Quote:
Originally Posted by PKTsaluki
I wasn't sure where to exactly post this but I have a question that I've been wanting to get answer about this.
I attend SIU Carbondale where the Greek System is really starting to take off with the expansion of two more fraternities this year on my campus bring the IFC total to 14. However the real problem is the fact that we only have 3 Pan Hellenic sororities being DZ, SK and AGD.
Recently our school has invited the Pan Hellenic expansion committee or whatever come to our school last year and left our school with quote "A toxic environment to let a new chapter come in." Which I think is ridiculous but that is just what I heard from some of the girls in two of the sororities.
So my question is, Why does the Pan Hellenic rules have to require 70+ girls in each out and forcing us to have three chapters instead of us getting maybe two more sororities and letting them down size to maybe 40 girls in each since that's the average size of every fraternity on campus is?
Because I think if a sorority wants to expand to a campus, they shouldn't have to go through the national Pan Hellenic council to get permission first and then go through a long process of paperwork and a campus evaluation where chances are they come during a bad week.
|
A. It's National Panhellenic Conference. This is one of my pet peeves so just stick with me here. National Pan-Hellenic Council is a completely different entity, and there is no such thing as Pan Hellenic (as a governing body over Greek Life Organizations).
B. NPC is fully within its right to choose to expand or not expand on a given campus, provided that the college administration and Campus Panhellenic Council have opened for expansion. This happens more than you would think - NPC is interested in the health of its chapters - if there are "dealbreakers" on a given campus then it's likely that it will not want to expand there just yet. This is not necessarily a bad thing. All you've given us for reasoning is that it's a "toxic" environment - this could mean a number of things and is not neccesarily a slam on the greek life environment or the chapters that are currently there. Since I don't know much about that campus, I can't really speak to whatever is or is not "apparent" on the campus.
I say they're not willing to expand there
yet because things can change, particularly through the hard work of a campus greek system as a whole. Please keep this in mind, sometimes you can accomplish a lot by taking a practical problem-solving approach to some of the campus-wide problems that are apparent.
C. NPC is not forcing you to only have 3 sororities on campus, they're only allowing 3 NPC chapters. They are also not forcing you to have 70+ members per chapter - total is usually decided on the campus level. If there are women interested in starting a local organization or looking into bringing a non-NPC national organization on campus, and the administration and CPC are open to that, then more power to them. The NPC is only 26 (I rarely say "only" in that statement) organizations - they are not THE only 26 organizations. Although I have a strong bias toward the NPC, that does not mean it's the only way for a woman to have a rich and wonderful greek life experience.
D. NPC organizations must follow NPC expansion agreements. If they did not, it would be a free-for-all that could create real problems, perhaps not on your campus but on a number of other campuses.
E. I'm interested in what's a "bad" week, and why your campus would HAVE a "bad" week knowing that an NPC expansion committee is on campus. These things don't usually happen by surprise.
F. Ideally, the NPC doesn't want to set up a new chapter to "fail" - and no organization wants that either.