Help Needed - Similar Greek Systems
 

I'm doing research for my job related to identifying schools that share similar Greek systems to my current institution.

I am particularly interested in finding schools that:

A) currently have a large number of closed chapters (either fraternities or sororities)

and/or

B) provide housing for current chapters, but are not able to build more houses for new groups.

My institution also has a large percentage of Greeks (30% - 45%) at any given time, but that is not necessarily a shared commonality needed for the research I'm doing.

Please share if you know any schools that would fit either of the descriptions above. Thank you in advance!!

I have a list of all open and closed NPC chapters by institution here.

I have no idea which institutions provide the Greek housing (as opposed to chapters or housing corps owning housing).

Ooh, the little Greek History nerd in me is going to be all over this tonight. I will do some researching and let you know what I find. Just to clear up a point: when you mention closed chapters, do sororities that folded or were absorbed by another national sorority qualify?

Either would work! I'm specifically interested in what has been done to work with the alumni of those chapters, so if a woman joined a local that then was absorbed, but she herself remained a member only of that local, her chapter would no longer be recognized on that campus.

irishpipes - your list has been so helpful!

There would be tons of instances of locals being absorbed. There are also instances of former NPCs which no longer exist. Most were absorbed by other larger NPCs, and one just ceased to exist. All are listed on my big list.

Absorbed NPC groups:
Lambda Omega -> Theta Upsilon 1933 (which was absorbed by DZ in 1962)
Sigma Phi Beta (not the current fraternity by that name) -> Phi Omega Pi 1933 (which was absorbed by DZ in 1946)
Alpha Delta Theta -> Phi Mu 1939
Beta Phi Alpha -> DZ 1941
Phi Omega Pi -> DZ 1946
Delta Sigma Epsilon -> DZ 1956
Pi Kappa Sigma -> Sigma Kappa 1959
Theta Upsilon -> DZ 1962
Beta Sigma Omicron -> ZTA 1964
Iota Alpha Pi - ceased to exist in 1971

It should be noted that many of these defunct NPCs were generally absorbed by the NPC indicated above, but certain chapters may have been absorbed by a different group. (For example, Phi Omega Pi was absorbed by DZ, but the Auburn chapter became AOII.)

This is what I'm talking about. Also, by "provide housing" do you mean the school lets the sorority women live together on the floor of a dorm like Clemson, or that they live on a house on-campus owned by the school, or that they live on-campus in a house the national sorority owns? I hate to nitpick but the answer to this question will change my results:)

You could take a look at my alma mater, the University of Maine. They currently have 7 sororities and 17 fraternities, with 10 closed chapters. All the fraternities have houses. Most of the sororities do not, and I don't believe they get houses unless a fraternity leaves. Alpha Omicron Pi occupied one of the now inactive fraternity houses (I think it was Tau Epsilon Phi if I remember right) for a few years but they are back in their chapter room in Penobscot Hall. Chi Omega currently has a house but they are the only sorority that does.

What is really surprising to me is that Delta Delta Delta and Alpha Chi Omega are no longer there. I have no idea what happened because they were popular when I was in school.

http://umaine.edu/greek/

Either the school owns the homes or the organizations do - basically I'm looking for schools where there are no more plans to provide new housing or there's no more physical space to provide new housing. Doesn't matter who owns it.

AOIILisa, thanks for the Maine suggestion!

Maybe the University of Miami in Coral Gables, Florida will interest you. It satisfies both of your requirements. There is no more land to build houses, and the school wants the land that the current house use.

When I was an active in the 1970's, we had 12 houses on Fraternity row. The sororities never had houses; they each have a suite in the Pan-Hellenic Building. The school is even trying to wedge non-Greeks into Pan-Hel. ROTC was there last year.

Last Homecoming, the Pike House was shuttered and today on Google Maps, the house is gone, with just shell of the pool left. So now there are 5 houses left and they are surrounded by high-rise condo-dorms and offices.

