Sorority expansion at Washington University-St. Louis
 

The Extension Committee of the Women's Panhellenic Council has narrowed its search to bring a new sorority to campus to three potential organizations. Kappa Delta, Zeta Tau Alpha, and Chi Omega have been invited to campus for the week of Nov. 18. Their visit will include meetings with WU administration, a meeting with the leadership of the Greek community, and an open presentation, which will be open to the entire campus. The goal of the Extension Committee is to find a sorority that can fill a niche on campus, and the hope with this visit is to further narrow down the number, until the committee ultimately makes its decision.

Oh how exciting for Washington University!!! All three are OUTSTANING groups with their own unique sisterhoods to offer the women of WU and your campus would be lucky with any of them :) Most definitely keep us updated on the situation!!!

Great News!!!!:D
Keep us updated please.

The current NPC sororities are Kappa, AEPhi, Alpha Phi, DG, and PiPhi. The Theta chapter closed about 2 years ago and the AChiO chapter about 5 years before that.

There's also a small local sorority, Mu Phi Gamma, and the NPHC sororities Alpha Kappa Alpha, Delta Sigma Theta, and Zeta Phi Beta.

Greekgrrl,

Congratulations on expansion!! It is wonderful when any school is able to increase the opportunity for women to be a part of something that has impacted all of us. They are all fabulous organizations. Ask great questions, and have fun! This is an awesome experience for any Greek community.

Are you on the Panhelleic Exec or a chapter delegate? Please share a little more about your campus. How many sororities do you have? When is recruitment? What ever else you want to share. I love this stuff! Keep us infomed!! Best of luck!!

ValpoKD

How great! Those will be some lucky girls! Wash-U has an outstanding fraternity system. ;)

Greekgrrl, how did I miss about you going to wash-u? :confused:

Great selection!
 

Those are 3 great sororities! Best of luck with the expansion! :)

For further info, WU has formal recruitment at the beginning of Spring semester. I don't know yet whether the new group will be decided on in time for this year's recruitment.

Also, I know that if Zeta came it would be a recolonization (their Beta Chi chapter I believe?) but I don't believe either KD or ChiO have ever been at WU before.

Greekgrrl

Yes, our Beta Chi chapter was chartered on October 31, 1931. I don't know when the chapter closed, but I think there would a lot of alumnae support for another St. Louis collegian chapter!

Expansion is exciting and the three nationals sound great. But I wish Alpha Chi Omega would have some presence in the St. Louis area (where I am from.) Its sad that the chapter closed.

Wash U
 

The really incredible thing is that 16 of the 26 NPC groups submitted packets in response to this Expansion opprtunity. Since there is already 5 groups at Wash U that means that only 5 of the 26 did not submit materials. This goes to show how incredible the opportunity is perceived to be by so many of our NPC groups. Congrats to those selected to present!!

Denise_DPhiE
Director of Expansion
Delta Phi Epsilon

How exciting! All of the groups are great, and I'm sure that any one of them will be a wonderful addition! :) Is there a reason why they are not going to re-charter one of the closed chapters?

It's probably too soon after the Theta closure - there are (probably) still members of the closed chapter on the campus. Usually groups like to wait 5-6 years before rechartering to make sure that none of the members of the former chapter would be involved except as alumnae.

AChiO could have submitted a request for consideration and it was denied, there's no way of knowing if that's true or not.

Well word on the street from a (as yet anonymous, I'm trying to track it down) Panhel source is that ZTA is out of the running, so it's between KD and ChiO for the open spot.

No news yet on whether the group will be participating in formal rush in January, but it's probably a safe bet that they will.

As soon as there's more info, I'll post!

Panhellenically,
Greekgrrl

thanks for the update!
 

I'm excited that KD's in the running! As much as I would love to see another KD expansion, i know that the campus can't go wrong with either group! Please let us know the moment you have more info!!!!!!!
Did they make their presentations yet?

I wish the University luck with finding a new group! I hope it will help many more girls fins their home at WU.
love,
M

Just an FYI:

Gamma Phi Beta was also at Wash U (Phi Chapter) until spring of 89 or 90.

Update
 

Formal Recruitment ended last weekend and all but one chapter made quota. Panhel had apparently decided to wait on a final decision about expansion until final results were in, but since the DG chapter (which had been struggling a bit) bounced back and had a great recruitment, the campus will be bringing on a new sorority after all.

Word on the street is that the group decided on is Chi Omega (but I do NOT have confirmation on this from an official source yet). If the student paper or the Greek Life Office publishes an official announcement, I'll post it here.

Congrats to all the New Members of Alpha Phi, Alpha Epsilon Phi, Delta Gamma, Kappa Kappa Gamma, and Pi Beta Phi at WU!

