Other GC members from closed chapters?
 

I've been lurking around here for weeks, really enjoying being back in the world of Greek life! I especially enjoyed the Weird Rush Stories thread! Too funny and brought back many great memories!

I am wondering how many other people on GC are from closed chapters. I am a DDD from Michigan State and our chapter closed about three (?) years after I graduated. Although we were not one of the "top" groups on campus, I had the best sorority experience, was very involved, and it broke my heart when our chapter closed. I was a national volunteer at the time and the had the dubious "privilege" of being in the meeting at Convention with the Executive Board when the decision was made to close the chapter. Not an experience I would ever wish on anyone.

After being so involved during college, it has been very disappointing to have no real alumna involvement. DDD is not big in Michigan like it is in many other states. There is only one other chapter about four hours away and there are no active alumnae groups in this part of Michigan. Because the MSU chapter is closed, there is no house to go back to at Homecoming. etc.

Anyway, sorry to make my first post such a downer, but I was wondering if there are any other GC members who are part of closed chapters and have had/are having similar experiences? I was glad to find GC because there really isn't anyone in my everyday life who can relate to my sadness over this. I think some people on GC have mentioned in passing that their chapter is closed, but I've read so many threads that I can't remember who they were!

Glad to finally be an "official" part of GC!

Sallie

My original chapter is closed but I was fortunate enough to transfer to a school (for other reasons) who had a Gamma Phi chapter and I affiliated with them.

I agree though, it isn't something I would wish on anyone.

Can you start an alumnae chapter in your area? I don't know how DDD is, but my alumnae chapter is full of women from many different collegiate chapters (most in other states) and we do very little (collectively) with the local collegiate chapters. Our role is sisterhood and fun for alumnae.

My chapter is closed (Kappa Alpha Chapter of AGD, Avila University) also. I was a charter member of my chapter.
We started as a local, obtained university permission to affiliate with an NPC group, and I watched all the presentations.
We (as a local and university) selected AGD and colonization began. We were the only sorority on campus, and there was one men's group that was an AKL colony (not sure of the official name) as well.
After lots of hard work we were finally chartered and initiated.
My chapter closed o ne or two years after I graduated. It was very sad, heartbreaking in fact.
But I am still active today---- I advise our chapter at the Univ of KS. It is bittersweet being around the chapter--- makes me miss what I had, and miss my own chapter even more--- but I have come to love chapter as if it were my own.

OMG, Wendi, I may know one of Your Close Members!!! A Customer of mine is , oh never mind, She was an AXO and had the same experience You did at Avila with Chapters being closed!:(


Still beat from this weekend at Estate Sale.

For You AGDs, The Greek Advisor is AGD at Mo. St. Un. She Grad. at Mo. Western!

Sweet Lady!

:cool:

Re: Other GC members from closed chapters?
 

dear sallie, welcome to greekchat. i second what sbgpb said-if it is allowed in tri delta, start a new alumnae chapter where you live. when i moved to naples, there was no zta alumnae chapter, so i got in touch with the right people and started one if that is not feasible, maybe joining the local alumnae panhellenic would be the next best thing.

Closed chapter
 

My chapter closed in 2000, thirteen years after I graduated , closure was due to steadily declining numbers on a very tough campus -UT-Austin.When I pledged we had 85 members, by 2000 we had 12. The decline did not happen in a strait line, we went up and down, going from a post vietnam peak of 95 members in 1982 to 40 in 1986 back up to 65 by 1992 and then a long slow slide in the 1990s. It hurts as my chapter had had a presence on UT since 1947. We were never the top, the old southern fraternities always were the biggest KA, SAE etc. but we were good in athletics had a big house and had alot of fun.
DU tried to recolonize in 2001 but pulled out due to risk management problems with the colony, don't know if a revival is in the works.

PM_Mama00 -

Yes, a number of sororities have closed at MSU. Last year DH and I were in East Lansing so we took a drive around to see who was still there and who wasn't. I know that Alpha Xi Delta, Tri Delta, Alpha Gamma Delta, and Phi Mu have all closed in the last 10 years or so.

(Moderators - If what I'm writing here isn't kosher, let me know.)

I was at MSU from 1985-1990, pledging in 1987. There were 17 sororities and there was definitely three tiers. All of the chapters that have since closed would have been considered bottom tier groups. I don't have experience with other panhellenics, but I would say there was not a strong sense of "we all win when all of the chapters are strong" among the sorority community. It was certainly there among some segments, but it was not a pervasive attitude.

