Becoming registered
 

MY school does not allow local organizations to be registered.

Can we call it a sorority even though the school wont grant registration as a sorority?

This is important b/c I feel like since there is a pledge process and a sisterhood is built then sorority is proper name to fit the organization.

I guess the question could also be stated would any of you consider a non-registerd organization, that is well organized, as a sorority?

I know exactly how you feel. It's next to impossible to get registered as a local at my school as well. We are working now with getting registered with the activities office rather then with the Office of Fraternity and Sorority Affairs. You could try doing that, they seem more helpfull.

I actually just thought of that as i was posting last night... its just when i recruit i want PNM to understand that sisterhood isn't made through a paper form, but rather the bonding that will happen throughout pledging... I dont mind being recoginzed as a stu_org as long as I am able to recruit and hold meetings on campus... Where is your school located?
I am in Pennsylvania

Find out specifically what the objection is and then figure out how to overcome the objection. Many schools do not allow local organizations because it is felt that there is no oversight and no valuable programming. There are also insurance issues as it can be difficult for a local to obtain liability insurance. Many schools require a minimum of a $1 million policy.

As far as going the Student Activities route vs. the Greek Affairs route, that is understandable and it might work. However, if you do go that route, you might not be able to remain a single-sex organization. Some schools have policies that organizations under Student Activities must not exclude based on gender. You all just need to review your schools policies and talk with the administration.

Good luck!

Well the policy is clearly stated in our student organization handbook that local organizations are not granted registration status at the university. So since i cant change that I'd like to register as a student organization. But I was wondering if that meant my organization can no longer be called a sorority. It's important for me to establish this organization because I believe the sisterhood associated with it can not be attained in any other manner. I am just wondering what other people think about groups who address themselves as Greek even tho they are not registerd as Greek.

What are the requirements to register a student organization? Does your handbook outline those procedures? Will you have to allow men?

Also, as for calling yourselves a sorority, I don’t see why that is a problem even if you can’t be registered through Greek Affairs. Your university might though. Is that how OPD is incorporated?

The only difference to register a student org than a sorority is that the sorority must have a national HQ, for i suppose insurance reasons...
Everything else is exactly the same except registered sororities get to be on the IFSC board. ( this is not that important to me) and i will let any interested members know that we are not a part of the IFSC. The handbook outlines the same procedures for both types of groups: faculty advisory, and constitution. The sorority tho, has to have a representative of a national come to the school and its just a waaaay bigger process than needed.
im not exactly sure what you meant by incorporated. At this moment I am open to establishing a brother hood within my org. if the univ. tells me that i am not allowed to discriminate based on sex. My org. was founded to create a diverse sisterhood among my campus. Because it is more difficult, and more costly, to bring an already established org here, i created one with one of my closest friends. I sent a new email to our office of student orgs to see meet with him and disscuss the possibility of allowing my org to begin recruitment on campus as just a student org. but i will continue to refer to my org as a sorority.

My college has no greek council or anything so my local had to register as a student organization. We are allowed to call ourselves a sorority, it's listed on the college's website that way. We can discriminate based on sex and also have gpa requirement that must be met. Due to these two things we are not able to be funded by the school...but hey, that's what dues and fundraising are for.

Well I just emailed our community coordinator ( the people who handle new orgs) and hopefully he will allow me to at least register as a student organization. I dont think he would deny it, but would he have any reason to?
I'm already asking women on my campus about their interest in my sorority and so far ive gotten positive responses, except for being registerd.
I am looking foward to recruitment and I must say that those crown wearing Sigma ladies are inspiring me everytime i read a post!

We are located at Rutgers University in New Jersey, however I am from Philadelphia. What school are you from. I know a good amount of PA school, granted there are hundreds.

LaSalle

So today i got an email back for the head of student orgs. and he likes my organization... but since it incoporates sisterhood it constitues as a local sorority and that is just not allowed. i still have a meeting with him next week. but i dont know what kind of compromise we are going to come up with. While my organization could do very well as just a club, it is the sisterhood that is important to the campus because what we have here just wont do! ugh, i hope i think of something

These are questions that you need to bring to your Student Life and Activities office on your own. Each school has a different policy and you will need to speak to someone in person for details on what you can and cannot do. Actually our local is registered as an organization and there is a specific list of things we can't do.

I was really surprised they let us register as a Sorority, but your school will probably not let you exclude on the basis of gender, just to give you a heads up. Also your ability to Rush or Pledge people might be taken away.

However, if you aren't very interested in being a particularly exclusive sorority then the SAC will offer you *much* more freedom than registering with Sorority and Fraternity Life. As I said before, we can't answer these questions for you because it varies from school to school.

Make sure that if they tell you that you can use terms like Sorority, that you get this in writing. Check to see if other organizations are listed as Sorority also.

I actually have no questions. Just major concerns. My organization is not one for people to just walk into. I took a lot of time to develop our intake process (since all interests get invited to join)
and i've included both genders into the constitution... "While this organization was founded for women, we will not decline membership to any interested member based on gender..." Here at LaSalle both student affairs and our greek life is run by the same man. I am hoping he will allow me to register under the greek name of my sorority, even if i am unable to call it a sorority under university terms.
My meeting is tomorrow, Wish me luck!