Greekgrrl

From Student Life (www.studlife.com)

Student Life - News
Issue: 02/21/03


Panhel selects Chi Omega as new sorority
By Justin Choi

The Greek community plans to expand its family next year with
the addition of a new sorority chapter, Chi Omega.

Nearly one year ago, the sorority community voted to open itself
to expansion. This act gave the green light for national sororities
to solicit colonization. Leaders made this move because over the
last few years, Washington University's sororities experienced
growing pledge classes. As a result, sororities at WU had
overwhelming total memberships.

A goal of the expansion is to ensure that those who are interested
in Greek life will be accommodated.

"One of the main reasons we wanted to bring in another chapter
was because the chapters, right now, are too large," said Emily
Reinhart, president of the Women's Panhellenic Association.
"They're getting to the point where after we do rush there are
130 to 140 girls in a sorority, which is huge. They're going to bring
an outlet, basically for our numbers to dwindle, which is needed."

Information packets explaining the situation on the WU campus
were sent to all 26 national sororities, including the five already
present on campus.

"We send [the packets] to everyone just so [the sororities] that
are on our campus know what's going on," said Reinhart.

Of the 21 sororities that are not represented at WU, 19 expressed
interest in colonizing and submitted applications. A committee
composed of 12 individuals, chaired by Reinhart, subsequently
reviewed the applications.

The extension committee narrowed its applicant pool down to
three sororities and extended invitations to them for on-campus
interviews.

Two of the three sororities, Kappa Delta and Chi Omega, accepted
the invitations. During the interview process, committee members
unanimously determined that Chi Omega would be the best fit for
the WU campus. This decision was reported to the Women's
Panhellenic Association, and subsequently all of WU's sororities
agreed to invite Chi Omega to colonize the campus.

A decision on the timeline of this colonization has not yet been
finalized, but people close to the voting process anticipate a fall
2003 founding class followed by a spring 2004 rush.

Part of the reason why committee members favored Chi Omega
over Kappa Delta was that its philanthropy is different from those
of the already established WU sororities. As a result of Chi
Omega's installation, students should expect Breast Cancer
Research to be added to the list of sorority philanthropies.
Additionally, a benefit of bringing Chi Omega to Hilltop Campus is
its national support system.

"[Chi Omega] has a good national support system as far as their
national headquarters, and that was one of the things about Chi
Omega that we liked the most," said Reinhart. "They are going to
have someone move to St. Louis and basically live on campus for
six months to help set up the sorority. [The chapter advisor is]
hired by the national sorority, which is great because that makes
it easier on us as the sororities that are already here in that we
don't have to constantly be extending our resources to them."

Existing campus sororities are, for the most part, very supportive
of bringing Chi Omega to WU.

"[Chi Omega's introduction] will also decrease individual pledge
class sizes for sororities, which will strengthen each individual
sorority in that they won't have quite as many members so that
it'll be easier to meet people within the sorority," said junior Lydia
Cote, president of Kappa Kappa Gamma.

The Women's Panhellenic Association felt that this increased
intimacy within sororities would result in more active members.
Instead of five large sororities with less active memberships, six
optimally sized sororities with active memberships will strengthen
the entire Greek Community, members said. Furthermore, a
founding class opportunity may attract women who might not
have otherwise considered Greek life.

"In the fall, they're going to be rushing sophomores, juniors and
seniors because no one is allowed to rush freshmen in the fall,"
said Reinhart. "In the spring when they rush everyone else, it'll
basically be the same pool of women. But in the fall, when they
try to get their founding class of sophomores, juniors, and seniors,
I think they're going to get a lot of women that are sorority
women but who just never joined a sorority."

Reinhart notes that Chi Omega's greatest challenge will be building
its founding class, though the support of Washington University's
Greek system will lessen this burden.

One woman who had previously chosen not to pledge does not
see the addition of Chi Omega as a possible reason to join the
Greek community.

"It doesn't really affect me because I was never interested in
sororities to begin with," said freshman Kristin McGrath.

Current sorority members, however, see the advantages of a new
sorority.

"Although I'm already pledging, I think it'll draw a lot of people
because it's a chance to be in the founding class or first pledge
class of a chapter," said freshman Danielle Durso, a Delta Gamma
pledge.

Does anyone know WHY Theta closed there?

If KD can't colonize there, I'm very happy that Chi O is!! :)

welcome Chi O to Wash U!!! Its a terrific greek community!:D

Yay for us! :D I always love to read about new chapters!

However, I noticed in the article it mentioned one of the reasons they chose Chi O was because of it's philanthropy - that "As a result of Chi Omega's installation, students should expect Breast Cancer Research to be added to the list of sorority philanthropies." Our national philanthropy is Make-A-Wish. Hmm, mixed up facts somewhere...

I was wondering about that...but hey if it helped get you picked run with it!!!;)