Why is Rush so Cut-throat on the Sororities' End at Big Greek Schools?

[KSUViolet06]

Originally posted by zzazbama

One of those within the past 5 years.

Question for Bama people: Which sorority closed within the last 5 years?

[Zillini]

University of Alabama Greek Life

If anyone is interested you can find U of Alabama's Sorority Growth Charts and Recruitment Stats here on the UA/Greek Life website.

I am not sure which sorority you are referring to zzazbama. I am unaware of any that have closed within the last 5 years. One is no longer participating in formal recruitment and has relinquished their house to the University, but they are still active. Their situation is rather unique and not what I was referring to earlier. As to which GLO's could potentially colonize on campus, there are currently only 15 of the 26 Panhellenic organizations represented.

But as I said earlier, this came out of a casual conversation I had with the Asst Dean of Students. I have no idea when or even if it will happen. All I was told was that Admin is looking at the Recruitment numbers, the current Panhellenic membership numbers, the status of the Greek System as a whole as well as the projected growth rate for the University. Part of the Admin's plan is to significantly grow the University student population over the next 5 years and that plan is already well underway.

Another factor I forgot to mention earlier was that many of the Chapters have grown too large for their current (physical) houses. The fire marshall is starting to have fits. I can only imagine she turns a blind eye during Recruitment. Soon many houses may need to expand (which there really isn't any where to go but up and considering the age of the houses that will be costly) or alternative locations on campus need to be found for things such as Chapter meetings, Initiations, etc.

[33girl]

Originally posted by Zillini
I am not sure which sorority you are referring to zzazbama. I am unaware of any that have closed within the last 5 years. One is no longer participating in formal recruitment and has relinquished their house to the University, but they are still active. Their situation is rather unique and not what I was referring to earlier.

I'm starting to think it just ain't a Bama thread without someone telling a lie or repeating a rumor about this particular sorority. (Not you obviously, Zillini)

[GeekyPenguin]

Originally posted by Zillini
I'm not sure when the last expansion occurred at Bama because it was prior to my moving here, so sometime prior to 1994. They were given/leased/purchased (don't know the specifics) the house of a closed GLO on Sorority Row.

The "new" Chapter is strong now (numbers wise) and have always had a close-knit siterhood, but it certainly struggled in those early years and still does to some extent. Their numbers aren't even close to the size of the other Chapters on campus. They gain the majority of their members through open Recruitment, not that there's anything wrong with that. It's just that practically every other Chapter routinely reaches quota during FR and they rarely, if ever, do.

A lot of the problem is the mindset of incoming PNMs onto a campus with such a strong Greek history and traditions. Many come in saying I want to be an ABC or nothing. They also don't wish to belong to the least "popular" Chapter. They'd rather be GDI or try again the following year. (Don't shoot the messenger here, I'm only reporting what I hear and see.)

Many people believe that it's unfair to have all but one Chapter at or above total while that one struggles with numbers. The competition is fierce for good girls. There are also financial considerations because obviously more members means more money coming in that can be spent on improving the physical house and doing fun activities. Which also makes them more attractive to PNMs.

That is why the current thought process of the Admin is that if we expand again it should be by 2 GLOs. Thus no one Chapter is the "low man on the totem pole".

I think the idea of two expansions is actually really good if those groups would then be able to avoid the stigma of being new - otherwise there might just be two groups being stigmatized. Would there be housing for them? I know the housing situation is going to be changing (or maybe has already changed) due to the stadium reconstruction/expansion.

[Zillini]

I've discovered it's a fairly common misconception. The prevailing notion here seems to be that if a GLO doesn't participate in formal recruitment it must be because they closed.

The GLO in question simply decided that the time, effort and expense involved with formal recruitment was not worth it when compared to the number of pledges they ended up with. Their energy and resources would be better spent on open recruiting. Sadly, I know it broke their heart when they turned over their house to the University. But they simply didn't have enough numbers to manage the costs.

[Zillini]

Originally posted by GeekyPenguin
I think the idea of two expansions is actually really good if those groups would then be able to avoid the stigma of being new - otherwise there might just be two groups being stigmatized. Would there be housing for them? I know the housing situation is going to be changing (or maybe has already changed) due to the stadium reconstruction/expansion.

Good point about the possible stigma, but at least there would be 2 groups. Misery loves company philosophy I guess. (Just a little joke folks.)

The stadium was expanded several years back. Gotta rack my brain for the specifics, apologies if I don't remember it all correctly. Since the stadium backs up to sorority row, 3 houses were purchased by the University. 1 NPC and 2 NPHC Chapters. I know at least 2 were given sites at other locations on sorority row and they rebuilt, but I can't remember about the other. I could check it out if anyone's interested. (Sorry, I don't keep up with the NPHC Chapters as well as I should.)

The stadium is undergoing further remodelling. So far we haven't heard about any more possible land acquisitions, but you can never rule anything out.

[carnation]

Yeah, the old Pi Phi house was right up under the stadium and they were given a new location. Apparently their current house has everythin a sorority could want!

[GeekyPenguin]

Originally posted by Zillini
Good point about the possible stigma, but at least there would be 2 groups. Misery loves company philosophy I guess. (Just a little joke folks.)

