Starting a sorority through the city

[MysticCat]

Originally Posted by NoclueWhattoDo

A couple of friends and I are working towards contacting National Sororities in the hopes of being able to do the same, however; from all the research I have done, it is seeming to be more of a challenge to find anyone who would be willing to support us, since there are liability issues involved.

You may want to be more specific about what you have in mind when you say "national sorority." NPC? NHPC? Multicultural? Other? Any national sorority, regardless of conference affiliation?

It makes a difference to a question like this.

[NoclueWhattoDo]

Originally Posted by MysticCat

You may want to be more specific about what you have in mind when you say "national sorority." NPC? NHPC? Multicultural? Other? Any national sorority, regardless of conference affiliation?

It makes a difference to a question like this.

We were hoping to find a NPC sorority to sponsor us. If that is against their agreements however, we are open to considering others.

[thetalady]

Originally Posted by NoclueWhattoDo

We were hoping to find a NPC sorority to sponsor us. If that is against their agreements however, we are open to considering others.

No NPC will consider establishing a chapter on a campus that bans Greek Life.

[NoclueWhattoDo]

Originally Posted by thetalady

No NPC will consider establishing a chapter on a campus that bans Greek Life.

We did at one point on campus have Greek life and from what I am told when they were offered a large donation in exchange for getting rid of Greek life they took it. I am not sure if knowing that we once have established Greek life on campus successfully, and how they were banned will help us maybe convince them otherwise. Your point is one of our concerns.

[33girl]

Originally Posted by NoclueWhattoDo

We did at one point on campus have Greek life and from what I am told when they were offered a large donation in exchange for getting rid of Greek life they took it.

That's an oft-repeated urban legend applied to many schools.

There are instances where NPC groups will keep an ACTIVE chapter open when it's been determined that the school's reasons for de-recognizing Greek life are uber lame and the chapter/system itself has little or no risk management issues. See: University of Santa Clara and Princeton U. However, coming in and starting a new chapter is another matter entirely.

Your best bet is to keep the secret societies going, but transform them from "party societies" to groups which truly serve the campus and the community like Greek organizations would. If you act honorably, the school will look stupid for saying Greeks are awful and may just cave to recognizing national groups on campus. It's not going to happen overnight though.

Oh, and if you are at a very religious/church-sponsored school, none of this applies. You could all keep your noses clean 100% of the time and the school won't cave. This is something everyone knew when they enrolled at this sort of institution.

There are also schools who aren't particularly religious but don't want national groups on campus because it would mean they'd have to cede a degree of control (Grove City College I'm looking at you). The last 2 sentences of the above paragraph apply again.

[NoclueWhattoDo]

Originally Posted by 33girl

That's an oft-repeated urban legend applied to many schools.

There are instances where NPC groups will keep an ACTIVE chapter open when it's been determined that the school's reasons for de-recognizing Greek life are uber lame and the chapter/system itself has little or no risk management issues. See: University of Santa Clara and Princeton U. However, coming in and starting a new chapter is another matter entirely.

Your best bet is to keep the secret societies going, but transform them from "party societies" to groups which truly serve the campus and the community like Greek organizations would. If you act honorably, the school will look stupid for saying Greeks are awful and may just cave to recognizing national groups on campus. It's not going to happen overnight though.

Oh, and if you are at a very religious/church-sponsored school, none of this applies. You could all keep your noses clean 100% of the time and the school won't cave. This is something everyone knew when they enrolled at this sort of institution.

There are also schools who aren't particularly religious but don't want national groups on campus because it would mean they'd have to cede a degree of control (Grove City College I'm looking at you). The last 2 sentences of the above paragraph apply again.

Tonight one of the girls in our group went and talked to someone who has been involved in trying to ban the secret societies on campus and informed her that the campus only ever had literary societies (ex. one called theta epsilon) Which were supported through the school but fell out of favor. She also informed her that the campus has never had a national sorority on campus after all (like everyone on campus believes there was). The reason the college doesn't want Greek Life on campus is because they believe it will break up the community that has been formed.. I'm not sure that would qualify as a ridiculous reason or not seeing as Greek Life is there to help build community and strong relationships for students. And if it is considered by an NPC Sorority as a ridiculous reason to not allow them to exist that's great.

Again if an NPC group is out of the question we would also love to know other routes and options we could pursue.

[adpiucf]

If you've never had NPC sororities, it certainly doesn't hurt to try. Contact NPC for information about expansion and colonization. Go to the NPC web site.

You can also contact the non-NPC national sororities on this list and inquire about expansion with them: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of...and_sororities.

There are also non-collegiate sororities that you could invite to colonize. These are not specific to college students and could appeal to the city at large to include members from different schools or non-students: http://www.greekchat.com/gcforums/sh...ad.php?t=54756

You can google this stuff. Just do some research and start contacting organizations. Please be warned that in many cases colonizations are a long process that won't be completed until well after you graduate. Getting a sorority started and off the ground is a considerable time commitment.