Merging Schools with chapters of the same org?
 

What happens when 2 schools merge that both have chapters of XYZ?

Just announced at noon today, SPSU is being absorbed by Kennesaw state.

I'll be honest, Greek wise, I'm excited but terrified. Suddenly have to join a new panhellenic new campus norms, new budgets (I'm a money person) and our chapter suddenly competing with much larger chapters... including a 2 school merger chapter. But a bigger pool of women to recruit from too.

Like I said... exciting but terrifying too.

Could they just operate as two locations of the same university, but each campus operates independently as far as student life? I'm thinking of schools like CW Post or Rutgers.

I would imagine that they would combine and your national Council would determine which chapter letters are used. Unless of course, one is going to be a sub campus of the other, like Alabama and UAB> In which case, they would continue to be separate campuses with separate chapters.

I don't know the 2 schools. How geographically close are they? Unless they are right in each other's pockets I would think they would continue to be treated as separate schools. But if the students really will be 100% combined going to classes evenly between one "side" and the other (Urbana-Champaign), then I guess they'd have to consolidate.

So if it is a full merge, Gamma Phi just absorbs the little chapter into the big one and goes about their business. But Alpha Xi Delta suddenly has to go from being a nice little chapter at a small school to a MAJOR rushing school. And I think anything with over 40 or 50 pledges can be considered pretty major.

Keep us informed! I'm picturing a scenario that would almost have to function like a new colony. Obviously a chapter of 35 isn't going to be able to compete with chapters that have pledge classes of double that.

Another factor to throw in the mix: one campus has Greek housing. The other does not.

They are about 15-20 minutes apart on the interstate. Marietta (KSU - 20K students) is a northern suburb of Atlanta and SPSU (5K students) is another 20 minutes up the road. I have a feeling that SPSU will be a branch campus of KSU and the chapters there would maintain their own identity. This gives the SPSU students greater access to state money, more diversity of course offerings, and some KSU programs.

Well, obviously this is very new.... and I dont want to jump to any conclusions, or stick my foot in my mouth, but based on what I've heard so far, this will not be a situation of continuing to operate as 2 separate schools.

On an education level - this is EXCITING! More classes to choose from, take classes on both campuses if you want to, etc.... On a greek level, I'm terrified of the unknown. Can't wait to see what happens. I'm SURE it will be fine..... but... it's still scary. I'm just going to have to leave it at that before I say something stupid.

Looks like my mom and I will now fall under the same Alumni base :cool:

In that case, the two campuses will probably have different names and therefore the chapters would remain separate. Sorth of like Auburn University and AUM (Auburn-Montgomery) are only about 30 minutes apart.

Also.... what about the fraternities? Both schools have a Pi Kappa Phi, Kappa Sig, Theta Chi and Sigma Nu

Interesting that the school with the housing is the smaller of the 2 campuses. Our little chapter that could might become a bigger chapter because more students choose to call the "north campus" home. Good luck to all involved. I think this will be an interesting transition. At least there are no Alpha chapters involved!

I was reading the Atlanta Journal-Constitution this morning and read about the combining of the two schools today. I attended KSU for a few semesters when I lived in Atlanta in the 90's and I used to live right down the street from SPSU. I know Gamma Phi Beta has chapters at both schools (and a house built in 2010 at SPSU), so I am interested on how this is going to work for both chapters involved! :)

My two cents:

The IFC chapters could easily merge. Now, whether the members get along together is another question.

Both of the NPC chapters have roughly 30ish members(?).
- Gamma Phi Beta could easily merge (I know there will be issues to take care of).
- Alpha Xi Delta could treat it like a colonization. Their National could come down and go through round 1 of recruitment and then hold a "colonization recruitment" after general rush is over. Alpha Xi would recruit new members and the SPSU members would join the new chapter. KSU's Panhellenic has been growing by leaps and bounds. IMO, it could be handled this way and work.

ETA: Fly in the ointment. Zeta Tau Alpha is scheduled to colonize in Fall '14 at KSU. That would disrupt my scenerio of Alpha Xi Delta having a colonization.

If I understand correctly, though, the SPSU chapters have housing, which is a bigger wrench than the upcoming colonization.

It's university owned housing. If the chapters move to KSU, and no longer need the houses, then KSU can do whatever they want with the houses... Some of the houses have (I think) international students, and sports teams in them already anyway.

Given that these are unusual circumstances, is it possible that the ZTA colonization (with agreement) might be deferred to enable AXiD to grow to competitive size with the KSU chapters? This is assuming that the SPSU chapters "move" to KSU.

I'm one of the SPSU House Managers so I can shed a little light on what's happening.

Currently, there are seven general fraternities and sororities living in the houses (houses 1-3, 7-8, 10) and one professional fraternity (house 9). House 4 has soccer players living there, house 5 has one of the Senior Resident Assistants and a few other people living there (they call it the "gaming house"). House 6 is currently empty.

Any fraternity and sorority currently in the houses will be able to continue living there after the merger (more than likely). The reason KSU doesn't have "designated" Greek housing like SPSU is because of the city of Kennesaw's laws prohibiting designated fraternity and sorority housing. The city of Marietta (SPSU) doesn't have such laws, so that's why we have housing and they don't. Unless KSU wants to make it a school rule, then the SPSU Greek houses should be fine.

This is very unlikely. Some schools just don't have houses. It never has to do with laws prohibiting Greek housing (despite persistent rumors of brothel laws, etc.)

No, it's that Kennesaw simply doesn't have the space. They have been in tight quarters for many years and not so long ago their Greek system was small, granted the school was smaller too. They are spreading all over the place wherever they can these days. Their continuing ed building (used to be a mini mall) and soccor sports complex is across the interstate and down another road. SPSU is maybe 10 miles from KSU and depending on the time of day it could take 10 minutes to get between the two campuses or 45. Gotta love Atlanta traffic!!!

My mom was mad I didn't go to college at Kennesaw....but I was NOT living at 15 minutes away from home during college!! Or worse...at home!

I had first heard about the city of Kennesaw's codes about fraternity and sorority housing from SPSU's housing department when I asked them about this yesterday. After looking through their codes, Greek housing is in fact prohibited in most places throughout the city. While there are a few zones where Greek housing is technically permitted, but I'm not sure whether KSU is in that zone or not.

Beyond that, I have no idea. Zoning and housing codes aren't my forte haha

It's been 20 years since I lived in the area, but from what I can tell from the city's website, the KSU campus is not within the city limits of Kennesaw, but in unincorporated Cobb County. Kennesaw might have planning jurisdiction over the campus, but from a zoning look up map on the Cobb County website, it appears Cobb County has jurisdiction -- the code assigned to the campus are County codes, not City codes.

Municode has a zoning table for the City of Kennesaw and GLO houses would be allowed in CBD, RM8 & RM12 zoned areas -- of course, variances could always be requested. Lodges are also allowed in many zones -- a building that was just meeting space might fit in this category.

I can't find a similar table for Cobb County.

Not sure how Georgia works, but in some states, local zoning may not apply to state owned property.

Any updates on this?

I imagine when there are updates they can be found here.

or here

Thanks