Three Sororities Selected to Present at Northwestern

[boz130]

As an undergrad, I attended Illinois State (where the ZTA chapter is doing well, BTW); I serve on the Lambda Chi alumni boards at my alma mater and Northwestern. This provides me w/a unique perspective.

Our NU chapter was under "voluntary suspension" in the late 1990's due to reasons similar to ADPi's. We only had 12 men living in a house that holds 32. As a result, we had boarders, including some football players.

Since the University leases the chapter houses to each GLO, we always have to pay our rent each quarter. When you do the math, it's obvious: lower numbers = lack of $$$ for rent.

Because of the financial straits & the chapter's problems w/recruiting, the alumni board (the landlord for the chapter) decided to "go dark" for 2 years.

When we came back to campus, LCA's expansion team did an outstanding job of recruiting a great group of guys. They achieved all of the standards needed for re-chartering (40+ men, meet/surpass All-Men's GPA, etc.) in 18 months--a record @ that point for Lambda Chi.

Earlier this year, they even achieved LCA's highest chapter honor, the Grand High Alpha Award. Quite a turnaround from having 12 men & no good prospects.

So, why didn't ADPi make it in Evanston while Lambda Chi did? It's hard to say, but there are a myriad of reasons for GLOs making it or failing.

In my work (creating fraternity/sorority newsletters), I've observed a variety of GLOs as a vendor. One thing that strikes me is how some groups choose where they'll "plant their flag".

Some GLOs seem to focus solely on schools with 20,000+ populations, while others are represented on smaller campuses (less than 6,000 students). One way isn't better than another--they're just different.