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SWTXbelle, I'm always happy to read what you have to say and I think you do a fine job explaining why you think what you do. I also know from reading it here about your background of service, so I understand the range of experience you bring to the GC table.
That said, I also think there's usually at least a grain of truth in what Elephant Walk posts. For me, the truth he relays falls into the category of stuff I wish weren't true but may be.
Some campuses have several chapters that are so historically strong that it's hard for other groups to do as well because the strength is self-perpetuating. Girls go to college hoping to join certain chapters; those chapters have an easier time recruiting based on this reputation, they recruit top girls; the girls represent well on campus, the group is popular with other groups; the cycle continues. We all know this goes on many traditional campuses.
There's still plenty of room for other less historic chapters to do well. Other great girls go through recruitment and they can find a home and prosper in other chapters and make great grades be involved on campus, but their reputation is made more year to year and they can rise and fall based on shorter term trends because they've really got to rush girls every year without the advanced hype (or as much advanced hype).
So, if the second type makes a "risky" call during recruitment in the eyes of fraternity guys, (I don't mean in the eyes of sorority women or alumnae who hold the core values of the GLO high; I mean too many fat girls or ugly girls, or emo girls, or athletic girls or maybe too many minority members on a campus where "eekkk, we need to be old south") then it can affect the socials they are able to have or which groups will pair with them for homecoming or Greek week or whatever. And the lack of socials and discussion about why makes them less "popular." And then you've got tent talk during the next rush, and then they don't make quota, and then the girls going through rush report to their alumnae mothers that the chapter isn't good or isn't nice, and then the alum moms are less likely to keep helping the chapter, and then the decline in membership continues.
Some groups' status in the popularity hierarchy IS more precarious at some campuses. When they aren't doing well, it may be traceable a decision to go their own way and buck the traditional values of the campus which didn't end up paying off in membership. The "traditional" values of the campus in this area may stink and be antithetical to the core values that the NPC groups all seem to hold, but it's doesn't mean that the chapter is going to be able to prosper.
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