Future NPC sororities?
 

I was wondering ... Will there ever be more than 26 NPC sororities?

There seems to be quite a few young, growing sororities out there that could join NPC in the future, such as Ceres, Phi Sigma Rho, Phi Beta Chi, and Theta Nu Xi.

So, the question is: When do you think NPC will increase to 27 sororities, and who do you think the next group will be?

Our Greek Advisor told my Recruitment Counseler class that the process to become NPC is long and very difficult and the likelyhood of another sorority receiving admittance is not very good. Apparently groups have applied before and well since there are still only 26....

First of all, you are assuming that the national groups you mentioned would want to join the NPC. Many groups would not want to participate in the recruitment process used by nationals and many (not all) cultural groups' recruitment and pledging practices are considered hazing by the NPC. A lot of groups don't want to change, even if their inclusion in the NPC would benefit both.

Secondly, a national group has be established in the national form for at least 13 years, must have at least 14 chapters and the youngest chapter has to be at least 2 years old. This means that the sorority would need to put a moratorium on expansion for at least 2 or more years before applying to the NPC. Many groups don't want to do that.


BTW - this topic has been discussed several times before. The search function is a wonderful thing.

Barbara, I'm just curious, why does the youngest chapter have to be at least two years old? I can understand wanting a substantial number of chapters that are well-established, so a group doesn't install ten chapters and then rush out and apply for NPC membership, but it seems like putting a mortatorium on growth would be such a hard thing for a young, expanding sorority.

I don't know for sure, but I'm going to guess it's to show that the group is stable and there is support in place for existing chapters.

You know, I've never questioned that. I'll pop a note off to my NPC delegate (whom I know fairly well) and ask.

You know ... I've always thought that the biggest objection for a new, young group joining NPC would be the requirement to adhere to the expansion policy. For example, Ceres currently can place a colony on any campus they want. But should they join NPC, they would be subject to the same "open for expansion, presentation, invitation to colonize" methodology as the rest of us. That would certainly, I think, hinder a young group, when the competition among the rest of us to colonize is already high.

You know, I asked the same question about both NPC and IFC to the head of our IFC at SDSU, and I was told that an organization that has a tag in front of it (Multicultural, Christian, Latino, Asian) can't be members. Course I did ask about AEPhi, AEPi and ZBT, which he said was different because they are "traditional". I guess MAYBE there's some truth to that, but I'm guessing that's the wrong answer.

I know that on our campus, Theta Nu Xi is part of Pan-Hellenic and they follow the rules set by Pan-Hell. We only have four NPC sororities on our campus.

Which is why I didn't believe him, though he did say something about that only applying to the NATIONAL NPC and IFC

I read a few threads that focused on how some national groups are not part of the social Greek life and have no desire to join NPC. However, I would like to see this thread focus on those national social sororities that are a part of campus Panhels and probably do have an intention one day of joining NPC!

I know of several universities that have special interest social sororites as FULL members on Panhel. For example, at Purdue:
Phi Sigma Rho – focus is engineeing and technology majors
Phi Beta Chi – focus is Christian
Delta Phi Mu – focus is Multi-cultural
None of them participate in formal recruitement, but they all do C.O.B. I also have a friend in Ceres who mentioned that they had a NPC representative speak at one of their meetings a few years ago.

I think it is only a matter of time before Ceres, Phi Sigma Rho, and Phi Beta Chi apply to NPC because all of them have around 10 chapters. Am I the only one who would be excited to see the NPC grow?

Actually...
 

Actually, if I recall correctly, Sigma Lambda Beta International Fraternity and Lambda Theta Phi are members of IFC and they both identify themselves as Latino Interest Fraternities.

If I am not mistaken, they haven't admitted another sorority into the NPC since 1951. That was 51 years ago. I don't know of any future NPC sororities, but that doesn't mean that there aren't any out there.

Edited to add: Local Sororities said substantially the same thing. Edited to change Italics also.

Is it possible that its a misinterpretation?