The stadium was expanded several years back. Gotta rack my brain for the specifics, apologies if I don't remember it all correctly. Since the stadium backs up to sorority row, 3 houses were purchased by the University. 1 NPC and 2 NPHC Chapters. I know at least 2 were given sites at other locations on sorority row and they rebuilt, but I can't remember about the other. I could check it out if anyone's interested. (Sorry, I don't keep up with the NPHC Chapters as well as I should.)

The stadium is undergoing further remodelling. So far we haven't heard about any more possible land acquisitions, but you can never rule anything out.

For some reason I thought AOPi and Theta may have had to move with the newest expansion. That probably was just another rumor, though.

[Zillini]

Originally posted by carnation
Yeah, the old Pi Phi house was right up under the stadium and they were given a new location. Apparently their current house has everythin a sorority could want!

I went on a tour of the new Pi Phi house a couple of years back. It was absolutely beautiful and so well laid out. Add to that brand new pipes, air conditioning, heating system, etc. The costs we spend in maintenance alone are massive. And our house is younger than several others. Needless to say I left green with envy.

[Zillini]

Sorry GeekyPenguin, I forgot to address your question about housing should new GLOs be brought in. That is another issue being looked at by Admin. There really isn't anywhere for them to go on sorority row. Where do you put them? Would it hinder their potential growth to be seperated from the others? Many other campuses don't have traditional fraternity/sorority rows, but this campus is very traditional. So the answer is we have to wait and see.

[GeekyPenguin]

Originally posted by Zillini
Sorry GeekyPenguin, I forgot to address your question about housing should new GLOs be brought in. That is another issue being looked at by Admin. There really isn't anywhere for them to go on sorority row. Where do you put them? Would it hinder their potential growth to be seperated from the others? Many other campuses don't have traditional fraternity/sorority rows, but this campus is very traditional. So the answer is we have to wait and see.

That's okay. I'm pretty familiar with Bama's campus, and I was trying to figure out where new houses could go that would be close. The only thing I could think of is to put then in the lot behind ChiO (that's parking right now) but I don't think that would be very popular with all the current sorority members.

[zzazbama]

I wasn't aware that the sorority I thought was closed was still active on campus. I knew that they had relinquished their house and were no longer participating in formal recruitment. I stand corrected. They are a great group of woman and I am happy that they are still active.

Also I beleive the last time an expansion was done at Bama, two organizations came onto campus, only which one is left.

I also wonder where a new house would go?
I agree that many of the groups have out grown their houses.

I think we'll just have to wait and see.

[dgdramadawg]

A lot of people are probably saying the same thing:

At schools with established, competitive Greek systems, it can be very difficult for newer and smaller chapters to grow. At UGA, there were 18 groups when I pledged (although one of them did not participate in 2005 recruitment, so there are only 17 involved in recruitment now)... and it seemed that certain girls were always fighting over certain groups. I was told from the start that "XYZ, ABC, and GHI only pledge girls who grew up in the south, so you shouldn't bother with those houses" (and sure enough, 2 of the 3 cut my Yankee butt after round 1). Likewise, I was told that "DEF and JKL are the houses for girls who are really involved on campus" and decided to focus on those.

At a school with so many GLOs, I saw sororities compartmentalized a lot, and thus small groups of sororities competed with each other: the Southern houses competed, the Prom Queen houses competed, etc. It seemed to be not so much cutthroat on the whole, but cutthroat between particular groups of houses.

[exlurker]

Originally posted by Zillini
. . . As to which GLO's could potentially colonize on campus, there are currently only 15 of the 26 Panhellenic organizations represented.

But as I said earlier, this came out of a casual conversation I had with the Asst Dean of Students. I have no idea when or even if it will happen. . . .

So if expansion were to happen, and if it were NPC expansion, then the eleven organiztions that might potentially or theoretically be interested would be

Alpha Epsilon Phi
Alpha Phi
Alpha Sigma Alpha
Alpha Sigma Tau
Alpha Xi Delta
Delta Gamma
Delta Phi Epsilon
Phi Sigma Sigma
Sigma Kappa
Sigma Sigma Sigma
Theta Phi Alpha

[Denise_DPhiE]

Originally posted by exlurker
So if expansion were to happen, and if it were NPC expansion, then the eleven organiztions that might potentially or theoretically be interested would be

Alpha Epsilon Phi
Alpha Phi
Alpha Sigma Alpha
Alpha Sigma Tau
Alpha Xi Delta
Delta Gamma
Delta Phi Epsilon
Phi Sigma Sigma
Sigma Kappa
Sigma Sigma Sigma
Theta Phi Alpha

Not sure why exlurker is stating the obvious , we could list the "who is not represented on the campus" stats for every campus in the US & Canada but the point is that the campus is NOT open and many of these groups would not throw their hats in the ring even if it was.

This is like a GC discussion I had with someone else about extension at another school where one group is small and nearly a dozen are at or over total. Do they really need another group or is the campus kidding itself? There does not HAVE to always be a weak group. I believe it was U of Missouri who used release figures this past Fall and EVERY group took quota. Nobody is weak and everyone benefited. Now will expansion occur there in the future? Possibly. Does it have to? Only if the groups feel they need to lower overall chapter size and new member classes get to be cumbersome (i.e. they can no longer fit chapter meetigns in their present locations etc).

Soap box retracted,
Denise