There are many reasons to extend. Obviously, if the undergrad population is increasing, one would anticipate that the same percentage of students would want to be Greek and so the choices are to raise total or extend. Or, if there has been a continuing upward trend in percentage of students interested, that would also be a reason to extend or raise total.
Extension may be the right answer if a greater diversity among chapters is desired, or if the campus Panhellenic likes the current chapter size or wants to reduce chapter size with further extensions.
Raising total may be the best choice if the campus Panhellenic wants to grow the size of its chapters, if land/housing is unavailable and all other NPC groups have houses, if the campus feels there is sufficient diversity, or if the campus has a "toxic" Greek environment where new=bad.
If there are a large number of women who are released from all chapters, the campus Panhellenic needs to try to figure out why. If it's just a big group of women with a barely-high enough GPA, you have your answer as to why they were cross-released.
But often, there is a niche that is unfulfilled. Sometimes the niche may be obvious. For example, there might be no Jewish sorority on campus (or only 1) and there is an interest group wishing to colonize a Jewish sorority.
More often, the niche may be less obvious, and you won't always be able to identify it and recruit for it. I'll give a stupid example to illustrate my point. You can't really say "Oh, we don't have a chapter where green-eyed redheads would fit. We should extend and target the new chapter to green-eyed redheads." The niche will develop on its own based on the character of the women who choose to be colony members.
ETA:
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Originally Posted by dukedg
Duke - when I was at Duke we had ten sororities, one of which did not participate (or rarely participated) in FR. After I graduated this sorority left and then Panhel opened for expansion. A new sorority came on and did a fabulous job. Now there are ten sororities and one is struggling with numbers (a chapter that used to do well while I was there). So, in retrospect, I don't know if expansion was a good idea for the greek community there. Why couldn't they just have nine strong chapters?
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Perhaps your campus Panhellenic felt that there was a niche missing with only 9 chapters.
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Originally Posted by dukedg
Ole Miss - I know we have discussed many times here whether Ole Miss should bring on new sororities. Right now it seems (from what I have heard from others) that every group there is strong, large and well-respected. Maybe I'm crazy, but should they open for expansion? How do we know that doing so will not cause one group to become weaker than the rest?
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Ole Miss is a whole different bag of issues. I would be inclined to say that they should just raise total if they feel that not enough women are getting placed. But their quotas are in the 80-90s, and chapter sizes are well over 300. I personally wouldn't want a chapter that freaking huge, but maybe that's what works for Ole Miss. Another issue coming into play is the lack of housing/available land. ADPi and ZTA I believe used to have chapters there, but when they closed, the University bought the houses and uses it for academic purposes, so I don't see it being easy getting those houses back. Due to zoning laws, it won't be easy to build another house nearby should extension occur, and at Ole Miss, not having a house is not an option. Also, at Ole Miss, a new chapter might be perceived as much less desirable because it has less "tradition" than the others. I think that a NPC group with a strong Southern reputation in that area, tons of cash, a miracle to acquire a house, and an innovative marketing scheme would be the best formula for a successful extension at Ole Miss.
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Originally Posted by dukedg
If a certain number of women do not get bids through recruitment, maybe they were not meant to be in sororities? Maybe if they did all get together they would be considered the weak sorority on campus? Obviously, wonderful women fall through the cracks, but I'm speaking of this group generally.
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I strongly disagree that every one of those women were not meant to be Greek (excluding GPA issues, bad reputations etc). Maybe they were not meant to be Greek
in any of the existing chapters. If extension occurs and a new niche is filled, those women may become Greek and have a valuable and enjoyable Greek experience. Even if their chapter is perceived as a "weak" chapter. Believe it or not, plenty of women love their sisters and have enriching experiences in "weak" chapters.