New Sorority on Campus?

[AlphaFrog]

Originally Posted by 33girl

Actually we did - our Epsilon Beta chapter was there from around 1982-1993.

Damn. What were we thinking?? Competing at UofI is the Midwest's version of Bama or LSU.

[ZTAngel]

ZTA had it's Alpha Kappa chapter at UI from 1921-1994.

[DeltaBetaBaby]

Originally Posted by AlphaFrog

Damn. What were we thinking?? Competing at UofI is the Midwest's version of Bama or LSU.

Just for the record, it really isn't. More than half the women coming through rush don't know anything about greek life, very few chapters require recs, and chapters climb and fall within the social tiers every five years. The chapter houses are nice, but most women don't want to live in them, so the smaller the better. Believe me, it is not the South.

[OrangeJuice]

Originally Posted by DeltaBetaBaby

Just for the record, it really isn't. More than half the women coming through rush don't know anything about greek life, very few chapters require recs, and chapters climb and fall within the social tiers every five years. The chapter houses are nice, but most women don't want to live in them, so the smaller the better. Believe me, it is not the South.

Well, I don't know if I'd agree with that. The chapter houses here are very nice. Some are on the National Register of Historic Places. In my house, we don't have enough space to let all the girls live in. And we're not the only house with this program. And while there is probably some fluxuation in the social tiers, the top houses here are pretty much the same as they were when my mom attended Illinois. I'd agree that UIllinois is no SEC school. But it definately has a strong Greek life.

[irishpipes]

Originally Posted by DeltaBetaBaby

Just for the record, it really isn't. More than half the women coming through rush don't know anything about greek life, very few chapters require recs, and chapters climb and fall within the social tiers every five years. The chapter houses are nice, but most women don't want to live in them, so the smaller the better. Believe me, it is not the South.

While I agree with most of what you wrote, I disagree with the overall sentiment. The general atmosphere at U of I is more laid back than the south, but the importance of Greek life is just as overwhelming, in my opinion. Yes, at U of I any girl can get into a sorority, but not every girl could get into certain sororities. I do agree that the "tiers" are not as rigid as they are in the south, although certain chapters tend to always hover near the top with the middle being where things change around a lot.

As for the housing, I don't think that it is insignificant. I think it is just culturally different than some schools. At Oklahoma or Arkansas, girls pledge as freshmen and then are expected to live in the house their remaining 3 years. Those houses tend to sleep 80-100 girls so that is necessary. That would never fly at Illinois. Most girls live in the house 1 or 2 years, but definitely want the freedom of an apartment at some point. I am sure that culture developed because the houses are very old and not quite as large, so not everyone could live in. But, I think if you have a house, it better be competitive with the others. As OJ wrote, some of those are historic (I know the AOII house is on the historic register), beautiful, and very convenient to campus, unlike most of the dorms and apartments. On the other hand, I have always thought that a group that came on and was unhoused intentionally could do well at Illinois, given the right marketing.

[DeltaBetaBaby]

I should clarify my statement. Most women want to live in the chapter house for one year, but many do not want to live there for two. This is largely because of the freedoms you give up to live in a chapter house, and the plethora of cheap apartments on campus. If a chapter only has a one year live-in requirement, they advertise it heavily during rush.

As far as the tiers, yes, there are some that are traditionally strong and weak, but I have definitely seen a medium chapter have one good rush and shoot to the top, or a medium chapter have one lousy rush and fall to the bottom. This is true of the fraternities as well.

Anyway, the point of my post was not to debate the details of the UIUC greek system, the point was that a new group could come onto campus and be competitive, even if they did not necessarily have the resources of the largest NPC groups.

[UofISigKap]

I hope that whomever is selected helps bring a solid recruitment in which everyone benefits and all the chapters are at a manageable and successful size. I was looking a the numbers in chapters currently. See the grades for the number of new members for each sorority and whole group number. Some of the chapters are HUGE! Some were big when I was there, but I don't remember so many hitting near 200. (Actually, were there any??? )

On a side note: I unfortunately never got to live in house. That is one thing that I wish I would have been able to do. The timing of when I was a member, my student teaching scheduling, and graduation date meant it never happened. Some people in my chapter LOVED living in and did so for three years. I know there is drama involved when you have so many women living closely together, but there are silly runs to the grocery store at 3 am, getting ready to go out for the night and yelling down the hall to find someone with a curling iron that works or a shirt that will go better with your awesome "bar pants", staying up doing laundry and chatting over juice bars from the basement freezer. It's just an experience that I wish I had. I was over there enough, it's like I lived there, but...

[OrangeJuice]

Alph Xi Delta got it! Just in case anyone was curious...

[Sister Havana]

Originally Posted by AlphaFrog

Damn. What were we thinking?? Competing at UofI is the Midwest's version of Bama or LSU.

No, that would be Indiana.