Tri Delta Will Close Princeton Chapter
 

Sad news: May 11, 2005 has been set as the day for the closing of the Delta Delta Delta chapter at Princeton, according to the student paper:

http://www.dailyprincetonian.com/arc...ws/11971.shtml

Low numbers and difficulty recruiting are cited by Tri Delta national officers as major reasons for the closing.

Chapter members will become Tri Delta alumnae. Best wishes to them as they go through this difficult time.

What a sad day For Tri Delts a fine Organization.

It is always so sad to hear about anyones Chapter Closing.:(

Three, AFAIK: Pi Phi, Kappa, and Theta (pretty much what you'd expect).

:( It's always sad when a chapter has to close.

Sad news indeed for Tri Delta and for all greeks. I do hope that, as the article states, they will be able to return to Princeton one day soon.


edited to correct some grammar.....

This decision doesn't make sense to me.

Having a chapter at an Ivy League school is such a feather in any sorority's cap, unless there is a risk management issue or they are WAY under total (like having 10 when everyone else has 150) closing it seems like it would do more harm than good. If they don't have to worry about money to maintain a large house and they have enough women to run the chapter, why close?

If it's a question of being unrecognized by the school, they should have withdrawn their charter long ago. I hope that the women decide to fight this decision.

I know a few women who graduated from the Princeton chapter and it is solely a numbers issue. The chapter has been consistently under for many years- I'm talking an alum who graduated in either 99-00 who said they had numbers issues. Princeton was charterd in 1996. So basically for the entire time the chapter was on campus, there were number problems. I have no idea what total is on the campus, but when I went up to help with formal one year with the addition of me and a significant number of members of the Villanova chapter, we still didn't have the same amount of women the other sororities did.

I know EO was trying to help in more than one way. The Princeton chapter had lots of help. According to the article, they weren't making min. standards for acrediation, and that means the charter gets revoked.

It does make me sad though :( My alum chapter now supports one less group.

I gotta ask... who low in numbers does your IHQ consider too low?

sad story....
all the good wishes to those involved in the future.

if a chapter's been open for nine years and can't take off, I guess you have to examine if it's worth trying to keep it open. I'm sure Tri Delta had their reasons

True. Sad as it is, this may be a simple economic issue. It costs a national organization to support a chapter that can't support itself.

I once participated in a Ritual at one of our divisional meetings where we initiated as alumns the members of a colony that had tried to make minimum numbers for several years -- and just couldn't seem to do it for whatever reason.

It's too bad, but those groups become a drain on the nationals resources.

Right...regardless of whether or not it's an Ivy League chapter, a floundering chapter is a floundering chapter--especially when the other sororities are thriving on the same campus.

I'm sure they didn't take this decision lightly. But, then again, I'm of the school that if a chapter closes, it was probably for the best and there are things we as outsiders don't know about.

I wonder that myself, because our chapter was at 14 at one point and EO didn't close us.

I have to ask this. If the numbers are low in a chapter, why is it a financial drain?

Here is why I ask:
1) Aren't insurance policies global? Basically you pay per brother/sister and not chapter.

2) Don't larger groups get more attention from the national office in terms of consultants and advisors? If so the smaller chapters aren't requiring too much spending from the national office.

Why else would it be expensive? And has any fraternity/sorority actually said this or is it a rumor?

Personally, I would think you would want smart girls at a top 3 school than girls from Podunk U, but that's just me.

-Rudey

but was it that low for nine years?

By saying "at one point" that means that you went back up again.

It did go back up after I graduated. We just happened to be at a low point then.

It's a good question. The biggest part is staff time spent. I would assume that Tri-Delta has chapter consultants who travel to chapters/colonies, etc. Plus materials and other stuff.

It takes more advising time to support a sturggling chapter at all levels of the national organization.

That's why we, at least, have minimum numbers for a colony to become a chapter.

I would guess that every organization has figured out the minimum number necessary to keep the group at at least a break even.

So basically you are saying that it is the consultants and advisors that travel to a chapter that are a drain financially. I don't know how often your advisors travel to a chapter and from where. I don't know how you support them. I do know that a portion of our dues went to support our national office and that effort. I also do know that smaller chapters get less visits and attention than larger "prize" chapters. I also know that a 200 man chapter probably gives more money to support advisors and consultants than it receives.

All fraternities and sororities have minimums I thought. We do too. I don't know if I've ever heard that minimum be linked to "not being a financial drain". Has someone actually stated that to you? I always heard that it was an issue of stability. A 10 man chapter can fold overnight if members get into an argument even, a 40 man chapter can hold itself together a lot better, distribute tasks better, grow if it needs to, etc.