One of the ways we kept our name as a sorority was that we had to register as a "co-ed" sorority. If they decline your sorority title, ask them if they would let you keep it if you included the phrase "co-ed".

im fighting the man
 

well, during my meeting I was told that i could not register as a group because of our history as a sisterhood. :o He told me that there is no way i can register since sisterhood is in our constitution.
and that if i really want to register that i have to go national, which is never happening. :) SOOOO i think i might just go underground. I believe that once we have our first successful semester that maybe we might be able to register at least as a student organization. But I refuse to back down. :D :D
I will be arranging an interest meeting and letting all of the members know the status of this group as it stands in university eyes. I dont think of this as a step back but even more reason as to why i should still pursue this goal. :o
I even talked with a friend who still thinks that this is the way to go. I even feel that we might even more success than the groups here just because of the determination that we have. :)

Oh boy.

What's going to be the ramifications with insurance/liability if you're an underground local and not recognized by the university?

Why not take the word sisterhood out but still refer to yourselves as one elsewhere?

I don't see why you should have to take the word sisterhood out of the constitution and I REALLY don't see why you are not able to register as a student organization because of that one word. Maybe I am missing something? Are there other GLO's on your campus?

WELL I am NOT taking sister hood out of our constitution. :) My campus needs an organization like this and i really believe that the main reason why locals are not allowed here is because of the risk factor that local orgs. are usually associated with.:mad:
My school has three other NPC sororities, we also have Gamma Sigma Sigma and one well established local but that has been here for about one hundred years:p ....AND with these groups we still have a large void of women who go sister-less on campus, who'd like to have sisters, but the lack of action( amongst other things,) has made joining one of these groups nearly impossible. :( :(
The problem is that these groups do not apeal to all women on campus it seems that the only benefit of joining one is just being able to say i'm in ABC sorority.. and thats it!
And thats okay with my school.:confused:
But its not okay with me,
my friends,
or my interest group.:eek:
Hopefully we will be able to at least govern ourselves in such a way that the university will be able to see what its missing out on.:D

For now, we do not have any insurance.... I associate that with national groups anyway... AS a local group we're really really tiny and can't afford to pay such a thing, besides i'm not even sure what its exactly for

Didn't you ask that in another thread? I gave you a fairly detailed answer. Without insurance, you and everyone in your chapter can get sued for everything you have (and your parents too) if someone gets hurt or killed at or after one of your events. Even if it's not an "event" but everyone there is one of your sisters... the chapter can be held liable. Insurance is protection.

:D Oh hey, sorry, I mustve never read your response... I remember posting somewhere.....LOL
But there are plenty of groups who do not have insurace...And still get by. I know that insurance is costly and i wouldnt even know where to get any from... And i think my org is pretty risky of itself since, we dont have a school to put our name next to and we pretty much govern ourselves...
I dont really know what the solution would be unless my group took a vote on it and decided that insurance is the way to go!
But hey, thanks for the response-- both of them!!!:o

We don't have insurance either and we don't plan on getting it unless we are miraculously allowed to affiliate with a national organization. :D

I can't remember details, but are you having trouble affiliating? I know you asked a few questions but I didn't know if that was a goal of yours or not.

not to hijack this thread, but yes we are. our administration will not give us permission to go forward with the npc expansion process because they "lack resources." so, our dean of students told me that our request was mute until they decide they have "resources."

it's rather annoying. however, we're not going to let it stop us!!!! we're going to approach the dean again next semester and hopefully by then they will have a different answer for us!

Ah ok, Good luck :)

The fact that your are local is what makes your org risky....not because you don't have a school to put your name next to. Having said that....you don't have a school to put your name next to because you are local and it is a risk for the university. They do it to protect their students.

I'm in a local that has been recognized at NJIT since 1993. They aren't accepting any new organizations and no Locals for the reason of risk. My sorority still exists on campus because of our continued dedication to the campus and our continued good standing with our IFSC. That's not to say that the school isn't trying to get rid of locals. It's in our constitution that we don't go local without our own letters.

I don't recommend going underground. By doing that you may never get recognized by your university. If something were to happen to an new member while you're underground, it would be a serious problem for your organization and it's members. Don't fight the system. You want to do everything you can to appease them.

I definitely agree.

OmegaPDprez, I read your group's website and specifically the information for parents section. I have to say, you might have a really difficult time appeasing parents (and some PNMs) if you're an underground sorority. I know you have a public no-hazing policy, but honestly, nothing screams bad news like an underground greek org. I know it seems unfair, since that's obviously not what you're about, but there's been too many incidents with underground orgs in the past.

Being an uninsured underground local sorority is like a trifecta of risk. All it takes is one thing to go wrong and you've got a whole mess of problems on your hands. For instance, a disgruntled former member could bring up a plethora of allegations against you (president) and the other members -- even if they're not true -- and you'll have a hell of a time getting your name cleared because you're underground (i.e. NO PROTECTION from that sort of thing). You and/or other members could get expelled, or worse, find yourself slapped with a bunch of legal problems.

I think you should try to find some way to work with the system, for the protection of yourself and your friends in your org.

Thanks for the advice...
The group will be coming together next fall, before we do campus wide recruitment to discuss plans about affiliation with a national group that may provide us with assistance to getting insurance and things of that nature. And if everything works out well we will be able to register the group as a sorority.
But until then the group will be as it stands, as a local, without insurance and without recognition from the university. Fortunately for us, education processes have been successful (though we've only had two).
I'd like to get insurance for the group, and hopefull the group will be able to come to an agreement to work something out financially among us...