Questions about expansion
 

Hello everyone,

I have so many questions about expansion and I figured this would be the best place to get some answers/experiernces with it. My sorority (AOPI) closed on my campus the year I joined back in 2006. Ever since then I have tried to see if we could come back or at least colonize before I graduated. My school's CPC recently (this past semster) voted not to expand on our campus. There are currently 7 sororities and 15 fraternities on our campus. A fraternity has come back every year since I have been at my school. I guess my biggest question is how can I go about this? I feel like I am basically at a standstill untill my school decides to expand. In my opinion the past 4 years have been really good with recuritment. Also if anyone has had any experience with a chapter closing how long did it take for your school to decide on expansion?

thanks so much for any help :)

There is a very prescribed process for this covered by NPC regulations. If you want all the details, goask your Greek Adviser for a copy of the "Green Book" - the NPC Manual of Information - and read section E on "Extension."

Basically, the CPH goes thru a procedure to determine if there is a need based on numbers and a willingness on the part of the University administration. Then they contact NPC in order to advise they are open for expansion. There is a pretty long section about how that is done and what it entails. The whole section is about 7 pages long so it's a pretty detailed process. The minimum time frame is about a year to get all that accomplished. Hope this helps.

Hi alphaonui! Come introduce yourself on the AOII forum. Decisions to open for expansion can be very tricky. In essence, the other groups on campus have to decide that it is something they want. Considering that AOII closed just 3 years ago for low numbers, they may not think that interest is high enough to support another group. Even if they did decide to open, there would be no guarantee that AOII would be chosen to recolonize or that IHQ would choose to recolonize, especially since we closed so recently. I know it is very difficult to lose your chapter, especially so soon after being initiated. I don't think there is anything, per se, that you can actually do to move things forward to get an expansion going.

Roses,
Angela

I am so sorry that your chapter is dormant. As Titchou and AOII Angel have pointed out, NPC expansion has a set protocol. There isn’t anything that you can do since the Proper Authority, in this case the CPC, voted it down. I would encourage you to join an Alumnae Chapter. It is a very different experience from Collegiate Membership, but still worthwhile. If you have any further questions about extension, you can PM me. Roses!

In addition to what the other posters have said - even if your campus did open for expansion, AOII may not be interesting in re-colonizing. Often the sorority's national officials do not want to re-colonize a chapter until all the sisters of the original chapter have graduated in order to avoid confusion, hard feelings or issues with the older members. I have no idea why your chapter closed or if anything of those issues with a re-colonization would occur, but it's just something to keep in mind. I'm sorry to hear about your chapter - that must have been really hard for you.

thanks for all the input. Yes I do pretty much know of alot of what is required for NPC but i guess you can say it eerks me that I can't do much of anything to at least get the ball rolling before I leave next year. To be honest I don't even know when the last time my school voted to expand. I know many houses have left though. AOPI was just the most recent. I know the greek advisor said they might decide to bring up expansion again next year.