A Tough Fall Ahead

[Firehouse]

"That's all I was saying. Didn't expect you to respond to anything else but the numbers."

OK.
Our national fraternity has an average chapter size of 68; that's the highest of all NIC fraternities. That's our choice and I support it. Other fraternities also make a point of encouraging all their chapters to try to be the largest on campus, or one of the largest. In the IFC culture, it's very difficult to maintain continuity and strength with fewer than 25 members. There are IFC chapters at Ole Miss, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Texas, FSU and Auburn with 200+ members. There are also major schools where the strongest IFC chapters have far fewer. At the University of Virginia, for example, I don't know of any prestige fraternity chapter that has more than 50 members. It's a matter of the campus fraternity culture.

As you said (or, somebody said here today) the HBGLOs and the multi-culturals often have very small numbers. You know that their intake process is very different, as is the culture. They generally don't have big houses to maintain, and their competition doesn't have the numbers to overwhelm them. And it should never be discounted that the HBGLOs especially, see their identity and their role very differently than do members of the IFC chapters.

I wasn't really aware of this: ("...most colleges and universities have a minimum number of students required before they will recognize a campus organization. That number for general organizations tends to be between 10-15."). It makes sense.

[thetygerlily]

Originally Posted by Firehouse

Our national fraternity has an average chapter size of 68; that's the highest of all NIC fraternities. That's our choice and I support it. Other fraternities also make a point of encouraging all their chapters to try to be the largest on campus, or one of the largest. In the IFC culture, it's very difficult to maintain continuity and strength with fewer than 25 members.

Great. But that's your opinion and it does not address the OP's concerns. Linfield is not going to magically have 50+ members in each org. That works for larger schools and SOME small ones. They have an avg of 30. Let's help him figure out how to get from 17 to 30 before we tackle completely changing campus culture to get up to your preferred amount.