It would be more logical that the the youngest chapter that is making up the 14 required has to be 2 years old.

It wouldn't be logical to have a sorority with 40 chapters be unable to petition because one of those 40 chapters is less than 2 years old.

But the rule would head off a potential problem of a sorority just giving a charter to say four groups quickly to meet the NPC requirement.

But a quick and dirty way to judge the overall performance of a Greek Advisor is to go back to the date they arrived and ask the following questions:

1. Are the organizations significantly bigger than they were when she started? (A clear sign of Growing Greek Life)

2. Are there more organizations on campus? (Again a clear sign of more Greek interest)

3. Have the intergreek Councils improved in operation? (More functions and less concerned with regulation etc)

4. If the answer was yes to those questions is it because of programs the Greek Advisor started for that purpose or through their spiritual leadership (Personal influence)?

5. Do you officially hear about more interGreek intercampus conferences etc? Or is the Greek advisor setting up such conferences himself? (A sign that she is giving you more information about how other campuses perform and allowing you to network with those Greeks)

6. Has the Greek Advisor set up a series of leadership seminars that deal with "How To" issues that have left you with the ability to do things better? (a clear sign of some sophisticated leadership knowledge and an effective presentation. Oh and if you don't leave with a "tool" you can use for your problem it doesn't count)

7. Is your Greek Advisor more concerned with giving incentives than giving out punishment?

The answer to most of these should be yes, most importantly the first three.

Also . . .

Wouldn't NPC have to vote as a whole and unanimously agree to add another sorority?

I can see some organizations having a problem with that because it would mean sharing Formal Rush and expansion possibilities with yet another group.

If the future hypothetical group had chapters on campuses with a big Formal Rush they could get real competitive real fast. something I could see sororities with chapters on these campus seriously considering.

(editied to add)

So they can peititon to join if they met the qualifications but there is absolutely no guarentee they would be accepted.

I never thought of this, but James you are probably right. Getting 26 sororities to recognize another sorority "unanimously" would probably be near impossible!

I just checked my Green Book. It just states the eligibility requirements, it doesn't say how another sorority is voted into NPC once she applies.

AEPhi doesn't have a "tag" in the sense that I think you mean it. We don't recruit only Jewish women; we will offer membership to any qualified woman who we feel will be a good sister, regardless of her religion. It's true that a lot of Jewish women tend to gravitate toward AEPhi, but that doesn't mean we only recruit Jews, nor does it make us a "Jewish sorority". The "tag" GLO's, in my (admittedly limited) experience, tend to recruit mainly or exclusively members of their specific religious or ethnic interest.

No... I think everyone's point is that it's unlikely to happen any time soon, because becoming an NPC member is so difficult, plus a lot of non-NPC national sororities may not wish to be bound by the unanimous agreements, so they may not even want to try to join NPC.

I do not think the eligibility requirements are that difficult. It is just a matter of time and a good expansion plan to have a national character for 13 years and to establish 14 chapters. The requirements are a good way of proving stability. However, the Unanimous Agreement on Expansion that AZ-AlphaXi mentioned would really hinder a young, growing group and it's probably the main factor that has prevented the NPC from growing.

Ok, now I am going to play devil's advocate. The Expansion agreement is a classic rule that enables the big NCP groups to really get huge in the number of chapters and the small groups to stay small.

Case in point, you only have to look at the existing NPC groups to see that the smaller groups have not gotten much bigger since the 1950s. Rarely do you see the smaller groups being able to expand to the big Greek campuses even when the sororities are twice the size of the fraternities on a campus.

Think of it this way, for the Expansion agreement to really be fair there should be a "total" number of chapters set for NPC so that all the smaller NPC groups could reach total.

newsun -

wow, that is one hot post and there are SO many things I could say, but I have placed a large unabridged dictionary on my foot so as to keep it out of my mouth! :D

I agree there should be something to "even out" the numbers of groups and help the smaller ones get up to speed...but like collegiate rush, I wonder if it would help, especially at the southern schools.

