Duke's Alpha Omicron Pi chapter to close
 

sad when this happens

AOII to disband at Duke (Delta Upsilon chapter)
By: Julia Love
Posted: 10/27/08
Members of Alpha Omicron Pi sorority have decided to disband their chapter on campus, said President Celia Glass, a senior.

The decision was put to members of the sorority for a vote about two weeks ago, and the chapter will officially close Oct. 31. Although current sisters will be unable to join another sorority in the Panhellenic Association, they were initiated as alumnae members Saturday and will remain active in the Triangle Alumnae Chapter, Glass said.

"[Being in AOPi] has been a great experience for me all the way throughout," Glass said. "We're looking forward to remaining close friends, lifelong sisters."

AOPi extended nine bids during 2008 formal recruitment, the only chapter that failed to meet the 32-member quota set for all Panhel sororities that year, according to previous reports by The Chronicle. The sorority has fallen far short of the membership target since at least 2005.

To account for the loss of AOPi, Panhel may increase the new member quota for 2009 Formal Recruitment by one to two women per chapter, members of Panhel confirmed. Panhel will revisit the possibility of bringing another sorority to campus in the Spring, and AOPi hopes to recolonize within the next few years.

I'm so sorry to hear this news. I knew they'd struggled. It's never fun to lose a chapter.

Especially a chapter that won JWH Cup in 1989. Things can sure change in a hurry.

I suspected this was coming, but it's still sad. A good friend of mine was a sister in this chapter. Hope they can recolonize in the future.

My sincere sympathy to the sisters/alumnae. I hope they can regroup & come back on campus soon.

it is so sad to hear this. i hope that the campus supports the sisters of AOII and that they will be able to recolonize soon.

If the campus supported the chapter more, things might not have reached this point.

I know a number of alumnae of this chapter. Suffice it to say that it isn't the most Panhellenic campus in the world.
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Vanila cam

That's sad to hear. I wonder how the other chapters will do now that the low man on the totum pole is out of the picture? When the bottom chapter goes, there is always a new bottom chapter.

I'm so sorry to hear this!

Very sorry to hear this. I had heard as well that the campus was not very Panhellenic at all. Hopefully, AOII can return one day to Duke.

I'm sorry for those sisters.

This is horrible. I hope they start up again.

Is it common for the decision to be left to the sisterhood? I can't imagine voting to disband my own chapter. :confused:

I don't know how common it is, but it happens. When I was in school, the Kappa Delta chapter on my campus voted to close. It was just becoming too much of a struggle to continue as an active chapter. I don't think that any chapter faced with such a decision takes it lightly.

I think when a chapter is really struggling, it becomes exhausting and is not the positive collegiate sisterhood experience that it should be. That's when chapters say "enough already, we should let it go" and vote to close.

And can you really blame them? Unfortunately, we know tent talk is often undeserved. How do you change a reputation that wasn't necessarily deserved in the first place?

Yes (from experience)

Ours was that way as well and no it's not an easy decision in any sense of the word.....

Sad but true...:(

This is so true. Groups will talk crap about the smaller group on campus, not realizing that once "Small Chapter" closes, someone has to become the new "Small Chapter." This is why we try to discourage the sorts of things that compund chapter struggles like dirty rushing, rumos, etc.

And it probably doesn't help that the founder of "that website" is a Duke alumnus.

Interesting.

What website? As for voting to disband a chapter, I personally would rather vote to disband a chapter rather than having someone else (from national/international) come in and tell me that it was closing. At least by voting to close, you get to do it on your terms.

In the short-run I guess the gossipers and trash talkers feel better about themselves but in the long-run it brings everyone down.

Sent you a PM!

I agree with you about voting to disband rather than letting national/international come in and close the chapter.

If the chapter votes to close, I think (Inter)Nationals has a better chance of keeping the sisters as alumnae. I would think you'd get a pretty high number of sisters deciding to never have anything to do with their sorority again if headquarters just closed them in this situation. I'm sure the chapter knows the writing is on the wall, but they are included in the decision to close.

juicycampus.com :(

That's exactly what happened at Duke. When my friends were in AOPi, Alpha Phi was the campus punching bag. Many, many girls suicided or dropped out of rush rather than take a bid from Alpha Phi. Of course, APhi successfully recolonized/reorganized, they are thriving, and the next thing you know, AOPi is missing quota just like APhi did before.
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Vaporizers

Will they ever learn?! Probably not.

