What’s it like to be in a Huge Chapter?

[33girl]

Originally Posted by AnchorAlumna

Re: SDT - I'm not one and I don't really know, but FWIK, they have not been all-Jewish since the early 1970s, whereas AEPhi is still only Jewish.
Right now, construction is still taking place. The sororities have been able to use a couple of "old" houses while their new ones are being built, but this year ZTA is without a house while theirs, Phi Mu's and KKG's are going up.
I am hoping that once there is an "old" house available, SDT can move back to sorority row, pledge more women and again participate fully in formal recruitment.
That would not happen for another 3 or 4 years, though.
Ok
I keep thinking that one day, sooner rather than later, the recruitment numbers are going shrink instead of grow.

But AEPhi isn't at Alabama anymore. Do you mean nationally?

I agree with your last sentence in that eventually fewer women will rush (at any school with uber large chapters) because sorority membership has reached a point of diminishing returns.

[NutBrnHair]

Here's what a composite looks like with 400+ members!

[navane]

Originally Posted by NutBrnHair

Here's what a composite looks like with 400+ members!

Wow! I thought the size of the composite didn't seem too bad until I realized that the girls don't have their names beneath the photos.

[NutBrnHair]

Originally Posted by navane

Wow! I thought the size of the composite didn't seem too bad until I realized that the girls don't have their names beneath the photos.

I believe the names are there. Very small, but they are there.

[navane]

Originally Posted by NutBrnHair

I believe the names are there. Very small, but they are there.

Ah ok! I squinted at the photo again and now see what look like faint lines under the photos. Those must be the names. Either way, it's still impressive to get that many members on one composite. Thanks for sharing!

[AnchorAlumna]

Originally Posted by 33girl

But AEPhi isn't at Alabama anymore. Do you mean nationally?
I agree with your last sentence in that eventually fewer women will rush (at any school with uber large chapters) because sorority membership has reached a point of diminishing returns.

Right, by the time I got to Alabama (a few years after Titchou), they were gone. I guess nationally? I checked them out at a school a few years ago to help a mother and found that they - or at least that chapter - don't pledge gentiles.

[clemsongirl]

Originally Posted by AnchorAlumna

Right, by the time I got to Alabama (a few years after Titchou), they were gone. I guess nationally? I checked them out at a school a few years ago to help a mother and found that they - or at least that chapter - don't pledge gentiles.

AEPhi alum would obviously know more than I but I seem to recall her saying that the decision to pledge gentiles or not is up to the chapter. IIRC, she was not Jewish when she joined the local sorority that would eventually become her chapter of AEPhi. I have heard at other schools that they don't take gentiles, though. But at the thought of pre-sorting girls into Jewish and non-Jewish piles during recruitment. Had no idea that ever happened!

[DeltaBetaBaby]

Originally Posted by clemsongirl

AEPhi alum would obviously know more than I but I seem to recall her saying that the decision to pledge gentiles or not is up to the chapter. IIRC, she was not Jewish when she joined the local sorority that would eventually become her chapter of AEPhi. I have heard at other schools that they don't take gentiles, though. But at the thought of pre-sorting girls into Jewish and non-Jewish piles during recruitment. Had no idea that ever happened!

Well, even if they didn't formally do this, the Jewish women would not have received any invitations from the chapters who didn't take Jews, so it would have happened anyway.

If I can relate a few stories that probably aren't politically correct...

My dad told me a story of one of his pledge brothers who dropped out of AEPi and joined a group that had just removed its "WASP clause" and how the rest of his chapter thought the guy was total scum the rest of their college careers.

My mom told me that, when she rushed, there was a further split, as women of German Jewish heritage all went XYZ at her school, and they thought they were too good for Eastern European Jewish women. Incidentally, my mom's best friend in retirement years is an alum of the chapter in question.