Starting a sorority through the city

[NoclueWhattoDo]

Hi everyone,
Here is the situation. Right now my college has a ban on having any Greek life sponsored through the school. As a result most of what we have are secret societies, which are closer to being considered party societies rather then sorority like structures who are involved in the community.

Through the city DKE has been able to establish a fraternity without the need for the school to be involved. A couple of friends and I are working towards contacting National Sororities in the hopes of being able to do the same, however; from all the research I have done, it is seeming to be more of a challenge to find anyone who would be willing to support us, since there are liability issues involved.

If anyone knows of any sororities who have been able to establish a national charter through the city or have any ideas of how I am to approach this please help! We really would like to get the ball rolling as soon as we can!

[MysticCat]

Originally Posted by NoclueWhattoDo

A couple of friends and I are working towards contacting National Sororities in the hopes of being able to do the same, however; from all the research I have done, it is seeming to be more of a challenge to find anyone who would be willing to support us, since there are liability issues involved.

You may want to be more specific about what you have in mind when you say "national sorority." NPC? NHPC? Multicultural? Other? Any national sorority, regardless of conference affiliation?

It makes a difference to a question like this.

[NoclueWhattoDo]

Originally Posted by MysticCat

You may want to be more specific about what you have in mind when you say "national sorority." NPC? NHPC? Multicultural? Other? Any national sorority, regardless of conference affiliation?

It makes a difference to a question like this.

We were hoping to find a NPC sorority to sponsor us. If that is against their agreements however, we are open to considering others.

[thetalady]

Originally Posted by NoclueWhattoDo

We were hoping to find a NPC sorority to sponsor us. If that is against their agreements however, we are open to considering others.

No NPC will consider establishing a chapter on a campus that bans Greek Life.

[NoclueWhattoDo]

Originally Posted by thetalady

No NPC will consider establishing a chapter on a campus that bans Greek Life.

We did at one point on campus have Greek life and from what I am told when they were offered a large donation in exchange for getting rid of Greek life they took it. I am not sure if knowing that we once have established Greek life on campus successfully, and how they were banned will help us maybe convince them otherwise. Your point is one of our concerns.

[33girl]

Originally Posted by NoclueWhattoDo

We did at one point on campus have Greek life and from what I am told when they were offered a large donation in exchange for getting rid of Greek life they took it.

That's an oft-repeated urban legend applied to many schools.

There are instances where NPC groups will keep an ACTIVE chapter open when it's been determined that the school's reasons for de-recognizing Greek life are uber lame and the chapter/system itself has little or no risk management issues. See: University of Santa Clara and Princeton U. However, coming in and starting a new chapter is another matter entirely.

Your best bet is to keep the secret societies going, but transform them from "party societies" to groups which truly serve the campus and the community like Greek organizations would. If you act honorably, the school will look stupid for saying Greeks are awful and may just cave to recognizing national groups on campus. It's not going to happen overnight though.

Oh, and if you are at a very religious/church-sponsored school, none of this applies. You could all keep your noses clean 100% of the time and the school won't cave. This is something everyone knew when they enrolled at this sort of institution.

There are also schools who aren't particularly religious but don't want national groups on campus because it would mean they'd have to cede a degree of control (Grove City College I'm looking at you). The last 2 sentences of the above paragraph apply again.