Then vs Now - Sorority Quota and Total
 

I thought it might be kind of fun if anyone who remembers can post a rough idea of what quota and total were when you joined your sorority vs what it is on that campus now.



In 2004 at the University of British Columbia, quota was 15 and total was definitely under 50. I want to say 40-45.

In 2018 at UBC, quota was 33 and total was 98. (The highest quota we've had was 37 in 2017, while total was 107.)


So quota and total have doubled since my initiation year. The sororities have outgrown their chapter meeting rooms in the Panhellenic building - it opened the year I was initiated and everyone figured we were good for space lol.

There were maybe 35 in my pledge class at Alabama in 1963. Now their NM classes are four times that.

Total at my campus in 1975 was 50. No one reached it. I remember wondering why we had it in our Panhellenic bylaws. We did not use quotas at the time.

Campus total was like 90. I think quota was around 20. Now quota is close to 50 and I have no idea what campus total is. It keeps going up.

http://www.greekchat.com/gcforums/sh...t=68424&page=5

This is an SEC thread from many years ago. It's interesting to see how much things have grown since then. It mentions Alabama having 1200 PNMs as a high number- don't they get over 2,000 now?

At my school, sororities were around 45-60 and we had formal NPC recruitment in 1998-2001 when I was there. Then they hit a slump mid 2000s, and went to informal only for a while and chapters were smaller. They're back to formal and each chapter is taking a pledge class of 15 (which is really good for the school). Greek life seems to be doing well nowadays there. Not sure what caused the downturn.

When I started advising at UCLA in 2005, pledge classes were 25-28 new members. Then we got 2 amazing Greek life staffers (who are no longer there — thanks UCLA F&SL office!) who took NM totals to anywhere from 50 to 70 new members each year with QA. Chapter totals went from 125 to 200 members in about 7 years. Plus AXO and AGD recolonized. On the Fraternity side, I believe 6-7 Fraternities recolonized during that time.

AXiD would have also recolonized already by now and I don’t think that DDD would have shut down if UCLA still had those 2 Greek Life Advisors.

What was it about them that turned things up so much? That's a pretty good increase in a short time.

Ohio State:
Early 80s, campus total was 105 and quota was 25
Now, campus total is around 190 and quota 54.

There are fewer chapters now than when I was in school. Gone are Phi Mu, Sigma Delta Tau, Delta Phi Epsilon and Alpha Delta Pi
Added are Gamma Phi Beta and Alpha Omicron Pi

Between that time, Sigma Kappa was added and left. Zeta and Kappa left and came back.

Just 2 amazing Fraternity/Sorority Advisors who are always promoting Greek Life! They have also been Consultants for other universities and increased membership at many schools. The Sorority Advisor helped increase membership in a similar way at UCSD before he came to UCLA.

Troy was my co-worker at the Dean of Students/Greek Life Office at San Diego State University (not UCSD) prior to leaving us for UCLA. That man has a passion for students and seeing that they have a positive experience. His boundless energy and expertise in Greek Life matters ensured high success for chapters and individual students alike. Our loss was your gain and now CSUDH's gain!

Total was 45, Quota was 7 or 8 but we had formal rush twice every year- Sept and late January. I was a second term rushee.

Total is now 55, I think, but it changes so often now I don't know for sure! Quota is typically around 10 now. One formal recruitment per year now, obviously.

Wow ... two formal recruitments a year sounds like a lot of work!

At Florida in the sixties. Quota was determined by how many new members were needed to reach the University set total of sixty-five. It was difficult for everyone as there were so many PNMs that were disappointed because sometimes our quota was in the teens as were many other houses. All the houses would have loved to higher quotas.

At U of WA in the late 90s quota was typically in the high 20s with Total I want to say in the mid 80s or low 90s.

Currently quota is typically in the mid to high 30s and total is much higher - I think around the mid 130s.

Since I was on campus 2 NPC chapters have returned that had previously left campus. One additional NPC chapter has come on and there are two others that are associated with the collegiate Panhellenic but are not NPC chapters. The latter 3 don't participate in formal recruitment.

San Diego State, back in the days of Fred Flintstone. Cap my first year was 50. My sophmore year moved to 65. Don't know quota when I pledged but my class had 14 of us (one was a holdover). The following fall we made quota when we got 21 pledges. Today the chapter is so large, they can't fit in the chapter room for meetings. They have to rent an off-site location for meetings.

