Corina has told us a few times that the Greek life at UCSC isn't very big. That may have become very clear during AZD's visit to the school.
I'm in a similar situation as Corina at a similar school. I'm in a local sorority that petitioned a National Organization and we got the same sort of letter back.... great group, not truly competitive with the other two groups, bring your membership numbers up and well colonize. Through the process, I found out a lot about the "business" side of sororities.
Basically, Nationals can colonize in three ways:
(1) From scratch... completely from the ground up. This usually happens when many women aren't placed during RUSH or when all chapters are at total and the campus is ready for expansion. In this case, there must be women "WAITING" to be greek.
(2) Colonize a local in total (or just about in total). This usually happens when a local is large enough and stable enough to compete with the other groups on campus. Many time these groups have been a local for a few years and have proven their staying power.
(3) Combination of the two. This usually happens with a local that is fairly new or isn't quite competitive with the other groups. "My" national refers to groups like this as an "interest group" versus a local sorority for these purposes. While this sort of colonization doesn't require as much work (RUSH wise) as #1, it is a bigger challenge than #2. For this to happen, the National needs to see that there are, again, women waiting to be Greek - which there really aren't at my school, or at Corina's would be my guess.
My local was put in the "interest group" category. And I'm okay with that... but there aren't a lot of women waiting to be greek - we are having to find them - and it's not easy but it can be done - it will be done. My national wants us to fall into the category 2 - a strong local - because that will show our "staying power" and they will be more confident of our success.
I realize that their are no guarantees of success however when a national colonizes, they need to be pretty darn sure that they will be successful. When I heard how much money goes into starting a new National Chapter - I about flipped. If it were my money and my decision, I'd be darn sure that it was a good business decision - and that's what it is - just business. You can't take it personally. In my case, it's just about my National wanting to make sure that our colonization is successful and that we are a strong competitive chapter on our campus - I can't fault them for that.
Corina, you can do this!!! We've been COBing for about three weeks and we have 7 new members - really good members - we aren't "just taking anyone". Only 11 more to go - and I know that we can do it. You have to sell it! Talk about how cool it will be to start something new. Talk about the excitment of signing the charter at your installation. Talk about getting to make this sorority what they want it to be - unlike the others!
Good luck.
