Looking into Greek Life
 

Hello All!
I am going to school in Western Massachusetts. My school does not have greek life on our campus. They did a recruitment program at the beginning of the year with groups from some surrounding campuses, but I decided not to join any. First of all because I do not have a car to drive to their events and second because I felt excluded, the groups were all aimed towards latina or black men and women and when I went to the tables to talk to the representatives they didn't seem very open to me. Someone said that if we found 15 people interested we could bring them to our school. So now I am looking into what I can do to bring greek life to my school. I know it may be difficult joining in on the national level but I have seen some things about local sororities? I am really looking for the group to be a place to make friends and do community service. At this point my school does not have greek life, but we do have honor societies, so no greek life office. Thank you to anyone who has advice. Feel free to ask me questions or comment on this. I know this might be a lot of work but I am looking for some ideas and suggestions!
Thanks again!
WSUGirl19

I know it's probably impossible, but after a lot of searching I feel like I would really enjoy joining Kappa Delta. Although I don't know if they would come to my school. I was a girl scout for 13 years and completed my gold award, I would really enjoy working with the girl scouts organization more.

There is a very prescribed process for NPC groups to colonize on a campus. KD is not going to circumvent that procedure. To find an organization that might fit your needs, check with your office of Student Life/Activities/Involvement - whatever it may go by that is similar to one of those titles. You might also ask them why there is no Greek Life there.

Yeah, I figured they wouldn't do that. I guess I could talk to them, but I wasn't sure what the possibilities were in the first place if it was even worth trying to pursue. I assume they are trying to see if people would like it if they held the fair, but they picked organizations aimed towards a certain type of person, it was through the inclusion office

I can understand that but keep in mind that many of the multi-cultural groups do not restrict members to a certain campus like NPC groups do. There are many differences in these types of groups. It would not be possible for an NPC group on one campus to accept members from another. You have to be enrolled in the school where the chapter is established.

That's really odd, they were telling people that they could join and would need to drive to their campus for events, or they needed to find 15 members to make their own group on campus. Maybe I understood them wrong though. I am honestly very confused with the process of started a group and it may just be easier to talk to someone about it. I know a lot of people were interested in the different groups but were turning away at the fact that they would need to go to them for it. So these groups are not NPC, what would they be considered? There are more than one chapter so would they not be considered local? I apologize for being so uneducated in this subject

Kappa Delta reps said that?

Oh wait. I'm really confused now.

It's good to ask questions so we are all talking about the same thing. I'm surmising that you spoke to groups that were in other councils, not NPC groups. And that you like KD but you didn't speak to anyone from KD.

Nevermind. In rereading this thread, I can see where I got confused.

NPC is National Panhellenic Conference and there are 26 sororities that make up their membership. KD is one. I don't know what conference these groups you are talking about belong to. Yes, some let people from other campuses join and some don't. But ALL NPC groups have the same rules about this. Sure, any of them could decide to put a group on YOUR campus but they would all have different processes to do it. You mentioned KD so the majority of my comments were slanted towards NPC groups. You need to talk with someone in your Student Life office or whatever it's called to understand what is possible on your campus. To bring an NPC group to your campus your school must "open" for it - which is a determination and vote by the administration of your school. Next, they notify NPC that the school is open and accepting interest packets(applications). The school would then invite those groups for a visit. Then the school would need to pick several to present to the student body. Then there would be a vote as to which group is invited and for when. SO you can see, for an NPCgroup it's quite involved with at least usually a one year or more time frame. Hope this helps.

Sorry! The different groups that were not NPC that visited my school said they would create a group at my school if we had 15 members. Otherwise, whoever wanted to join would have to go to their school. I just stated earlier I wish I could somehow become affiliated with Kappa Delta, which I know is probably impossible.

^^^ it's okay I finally figured it out!

When you say they come visit your school, who is this? Are they then assisting in the process or is this all up to the school and what the students would like?

^^^ google "National Panhellenic Conference" and click on the link about extensions.

ETA: https://www.npcwomen.org/college-pan...sion-info.aspx

The groups send a packet to the school. The school (whoever adminsitration has picked to be on the team looking at this) looks over the packets and invites those groups to come for a visit. Then they pick ones to do presentations. Usually for a good sized school, there will be 6-8 packets sent and 2-3 groups invited to present.

WSUgirl, I know your school well. It actually may be a very good fit for NPC organizations. I would try to find some other interested women and approach the advisor of activities and clubs or whatever that would be called there and get yourselves to be a registered student organization. From there talk to that person about looking for national affiliation with an NPC sorority. Let me know if you have other questions or concerns and send me a PM anytime. Good luck! I think that greek life could be really beneficial to your campus :)

Prior to a NPC sorority sending in a packet to a school that is "open", a team from headquarters will go to the school and see if the school fits their needs/wants. The team will look at the number of students, why there are no sororities at this time, how well does the school fit with their core program, does the sorority see a need to open a new chapter at this time, how successful will that chapter be on that campus-- costs a lot of money for headquarters to open a new chapter. Once the sorority finds that they are interested, then the packet is sent in. As stated above, the administration then starts the selection process. With 26 sororities, the odds of KD in the right place at the right time for you to join is a long shot. Once the sorority is chosen, they decide which prospective members they want to invite to colonize the chapter. Even if KD is in the right place at the right time to be chosen, still does not guarantee you an invitation to join.

DaffyKD