But on the other hand, if you think you can't, everyone else will think the same (i.e self fulfilling prophecy). If you keep thinking XYZ is better than you, you will never get anywhere. I know that seems naive and stupid but sometimes I think we need more naive and stupid.

I don't think they would come out and say this...but I can see the reasoning behind wanting only "traditional" sororities. To be perfectly honest, I don't see any Multicultural, Latino, Asian, or other ethnic sororities joining beyond an associate membership in the NPC anytime soon.

At UC Davis, Kappa Delta Phi, the National Asian Interest Sorority is part of Panhellinic. I think they have a lot of chapters out there, maybe 30 or so?

They are probably part of the local Panhellenic association, but they are not a member of the NPC. Local Panhellenics can approve local organizations to be associate members of Panhellenic, without those orgs being a member of the NPC.

have there ever been any NPC sororities that have left NPC?

Kappa Beta Gamma, a Jesuit based sorority used to be a member of the NPC. When their chapter number dropped, they left the NPC. There are still 3 or 4 chapters left in the country, all at Jesuit Schools. There are chapters at University of Detroit-Mercy, Loyola-Chicago, St. Norbert College. There used to be a chapter at Loyola-New Orleans

I'm thinking that if a group said they were, for example, Latino the couldn't join NIC because that implies that only Latinos could join, which would violate ethnic non-discriminsartory policys.

There is a member of a Kappa Beta Gamma colony who posts on here, I think she is somewhere in Wisconsin. But I could be wrong, I had a late night.

As far as AEPhi and the other groups which were created as "Jewish interest" I think when they started up, they still used the same rush procedures etc. The way multicultural and ethnic based groups do rush is so different, if they became part of NPC and had to go along w/ its agreements, they would pretty much turn into a completely different sorority. The reason there are ethnic based groups in the NIC is because they really don't care how you rush.

While I don't think a Latina group would want to join the NPC, they are generally quite explicit in stating you don't have to be Latina to join. It's like the NPHC groups - you don't have to be African American to join, but most members are.

Smatter of fact, most of the new ethnic sororities rush more like the NPHC groups - you approach one rather than all of them, as you do in formal rush. Switching to formal would be a huuuuge change.

Newsun, your post is intriguing, but I'm not sure I agree. If I was going to start a local and bring a national to my campus, I would want the strongest group I could find. It's not just the Panhellenic's rules keeping them out. It's like formal rush, when one chapter can't get the girls, and the school tries to pressure gals into joining them. They don't want to join a group that's not what they want. I know I wouldn't be happy if we wanted to bring X to our campus, but NPC told us, "No, you have to bring Y, because they are small and need chapters."

And if we didn't have the expansion rules, well, the smallest nationals still have limited resources. Would they have the money and volunteers to go open up chapters elsewhere - and would those chapters succeed? AXD has done a lot of expansion over the years but we aren't growing. There's maybe a reason these groups are taking care of the chapters they have first and foremost.

There is also a chapter at Marian College in Fond Du Lac, WI and there may? be one at Marquette University in Milwaukee, WI

If they didnt recognize the new org then that might actually help the new org more thant it hurts them. They wouldn't have to follow the NPC rules. They could go over quota, total and make their own rules.

Billy, Fuzzie and Max, good replys!


Some of this stems from the old line ideas of National or Internationals. But We all livwe in a different time and style of life!

The main thing is we need to All get it together andwork with each other! What do you think?

