"For those of you doing the arithmetic at home...never mind the mathematics!" - Dan Rather on election night
Let's look at IU, if all the rushees would get bids.
2000 rushees divided by 19 sororities = 105 pledges each. Assuming they all stay active for 4 years and this rate keeps up, there could be houses with over 400 girls!!
I think 200 is pushing it, I don't know how you could operate a house let alone have sisterhood with 400 girls.
The solution to me is more, not bigger, sororities. There are 19 NPC houses at IU, which means there are 7 NPC houses not there. And that's the problem. As I stated before, my org had a chapter at IU which closed (we are one of the smaller ones nationally) and I asked our expansion VP if they had ever thought of recolonizing it, especially with rush figures like the ones there. She said they weren't - it was too much to try to compete without a huge house, etc. I asked about the possibility of several smaller sororities going in and colonizing at the same time, and she didn't think much of that idea either.
Well, here are my thoughts on that: I joined my sorority for the women in it, not the house. That to me makes the rushees sound shallow, like all they care about is the house. Why not try leasing blocks of apartments for a while? I know there is some sort of NPC rule that if a new chapter comes on campus, it should have resources equal to compete with the other chapters. But what is the good of a rule like that if it keeps women from participating in Greek life? I think it should be up to the STUDENTS to decide what kind of resources are important to them. If a group of girls decides that being unhoused is no big deal and the sorority thrives, who gives a @#%*?
I think it is totally crucial at this juncture for the nationally smaller orgs to get into the larger schools with thriving and (for lack of a better phrase) "nationally known" Greek systems. The more they stay at smaller schools and keep out of the larger ones, the less they will be known, the smaller they will get, etc. etc....as my mom used to say, it's like wiping your butt with a hoop.
Now I'm NOT saying small schools are bad, but I think you need to have chapters at all different kinds of schools and not get stuck in a box of thinking "school type A is for us and school type B is not for us." I think that's why ZTA, DZ & Chi O are so big - they have chapters at all different kinds of schools.
Whew, long post, and a tangent or 2. But that's my solution to the "unbidded" problem.