[FuzzieAlum]

Ask me, huh?

Well, I've seen new chapters come to campus and have an adverse affect on other ones. It all depends on what the new group has to offer vs. the extant ones. If a new chapter can make itself "the" Jewish, ag, engineering, nerd, jock, WASP, whatever house where there wasn't one before, everyone benefits, because new people come to Greek life. If they just offer what other groups already do - and that's more likely the more chapters you have on campus - they will just suck away members from the others. Either someone will close or everyone will end up smaller. And that's a bad thing, unless of course the fraternities have been complaining about growing too fast or getting too big - which doesn't sound like the case here.

Not to knock nationals, because I'm a member of one, but they frequently do disregard the opinions/legitimacy of locals. Even if locals are a strong, respectable part of the college they are at, to many nationals they are just hazing nightmares waiting to happen, or members to be pilfered for their own org. I'm perhaps overstating it and some fraternities are more so than others, but the fact is, they might not care what OnePlus thinks. Heck, they might not care what other nationals think, because they know they'll do the same to them in turn.

We criticize fraternities for allowing unrestrained capitalistic growth, and sororities for their socialistic, restricted growth, but the best plan lies somewhere in the middle, in a Zen-like state none of us can get to.

But I think if:
- your org AND other orgs are suffering from a numbers shortage
- you sincerely think it's not due to poor practices on your part (like you're not beating your pledges)
-you don't see that this org offers something substantially different from what is there already
THEN you definitely have the right to protect your organization. You were there first, and, after all, your organization means the most to you.