Quote:
Originally posted by Firehouse
If no one can make total, why not bring in some more sororities with new ideas and aggressive recruiting and see who is successful? If there are ten national sororities, it's reasonable that five will be successful and pull the system up. Those unable to attract members can close up shop.
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Firehouse, it sounds like an admirable theory worthy of Darwin (Survival of the Fittest)
But a Panhellenic could not bring on additional sororities if ALL of the chapters are this far away from total and with such small recruitment numbers. The women's groups have very specific rules regarding expansion, and an NPC sorority would not consider colonization at a school with chapters that are currently struggling with numbers. It would mean that the new group would struggle, too, and numbers are very important in terms of long-term success. This isn't to say a bigger chapter is better, but in terms of financial status, having a house, ability to be more selective in recruitment (able to take more nontraditional students like those who pose grade risks, etc).
FAU friend, while it may be a challenge having to compete with a local sorority, I don't think that their existence is the major problem with your turnout at recruitment. I think your situation poses an interesting challenge, one that might be solved with a Panhellenic Public Relations campaign to build the sorority image on campus. As a commuter school and a university with a good number of international students, you have many college women who are not educated on the benefits of Greek Life, or who have their familiar home culture (the commuters) or international culture clubs and organizations (the international students). Has Panhellenic established a Task Force with the Greek Adviser to study recruitment numbers for the last 5 years, and to evaluate the methods by which Greek Life is being promoted on campus? Perhaps you are not doing anything wrong at all; perhaps FAU Greeks need to band together and aggressively campaign so their presence is know, respected and membership is sought after at your school. There are a number of programs out there that can help you improve your PR--- or perhaps this would be a great opportunity for the School of Communication at FAU to give this as a project to a class of seniors-- who form 3-4 groups that brainstorm, research and strategize a successful plan to increase your visibility on campus that will ultimately get more people to go through recruitment.