas Library (the main one on campus). This year X is the only Greek woman to receive any of the Premier Awards.
What a great honor for X!

What a great day for Alpha Phi! Congratulations all around! I happen to know one of the daughter-mother pairs who were initiated, and I'm so happy for them!

This was an honor that was broadly announced, so I don't think privacy is an issue here. Here's the university's press release: http://uanews.ua.edu/anews2009/mar09/award030509.htm