The school is shaped like a teardrop with South Miami, a different municipality, on one side and US route 1 on the other. It is 6 lanes with a shopping area on the other side. The top is very expensive Coral Gables houses, so the school cannot really expand. So, their choice was to cannibalize the Row.

Here is a map of the school. The Row is at the bottom left (Lambda Chi is labeled). Pan-Hel is located near the Henry in the label Henry West Lab School.

http://i1125.photobucket.com/albums/...0Chat/row3.jpg

Here is a satellite view of the school. The Row is across from the baseball field. You can see the new dorms and a big parking garage there. Pan-Hel is the L-shaped building at the top right.

http://i1125.photobucket.com/albums/...0Chat/row2.jpg

Here is a closeup of the Row. The scar at the top with the blue circle was the Pike House and pool. You can see the five houses surrounded in the middle.

http://i1125.photobucket.com/albums/...0Chat/row1.jpg

Apologies for the long list!
Some schools that have had lots of closed chapters are:

Syracuse University-13 closed, two absorbed
University of Denver-11 closed, two absorbed
Ohio Wesleyan University-11 closed, 3 absorbed
LSU-10 closed, one absorbed
Wayne State (MI)-10 closed, three absorbed
University of Pennsylvania-10 closed
University of Oklahoma-10 closed, one absorbed
University of Wisconsin-10 closed, two absorbed
UCLA-10 closed, 5 absorbed
Drake University (IA)-9 closed, two absorbed
University of Cincinnati-9 closed, 2 absorbed
The Ohio State University-9 closed, four absorbed
Ohio University-9 closed, 5 absorbed
University of Oregon-9 closed, one absorbed
Bucknell University (PA)-9 closed
Southern Methodist University-9 closed, one absorbed
USC (CA)-9 closed, two absorbed
Washington University (MO)-9 closed
University of Colorado-9 closed, two absorbed
University of Minnesota-9 closed, three absorbed
University of Michigan-8 closed
Boston University-8 closed, one absorbed
San Jose State University (CA)-8 closed
University of California-8 closed, 4 absorbed
Emory University (GA)-8 closed
University of Utah-8 closed
West Virginia University-8 closed, one absorbed
University of Montana-7 closed
University of Missouri-7 closed, absorbed
Miami University (OH)-6 closed, 5 absorbed

NOTE: I do realize that Iota Alpha Pi was not technically absorbed but rather dissolved; I didn't feel like making that distinction on this list.

Indiana has room to expand. Maybe not cheaply, but it can happen. And UCLA has room for new sorority houses. I know for sure Alpha Xi Delta has housing plans (I just don't know what they are). The example above of the University of Miami would be an example of literally no room to expand because the university is a contained unit. In a college town like Bloomington or Iowa City, people may not WANT to expand because it's relatively expensive, or the city may fight it tooth and nail, but that's not the same as NYU trying to build sorority houses which obviously isn't gonna happen, no way no how.

Thanks for correcting me on that! I had just heard that having pre-existing housing or a plan of some sort was so vital to a new sorority's survival that I assumed land was impossible to come by at those places. I figure that people who know more than I do can comment on that aspect.

Just to throw another bit in there, there may have been some chapters at these schools that closed as a result of AES and other groups joining NPC and double membership not being allowed.

Some schools where this was quite clearly the case I didn't put on the list, but you are right in that that was probably a deciding factor in some early chapter closures. I also didn't know what to do with the Barnard/Columbia situation so I just left it off entirely.

Elon doesn't have a lot of closed organizations, rather, organizations may close but do come back and recolonize after a certain amount of time (Sigma Phi Epsilon, Zeta Tau Alpha, etc. The only exception is Alpha Sigma Alpha, who has not returned) but it has run out of land where the Greek Housing is. If expansion continues as it has over the last 15 years, they will have to purchase more land and create a second greek village or they will continue their current method of applying for housing ever few years. The organizations who are not awarded houses are given smaller suites in a dorm.
Elon's population is roughly 30-45% after recruitment, which is held in January.