A lot of students work at MSU. When I was there, the vast majority of students held jobs. I think the economic downturns of the 90's probably hurt a lot of the sororities, especially the ones that were already struggling. A lot of women had to work to stay in school, not just work for spending money and sorority expenses. A lot of my sorority sisters worked to pay for their sorority membership.

I think there were other issues involved with the houses that closed. House location and the style/type of the house was a big negative for some chapters (including my own). I also think there were just too many sororities for the campus. AOPi came on campus while I was there and that troubled a lot of the sororities already there who were struggling to make quota. It was not unusual for several of the then 17 sororities to not make quota or even come close. When you have that many chapters not making quota, I don't think it is JUST about those chapters. I think there were too many chapters. A lot of the middle tier and lower tier sororities really felt slapped in the face when extension happened when numerous chapters were already struggling. I guess from the perspective of some it might seem like chapters closing was in the best interest of the Greek system because it "right sized" the sorority community. But for all those sisters and alumnae it is very hard to see happen.

So that's what I know. I haven't heard how many women went through rush or what quota was this year. If anyone knows, I would be interested to hear!

Sallie

That's how it used to be at WVU. We had like 15 or so sororities, but now we have 8.

There was a bunch of closings and numbers were down, but now things are on the up swing and we could more than likely have a few sororities re-colonize but the current ones always vote it down.

Tom-- are you sure it was Avila? If so, she has to be an AGD--we are the only NPC group EVER on the campus.
Find out who and PM me!!

Re: Other GC members from closed chapters?
 

Sallie,
Your experience is like mine. I was completing my year as a leadership consultant when my chapter (at Mizzou) was closed in 1975.

Even if there is not a local alumnae club the fraternity would surely love to have you serve on the province or national committee level.

AGDAlum



[QUOTE]Originally posted by TriDeltaSallie
[I am wondering how many other people on GC are from closed chapters. I am a DDD from Michigan State and our chapter closed about three (?) years after I graduated. Although we were not one of the "top" groups on campus, I had the best sorority experience, was very involved, and it broke my heart when our chapter closed. I was a national volunteer at the time and the had the dubious "privilege" of being in the meeting at Convention with the Executive Board when the decision was made to close the chapter. Not an experience I would ever wish on anyone.

After being so involved during college, it has been very disappointing to have no real alumna involvement. DDD is not big in Michigan like it is in many other states. There is only one other chapter about four hours away and there are no active alumnae groups in this part of Michigan. Because the MSU chapter is closed, there is no house to go back to at Homecoming. etc.

My chapter closed in 2002. It is an official "Chapter in the Sky".

My local was colonized on by a national in 2000. It was very sad b/c I had been had officer in my local so it was very sad to see something I had worked so in just disappear. Currently though, some of us are working to try to establish an alumni chapter so we can at least keep in touch and talk about "the good ole days". You should definatly talk to your national and try to get TriDelts in your area together. Even if they aren't women that were in your chapter, its nice to be around your sisters! :)

And I can completely related on how sad it is to go back to homecomming and not have events to go back to. Homecomming is some years so very sad.

collonies/affiliated
 

One of the first, if not the first, colony was at Hays, KS or U of KS
in 1940. A colony is started from scratch, no predecessor...
An affiliate is a group taken by a national and is generally a local
group. An affiliate is not a colony.
Somehow we have lost the difference between the two terms
A merger is the coming together of two or more groups, usually
with some concessions from each group.
An absorption is the taking in of a group, usually with no terms
other than joining the two. Kinda like an unconditional surrender.
Sometimes a badge modification or ritual amendments or the alteration of a pledge pin...these are a result of a merger. Like
Lambda Chi & Theta Kappa Nu or TKE & Alpha Lambda Tau or
Phi Kappa & Theta Kappa Phi=Phi Kappa Theta.
TKE was going to merge with Kappa Delta Rho and be known as
Tau Kappa Delta, about 1939. The Tekes turned it down, but the
KDR's approved. So, it never happened...a merger

I am also from a closed chapter. It closed my senior year... Our numbers and relations on campus and with each other were improving, but I think it was a matter of "too little, too late."

I think the most frustrating thing about it is that unless you went through it, you will never understand... and because of that there's no way to really help it from happening to other chapters. Plus, explaining all of the details within a chapter is often a breach of confidentiality.

