Community College Fraternity?

[PGD-GRAD]

If you've seen any ads. from the community college system, some of them actually mention Greek life, homecoming, etc. and make the point that they chose this college lifestyle because those "other" things are not important to them. The Ivy Tech Community College system in Indiana has an ad that says something like: (TWO GIRLS TALKING:first girl says, "But Ivy Tech doesn't have sororities!" the other girl says, "Yes, but the cost is great and I can take just the classes I want and get personal attention.") Then the table of attractive girls looks over and makes eye contact with a table full of good-looking guys.

This may not be exactly word-for-word, but most community college students are there because they have neither the time nor money to do the four-year thing. And many community college students are "non-traditional" students who are older or back to pursue a second degree because of a job loss or lay-off. There are, however, many community college students who do their gen. ed. there and then transfer to four-year colleges and---some I've known--do then go Greek as sophomores.

[mittens]

Phi Theta Kappa - honors society.

[PANTHERTEKE]

Originally Posted by mittens

Phi Theta Kappa - honors society.

Honor societies are not the same thing as social fraternities and sororities.

[knight_shadow]

Originally Posted by PANTHERTEKE

Honor societies are not the same thing as social fraternities and sororities.

Aside from community/city-wide chapters of organizations, that might be the only other option for the OP.

[Xidelt]

So, are you in an honor society for run-on sentences?^^

[Pingyang]

Originally Posted by emb021

Alpha Phi Omega used to have several chapters at community colleges.

All have gone under.

Due to the problem of getting chapters going and keeping them going at community college, I don't think APO is opening to chartering at community colleges.

I did work to help a chapter get re-chartered at a community college that became a four-year school, but it wasn't successful.

What about Parkland College (Alpha Zeta Omega chapter, I think)? They are a community college and were just chartered last year...?

[naraht]

Originally Posted by Pingyang

What about Parkland College (Alpha Zeta Omega chapter, I think)? They are a community college and were just chartered last year...?

I'm gonna put in a "yeah, but" here...

Parkland College (AZOmega) is on the outskirts of Champaign, Illinois as in University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. The APO chapter at UIUC (Alpha Alpha) brought back 296 brothers this past spring and initiated 109 this past fall (and run both fall and spring pledge classes). The normal issue with a chapter at a Community College is that if *one* pledge class fails or you hit a bump in leadership, there very few people on campus to recruit the following year and the chapter is in trouble. With the chapter at Parkland 10-15 minutes off of UIUC's campus, if they do hit a bad year like that, Alpha Alpha can send over 20-30 brothers to help with recruitment without a problem, which can help them get over the hump in recruiting.

Alpha Gamma Theta at Columbus State Community College survived for 15 years (1990-2005) and was about the same distance from Ohio State University's chapter (Alpha Iota).

Having said that, there are some Regional Directors (The people on the National Board for specific areas of the Fraternity) who aren't interested in extending the Community Colleges at all.

So having a chapter at a CC may work, if the CC is in the same town as a large state school with a stable chapter.

[MysticCat]

Originally Posted by Xidelt

So, are you in an honor society for run-on sentences?^^

And for the bumping of old threads.

[KAPital PHINUst]

Originally Posted by naraht

Alpha Gamma Theta at Columbus State Community College survived for 15 years (1990-2005) and was about the same distance from Ohio State University's chapter (Alpha Iota).

So having a chapter at a CC may work, if the CC is in the same town as a large state school with a stable chapter.

Naraht, what you don't know about Columbus State is the fact that during that 15 year period, there were large periods of dormancy where the chapter was virtually inactive, some lasting 2-3 years apiece. When I was a student there (1992-94), we only had one pledge class the entire time I was there (Fall 1992) and that consisted of only three people, whom I never saw after that. After I graduated, I remember attending a pledge ritual for two individuals in the Fall of 1995, of which only one got initiated. Then I remember a handful of people getting initiated in 1998 and another handful being initiated around 2000-2001, and the chapter died out shortly thereafter.

APO chapters at community colleges do not work because the community college environment simply isn't conducive to its survival (put another way, community college enrollment can be very sporadic - a student may attend one quarter and take the next two quarters off and re-enroll the following quarter, etc. Plus the school spirit at a community college isn't the same as that of a 4-year school).