closed chapters
 

is anyone else the alumni member of a closed chapter? i'm just wondering b/c i was an active member of the alpha iota chapter at miami university in ohio until we voted to close in may of 2001. it was really sad:( , but we needed to do it. anyhow, if anyone wants to talk about it, let me know. :)

Shelley J

ONE HEART
ONE WAY
THE WAY OF
SIGMA K!!

I'm really sorry to hear that your chapter closed. Personally, it really bothers me to learn when a Sigma Kappa chapter has closed.

My secret little dream is to travel around the country and install chapters of Sigma Kappa on every college campus.:rolleyes: I know, I know...keep dreaming.;)

ONE HEART, ONE WAY.

I'm an alumni of Theta Omicron at Arizona State. National HQ closed us in spring 2002. (actually there's a whole thread on this subject somewhere)

i know the feeling shopgirl
i want to go to other chapters just so i can help rush. and go to other schools that dont' have chapters of sigma kappa and colonize them
i think we should get together and start our own sigma kappa crusade. :D we can start at our schools and move on to arizona state so sigkapdancer can have her chapter back.;)

shelley j
sigma k

Sounds like a plan.;)

Shelley ~

Now, tell me again why you don't work for NHQ???? hee hee!

Your attitude is super! I love it - The Sigma Kappa Crusade!!

:D :D :D :D :D :D

And about Theta Omicron... I've been thinking about calling the VP for collegiate chapters and having her help the Phoenix alums put together a plan to get Theta O back up and running within the next couple of years.

funny you should say that colleenie, i've applied to NHQ before without success. actually i just emailed a friend of mine at NHQ about any new positions opening up. here's to hoping.

shelley j
sigma k:)

I am also a member of Theta Omicron, and still somehow involved in the Greek Community (I teach Greek Leadership), but I really do hope, for the sake of our younger girls that we can get Theta O up and running in another year. There is so much that I miss! I never knew how much I would miss date parties, Barn Dance, Formals, Meetings.... being with my sisters. There is so much that hits close to home, and its hard and unfair, but hopefully soon things will come full circle.
SigKapDancer- It was good to see you!
Colleenie- I miss you! Call me!

just so yall know, looks like phi mu is taking sigma kappa's spot at miami university. doesn't look like we will be able to recolonize for a long time if ever (at least in my lifetime).

shelley j
sigma k

Don't give up! Just because Phi Mu is recolonizing doesn't mean that ya'll can't too!!

I'm sure this has already been discussed, but what is the window that national organizations seem to use for deciding when to re-collonize? Does it have to be at least five years or something like that?

actually i found out a lot about this recently. i talked to jane allen, a national person, and she said that when a college/university decides to bring in another fraternity/sorority, they contact each glo to let them know it's time to bid for a spot.

once word goes out, each glo has to try and get a spot just to give a presentation to the school. basically the school invites certain ones and let's them pitch a presentation to them as to why they'd be the best choice.

then after those presentations, the school decides who the open spot goes to based on the presentation and so on.

i want to be part of that team that pitches to the schools and secures invitations to pitch.

shelley j
sigma k

Sorry to but in, but ....

The NPC recently adopted a rule that if a sorority closes a chapter, the sorority can recolonize within a year, and no one can stop them. But past a year, they are subject to the same comeptitive system as any other sorority that might wish to colonize.

I don't think this happens a lot. If a chapter closes because of bad behavior, generally their nationls want to wait a few years for the rep to fade. And if they close for numbers, frequently nationals feels that that campus just can't support that many sororities - or that what they offer isn't right for that campus. But in AXD at least, in the last couple of years we had chapters recolonize that we barely even noticed were closed, it happened so fast.

I don't suppose that helps your Miami chapter though, because it's been more than a year.

I think when a chapter was closed (unless it was recolonized within the year window) most nationals used to say it had to stay closed 5 years. But now with the amount of people who stay in school for 5-6-7 years, that wasn't really filling the purpose of filtering out the "old" sisters, so it's been changed to a year after the last initiate graduates or 5 years, whichever is longer.

yes, they do like to wait til the original sisters have graduated usually, but in the case of recolonizing after one year obviously they can't do that. in such a case they have the original sisters observe a silence period where they don't wear letters and don't affiliate with the sorority at all. sort of like being a rho chi.

i had to learn all of this when my chapter closed. sorry if i forgot to mention the one year thing and all. i'm looking more towards the future of trying to recolonize at a later date.

we didn't recolonize at miami b/c for now we aren't really working for miami's campus. regardless of our incredible sisterhood, we couldn't keep up with the 150 sister chapters such as AXD, pi phi, AXO, etc. etc.

when our chapter closed, we had over 30 girls go through order. at most schools that would be an entire chapter of good size. at miami however, unless you don't recognize majority of your sisters, it's not a very good chapter.

i'm happy to say that i'm going to be helping the kappa gamma chapter at U Dayton rush in jan. we'll have to do a numbers list again after this rush. see how many more sisters we have. :)

shelley j
sigma k

I can just see it ... they close my chapter when I'm a sophomore. A couple of years later, they want to colonize. But I'm still peeved. So I say, "Fine, if they won't colonize until I leave, I just won't leave. I'll get dual degrees in engineering and music and biology. Let's just see how long THAT takes!" :D

a few of the younger sisters talked about it. they didn't want to have to disassociate with the sorority if they really did recolonize. but basically we just realized it would be helpful and respectful. we made the sacrafice of having a recognized chapter and would sacrafice more if it meant we'd have a chapter to come back to a few years from now when we were alumnae.

shelley j
sigma k

When nationals closed my chapter, our advisors said we could recolonize at ASU in two years. However, there's some rule that no one from the closed chapter can be an active member in the recolonized chapter. So that's SOL for our freshmen.

my grand lil technically deactivated before order so she couldn't reaffiliate anyways if we were to recolonize at miami. everything is cool between us though.

shelley j
sigma k

I hope that no more of our chapters have to close. Honestly, I miss it more and more each day, now that our ASU Theta O chapter has been closed. A bunch of us girls recently all went out to dinner, but you know- you still get really sentimental when other houses are talking about date parties and formals, and you wish that you were going to your own. Its a horrible thing to have happen to you, and an unbelievable torch to bear. It still angers me that Nationals did what they did to us, and that we couldn't recant their and our own actions.

i totally feel you on it. i literally hurt inside when i would see other sororities having fun, parties, going to ritual, etc. and when i did get together with my sisters, it was sad. cuz we all just looked around at each other and realized we would never go through a formal meeting or ritual together again. that all we had at that point was our friendships that for some weren't all that great. so i know what you mean by that.
as for nationals though, i can't fault them. at least now i can't. now i realize that it was going to happen anyways. they at least gave us the choice to stick it out one more semester or cut our losses and close when we did. and b/c so many girls were getting physically ill due to the stress of the chapter, we felt it best to close. someday my chapter will reopen. we were always a great group on that campus and npc at miami shouldn't have a problem with us coming back. here's to the future and forgetting the past (but stilll earning from it)

shelley j
sigma k