My sophomore year, when I pledged, Kappa Alpha Theta closed. I remember asking one of my friends in the chapter what happened, and her telling some things, and just thinking, "I'm so glad that we'll never have to go through that." Two years later, there we were having to close our chapter. It's sad, but like you, I wouldn't change anything about it. I often look back at the Greek Life site (I only graduated a year ago, so I still have friends) and am jealous of the beautiful houses they are building, and the fact that their alumnae have something to go back to... But when it comes down to it, in 2001 I pledged the chapter that I fit in with best.

Re: Re: Other GC members from closed chapters?
 

I was doing some surfing and came across an article from 2000 with this quote:

The Chronicle of Higher Education recently noted that overall fraternity membership is down as much 30 percent. At particular universities, the numbers are even more startling. Michigan State University, for example, has suffered a 50 percent decline in Greek membership over the past nine years.

The whole article is here:
http://www.policyreview.org/feb00/sirhal.html

That pretty much lines up with what I had originally written in answer to the question.

Sallie

I am also from a closed chapter. Delta Gamma (University of Arizona) closed in May, but we will begin the recolonization process in 08 so that does make me feel a bit better about the closure.

The chapter too was closed due to declining numbers.

I cried like a baby when my chapter closed. Even to this day it still hurts my heart (was really bad around formal fall recruitments back in late August, early September)

TriDeltaSallie, I PMed you :) :)

Add Alpha Gams to the list of closed chapters at MSU in the last few years. :(

I joined my chapter (Alpha Alpha of Alpha Sigma Phi at the University of Oklahoma) in 1984; the chapter closed in 1987 and was briefly revived in 1997, closing in 2000. It's going to be a very long time before the Phoenix flies high again at OU.

one of my dad's fraternity brothers called him last year while I was home on some break telling him that his Lambda Chi Alpha, a very prominent chapter at Ball State U, had been shut down....sad.

This is really true. I know a number of sisters I was close to in the house still feel rather bitter about the whole thing. (We were all officers together at various times.) Since we had all graduated, we never really had the opportunity to say good-bye, visit the house one last time, understand the entire closing process, etc. My position was better than most because I was a national volunteer at the time so I had access to more information and people. But for a lot of women who had worked their you-know-whats off for three or four years, trying to make a difference in keeping the chapter alive and stronger, it was a really hard pill to swallow. If you've ever been a part of a chapter that had to work twice as hard to achieve half as much and then saw it close, you know exactly what I am talking about.

I know the whole chapter closing thing soured a lot of women on their membership and they have no interest in being involved as alumnae. It really is too bad because we had a lot of phenomenal women in our chapter who have lost all interest in DDD because it is too upsetting to really care about it any longer.

Our magazine (The Trident) recently went subscription only so unless you are a member of an alumnae chapter or have paid to be a Life Loyal member (or whatever it is called), you will no longer receive the magazine. I can imagine a lot of women from closed chapters won't subscribe to something that reminds them each quarter of what they lost.

I don't know if GLOs in general do anything in particular to reach out to members of closed chapters. My experience is that they do not. Usually it is just a little blurb in a corner of the magazine that announces with regret that such and such chapter has closed. Wouldn't it bring a lot more meaning and a better sense of closure for the members of that chapter to actually CELEBRATE that chapter's existance and the women who were a part of it rather than making a tiny little announcement in the corner of a page? Write up a page about the history of the chapter and celebrate the accomplishments they had during their history rather than just closing the chapter and pretending like they never existed except during Founder's Day when you do a chapter roll call. At least celebrating the chapter's existance would make the alumnae of that chapter feel proud of their chapter instead of feeling shame that they are part of a closed chapter.

It is also hard because you don't want to come across like you are bashing your GLO. I truly love Tri Delta and am glad I was a DDD at MSU. I met some lifelong friends through the process and wouldn't trade my experiences for anything.

I know a number of folks here suggested trying to start an alumnae chapter in my area. I think it is one of those things that you can't understand unless you've gone through it. After devoting four years of my life to bringing the chapter back to see it fold a few years later, I just don't have it in me to start something all over again. Maybe someday, but not now.

I have volunteered on the national level and truthfully did not find it very enjoyable. It ends up being a lot of paperwork, emails and phone calls and not a whole lot of relationship. I would really prefer to be a local advisor so I could work directly with the women rather than make a once a year visit for a day or so and then all the rest of the time is spent on paperwork and dealing with problems from a distance. Just the way I'm wired, I guess. I'm so glad for the opportunities I had on the national level, but at least at this point in my life, the last thing I need it more paperwork and emails! LOL!

Well, thanks for letting me ramble and thanks too for all the nice comments. Our panhellenic was not very panhellenic-y so it is really fun to come to GC and converse with women (and men) from different GLOs from all over!