DaffyKD

At Bloomsburg in the early 90s, quota was around 8, and campus total was 48. Today, quota is still around 8 and total is mid 40s. It's sad to see other greek systems grow by leaps and bounds while they flounder in medocrity.

I have a problem with considering a small greek system (or group) to be mediocrity. I don't know the campus, of course, but I do know that my personality avoids groups of hundreds. For real, at one time my chapter was down to 12 or so. My pledge class was 9, but initiated 6. What it taught us was to play to each others' strengths, to learn what was vital and what was not, to let go of the not-vital, to budget tightly (housing was university-owned, so not the chapter's responsibility), and to partner with other organizations. It isn't typical sorority life; but it worked for us and our system, and was not in the least a mediocre experience.

Quota when I joined was between 17 and 20; total was fifty-seven. A majority of the twelve available NPC groups did not make quota and thus often COBed, and only 2 or 3 groups ever hit total.

Today there are half the number of groups on campus, and from available information quota was recently twenty-three with the total being seventy-eight.

All in all, a lack of a positive growth pattern in my old greek community.

When I joined in the fall of 1981 there were 6 NPC sororities, I believe quota was around 26 and we had a class of 29. I believe that our house total was around 75-80.
Quota was up in the 1980's, down in the late 1990's and has now moved into the 30's over the past few years with 8 NPC sororities.

It's probably the same at most of the SSHE schools (except West Chester- everyone always points this out lol). My post was about Slippery Rock. At this point, I'm just happy it rebounded after a slump. I don't think some of the other schools are pulling in decent recruitment numbers, sadly. I hate to see this, but when they keep jacking up the price of things for students who predominantly come from working/middle class, a lot of kids probably just can't afford the extra costs.

When I pledged at Iowa State in 1997, we had 15 chapters, total was 92 and quota was around 20-22 each year. Now, we still have 15 chapters (AXiD closed, APhi closed and came back and DG colonized) but total is closer to 170 and quota is around 45-50.

Liberal arts college, graduated in the 90s. Quota was around 30, campus total at 100 (we were always over total after rush, which took place in the spring, for a bit). Quota has stayed around the same, however the school has added 3 more NPC chapters so the system is growing, just not the individual chapter sizes. Which I view as a good thing for a campus of about 3500.

This sums it up...plus when you’re working multiple jobs or going home to work every weekend a GLO is the last thing you need on your plate. I can only guess that WCU must be getting kids who couldn’t afford the private schools in the area (but could have 15-20 years ago).

Do you know how things are at Clarion? I was sad to see a group close there.

There's a difference between a small greek system and a stagnant greek system. When greek systems across the country are adding or WERE adding new chapters ALL THE TIME, Bloomsburg couldn't add even 5 more members to their chapters. The system itself has been marred by a campus who doesn't know how to work with greeks, nor do they really even care to. The ORGANIZATIONS aren't mediocre - the STAFF that oversees it has been terrible. A new greek life person started a couple of weeks ago. It'll be interesting to see if it has any effect.

I'll use another example - Kutztown University. Their system was growing, while their campus population was shrinking. The students didn't want big chapters, so they set their total at 60. When they all hit 60, they added a new group. So while chapter size may remain the same, the system grows through expansion. Bloomsburg has NEITHER. It's mediocrity at its finest. If that's offensive to you, my apologies.

No sorority chapters have been lost EVER. Fraternities, yes, but always for risk management reasons. And new ones usually come in to take the spot.

West Chester is an anomaly, no doubt, but Kutztown has experienced growth as well. Campus total is around 60, and they've added a chapter in the last 3 years. As for the other SSHE schools, who the hell knows!

Wait, another one? Fraternity or sorority?

We went from 10 fraternities while I was there to I think 4 now, and from 8 sororities to 5. Totals of all are way way down.

https://alphasigmatau.org/news-event...icron-chapter/

This was 2015

Oh yeah that was a while ago.

I think we can also make the sweeping generalization that unless the school is Mississippi University for Women or someplace of the like, when there are more sororities/sorority members than fraternities/fraternity members, the system is in deep doo-doo.