[Firehouse]

Honest. I meant it. You make a good point about NPC and NIC being founded on differing principles. The PanHellenic 'attitude' has always mystified me, and yet it's obvious across the country that the sorority system is very stable and prosperous. I have always believed in free, unregulated competition, and fraternities prosper under those conditions. I think men chafe under regulations and rules, but women seem to take comfort in and respond to (what?) - 'cooperative effort' (?). Would that be the right phrase? No one can argue with the success of the NPC system, and frankly I've change my mind, slowly. I have always felt that if sororities operated the same way as fraternities, the sororities would be more successful in keeping chapters from going under. I no longer believe that, but it's been hard for me to accept. It has taken me a long time to understand that men and women (young men and young women anyway) think differently and respond differently to circumstances.
I went to a southern school that had 19 NPC sororities, mostly old chapters. They were large chapters and beautifully housed. Five of those national NPC sororities have left campus since the 1960s when I was in college. Their beautiful homes are now gone altogether, or bought by fraternities. A sixth left campus and came back later, successfully. It was a very predictable, very disheartening process. Each time a sorority failed and left campus, another took its place at the bottom of the ladder. You could tell just by looking who the next one to leave would be. Each had exactly the same profile as the last one: the fewest members, the fewest prospects, the least hope. And yet - and this is what I didn't understand - the sorority system insisted that everyone participate in the same rush under the same rules at the same times every year. Every rushee got to see every sorority under the same conditions. The ones with few members never had a chance to compete. Of course, they were allowed to open rush in the spring, but no one taught them how to do it, and they lacked confidence in themselves. I thought it was a cruel system. Something else: the five sororities everyone regarded as having the highest status when I was a freshman in the mid-1960s are the same five that occupy the same status today. Yes, the NPC system provides stability, but no one seems to be able to move up from their assigned place; if they move at all it is only down and out. We lose another sorority at the rate of about one every five years.
No, 33Girl, I was not being sarcastic. I have seen your posts before on GreekChat and I respect your opinions and admire your involvement. My apology was sincere. You're right. I just don't see it the same way, and I don't think any of us guys do. There is much to criticize in the fraternity system, and I'm sure there are things about us that mystify women too. Maybe not. Women seem to understand us much better than we understand them.