from the PiKA site

AGDAlum · #1 05-13-2004, 07:26 PM

The thread about mascots included a reference to the PiKA website and online magazine. I found this:
http://www.pikes.org/sd/cnmenu.html
It's a chapter report. What's interesting is that it lists the active chapter size, the number pledged, and the number initiated. That's a degree of candor I haven't seen among NPC groups.

sugar and spice · #2 05-13-2004, 07:31 PM

You know how the sororities and fraternities tend to have different takes on the numbers issue though.

The University of Minnesota Greek website lists numbers for both the sororities and fraternities and I was honestly shocked when I saw it because it was the first time I'd ever seen a Greek website do that before -- especially on the main GLO pages (I'd seen a few that hid the numbers in grade reports, etc.).

DeltaSigStan · #3 05-13-2004, 07:33 PM

The U of Illinois website has numbers on there, ranging from 135 to six

http://www.odos.uiuc.edu/greek/fratmemstats.asp

sugar and spice · #4 05-13-2004, 07:47 PM

Sorry, I should have been more clear -- I meant it was the first time I'd seen any website do that on the sorority side.

I think the guys are generally more open about the numbers.

meridionaleDG · #5 05-13-2004, 08:18 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by AGDAlum
The thread about mascots included a reference to the PiKA website and online magazine. I found this:
http://www.pikes.org/sd/cnmenu.html
It's a chapter report. What's interesting is that it lists the active chapter size, the number pledged, and the number initiated. That's a degree of candor I haven't seen among NPC groups.

I am pretty sure Shield and Diamond is there national magazine (my Dad is a PIKE and he gets them). I know most organizations put a transcript of their magazine on their website. It's just a national chapter report.

xp2k · #6 05-13-2004, 10:11 PM

I think I can understand why the numbers are up on the national webpage.

I cant say for sure because I am not a member of Pi Kappa Alpha, but from what I have noticed, as a national trend, they tend to take rush numbers VERY seriously.

Maybe its becuase of Wilson Heller's research?

AGDAlum · #7 05-13-2004, 10:45 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by meridionaleDG
I am pretty sure Shield and Diamond is there national magazine (my Dad is a PIKE and he gets them). I know most organizations put a transcript of their magazine on their website. It's just a national chapter report.

Yes, I know that....our quarterly has chapter reports, too. My comment was that these chapter reports specifically lead off with the chapter size and rush/initiation stats, and they're there in print for everyone to read.

Our fraternity website lists the chapters who got quota, but the numbers aren't given. The chapter reports may say, "Tau Beta chapter got quota and initiated 39 beautiful women," but you won't read one that says, "Pi Xi initiated 2 from a PNM class of 6."

AGDAlum · #8 05-13-2004, 10:50 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by xp2k
I think I can understand why the numbers are up on the national webpage.

I cant say for sure because I am not a member of Pi Kappa Alpha, but from what I have noticed, as a national trend, they tend to take rush numbers VERY seriously.

Maybe its becuase of Wilson Heller's research?

Is Wilson's influence still so strong?

In 1973 or so I wrote a letter to the editor of Banta's Greek Exchange. It was published and Wilson got my name/address from that, and sent me one of his newsletters.

(FYI, everyone else: Heller was a University of Missouri graduate--was he a Chi Phi?--he published (in the days of mimeographs) a "statistical" report about NIC/NPC groups with rush reports and colonizations/closings/etc. If I understand correctly--I was just an undergrad and definitely not privy to the higherups--NIC/NPC people took his reports more seriously than they were willing to let on.

xp2k · #9 05-13-2004, 10:56 PM

...as far as showing statistics of the number of men signed/pledged versus the number initiated, that probably has something to do with hazing.

A chapter that has a very large number of men dropping may have a very "intense" pledgeship that the national hq may want to look into.

Not always the case, but sometimes it is.

AGDAlum · #10 05-13-2004, 10:58 PM

[QUOTE]Originally posted by xp2k
[B]AGDAlum,

Wilson was not a Chi Phi.

Yes, I erred.

Found more when I searched GreekChat:
http://www.greekchat.com/gcforums/sh...=wilson+heller

thermobryan · #11 05-14-2004, 02:14 AM

Being a member of PiKA, and being a Vice President of PiKA, let me tell u a little about how we look at things...PIKE takes rush very very seriously, we take track of our reported pledges (those given bids), numbers initiated, the retention rates of the individual chapters. We stress this nationally VERY MUCH! PIKE has been the leader in average chapter size for the last few years and our chapters take pride in this feat, I know that us and SigEp are always in contention for largest average chapter size.

I'm not going to go into details about everything we do, but lets just say that we take rush very very seriously...

Rudey · #12 05-14-2004, 12:18 PM

I didn't see a lot of their chapters on there. And I would say fraternities are a lot more secretive about numbers, including Pike, than sororities...

-Rudey

HPU PIKE · #13 05-14-2004, 01:11 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by xp2k
...as far as showing statistics of the number of men signed/pledged versus the number initiated, that probably has something to do with hazing.

A chapter that has a very large number of men dropping may have a very "intense" pledgeship that the national hq may want to look into.

Not always the case, but sometimes it is.

Just want to offer up some other reasons, aside from hazing, that chapters experience a low pledge retention rate. These reasons include situations with grade requirements, financial strains, personal reasons (just realizing that greek life is not for them). The list goes on forever and I know I am just preaching to the choir, so I'll go no further.

xp2k · #14 05-14-2004, 01:23 PM

HPU PIKE

Thanks for explaining that.

I wasnt trying to imply that PIKE as a national organization is so concerned with hazing that they track pledge class numbers.

What I was trying to get across was that some organizations can use that data as a means for examining chapter pledgeship periods.

You learn something new everyday.

TSteven · #15 05-14-2004, 01:30 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by sugar and spice
You know how the sororities and fraternities tend to have different takes on the numbers issue though.

The University of Minnesota Greek website lists numbers for both the sororities and fraternities and I was honestly shocked when I saw it because it was the first time I'd ever seen a Greek website do that before -- especially on the main GLO pages (I'd seen a few that hid the numbers in grade reports, etc.).

The University of Kentucky's Fraternity & Sorority Affairs office has been posting membership numbers on their website for many years. It also breaks out the number of returning members and new members.

The list includes statistics on grades, housing, philanthropy and service.