Theta Chi at Duke Going Local
 

The Theta Chi chapter at Duke is going local, the campus paper, the Duke Chronicle reports in its October 18 issue:

http://www.dukechronicle.com/media/s...echronicle.com

Brief excerpts from article:

The Duke chapter of Theta Chi fraternity is disaffiliating from its national organization and from the Interfraternity Council, Theta Chi President Collin Jones, a junior, confirmed Tuesday night. . . .

Jones explained that by disaffiliating, Theta Chi is making a move that other fraternities may also be considering. . . .

Theta Chi-which will change its name within the next few days-will retain the same goals, functions and social events, but have more freedom, Jones said.

He added that the University administration will have very little control over the fraternity and members will not have to pay national dues.

. . . Jones said though the fraternity's recruitment has been good in recent years, he expects it will increase significantly after the fraternity has disaffiliated. . . .

. . . Eta Prime fraternity-formerly known as Kappa Sigma-is currently the only other disaffiliated, off-campus fraternity at Duke. It disaffiliated from its national organization in 2002. . . .

WOW
 

I hope they do not shoot themselves in the foot for future possible members.:(

They may not realize what they have done until later down the road.

I guess time will tell.

Their fraternity president is hot!

The article says that the locals never have a problem recruiting members and actually do better.

You're just like me- we both picked out the important things from the article.

The quote is attributed to Theta Chi President Collin Jones and not the author of the article.

Yeah, but it's in the article nonetheless. I doubt the author knows much about recruitment numbers. I thought it was interesting that a Fraternity had disaffiliated and then later reaffiliated with a different national.

Theta Chi
 

History repeats itself, in the early 1900's all the fraternities at Harvard went local, Delta Upsilon became the DU club, Zeta Psi became the Spee club etc. Many fraternities at Yale went local as well. In the 1950's and 60's many fraternities throughout the elite Northeastern colleges went local DU at Dartmouth became Foley House, Theta Chi at Dartmouth became Alpha Theta, etc. not every national fraternity chapter in New England went local but many did.
I have often wondered if the movement toward local's would move into the South at Tulane, Emory, Duke, W&L and Vanderbilt. Looks like it's beginning.
The Phi Delta Theta Chapter at the U. of The South went local, and now two at Duke.
What's the connecting thread.... my guess is fraternities at very good liberal arts and Nationally recognized private schools simply don't feel the need for general fraternity as much as the big state chapters do, elitism also plays a role, at Duke I'm sure the guys say "hey why are we in the same fraternity with those goofballs from bad state U". Going local was bad for the Greeks in the northeast, I bet it will be bad at Duke. Lets check back in 10-20 years. The percentages are not what they were in the Northeast anymore. Bet 60% of students are not Greek at Duke in 20 years.

I think they went local for significantly different reasons than this chapter - if I'm not mistaken Alpha Theta became coed. I don't think that's what is happening here.

Alpha Theta
 

Alpha Theta broke in 1951 with Theta Chi over racial policies they went coed in 1972 went Dartmouth went coed. My point is that on smaller elite campuses the local chapters simply don't feel as much need to be part of a general fraternity as much as chapters in the SEC, Big 10 or Big 12 do.

[QUOTE=centaur532;1341716]Their fraternity president is hot![QUOTE]

Amen!! I wish he lived in Florida;)

Hopefully this will lead to more turning into local.

Sorry but I have to disagree with this.

Yes, small (?) State Universitys or Religious Affiliated schools out side of the ones you mentioned do feel that being a member of a National is important.

All of My GLOs at My Alma Mater have House buildings. William Jewell being/was a religious affiliated are going to build Sorority Houses.

I am not sure where your logic is to this?

Are only the ones you mentioned worthy of GLOs?

I agree, but when a national GLO in SEC/Big 12 schools leaves nationals because of their rules, they gain much more respect in the SEC I would think. This has not happen recently to my knowledge but there has been rumors of it at places like Texas' Fiji chapter among others.

Interesting post? I think?

[QUOTE=liltrixx;1341762][QUOTE=centaur532;1341716]Their fraternity president is hot!I wish he had clones!

[QUOTE=centaur532;1341845][QUOTE=liltrixx;1341762]I love it!! It made me laugh:)

Fact Check: Only 37% of students at Duke are Greek-affiliated.

Lots of chapters at Columbia have expressed interest in going local. Too many people here think that Nationals doesn't do anything for them except bill them.

Ok this brings a question to mind--

What is it that collegians expect their nationals to do for them?

Run their chapters?

Give them things?

Get people to show up to things?

Why do people think they get no value from being national?

I'm not sure what people expect their national chapter to do. Generally, though, when one pays for something, one gets something in return. I guess for a lot of people in other chapters here they feel they don't identify with other chapters of their national organization.

Well nationals destroyed pike along with sig ep, beta, and tke. I'm not sure where you're going with this?

Because they don't like the ruuules.

