UARK needs more sororities!

[irishpipes]

The Phi Mu and AXO house builds have actually been very slow (6 years) compared to DG and AOII (2 years). This is no slight on either group - the university is very difficult to deal with, and as Titchou said - they won't sell the land. They lease the land to the sorority, so you own a house on leased land. To say that situation is less than ideal is an understatement. Additionally, NW Arkansas is a fairly remote area. Walmart has brought some money to the region, but many groups would have little alumnae support right there for the kind of constant advising that a new, very large chapter would require. I will also say from personal experience on this campus that the tier structure goes beyond the student body - it is perpetuated heavily by local alumnae. I was very disappointed with the lack of support from some of the other NPCs.

Arkansas has grown exponentially with the implementation of the program which gives in-state tuition to students from neighboring states. The academic requirements to get this benefit aren't too high, so a lot of out-of-staters are taking advantage of it. This means an influx of PNMs from Texas and Oklahoma who bring with them preconceived notions of what groups they want, based on who is strong in their states. It is really hard to break into the social structure at a school like Arkansas, so it's no wonder many groups aren't interested.

Also, keep in mind that very, very few PNMs are cut from all sororities. They might be cut from all the sororities they wanted, but that's a huge difference, and adding more chapters won't help that situation.