Chapter closed since rush booklet mailed out?
 

My daughter is rushing this week and we thought there would be 8 sororities. She got there and found out one had been closed. Why would that happen? Do these things happen suddenly?

It's up to the national or international headquarters and does not just "happen suddenly". Are you sure one has closed or is it possibly not participating in formal recruitment?

According to the Greek Life office, the chapter is closed, but as far as I know, the International HQ has not released a statement.

Yes, I rec'd an email today (after an enquiry on my part from a fellow sister in the trenches)... it basically said yes Theta's chapter at USM has closed, and the other chapters are really stressed out about the closing. I do not know why HQs has not posted anything about the chapter closing, it is a recent event. Though, it sounds like not a complete surprise.

The chapter closing may be a very recent occurrence, but the events leading up to it should not be. In my experience, a sorority will pour as much time and resources into the chapter before pulling out as possible. I've seen it locally on my campus as an undergraduate and as a alum when one of the chapters we helped to support were going through a rough time. In both cases, numerous workshops, events, help from officers, recruitment specialists, risk management personal etc were dispatched to help the chapter. In both cases, the College Panhellenic was also kept very abreast of the situation. I can only speculate, as of course I don't know the dealings on this campus, but I wonder if the decision was made over the course of the summer and when CPH arrived back it hit them. CPH usually aren't the best at communicating over breaks. I mean, heck, the campus voted to expand right before winter break and we decided what national to affiliate with over winter break and when I showed up to the first CPH meeting as our delegate, they looked dumbfounded at me and asked if we had picked a sorority yet. Our Greek Life Adivsor had contacted the CPH president, who never bother to return the phone call.

Exactly!

We typically know when the "end is in sight" for a chapter. As difficult as it is, closing a chapter never seems to be a surprise if you know what is going on (i.e. low numbers). In the situations that I'm aware of the university was aware that something was going on, whether it was closing or re-organizing.

I can't speak specifically of what happened with Theta at Southen Miss

At least they took action before rush. It would have been a shame for all those girls to go through and receive bids just to have the rug pulled out from under them.

Perhaps the booklet was printed before the sorority officially closed. Recruitment preparation at my school started a year in advance. Once rush ended, the Panhellenic Council would slowly begin to prep for next year's rush!

The booklet was printed before the sorority was closed. The chapter found out they were being closed just a few weeks before recruitment.

I think it is good they were closed before they could accept another class of new members if their nationals were going to close them soon anyway, but how disappointing for the current actives who had been hard at work preparing for formal recruitment all summer.

Yeah, it makes me :( anytime a chapter is closed, but this one really touches my heart for some reason.

I'm confused by some of the posts in this thread - Southern Miss isn't expanding, are they?

No, Southern Miss does not have any expansion plans right now. I think DolphinChicaDDD was just referring to her own experience about expansion and poor communication with her College Panhellenic.

As far as people knowing this was coming, numbers has been an issue for Theta at Southern Miss for the past few years. They're the newest chapter on campus. Still, it seems like it came as a surprise to the chapter, USM Panhellenic, and the other seven chapters that they were actually closed. They had still been working hard to keep their numbers up and had a great sisterhood among their members. Personally, I think they were brave and encouraging, always remaining active in all philanthropy events and putting on a great formal recruitment, despite having to compete with chapters that had more members and had been established longer. The word from some of their chapter advisers is that nationals did not feel like College Panhellenic did enough to help Theta succeed.

This is often the case. Now someone else is the newest sorority on campus.