I had full 14 and 8 party lists, and was only invited back to one house for 3. I didn't receive a bid. A few of my friends did not get any houses back for 3 party whatsoever.

What if?
 

I was talking with an acquaintance who helped out with her chapter's recruitment this year at IU and she mentioned that the university might open again for expansion. As of right now, ASA is scheduled to colonize fall 2012 and possibly Tri Sigma in fall 2013. Apparently, Indiana would like to have all 26 NPC chapters on campus. However, the unhoused situation is still on the table, so to speak. Any new chapter should not expect housing.

In theory, I understand why a campus might want more Greeks. There is quite a bit of academic literature out there showing that Greeks have a high affinity for their undergraduate alma maters and donate at a more frequent rate and a higher dollar amount than non-Greeks. A girl in my grad program worked in university development and we talked about it a few times because she wasn't Greek and didn't really understand why. Luckily, I wasn't the only Greek in the class, a Delta stepped up and helped me out.

Anyway, my question lies in the supposition whether IU, or any other campus for that matter, can support 26 chapters. The undergraduate enrollment is around 40,000. Is having all 26 chapters on campus feasible? What do you think GCers?

I'm not sure about 26, but I think 22-23 would definitely be possible. However, I don't necessarily know if 26 would be feasible. We're talking PNM pools of 1600-2000 right now, divide that out and you do get reasonable sized PCs. You'd still obviously have girls that don't make it through because they're complete nutcases, but all girls could technically be accommodated.

It doesn't address the problem that most PNMs have, which is being set on a small number of houses and refusing to consider others. So far, TPA seems to be finding girls who are willing to look outside the norm, but it remains to be seen if they can support that in the long run, and if IU can support multiple chapters with that 'niche' appeal

I'm too tired to look through my emails for the exact number but we took somewhere in the mid-high 40s. 46 maybe.

Because of the tradition of limiting membership per chapter and interest in Greek life at this school, I don't see any reason why all 26 couldn't be represented. The one place I could potentially see an overlap is SDT and AEPhi and they are already there and presumably doing just fine so that's a moot point. I do think that they'd have to restructure the rush PROCESS however. They'd probably need to add at least one day to recruitment, and probably 2. But if they keep expanding one at a time and chapters aren't folding in the process, then clearly it CAN happen.

Yes, it is feasible, IF

IF enough women decide that they could care less about living in houses, then IU could easily support all 26 plus probably a few others. But if the "IU sorority life = living in a house with all your sisters" tradition refuses to die, then they won't even be able to support the one they have.

This is a moot point now as the new unhoused chapters could conceivably take much larger amounts of members than the housed chapters currently do. I think that's the reasoning behind it in the first place.

It's what the students want. Pittsburg State in Kansas (one of our oldest chapters is there) has had only 3 sororities for a very long time. Attempts to add another were unsuccessful. I personally look at that and can't imagine a school of its size having that little selection, but it is what the students want. That is the final, determining factor. Panhel and the school administration and the nationals can do whatever, sink whatever money in, but if it isn't ultimately what the students want, it will fail. If the students want it and see value in it, it will succeed.

I can imagine U of I or Penn State having all 26 before Indiana does. At least at the former, there is housing aplenty, and the housed fraternities number in the 50's.

I'd go with U of I far faster than I'd go with Penn State at this point. I don't know how the culture of Greek life is at U of I, but at PSU there are a few things that need to change before we could conceivably even add one chapter, much less 7. Though I do think demand is rising, overall.

I am sorry that recruitment did not work out for you, the competitiveness at Indiana is mind blowing to me. I hope you will find another activity/group to get involved with on campus!

Couldn't agree with you more about the tradition of living in the chapter house, but I don't see it dying out soon. I only lived in the chapter house for a short time and there things I really enjoyed about it, but overall I didn't care for the experience. I was happy to live out and pay for a meal plan plus live out fees. However, I was in the minority. I do know there are women who would love to be Greek but can't afford the house bills plus other fees, so maybe the unhoused idea may take off. We'll see.

Based on what I have heard from friends who advise chapters at IU, alumnae still living in the area, and alumnae who work for the university, the original rationale behind the unhoused chapters was twofold: 1.) Keep these newer chapters smaller so that they would be able to pair/socialize more easily with the growing number of smaller unhoused fraternities and 2.) Offer more opportunities for women to go Greek. Not sure how those are really working out since the newest chapter did not stay around 75 which is the size of several of the unhoused fraternities and a lot of women still did not match after formal recruitment.

I was thinking more that the university was hoping these chapters would be the sorority equivalent of a megachurch and take all the unbid women under their wings so people would STFU about the system being too selective (without the uni actually doing anything to change it). In other words, an attempt to placate everyone.

Don't smaller fraternities ever get together for a mixer? In other words (random names) KKG, SAE and TKE could all mix together? Or is the competition between fraternities too strong to allow that?

A chapter sister's nephew is in one of the smaller unhoused chapters and I don't think the smaller fraternities mix too much. They don't have houses and I know they don't have mixers with the sororities.

Fraternities rarely (if ever) combine for mixers with sororities. The most I've ever heard of is 2 fraternities combining to host a concert [example: ZBT and SAM hosting Snoop Dogg].

My boyfriend is in one of those unhoused fraternities, they're on the larger end, but they struggle to pair with sororities. This year is better than years past, but they don't pair outside of 'bottom tier' chapters. Housed chapters tend to pair Thursday/Friday/Saturday, or at least a day or two each week. His chapter is lucky to get paired with once every 2 weeks. They try, but when the frat has 80 guys and the sorority has 120-150 girls, it makes it tough.

On the 'megachurch' aspect, that may have been what IU or Panhel was thinking, but that isn't what active members perceived it to be. I'll be honest, I thought that they would struggle badly because of the 'live in' culture of IU

I doubt they think that about Theta Phi Alpha after the past Fall's colony recruitment :rolleyes:

I would love to know the statistics of how many women received bids at Indiana for 2012 recruitment which was this month. My daughter was successfully placed but many of her friends either did not receive bids after preference or no bids after 8 party. Also, this website has some really sad stories about this year's recruitment at Indiana:http://sororityparents.com/2011/01/s...y_bloomington/.