Alpha Xi Delta - Iowa State University
 

Alpha Xi Delta voted to close down their chapter at Iowa State University. It is a big loss in our community :(

http://www.iowastatedaily.com/vnews/.../3d6c601e24607

Declining membership leads to ISU sorority’s end

By Kelley Doran
Daily Staff Writer
August 28, 2002

After 33 years of friendship, scholarship and civic responsibility at Iowa State, members of the Alpha Xi Delta sorority have voted to shut down their chapter in May 2003.
Declining membership during the past few years is the main reason behind this decision, said Ruth Goodman, director of communications at the sorority’s national headquarters in Indianapolis.

“The women chose to close their chapter because they were no longer feeling competitive with the other sororities, mainly due to the fact that they have recently had such low numbers at recruitment,” Goodman said.

The sorority withdrew from recruitment this year after it became difficult to get everything done with the members they had. The chapter currently has 16 members.

“With the number of girls we would have needed, a huge strain would have been placed on our members and we didn’t want to put that kind of pressure on them,” said Kira Barclay, chapter president of Alpha Xi Delta.

Barclay, senior in mathematics, believes all members have had a positive experience during their times as members of the sorority.

“We have all gotten so much out of Alpha Xi Delta, and we just want others to be able to get that same great experience in the future,” she said.

“It’s not as if the national organization is shutting them down,” Goodman said. “Closing the chapter was a very difficult choice that they chose to make.”

Alisa Frandsen, assistant dean of students and director of Greek Affairs, said it is rare for chapters to close.

“We hate to lose any chapter, sorority or fraternity, but we are supportive of Alpha Xi Delta, and we will support them throughout this year,” she said.

Membership requirements vary among the chapters, but no chapter can be larger than 92, Frandsen said.

“We don’t want one chapter that is at 150 members and one at five,” she said.

Although Frandsen said either the university or the national headquarters for each chapter can pull charters, this was not the case with Alpha Xi Delta.

“It was chapter members’ decision,” Frandsen said. “It was a risk-management issue.”

Although closing, all events will continue as usual this year, and Barclay said she has high hopes of re-establishment.

“They will continue with all activities, including the philanthropies, however always knowing that this will be their last year,” Goodman said.

However, philanthropies of Alpha Xi Delta, including the teddy bear drive and the three on three tournament, will most likely not be continued by the campus in future years, Goodman said.

Wow, I know the greek system at Iowa State has faced some hard times. My aunt and uncle were members of Theta and Pike there respectively and they said their relatively strong chapters fell on hard times in years past. Alpha Phi closed down a couple of years ago and I think they've lost a couple others as well.
So sad. I always hate seeing links in our greek family fail. :(

As horrible as it is to close one chapter, AZD is currently colonizing 3 more. So sometimes you have to loose one to gain another and spread our sisterhood around the country. I support my sisters at Iowa State in their decision.

This breaks my heart so much. You can't even imagine :(

huh???
 

If they are closing primarily because of low numbers why on earth would the Greek Affairs director say it was a "risk management issue"? :confused: The only risk I can think of is to the sisters' checkbooks for having to pay extra rent and such.

I don't understand why they are announcing now that they will close in May - a lot of things can happen in a year - I'd think if they want to close they would do it right away.

They're not closing so the remaining girls can enjoy another year of sisterhood together. They will not be recruiting during this time.

As far as the risk management quote, it was not from the sorority, and I believe she was simply in error.

Yes Alpha Phi did close a number of years ago (I think 1997 seems right to me). And now AXD closes that is why it is SO IMPORTANT for the strongest chapter on campus and everyone in etween to help the weakest group on campus. Because if you don't they close and guess what?? Every chapter falls a notch.

Eventually YOUR chapter could be on the bottom rung, not a fun place!

Please always work hard to keep your entire Panhellenic strong. It matters to everyone..

Our Alpha Phi chapter closed down in 1998, to be exact. One of our guy just married an Alpha Phi; they met during Greek Week.

Re: huh???
 

I think the strain on the checkbook becomes a risk management issue. As numbers decline, it becomes more difficult to pay the insurance premiums. Also, keeping a house in decent/safe shape can be pretty expensive.

Its so hard if you have one bad year they just seem to keep coming. We had a group that was 80 strong a couple of years ago. (80 is our max) They had a sister that was in a car wreck and injured a lot of people (she was DWI later to find out). When the news got out right before recruitment no one wanted to join that chapter "because the girls in that chapter get in trouble with the law". Also many Parents heard about the incident and discouraged they kids from taking part in the greek system.

It did hurt everyone that year but especially the one chapter. It has been over five hard years and they are still fighting. Last year they were pulled from recruitment because they could not handle the amount of girls coming through and they normally didn't do that well during formal recrutment. Well they were told they had to be at least 30 strong to go through formal recruitment this year and they made their numbers so hopefully they will get some stong girls to help pull them the rest of the way out.

My heart goes out to my sisters--what a rough time, and boy do I sympathize. My chapter currently has 12 members and we're struggling to hang in there.