Schools with all locals orgs that went national
 

Can someone help me out with the names of a few campuses that in the last 10 years or so may have only had local organizations that recently went through the process of bringing national organizations on campus either to absorb the local organizations, or to co-exist with the locals?

I have a friend who is an alumna of a local organization at a university that was previously a 2 year school (now 4 year) and now they want to bring on national organizations. Apparently the school is being shady about how this process is going to work - if they are going to require that the locals be absorbed, disband, or co-exist. She called me after a forum tonight with the university with questions about how national organizations work in this kind of situation that I certainly could not answer, so I wanted to research some campuses that may have recently gone through this process.

If you are a member of an organization at a school like this, how did the transition from all locals to all national, or coexisting go down on your campus? Thanks!

I know John Carroll University outside of Cleveland had all locals that were absorbed by Nationals less than 10 years ago. I want to say in 2002?

Also Sacred Heart University (CT) in 2009. 4 out of 6 local sororities affiliated with NPC groups ( Theta Phi Alpha, Phi Sigma Sigma, Kappa Delta, and Zeta Tau Alpha). SHU had had a local-only greek system until this time.

awesome. Thanks for the responses. This is for another school in GA - Young Harris....

Also Sacred Heart University (CT) in 2009. 4 out of 6 local sororities affiliated with NPC groups ( Theta Phi Alpha, Phi Sigma Sigma, Kappa Delta, and Zeta Tau Alpha). SHU had had a local-only greek system until this time.

I'm pretty sure that happened at Pepperdine University...around 1997 I want to say?

Yeah, after I got the first couple of responses, I did a search on those universities and found stories about Valparaiso and Pepperdine as well.

arizona state had a local in 2002 that affiliated with Delta Upsilon

Wake Forest had their local sororities go national in the mid 90s. According to my Demon Deacon alumna friend who was a sister during the 70s of one of the locals, the NPC groups and WF admin promised that the chapters could keep local traditions. According to her, the brouhaha with the WF Chi O chapter in the 2004 timeframe and the Pi Phi chapter last spring is all related to the fact that NPC and WF admin are not allowing the chapters to maintain local traditions.

Admittedly she graduated 3 decades ago so her memory may be hazy on this? And of course if traditions of Fideles and Strings (the now-Chi O and Pi Phi) were debasing to pledges, of course that should NOT be carried over to a now-national chapter.

And don't forget Shorter in Rome, GA. They had locals. One local went with Phi Mu. One local stayed local. And Zeta colonized from scratch. I think that's right .. Carnation can give you the details.

In addition to anything that could ever be construed even a tiny bit as hazing (and yes, I think our HQ's go overboard on this), sometimes locals have traditions like big brothers that HQ's don't like, because they feel it can jeopardize same-sex status. A lot of HQ's also have issues with collegians and alumnae drinking together.

Of course, the reasonable response is to just keep quiet about these things, but I can imagine more than one scenario where seemingly harmless "local traditions" can't officially be allowed to continue.

Ursinus College in PA has some very old locals with a few national organizations. Tri Sigma was established in 2002 from an interest group. One of the chapter founders floats on GC on occasion.

Sewanee (TN) is almost all locals, but with one fairly recent nationals, KD. I don't know if they absorbed a local or not.

Capital University in Bexley Ohio is in the process of bringing national groups to campus (both fraternities and sororities) up until now, they were all local.

I think Trine Univerisity (formerly TriState) in Indiana is also bringing on national groups.

I wondered when this was going to happen to Young Harris. I went to school with several people who transferred to Uga from there.

No, they were a colonization from the ground up.

I thought amanda's question was about entire systems (like Valpo) that ALL the locals went national at the same time, not dribs and drabs here and there. That's already in the colonization thread.

Also it depends on whether the locals and the people in them truly transitioned to being national groups, or whether the college forcibly disbanded the locals and made a "replacement" system with nationals. I believe that's basically what happened at Loras College.

I didn't know that! Hubby has 2 cousins who were in one of the Locals at Capital (the one that goes by "Zetas" though they arent' ZTA). I wonder how they feel about that and if there will be options for alum? One of them served in a VP capacity, I'll have to ask her at Thanksgiving. I'm trying to think of Ohio colleges that have local-only greek life now. I know Otterbein and Heidelberg. Any others? Hiram maybe?

Looks like it's called Zeta Pi Lambda. In addition to some other local sororities, they already have Delta Phi Epsilon.

ETA: Oops, it says it's a colony in Spring 2011, according to irishpipes' recruitment thread.

