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Originally Posted by FSUZeta
but was agd on campus continously or did they take some time off and then came back on?
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We were on campus last semester. The existing collegians were given alumna status. There's a thread about it in the Recruitment forum. Two of our international officers went there in person and talked with the women who were being given alumna status. The women were strongly encouraged to immediatley be active alumnae and were given all of the options available to them to do that, including a Junior Circle, which is what we call our alumnae groups for women under 35. They were wonderful women who had been working very hard and they received recognition for that hard work. They were tired and hadn't had a great collegiate experience since they were struggling with numbers for a while.
This is the second Big 10 school where we've done this in the last 6 years. We also did it at the University of Michigan. That chapter is doing alright, but it has been a slower progression. They had their best recruitment year this year and are still building up numbers, but have shown a huge improvement. Different campuses yield different results.
At Michigan State, the Fraternity chose to not immediately recolonize for various reasons. We are renting that house out to either AOPi or ADPi (sorry, I can't remember which at the moment). We are behind Alpha Xi Delta for recolonization and recruitment is down all over the state due to our extremely poor economic situation, so it's difficult to estimate when that recolonization will happen. We are all pulling for it though. It's one of our earlier chapters.
The decision is based on so many factors that it's really hard to make a blanket rule. Campus climate, finances (especially when there is a house to consider), the general state of other NPCs on campus (you can note that several closed at Michigan State within a couple years of each other so that could be a factor), etc. I think a lot of it ends up being HOW it's done, not whether it is done. It is ALWAYS a heart wrenching decision as Heather pointed out earlier.
On the positive side, one of the chapters I oversee in PA (Lafayette) went from 12 to 43 members this year and we are so excited for them. They happened to find a large group of friends who were interested in joining a sorority together and all of them clicked. Since the initial group, those women have brought in more of their friends. On a campus where Total is 75, they will have a better chance to really compete in Formal Recruitment next fall with around 35 members returning to campus. With 12, it's simply overwhelming. We're very excited for them, but they worked hard and kept an open mind too. It has also been hard work for them to integrate so many newer members into the chapter but they are doing a great job.
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