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A few thoughts from an IU senior....
I know that the bed quota isn't ideal, but more chapters than ever are finally beginning to extend their quotas so that more seniors can live out and they can take more women. Granted, it's not a HUGE difference, but even those 3rd street chapters that are notorious for their tiny pledge classes are raising their quotas this year.
Just about every housed chapter at IU has begun adopting a liveout policy. It's going to be a gradual shift until the majority of senior members are living out, but at least the housed chapters are doing something about it as opposed to simply just adding chapters to alleviate the problem as they have in the past.
Coming from someone who is a member of the largest housed chapter on campus, I can say that it causes way more problems and internal strife than it needs to. I'm open to taking larger pledge classes and having all of our seniors live out, but there are SO MANY issues that arise from being the big chapter on campus that people just don't understand from the outside looking in. If I had to go back and choose what chapter I was in all over again, I would pick mine in a heartbeat... but I also would have loved the opportunity to live in another year and actually feel as close to the younger pledge classes as other chapters seem to be.
Giant chapters may work elsewhere, but it's not working for us. I think the first step should be moving toward adopting an every senior lives out policy for every chapter, and then going from there.
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