I was just browsing the CU FB page. Looks like Tri-Sigma may be an option too. I think I misunderstood though, looks like the NPC groups are joining in addition to the Locals, the Locals aren't affiliating with an NPC.

Looks like they have a fb page trying to stop the Nationals from coming on campus

Kenyon has local sororities as well (or they used to). I knew a Pi Phi (but not that Pi Phi) at Capital and attended a few "buff bashes" put on by Delta Tau Upsilon. From what I read back when Delta Tau Upsilon went national (I can't remember who they joined), each local group was given the option, it isn't an across the board force every chapter to join a national type of thing.

Capital's locals are very strongly rooted in the "Cap Family." My mother is a Zeta Pi Lambda and my sister is a Pi Phi Epsilon. There was a push to "make" the sororities go "National" awhile ago when a certain Greek Life director was there, but she met heavy heavy backlash (from current students and alums) and is no longer at Capital. The other local sorority is Chi Theta Pi. I am glad Capital is bringing "National" sororities and fraternities on campus while allowing the locals to still have their place.

As far as I'm aware, there has never been a national (NPC) sorority at Otterbein. The boys, however, are a different story.

There was at one time, Alpha Tau Omega (who apparently lived in the house next to my sorority, which was the com building but is now security, and it was a fantastic house!) but I believe they were disbanded (or kicked out by the university) for some reason. Alpha Sigma Phi is currently on campus, and in recent years have been winning many Greek awards. I don't know what the conditions are now, but Alpha Sig was smaller when I pledged, but by the time I graduated was on par with the rest of the fraternities, if not bigger. They seem to be thriving, but I'm sure that it is a challenge to be the only national in a local campus. As far as I know, they were formed from an interest group, not from taking over another fraternity, but I can't be 100% sure.

I get kind of nervous when I see other schools transitioning their systems to NPCs, especially Capital (Otterbein's big rival). I know that local greek life has its own issues (so do national greeks), but I think it is the uniqueness of it that really pulled me in. We have wacky, silly, ridiculous traditions, some that reach way back to our 1921 founding, some that are from our re-founding in the 80's, and it makes it a fascinating organization to be part of. One group on campus celebrated 100 years this homecoming! That's an old local!

I think that it helps that the Greek alum disproportionally support the school in comparison with other sections of the graduate population...I think that if there was an ultimatum put forward, that there would be hell to pay...at least I would hope so. It's a weird little world up there in Westerville, and I really hope it stays that way. The school has been doing a lot of big things lately, transitioning to a University, and then transitioning to semesters soon. I think that change is healthy and good for a college, but I hope things don't change too much.

< / tangent >

Why is it that OH is such a hotbed of locals?

Because Ohio is the land of a thousand colleges!

Hm. I wonder how relevant this attempt at expansion is -- isn't Young Harris still a two-year school?

Edit: Apparently they do offer some bachelor's degrees now. Damn.

I think, like so many things these days, it boils down to risk management. Universities want a national HQ to share the responsibility for what their groups are doing on that campus.

Well, that goes both ways. They also give up their right to close down or discipline a chapter whenever and however they see fit - without a fight from a national.

So true! ( and I know OU and Ohio Northern are both also transitioning to semesters next year. Is Ohio state as well?)

Last I heard OSU was on track for a Fall 2012 semester implementation.

From what I understand, and this very well may be urban legend, but OSU's transition to semesters was the reason that Otterbein pushed for semesters. I think that has to do with the number of students that are cross enrolled at OSU and Columbus state.

Depends, generally as a student org they sign on to specific rules. I don't see a lot of HQs fighting universities on disciplinary issues. Not that it never happens, but far more often than not it seems HQ goes along with suspensions and other punishments along with adding their own.

It actually happens more often than you'd think. Especially where fraternities are concerned.

There are also things that groups might do that the school might find antithetical to its mission (and therefore discipline them for) that really aren't RM or other factors for a national. Also some schools do not want to go along with the NPC/NIC methods of rush and membership selection. I realize there's a lot of wiggle room, but even with that it can get to the point where it's a pain in the ass for chapters trying to explain their rush and why it just isn't like Ole Miss's.

I'm talking about the majority of cases unless there are actual numbers somewhere. I acknowledge it happens, I just contend that it is relatively rare.

I was referring in part to some of the religiously based colleges that I highly doubt will ever go national.

There were several quotes from Trustees at OSU saying that is they went to semesters they would be able to integrate better with other universities including credits and students so it very well could be. As far as I know Wright State and UC are also switching to semesters.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of....22Ohio_Six.22
Doesn't say who is on quarters or semesters, but a list is a start (not gonna lie, I've never heard of Malone, Myers, or Walsh universities).