-Rudey

Sad for the girls at Princeton. :( I wouldn't wish this on my worst enemy, but I guess their EO had their reasons....

A problem chapter is a greater drain on resources than a chapter that has its act together. Most of the increased resources being expended are labor (and associated expenses.) Most of this labor is in the form of traveling consultants.

In the case of Tri-Delta's Princeton chapter, if the problem is low numbers, than it costs far more to service this chapter than it does a 150+ woman chapter that is well run.

The public reason that this chapter is being closed is numbers. I don't believe this, but I can't prove that there is more to it. I'm with 33girl. On the surface, this doesn't make sense. You just don't shut down a chapter at Princeton. Tri-Delta has the resources to to revive any chapter, provided that the chapter can be revived.

Whatever the full story is, its best for it to remain between Tri-Deltas.

The issue, as I understand it, is entirely financial. The chapter was taking up more money than it was bringing in. It sucks to have a sisterhood close for such a practical reason, but unfortunately that's what it comes down to. If risk management issues were the problem, our HQ would not hesitate to say so.

I would not be surprised if Tri Delta HQ was looking at the long-term picture here -- planning to recolonize in a few years if numbers at Princeton stay at a relatively high level.

Actually, every chapter in the Fraternity get's at least two visits from a chapter consultant each school year, along with one visit from a Delts Talk About Alcohol (paid) intern. They drive from chapter to chapter, and their salaries and expenses are paid.

The chapters who are having problems are likely to get more visits to help with recruitment, etc.

In addition, those chapters are more likely to be behind in their dues and bills which also takes more staff time and other resources.

So the struggling chapters really are a bigger drain than the others.

Right but if your 200 man chapters are subsidizing them what are they a drain on? The 200 man chapters are not getting their money's worth then...

-Rudey

The 200 man chapter might be the one that is the drain. Its the problem chapters, which are not necessarily small chapters, that are draining resources.

In sororities, chapters pay different insurance rates depending on their housing situation. For instance, if you have no housing, you pay less than a chapter who lives in a suite or campus housing designated for the sororities, and the chapters that are housed in structures owned by the organization pay more I think. So while you may pay by the sister, the liability of housing will change that $ figure per sister.

I personally think that no chapter is a drain.

But I think chapters that would require a lot of attention can be more costly.

-It can be more costly to start a new colony and help them get up to speed.
-It can be more costly to keep that 200 man chapter from hazing and being in the news.
-It can be more costly to purchase that medium sized chapter a house (Right after being a tiny colony and before they are a 200 man chapter)

The way it looks to me, there are no drains and there is a cost to everything and everyone. If I had to guess, I would think a 10 man chapter would be cheapter to maintain than a 200 man chapter, but I'm guessing just like the rest of the folks out there.

-Rudey

I disagree with this. If a chapter decides to engage in activities that cause a pledge to be hospitalized, an HQ might have to quickly mobilize resources. This might mean canceling a colonization presentation with a desirable host institution. It could mean that a colonization effort is delayed, or canceled. It might mean that a recruitment retreat, for a struggling chapter, is delayed by a semester or two.

In the case of a perenially struggling chapter, that is otherwise behaving well, it might need HQ staff on campus every few years to keep it alive. Again, this means that staff is being diverted from other activities that would strengthen the entire organization.

No GLO is so flush with resources that it can handle all challenges with the attention that each deserves. What the executive level of a GLO has to deal with is triage. Who gets the resources to live, to die, and to be born.

So basically large party school chapters and small colony/stale chapters are drains, but the middle ones are not drains?

-Rudey

I never said, nor implied that. I said that problem chapters are drains, and that they come on all shapes and sizes. Thankfully, they're rare.

I think therein is the problem- if the chapter can be revived. Like I said before, there has been number problems for almost the entire time the chapter has been open.

Tri Delta does have a vast amount of resources. I also know that new chapters and struggling chapters get more visits from FCs and other volunteers, like recruitment specialists. When it comes down to it, the sorority is a business. As much as everyone hates to admit it, it is a business. On the chapter level, it isn't; but on the national level, it certianly is.

Like S&S said, EO would be the first people to announce it was a risk management problem. I do also believe they are looking towards the future; take Butler. They closed in 96 because of low numbers. Now, they are being re-colonized and will be installed in April 2005. I would be willing to wager this is what EO has up their sleve for Princteon.