Well...connecting with other chapters is not always going to happen--there are different types of people in different chapters. What should tie chapters together are common history, common values, ritual.

It's unfortunate that some collegians do not see value in having nationally proven programming readily available, trained advisors, alumni support, lifetime opportunities for involvement, insurance, national name recognition, the respect that comes from many campus administrators for national organizations, badges and symbols networking opportunities, long history to inspiration draw from, time tested values, leadership training, connections to strong national philanthropies etc. The list goes on and on.

I would surmise that if members are questioning the value, there is probably something much more significant going on, in terms of how the chapter members are being educated about the org.

Not that I think being national is the only way to go--I understand there is a place for local organizations. I guess this situation seems to scream "We don't like rules" that I don't like that as a reason to abandon national affiliation. There are rules in life....get over it.

yippee! Lets go local so we can haze!

Coming from a local sorority I can say a few things.

Not ALL locals exist because we don't like rules. We've got plenty of rules of our own. We just didn't like the kinds of rules and wanted to make our own. Most that exist were founded because they wanted to fullfill a need that had yet to be met on their campus by existing groups.

Also we don't exist so that we can get away with hazing. My sorority does not haze. Before making that assumption joking or not, you may want to take a look at the Risk Management Section of Greek Chat where you will find stories of many national organizations that have been caught hazing.

In my opinion the best benefits to being part of a national organization is the connection you have with other women/men accross the country because of the traditions of your organization. You may not like the image of another chapter, but you do share the same letters and traditions.

Also insurance. That's why national dues are so high. And insurance is a very big deal.

Has this happened? Where a national chapter at an SEC or Big Twelve school went local? Not saying it hasn't happened, but I don't recall hearing of it. Nor of any prominent Southern "old line" gentleman (young or old) leaving a national to become a member of the Yada-Yada Brotherhood.

Many (indeed most) of those things listed we already derive from the university itself. I happen to like having a national organization even if I don't like all of the rules and obligations.

It's almost happened many times, but failed or sort of fell out for one reason or another. From every story i've heard Fiji at Texas is more or less disconnected or disconnecting with their nationals slowly but surely. I would imagine that they would gain respect within their own greek community for their boldness.

You are correct about Texas FIJI.........and they are one of the two top houses on our campus. Its not going to hurt them in any way.....as someone was mentioning above. They are one of the wealthiest chapters I have ever seen and have an insane amount of prestigious alumni support. I would argue that they are easily the best chapter of FIJI in The South.

Thank you :).

Does anyone know what happens to that wealth if a chapter goes local? I would think that it would stay with the national, so no matter how much cash they have they'd still start from scratch.

So Cal Girl, no, that money stays with the Alumni Corp or Alumni Assoc or which ever org. had it. They don't have to give it to nationals, but they don't have to give to the local guys.

as to original topic: no comment

I just realized ColumbiaPike means Columbia, SC. Duh, carry on :p

If you no longer believe in the goals and values of your national organization - you shouldn't be a part of it. Or you should work to change it.

I thought it was Columbia University.

That's what I thought at first too - hence the "duh" after I read some of his posts.

And that's probably another big reason for disaffiliating from their (inter)national organization. There are some members who believe members in other chapters are douches so why be affiliated with them? The letters and traditions don't matter, it's the brotherhood you gained in the chapter, not the organization overall, that matters.
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I'm assuming by Big XII Elephant Walk meant Texas and possibly OU. None of the other schools in the conference "matter" as far as GLOs are concerned.

Correct, Big - 12 Texas, Oklahoma is pretty iffy as far as anything goes. Oklahoma greeks always get that north Dallas Trash.

Couple of things
 

First Greek life was stronger back in the late 1980's when I attended college and law school. Duke is now at 37% with the women in the low 40's men in the low 30%. In the late 1980's it was higher. I can admit when I'm wrong, however I believe my point stands, in the 1950's Dartmouth was 80% greek now its 50%, Amherst was 80% Greek now it's 10%. This happened after chapters went local. My point is this, when Greek Letter Fraternities go local at elite colleges is a decline in the system going to follow? Empircally the evidence seems to say yes. However are their alternate factors of causation such as changes in the student body etc. I don't know I think the "local" phenomana at elite schools is interesting. Note UVA has also had a trend some national fraternities go local.
On Tom's point about smaller schools my guess is William Jewell is a good school but has not hit that elitist stage that seems to drive Greeks at the the most selective colleges.

National values should permeate, not necessarily be mirror exactly, throughout a chapter--if they don't, then maybe the group should be local.

Also, I would encourage a group to work with their national to change things that are unsatisfactory--sometimes, national orgs are not even aware of the issues with local chapters.

I didn't mean to imply before that all locals don't want to follow the rules--I was in a local and we didn't haze, we followed the rules (most of the time)etc. What I meant was that this particular group seems to not want to follow any rules but their own...and I guess in that case, paying for all those services and assistance really doesn't make sense.