[stufield]

Thanks for the update ChicoState.

I am very pleased to hear that the recolonization of Beta-Phi Chapter at UC Davis is still planned to proceed in the near future. Hopefully the colony will be in place by the end of the school year, otherwise that it is established early next Fall.

I am disappointed that you have no word on UoP and UC Merced, especially the former. Did your ARM say anything at all about UoP? It is a quality school with a beautiful campus, just the sort of institution at which Kappa Sigma SHOULD have a chapter but all too often does not .... and in many cases probably never will, because the Fraternity did not take a proactive role in seeking to expand there while other fraternities did, a few years pass, and lo and behold the school is saturated with fraternities, has the maximum number of chapters that its student body will support, perhaps even two or three too many, meaning that there will be some closures, and all the while Kappa Sigma remains on the proverbial 'outside looking in'. I can name three or four dozen, perhaps more, schools throughout the continent where that has happened, where Kappa Sigma has been, remains, and likely will continue to remain conspicuously absent. I sure hope that UoP will not become one of them. We should have been there decades ago. But its Greek system is still slowly expanding. So perhaps a Kappa Sigma chapter there is still a viable possibility if the Fraternity does not delay too long in attempting to colonize there. The problem, of course, is the Fraternity's current passive policy towards expansion. It does not target desirable schools, and proactively attempt to expand there. Instead, it sits back and waits for groups from various schools to contact it ... without regard to how prominent the school might be, whether or not it already has a Greek system, how strong that system is if it does exist, and so on. The result: all sorts of colonies at minor schools that do little to enhance the Fraternity's position and image as a leading fraternity, and many of which are doomed to failure from the outset (35 colonies closed in the last four years, an astounding number), and still no presence at a large number of major and mid-major schools with Greek systems where the Fraternity has never been represented. To date, UoP is one of them. Farther south in California, Pepperdine is another, although a couple of years ago we did have very short-lived colony there. UCSD was another; we should have been there 20 to 30 years ago; at least we finally do have a colony there; hopefully it will succeed. But UoP reamins the major expansionary target school in California.

I am one of those who is very sceptical about the long-term prospect of success of a chapter at the Academy of Art University. I just do not see an art school as the type of institution that is conducive to Greek life or that would be conducive to it for any length of time. I am also generally sceptical about the prospects of ongoing success of any fraternity or sorority at any school where it is the only Greek organization on campus ... where there is, in effect, no Greek system. Kappa Sigma has colonized at a number of such schools in the past three to four years, and most of those colonies have closed. The colony at Bellarmine University, a small Catholic university in Louisville, Kentucky, which had/has no other fraternities, is the most recent of those closures. It was just removed from the lists of active chapters and colonies on the Fraternity Website this week. But some other such Kappa Sig colonies have progressed to chartering, such as those at Thompson Rivers University (Omicron-Theta), the University of Lethbridge (Omicron-Xi), LSU-Alexandria (Pi-Alpha), Johnson & Wales - Miami (Pi-Gamma), and Johnson & Wales - Charlotte (Pi-Zeta), to name just a few. Time will tell whether or not they continue to survive. The crisis period is usually four or five years after chartering, when the founding fathers, with all their enthusiasm, dedication, and determination, have all graduated; the challenge is continuing to recruit new members who have the same zeal and commitment. Many fraternity chapters just wither away and eventually close just a few years after the founding fathers graduate. They initiate and pledge eight or ten fellows for a year or two, then just five or six, then just a couple, and membership shrinks to unsustainably low numbers; meanwhile, of course, the chapter's presence and influence on campus diminishes accordingly. The best thing that can happen with chapters that begin as the only fraternity on campus is that the chapter stimulates a wider interest in Greek life on its campus, and one or more other fraternities and/or sororities then also establish interest groups-colonies-chapters there, so that a Greek system emerges and Greek life becomes an entrenched part of campus life. I, for one, just do not see that happening at a school like Academy of Art University, in a city like San Francisco. I would love to be proven wrong, but if our colony there does indeed receive a charter, I will be very surprised if it is still an active chapter five or six years thereafter. The fraternity should have a chapter in San Francisco; I just think that a chapter at San Francisco State, which has other fraternities and thus and established Greek system, even if it is a small one, has a better chance of long-term success than does a chapter at AAU.

Now to contradict myself somewhat. There ARE some fraternity chapters that survive, even flourish, as the only fraternity chapter on their respective campuses. Every fraternity has a chapter or two like this. Our Nu-Gamma Chapter at Pratt Institute in NYC is one. I gave it virtually no chance of long-term success. But it was chartered in January, 1990, and thus has survived for 19 years now ... in fact, it has thrived for much of that time. So what do I know? But if a chapter at Academy of Art University on the other side of the continent can do likewise, I will be truly amazed.