U of Minnesota Sorority Recruitment Feb 2004
 

A heads up for U of Minnesota / Twin Cities women, and those who know them:

There's going to be an NPC sorority rush starting February 7, 2004. This is in addition to the formal recruitment that was held first semester. Basic information, sign-up form and a contact address can be found at

http://www.begreek.org/npc.htm

That page also has links to basic information about each chapter.

I don't know if all the NPC sororities are participating in this "spring" recruitment. NPC sororities at U of Minnesota / Twin Cities are:

Alpha Chi Omega
Alpha Gamma Delta
Alpha Omicron Pi
Alpha Phi
Delta Delta Delta
Delta Gamma
Gamma Phi Beta
Kappa Alpha Theta
Kappa Kappa Gamma
Pi Beta Phi

WARNING: This is a shameless plug, I repeat a shamless plug.....

YAY! I wanna go Alpha Chi, boom boom, hey baby that ain't no lie! GO AChiO!

One of my buddies told me the biggest sorority is in the high 60s this fall, and with total at 80 that means every sorority SHOULD be participating in informal rush -- that doesn't mean all of them will, though, but hopefully at least most of them will use this opportunity.

Sugar and spice, Thanks very much; I had no idea what total was. Before I posted I clicked through the brief descriptions of the 10 NPC GLOs and was, frankly, surprised that the stated membership numbers were so small. Minnesota is a huge school, so any idea of what's the deal? Did the tuition hikes there take too big a bite out of some people's budgets? Are living at home or in dorms or apartments more attractive options? Or is it one of those periodic drops of interest in Greek life?

I'm really not sure why Greek numbers at Minnesota are so low, but I get the feeling that they have never been as high as they have at nearby schools like Iowa, Illinois and Wisconsin. The aforementioned schools all tend to pull in lots of Chicago suburbanites who are more likely to go Greek, which Minnesota doesn't get. And those from the Twin Cities suburbs who might be more likely to go Greek, I've noticed, often head off to Iowa or Wisconsin instead of sticking around Minnesota.

Also, because the campus is in the middle of the cities and it isn't a real big party school -- there's just so many other things to do -- that it's possible that the Greek system wasn't needed that much for social opportunities the way it was at some other schools.

Edited to add: Also, I think they had lower rush numbers than usual this fall. The numbers on the website are from last spring pre-graduation, and as you can see Pi Phi had almost made it to total then, but they graduated a lot of seniors.

I noticed they have a couple of locals (including the infamous Sigma AEPi). what's their story? are they associate members of panhel or do their own thing? just curious.

Sigma isn't really a local per se, now that it has four or five colonies established, but of course it's not NPC either. It wasn't there when I was there, so I'm not sure how things work -- but I'm pretty sure that both Sigma and the other local do not participate in formal recruitment. I know that the local did not while I was there.

I could be wrong but I think the other local has a multicultural or historically Latina slant.

hehe... I didn't know Sigma AEPi was founded at Syracuse in 1872... ;)

i was a little confused with your post, but when i checked the website...i almost spit out my soda. obviously, someone didn't fix the info. how funny!

oh and if you click the link to sigmaaepi.com, you get the web page for alpha phi!

Is this the same school/chapter that Dru Sojin was a Gamma Phi Beta from?

No I'm pretty sure Dru's school was The University of North Dakota, but please someone correct me if I'm wrong!

Dru is from our AB chapter at UND, the chapter at Minnesota is our K chapter and has an ENORMOUS house.

Our campus has had a smaller greek community for a few years now. There are 22 fraternities and 9 sororities (tri-delta is no longer on campus). Many attribute this to the fact that although our undergraduate population is over 40,000.....most of these are commuters that do not live on campus. Many are also non-traditional students who are not 18-22 looking for the involvement aspect of greek life. Sorority total is now 75 and at the end of this spring I believe there were 2 chapters at total, and 3 more were fairly close to being there as well. Hopefully the info is helpful to understanding our campus.

You do realize this is a 2.5 year old thread.........

AND the first post I'd ever made on greek chat. guess i'm not into it yet.

Funny story...

My pledge class did our "walk-out" to our chapter at UM. We wanted to go to another large, Big 10 school. When the pledge trainer called them to make arrangements, they asked how many would be coming, and she said about 50. I guess the other girl thought she said about 15.

We show up in a huge rented Greyhound bus with about 60 girls. The chapter house is empty because everyone is at formal. They have left instructions to make ourselves at home, and we will be sleeping in the big room on the top floor. Well, the room had like 8 beds. It was pretty funny. We slept in every nook and cranny of that house.

When we did finally visit with our sisters from UM, they told us that while Greek Life is very historic at UM, the campus is largely commuter so the chapters are only medium-sized. Our house there is sure pretty, though.

AOIIGAL may remember that trip - my pledge class kidnapped her and took her along!

P.S. Welcome to GC, Jessi!

yeaaaaaaaaa GOPHERS!
I just felt I needed to post since it's my school's thread!

Coming from a hometown with a larger greek system (Madison, WI) and going to the U of M, I was surprised by how much smaller (greek wise) Minnesota was, too. After 5 years there, I'm still not sure why that is.
Everyone's first excuse is that it's such a "commuter campus," but I feel that, at least for the 18-22 year-old commuters, that greek life would be a great way to get to know people on campus, especially when you are not around as much.
It's especially concerning when total's going down and we've lost both an NPC sorority and a re-colonized IFC fraternity in the past 4 years! They decreased sorority total by 5 members, to help the smaller chapters. I wonder if the overall sorority numbers are higher since then. I really liked AngieWashU's comment that one of her schools had separate fall and spring semester totals, along with a deferred formal recruitment. I always wondered if it wouldn't help for us to have recruitment in the winter/spring, instead of right away in the fall.
That said, we do have a really long tradition of greeks at Minnesota. I know my chapter's been around for over 100 years. And our university administration is more supportive than it was under the previous U president, I think.

I realize this is a wayyy old thread, but I was wondering if anyone else who's familiar with U of M - Twin Cities shared my impression that the campus as a whole seems ultra-unfriendly to Greeks? I know this is definitely the case on other (most other?) campuses, but here it seems especially true.

I originally rushed there (this was late 80s/early 90s) and found that some people thought that was a generally uncool thing (the Greek system). Also, one of my friends who DID end up joining the Greek system there later told me that Greeks generally didn't wear their letters around campus because of an almost hostile, in-your-face attitude from non-Greeks when/if they did. I'm not sure how true this is because I never did get to wear letters there (I dropped out of rush after preference)!

Anyway, I guess I attributed it to the fact that Minnesota, and especially the Twin Cities, is so "liberal" and since the Greeks are kind of the most high-profile opposite of this, maybe that's why Greek life is not as popular, but then I guess the fact that it's a commuter school, etc. DOES have an influence too.

Thoughts?

A lot of my friends from law school did their undergrad there (and were Greek) and definitely found that to be true. I have a lot of friends from high school that go there as well (yay for reciprocity!) and a lot of them are just aghast that I joined a sorority.

It's actually pretty sad, because most of the sororities at the U are really down to earth and not overly stereotypical - I think that a lot of people would like them, if given the chance.

I graduated in 2004, and I didn't find that to be the case. I had friends in NPC, IFC, NPHC, and NALFO orgs, and we all wore letters and had many successful campus events. I never had a problem with non-Greeks or heard of any stories about incidents between Greeks and non-Greeks.