Sallie

You may have hit on something right there. Perhaps this has led to so many chapters closing in a short time. They aren't supporting each other and haven't learned that a greek system is only as strong as it's weakest chapter.

My chapter, Delta Omicron of Alpha Sigma Phi Fraternity at Illinois State University closed in 1993.

Membership was very low, and the chapter decided to turn in the charter and disband. Alumni were not involved in this decision:mad:

As a founding father of my chapter, I was quite angry. I worked very hard for nearly 2 years to get to the point where we could charter and gain IFC recognition. To see it all just go away only a few years after I was gone was horrible.

During this period, ISU had several other fraternities close due to low membership. It wasnt just the Alpha Sigs with low numbers. It was the early 90s and GLO's everywhere were experiencing low membership. The 80s had been a boom time for GLO membership numbers. After every boom comes a bust.

Our old chapter house at ISU is presently the home of TKE. There are no current plans to reactivate Delta Omicron chapter.

My chapter closed a year or so after I graduated. It's amazing the things Nationals will over look until it comes to financial things...

AMEN sister!!!!

I utterly and truly believe this.

Re: Other GC members from closed chapters?
 

Hi Sallie,
My experience is very like yours...my chapter at the University of Alabama closed 4 years after I graduated. that was 27 years ago! Lots of bitterness...we felt that our Council had not done enough to help us years earlier when it would have done some good.
But after working with our chapters as an advisor and on the regional level, I think the biggest problem was (and continues to be) the lack of unity within Alabama's Panhellenic. Alabama has an extremely competitive sorority system. Let's call it cutthroat, with lots of dirty rushing.
Plenty of girls will pledge nothing - will even quit school - rather than pledge anything but one of the "old row" groups (that's their slang for the top tier). The big groups keep getting bigger - more than 200 now, gosh back in the day the biggest groups had 100!
It still hurts that my group is no longer there. No house to visit at homecoming, no sisters to run into at football games. I thought that surely we would be back on campus by the time I had a daughter and she went to college. Daughter pledge another group...I so envy those moms whose daughters pledged their sorority and they could attend initiation with them!
Anyway, I dealt with my hurt by getting involved, first with alumnae groups and then with collegiate chapters. I hope we now jump in a little earlier and a little more vigorously to help struggling chapters. And, it has worked in several situations...but only with strong Panhellenic support.

AnchorAlumna (and others),

It is interesting the observation you've made about one of the central issues being the Panhellenic. I feel ill-qualified to comment too extensively on that since I've only had one Panhellenic experience. And I will admit that I was not the most Panhellenically minded person while I was in college. I know I got sucked into the rampant negativity and competitiveness on our campus. Women from the top tier groups would cross the street rather than pass you on the street and say hello. And if they couldn't cross the street, they would still ignore you while they passed by you. So, yes, there was definitely very little Panhellenic spirit among the sororities and no sense of "we're only as strong as the weakest link". I'll be honest. I can't even IMAGINE being on a campus where the groups are as friendly and supportive as they apparently are on other campi. It really is beyond my comprehension that Panhel existed for anything other than to (sometimes) pass out rush infractions and select the Rho Chis. Cynical, I know, but I'm being honest.

We had two DDDs on Panhel while I was there, including one sister who was Panhel President. But you would not believe the opposition from the top tier houses to her being President because she came from a lower tier house. She was infinitely more qualified for the position than the person she ran against, but the "top houses" lobbied HARD for a much less qualified woman because she was from a "better" house. There was no other way to explain it. However, the DDD was elected and she did a great job.

Re: Alabama.... When I was President, my CDO (Collegiate District Officer) was an Alabama alumna. She was fabulous. Her name was Mary Terrell, but I can't remember her maiden name. I don't know if you (AnchorAlumna) would have been at Alabama at the same time and that's next to nothing to go on, but it is a small world. And for some reason it runs through my mind that her daugther was a DG, but I could be totally off on that. Anyway, she was the nicest lady and SO HELPFUL. Such a joy to work with!

Sallie

Sallie,
I'm sorry your college experience with the 'top tier' was so negative. I come from a college where at the time there were only 5 sororities and 8-9 fraternities and it was never like that.! Maybe because it was a smaller greek system with about 100-110 members in each sorority or just the small town midwestern atmosphere... I've never really known down cut throat it is in the South until I came to GC. My chapter has not closed, but the pain and sadness of having your chapters close is apparent. I'm sorry for all of you. I wish no chapter had to close! Too bad sometimes the bottom line is numbers and/or money.