Duke's chapter of Alpha Delta Pi sorority to close effective immediately
 

https://www.dukechronicle.com/articl...closed-abolish

This is ducking pathetic.

Sickening to see those young women destroy a chapter that had been in existence for 110 years. Not the last chapter that we will see this happen to.

Here is the Spring 2021 Fraternity/Sorority Scorecard. Both ADPi and ZTA had one (1) member. There's a big difference in membership between the organizations in both the NPC and IFC.

https://studentaffairs.duke.edu/ucae...on-recognition

I really hope the HQs provide support to rebuild these chapters so they can remain for years to come.

They only had one member each because when their chapters tried to vote to close last fall, the national organizations turned them down and decided the charters would remain at Duke. Then most of the members resigned. There's not much that can be done by the national orgs when there are barely any members left.

Considering there are other chapters that have numbers over a hundred, there’s obviously some interest in Greek life still there, so why not recolonize? Is it a situation of not being able to maintain a house?

I won't pretend to know the ins and outs of recolonizing, but I would imagine that would entail - especially in this situation - closing everything down and restarting years later. The women who resigned are still on campus, and the national org trying to rebuild the chapter now would probably get VERY messy.

But they weren’t expelled. They resigned. They are non-persons as far as membership in ADPi is concerned. They’ve shown by their actions they want nothing to do with the chapter or Greek life in general so why would anyone who does want to be part of it listen to them?

Neither ZTA nor ADPi had unanimous votes to close. For all the yammering this silly movement does about supporting women, it obviously doesn’t include respecting the wishes of women that are different from your own and letting them go on with their day.

True, they resigned. But do you think it would be an easy road to reestablish the chapter immediately? I'd argue it'd be an uphill battle, especially due to the abolish-Greek-life movement currently going at Duke. Waiting for things to die down a bit might be the better option. I actually jumped around the @abolishgreeklifeatABCuniversity pages earlier on Instagram, and many were going strong through the end of 2020 but then fizzled out. Most didn't extend into the 2021-2022 school year and had their last posts in the spring. I don't see this movement extending for years, except at maybe a campus or two.

The votes weren't unanimous, but it appears difficult for national orgs to battle against collegians in this situation. They take a vote, the org forces the chapter to remain, but then most members resign, leaving the org with no choice but to close. I believe the ADPi vote was something like 69-16, so clearly most members wanted to throw in the towel. If 80% of the chapter wants to give up and ultimately resigns, what choice is there?

Trust me, I think it's crazy for these members to throw their hands up and say Greek life is evil and doomed, and they shouldn't have the power to shut down a chapter in the way that they are. But what's stopping them? Unfortunately, they're leaving their orgs between a rock and a hard place (especially if there's a house to fill and no members to fill it).

Filling a house is not an issue at Duke -- the sororities do not have houses.

I don't know whether the numbers are primarily about Covid or the disaffiliate movement or a combination, but I'm surprised to see some of the traditional SRC NPC chapters with total membership in the 50s.

My comment about houses was more in a general sense, but that's a plus for the Duke NPCs with these recent occurrences and complications.

And as a reminder, this also happened, which may be affecting numbers and interest: https://www.campusreform.org/article?id=17137

I understand what you're trying to say here and, you're not wrong; however, I see it differently. There's a difference between an HQ acquiescing to the collegians' demand that the GLO shut down their chapter and an HQ refusing to close the charter out of principle knowing that the chapter will be difficult to keep open regardless. Both will likely result in the lost of the chapter for the GLO, but the latter was done on the GLOs terms and not the collegians. The collegians get indirect credit; but, technically, they didn't get what they asked for to start with.

I didn't really want to comment on the loss of Omicron chapter.

I will say that, at least for Alpha Delta Pi, recolonization would most likely only happen after 3-4 years pass. It gives those who resigned a chance to leave the campus.

There's a difference from our perspective - as seasoned members of our orgs - but do you think that's how most people view it, including the young collegians who participated in the vote? I doubt it. And ultimately, what difference does it make if the result is the same?

All it takes is one situation like this for other chapters to catch on, whether they're ADPi chapters or otherwise. Either way, I'm sure we all hope there won't be a trend and that this is a one-off.

If you're going to die on a battlefield, is it better to die with a sword in your hand or in a corner, sniveling? It's principle. I know I'm going down; but, if I have a choice, I'm not going down on YOUR terms. I won't give you that satisfaction.

Also, the option of not giving in also presents the headquarters with the small chance that the chapter could still be salvaged. It may be a tiny percentage, but closing the chapter only on the demands of the members presents a 0% chance of staying open.

I don't care what the former members think. I don't care if they run to TikTok to proclaim they won. If the sorority wasn't for them - cool, they can go on their merry way.

I wonder whether Greek organizations need to employ membership contracts with members obligating them to pay dues so long as they are matriculates at the University and spelling out very specific circumstances for early termination of the contract? We have contracts for everything else, so why not that?

At least with a contract in force, these ladies might not have resigned when they would continue to have a financial obligation to pay dues or transfer someplace that's not as prestigious as the school they're at.

The thing that I find incredibly weird about Duke is the huge variance in the sorority membership numbers. There's Delta Gamma and Kappa Alpha Theta taking new members, and they're the largest chapters by far, but those chapters who are 50-100 members took no new members. What's the deal there?

Duke is typically a spring formal recruitment school, but it looks like they did formal recruitment this fall? Maybe not for first years?

As for ADPi, I trust that the staff and volunteers who were working with this situation have their reasons for why they don't think they will be successful, and clearly HQs agrees. If Greek Life comes back at Duke, they'll likely try to go back then. I'm sure there is something in the language of this closure that allows for them to return.

That would go belly up when you wanted to terminate a member. Some groups do have a policy that if you’re an initiated undergrad, you either have to be active or self terminate - even if you transferred in from a totally different school.

If they want out, that is fine with me. My main gripe is their turning in the charter (for what has been up to this time a decently performing chapter with no membership or RM issues) and ADPi accepting it. They don’t have a house to fill, so why not recolonize or reorganize?

I feel like giving up and closing the chapter just says “these girls are right, we don’t deserve to exist.”

If there was such a contract, sure, there could be off ramps, such as judicial procedures for conduct, subject to approval by HQ. But you could at least be financially protected if 100 members "self terminate." Sure, they can stop coming to events and living in the property, but they could still be obligated to pay dues until graduation. They could negotiate to be released, but at least HQ would be holding some cards.

That would at least equip the local alumnae working with HQ to have some leverage and might even result in a financial cushion to go into recruitment with to save a chapter.

Right, including a couple of chapters that PNMs would sell their souls for. I can't understand what I'm seeing.

Trends at Elite Near Ivies
 

I've long thought that some the ills that have stalked Greek life in the northeast would spread into the south , Particularly on campuses like Duke , UVA, Vanderbilt etc. The student body is more into going abroad, less into traditional fraternity culture etc.
Just like fraternities started going local on New England Campuses in the 1960s you see chapters going local at UT Austin ,U of The South , W and L . I see a division between the big state schools and the more selective private schools.
It never got much better in the northeast , I expect for these trends to continue in the south.

I don’t know, I think there must be another way to do it. At schools with a heavy percentage of “maybe-joiners” being told that you have to pay four years’ worth of dues even if you quit would be enough for a lot of people to say forget it. I also think the FWAP FWAP would become deafening.