The AEPhi chapter at Duke was also in that position. The chapter closed a few years back, with low numbers.

Seems like at Duke, if you miss quota by more than 1 or 2 girls, even once, that's the kiss of death. :(

I just have to say that there was a moment at our Convention this summer that almost made me cry. We have a flag procession at the start of Convention - one flag for each chapter, carried by a member of that chapter. Included is a flag for all of our closed chapters. Well I noticed that the woman carrying that flag was crying, and it just made me think about how sad it must be to know that your chapter's book has closed. I think a lot of women would have a hard time turning the other cheek.

(edited)


Please don't perpetuate this disgusting website by naming it on GC. Would you mind editing your post?

It is tough - my chapter is closed, but it was simply a matter of not being able to get the numbers to compete. It's especially sad for me now, because my daughter is at my alma mater and not able to join my mother and me on the Gamma Chi roll. But I've always tried to keep my chapter sisters a part of Gamma Phi - we have great alumnae chapters here in Texas, and I think involvement in the larger group helps. I do tend to tear up at Founders' Day celebrations when I identify myself as a Gamma Chi - maybe, someday, we will be able to once again open the book!

I was on AAC for our chapter at Duke two or three years ago and knew about AOII's problems when they invited an officer from NPC to speak to all the chapter advisors about Panhellenic spirit and cooperation. Trying to get us as advisors to instill in the actives that we should promote Greek Life as a whole to PNMs, and not just our individual groups, for the strength of the entire system. The officer gave a very good talk, and it was enlightening to hear other advisors discuss about how they had good panhellenic support on their undergraduate campuses and not the caste system that exists at Duke. Too bad no real plan came from that meeting.

The officer then recommened expansion as a means to promote new interest in Panhell on campus with hopes that might somehow translate into reconsideration of AOII (or something like that, I guess), and it turned into a debate instead. Zeta happened to be recolonizing on campus (and strangely the top chapter actives were promoting this), but I never understood how that would help AOII. A new group was not going to divert attention for long from the "Core Four" nor was it going to get PNMs to consider the other existing campus groups as different but still cool ways to be Greek on campus.

I liked the first part of her talk but never understood her recommendation.

I, too, am from a closed chapter and I would never wish that experience on anyone. I was a national volunteer at the time (a couple years after graduating) and was a part of the meeting at convention with the national Executive Board when the decision was made to close the chapter. No one can possibly understand the pain unless you experience it.

Re: the Gamma Phi Beta crying when she was carrying her flag... I can so understand that. To this day I do not subscribe to our magazine. I love DDD and everything our ideals represent. But looking through the magazine is depressing. It is always full of info about open chapters, but naturally nothing about my own.

I don't know how it is done in other sororities, but I wish there could be a way of still affirming the women from closed chapters other than reading their chapter name at convention or founder's day. Do any other sororities do anything to keep alive the experience/presence/sisterhood of closed chapters? When one of our chapters closes, there is a little mention of it in the magazine and that is it. I've always thought it would be nice if they would at least dedicate a page of the magazine to celebrating the sisterhood that occurred there for years or decades. Yes, chapters often close under negative circumstances. But that shouldn't negate all of the wonderful experiences other women have had in that chapter. It is hard to not feel like a leper when you are from a closed chapter.

Ok, climbing down off my soapbox now. As you can tell, I feel very passionately about this issue. :)

We had 5 chapters of 18 (19? Can't remember!) that struggled to make quota each year in a system that was heavily tiered. The solution from Panhel? Expansion with a new sorority. We were given some of the same explanation about creating more excitement with a new chapter. We didn't need more excitement. We had over a thousand women going through rush already. One of the key problems was the inability of the stronger chapters to panhellenically support the struggling ones. 4 of the 5 chapters that struggled have since closed.

I'm with you TigerPiPhi. I never understood this recommendation.

It happened at my school, too. When I was a collegian, I resented another GLO's national's for a while for promoting expansion. Ironically, their chapter that came on closed, too. Just a bad panhellenic environment at that time, and I wished everyone could see it.

Anyway, I may be the exception, but I like reading The Arrow, even without an active chapter because I became an active alum and feel proud of being part of a such a great organization. Getting involved with collegians as an AAC advisor was a great experience, and I live vicariously through our girls.