I have never heard of an all Jewish, African-American, Asian-American, Latin, etc. organization. I have heard of Jewish, African-American, Asian-American, Latin, etc. based organization. Those do exsist, and it is evident by their heading. Why should it matter if they are traditional or not, it does not, because the I.F.C and N.P.C both have groups that state they are based on @#@$%$@. AEPi Jewish based, Kappa Alpha Psi African-American based, Iota Phi Theta African based, Lambda Theta Phi Latin based, and Lambda Phi Epsilon Asian-American based. All these groups are I.F.C affiliated. So, for people who believe only, "traditional" fraternities exsist in I.F.C, not true. Personally I don't even know what is meant by saying a fraternity is "traditional". Do "traditional" fraternities have to be ones that were started by white students? Do "tradtional" fraternities have to be mostly white students? Please some one explain to me what it means to be in a "traditional" fraternity.
FKT The Force of Many....The Power of One
www.bspotonline.com/phitau

"Traditional" was perhaps a poor choice of words. What I think was meant was older, historically white, historically WASP groups.

I'm not saying I think "traditional" is the right phrase. I wouldn't pick it. After all, NPHC AKA is older than NPC DPhiE, and as you mentioned, Catholics and Jewish women founded Theta Phi Alpha and AEPhi as Catholic and Jewish organizations. (And they were Catholic and Jewish at their founding, although they are not today.) Of course, they didn't join NPC until 1951 - but maybe that wasn't just religion. After all, that's the same year the "education" sororities joined NPC as well. (Maybe again it was religion, but I don't know enough about NPC politics that long ago to judge.)

It is worth noting that IFC is more diverse than NPC. NPC has no historically African American groups (Kappa Alpha Psi), no groups that still strongly retain their original religious ties (AEPi), no "major-specific" groups (Triangle). The NPC's rules, created to benefit all sororites and strengthen inter-sorority ties, also bind sororities to a very specific way of doing things, which I think might inhibit its growth in the future. Really, the NPC and IFC are not very similar organizations.

But we're viewing the NPC from an interesting perspective in time. After the early 1900s, no new sororities were founded that managed to become strong and national in scope (DPhiE being the last I think) - except the NPHC sororities, which did not join the NPC. And they developed their own traditions - a very different style of recruitment, traditions such as stepping, strong graduate programs, etc. Things started to change in the '80s with the rise of Hispanic, Asian, area of study, and multicultural organizations. Many of these groups are growing very strong, and Latino orgs even have their own umbrella organization. I suspect that some of these groups will last and some will merge or fold, but I doubt the phenomena will disappear entirely. Today many have 10 or 20 chapters - what about in 50 years? My children or grandchildren will have many more Greek choices to contemplate.

But many of these new groups are not following the NPC mold. Many of the "ethnic" sororities have used the NPHC mold. Not all new sororities have: Perhaps Ceres would want to join the NPC, but at least one engineering sorority (Phi Sigma Rho) was founded based on the premise that female engineers did not have time to go through formal rush. On the other hand, AEPhi may have been founded for Jewish women, but its practices were very close to "Christian" groups. Credit the women behind AKA, DST, SGRho and Zeta for showing college women that there were alternate ways to create a sorority and different traditions that could be made. Today's newest groups have learned that lesson.

One could say these groups are not in the NPC tradition, not for religious or ethnic reasons, but in their use of lines, their hand symbols, their recruitment practices. Instead, they are _more_ in the NPHC tradition, albeit not identical. And the NPHC groups are certainly old enough to be "traditional." It's just slightly different, and slightly younger, than the NPC one. If the newest groups are not traditional, it's a matter of their age, not their style.

The truth is, though, that a lot of us in the NPC only think about the NPC system. There are NPC members who think the NPHC is silly - "We're not segregated any more, why can't they join us?" "What's the point of multicultural sororities? My chapter is diverse." Or "We have all majors, why do ag majors need a special sorority?" Intelligent college women do have the right to find the kind of sorority that's right for them. Luckily, I do believe those NPC-centric women are in the minority. And we like to forget that many groups were at one time white-only, Catholic-only, WASP-only, etc. It's something we'd like to pretend never happened. I know that my least favorite moment in AXD history is when we passed a white-only clause, and that while several founders were against it, at least one spoke in support of it. One could argue that being centered around one race or religion is in fact traditional for sororities rather than the exception, and it's only in the last half-century that we've realized inclusion in preferable to exclusion.

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