What is going on at University of Iowa?

[ISUKappa]

Originally Posted by TSteven

A simple guess is that the University of Iowa administration (or administrations as the case may be) has chosen to take a firm stance on risk management issues. Until everyone "gets it", then chapters are going to be closed. At at the same time, when students see so many chapters being closed they can become leery of joining any fraternity. Simply because the many positive reasons for joining are being overshadowed by the negative actions of the few.

I believe this is a large part. IIRC all of the fraternities are required to be dry, regardless of inter/national policy.

As for chapter size, of the chapters that have closed, would they be consider the traditionally large chapters at Iowa? And is the "small in size" average chapter size a result of the number of men participating in rush (i.e. campus culture), or the number of bids extended?

Definitely some of the larger chapters are those that closed (FIJI was a very large chapter). I think part of it is the low number of men participating in formal rush.

For example, while I do not know for sure if the Iowa fraternities do this, I know that many fraternities on Midwestern campuses extend bids based on the number of men that may live in the house. Give or take a few men. So if the current eleven houses on campus are at their own self-imposed total, then statically, it would be possible to suggest that those chapters are doing well.

AFAIK, there are no restrictions such as those

Having said all this, I am guessing that most of those chapters closed have extensive alumni that they can draw from. Both financially and in numbers. As such, once the suspension is lifted, I am sure more than a few of the chapters will be back. And it would not surprise me with membership numbers near or at what they were before.

FWIR, Beta was another very large chapter before it closed a few years ago. They've recently recolonized, but are less than half their former size.

Originally Posted by TSteven

What would you (or any others who might know) say *is* the campus culture? More to the point, are there less men going through rush? And if so, why?

I think a lot of men see no need to be in a fraternity, especially if their main desire for joining is socially driven. Bars are 19 in Iowa City, fraternity houses are dry. Those who want leadership positions can find them elsewhere. Greek marketing is not very good.