Starting a New Sorority at IU.
 

Hello everyone. I know there are other threads that discuss starting sororities but I don't know if my case is any different-so any advice is lovely! Anyway, I went through formal rush and decided that none of the 19 (that's right, we have 19) sororities really fit me. It is also so competitive that it is overwhelming. Around 1,600 girls rush for the 19 houses. And around 900 get the houses they want.

So, after going through the entire process I have decided to investigate starting a NEW sorority. I have around 7-10 girls that are interested.

A problem...

Almost all the sorority houses have filled their quota except one... what does that mean for starting another house?

I am talking about the Indiana University-Bloomington campus...sorry for all the confusion :)



Thanks so much everyone! I'm new to all this (no family is greek life at all).

I am wondering, since 18 is a rather large number to "choose" from and I would guess that most people would wonder the same thing, is what characteristics are lacking from every one of the existing chapters, that you could not find a fit in any one of them?

And if you desire characteristics that are absent in any and all of the existing sororities, does it make sense that perhaps that social Greek life a la NPC) is not for you? In which case, bringing a 19th NPC group would probably not suit you. Is it safe to assume that?

Or, are you disatisfied because you were not matched (I ask because you mentioned that all of the chapters but one are at quota)?

I am not sure what you mean by "starting a PHC sorority",(what is PHC??) but choosing X over Y because it is easier is definitely not the way to find a fit. You are sacrificing any number of things for the sake of convenience. I suggest thinking hard about what you want, because I am not sure you know what that is. (Feel free to correct me if I am mistaken.) Once you figure out what you want, you can look at organizations based on those needs/desires.

Without knowing what happened, or what you are looking for, it's hard for anyone to give you solid suggestions.

So you didn't find your place in the existing 18 sororities, you know how competitive it is, but you want to just up and "start" a new (NPC?) chapter at a Big 10 school? Sorry, I don't see a need to dance around this one, it'll never happen. Join a club.

In order to start a new NPC group at IU (not sure which IU this is, assuming Illinois or Indiana, didn't check which one had 18 NPCs), the campus would need to be opened for expansion.

In order for the campus to open for expansion, the Panhellenic council there would have to vote to open for expansion.

So the choice to start a new NPC group at IU is not really in your hands.

You COULD start a local sorority or interest group. This is an extremely difficult process however, and especially at a large school there will be many hurdles in order for you to grow numbers and gain campus recognition. Read this thread before you start down that path:

http://www.greekchat.com/gcforums/sh...ad.php?t=93174

If you are truly interested in joining an NPC and there are any groups under total at IU, I would recommend that you consider continuous open recruitment with them if it is available. That is probably your best chance to join an NPC. I don't know why you feel you didn't fit with any of the chapters, but if it happens that you feel that one or several of them are "beneath" you, you're probably wrong. On the other hand, if you just failed to match in formal recruitment, maybe you could give some other orgs a chance. Or otherwise, just realize that you may not be able to be a member of the NPC.

Indiana University at Bloomington has 19 NPC chapters. University of Illinois also has 19 NPC chapters .. but will have 20 in the fall after Alpha Xi Delta
recolonizes.

Her profile says she's in Bloomington, so I'll assume it's Indiana University.

As someone who graduated from IU, I find it hard to believe that you didn't feel like you would fit in any of the houses there. Was it more of a situation where you didn't get invited back to the sororities that you liked? If so, I would consider going through formal recruitment again, this year. Just because you weren't invited back last time, doesn't mean that you won't this time.

i agree with most of the responses here - if you didnt fit in with 19 organizations (of 26) then i'm thinking that being greek may not be your style to begin with.

19 orgs may have not fit you, but that doesnt mean you have to bust your hump to MAKE it fit you. dont think that making your own org (or colonizing with a new org to come to your campus) is an easy out to receiving a bid to the orgs that already exist on your campus.

there's a reason why the other 7 NPC orgs arent at IU. there simply isnt a need. that is a LOT of competition to deal with as a new org, esp. if theyre all (but one) is making quota. and if about half of the girls who went through rush didnt become members, that's a good thing - that shows exclusivity. not everyone is going to get in.

and also, it really would help if you had more than 7-10 girls to make this happen, esp out of 700 girls who didnt get in a house.

Anyone have the stats? Is it really 700 who didn't get a bid? (We can't know if those who received a bid received one from the/a house they wanted.)

That figure jumped out at me too. 700 out of 1600 started Recruitment and didn't get bids/got cut or voluntarily withdrew? That seems incredibly high.

If the numbers from recruitment are as bad as you say, your Greek Life office may already be considering adding another chapter. Talking to them would be your FIRST step anyway. If they are not open to adding another group, you're out of luck.

Some of the advice here would be good advice at a different campus, but remember that IU does not use a quota system. Because of this, many PNMs do go bidless. (I don't know if it is 700, but it is an issue.) The number of bids issued is not proportional to the number of PNMs.

Additionally, I don't think it is fair to say that the fact that more NPC groups are not there proves that there is no need. What about Ole Miss and other schools like that? There are places where the local customs interfere with the typical NPC atmosphere. IU is one of those places.

I think more than 900 get placed....she said that 900 get the house that they wanted, which maybe means that they wanted from the beginning, which is really an unmeasurable number.

I don't know if it is the same now as when I was there, but basically this was the way it was:

Out of the 1600 or so that go through 19-party in the Fall semester, 900 of those girls will get a bid. The vast majority of those girls will accept the bid.

What happens to the other 700?
1. Some of them will decide, after going through 19-party, that going greek isn't for them, and won't return for the remainder of formal rush in January.
2. Some of them will not be eligible for rush in January because they won't "make grades" (when I was there, you were not eligible to continue rush if you didn't make it above the grade cut-off for first semester. I think it was 2.5).
3. Some of them will drop out through the rest of rush because they don't get invited back to the houses that they like.
4. Some of them will not match with a house even when they make it all the way to pref night. Either they only had one house invited them back and didn't make it high enough on their list, they suicide pref and don't make it high enough on the house's list, OR they could even go pref night at two houses, list them both on their cards, and STILL not get into either one.

So, it is possible for houses to not make quota even though there are girls who didn't get bids.

I'm glad to read a few things: first, I'm glad it is only one house that doesn't make quota. When I was there, there were a hand-full that didn't make it. Also, I am glad to read that there are 900 girls who get bids. When I was there, the number of girls going through rush was a little higher, but the number of girls who got bids was even lower than 900. The number of "no bids", in my opinion was heartbreaking. And when I was there, the actives came to the dorms, and picked up their pledges (new members now, I guess). While the pledges were at bid night, actives decorated their dorm doors. A few years after I got there, they started having a bus deliver the pledges to the house. I was very glad. For the girls who did not get a bid, having a bunch of laughing, screaming, and chanting sorority sisters running through your dorm must have been very difficult.