Anyone know of any other current Kappa Sigma expansionary activity?

[Ithakappasig]

First, I'm going to hold off for a moment on the "Tier" discussion.

I'm with you for the most part and will thus paste:

Kappa Sigma Area recruitment manager visited us like once every 6 weeks, and that even though we already had a number of people that was already half a fraternity at our college. Empty promises everywhere. No help for going through rush. A box of 6 t-shirts and some pens. And that with a fee of 45 dollars a month... All in all, it did not seem that Kappa Sigma wanted to put in the effort or money to support a new/rechartering...

BINGO! That isn't to say that I don't recognize that you should be able to do it yourself but as I pointed out above, most people won't know how to do this. And from what I keep hearing, the selection tends to get some of the last people you really want for ARMs. I'm going to be flat out about that because I think that eventually someone will say, "aha, there's may be a problem there and some people are offering possible solutions." It will happen.

I'm not going to write and essay to agree with what you and others are saying. But I will say that there are many guys who have some experience in challenging situations and would love to help out. Some really good suggestions have also been put up on this thread. Most of what makes chapters work and grow is informal and doesn't come across well in the PC world where anything that has to do with selectivity, ambition, achievement, cooperation, independence, masculinity, commonality, belief systems and codes or even just having fun is scary and off putting to so many. Many of these things are exactly why people join fraternities and stay committed but sometimes this is exactly what people don't know how to implement and how to sell. And every principle of marketing goes out the window with this bowing to PC too.

Where you are off at IMHO, is that you are claiming that fraternities that don't have a house that try to come in or reestablish can't at Tier 1 schools. Nope. Virtually every fraternity around at these schools, including those who didn't have houses came back Yale comes to mind where only one fraternity had a house to come back to but really the case is that organizations that are at these schools more often than not come without housing and work together to get a formal or informal house, and this is something (as I posted earlier) that the ARM or national should consider helping guys set up. In fact, it's these technical details on recruiting and setting up and maintaining housing, etc. that I think is the most important thing that you can do for guys as a fraternity.

Something you said though (and this is only speculation!) sort of point to why things may have been bound to fail with our group. If you have a bunch of negative, hyper-critical guys who don't believe in things like classification or anything remotely associated with that sort of thinking they are pretty damned from the get go. If it was me I would immediately have gotten rid of any guys like that from the jump because they are just going to kill things or be a dead weight in my experience. Competitive schools are also full of mediocre folks who may have done well on a test but are emotionally unintelligent and just not good at very many things; and some of them hide their inadequacy behind negativity. (This is probably much more common in "competitive" schools more than other places.) And you have to be upfront with guys how that works, i.e., without buy-in as a group and as individuals you are pretty much fucked. That translates to a lot of life by the way. Instead of spending time reading all the stupid, sophomoric criticisms of fraternity life, really prospective fraternity men should spend more time looking at these things through a social science lens and understanding just what the dynamics are of successful groups and why they work when they work. Too many prospective members fail to do that and too many fraternities fail to outline such education.

I appreciate far left idealism that frees us of any distinction, difference of attainment, etc. though I don't share it. I'm not here to argue this and will spare you a subsequent back and forth because there is no argument to be made. Not only are there ubiquitous rankings, some more popular than others, and a widely understood hierarchy in institutions, this plays itself out in important ways, such as graduate school admission, hiring, social relations and status, and universal recognition of education. In fact I was just talking to someone who has a PhD whose education was not recognized in Germany and that sort of "bias" formally and informally regarding U.S. schools is more common than one might imagine. The hiring in "better" law firms (though I suppose the Vault rankings and lawyer rankings also means nothing to you) and upper level management track for many financial firms are heavily predicated towards those school rankings. The same goes for certain areas of upper level government hiring. As to what seems to bother you- I'm not defending (or condemning) elitism and class reproduction as an element of American or international higher education but it doesn't disappear by our pretending it is not there. Universities love to talk shi# but look at how quickly they point to their rankings when they are favorable. The past 40 years only one POTUS elected wasn't an Ivy Leaguer or military academy grad. Check the SCOTUS, ditto with only the top schools. Again though, there are teams of people from Ivy League and other competitive schools destined for never achieving much and others in less competitive or ranked schools that will achieve more so I'm not implying this always is the way of things.

I could go on regarding the "tiers" and so forth, I just think that the whole conversation is sort of without purpose. How can we deny the undeniable just because may not like it? If anyone is being honest they will admit that a large piece of what drives campus fraternity life is determining values and codes and attainment and then trying to be the best at them.

Best of luck if you guys are trying again. Hit me up and I'll help as I can if you'd like. I think if you are part of the group I think you are we may have some connection. TTYS.

[Ithakappasig]

PS To make my own PC plug for myself, the list of schools I mentioned at least were much more inclusive though I do think it is important to be present at top schools like Kappa Sigma's main competitors.

[Hockeynut]

I am happy to say Alpha Kappa is a fully established chapter again. Gee willikers, I haven't posted on this site in a while have I?

[Ithakappasig]

I think it's fair to say that Alpha-Kappa is a cornerstone for regional quality. Fingers crossed that there will be some movement in having some chapters like it in the region, both in terms of quality of school and the chapter. I think it takes some work and some of that work will probably have to fall to very active informal or peer efforts rather than waiting and hoping for the fraternity structure to do it because that ain't happening.

[Hockeynut]

As of now, Binghamton's colony is scheduled to become a chapter in February. My chapter and some others nearby should be headed down for that.

[stufield]

Hockeynut:

Thanks for the post, and the information. It's good to learn that the Binghamton colony is progressing towards a February chartering. Another upstate NY chapter to join Hobart, Cornell, Cortland, and New Paltz will be most welcome, hopefully with the Albany colony also chartering soon thereafter.

Have you heard anything about any other prospective colonies in your area?

[Hockeynut]

Originally Posted by stufield

Hockeynut:

Thanks for the post, and the information. It's good to learn that the Binghamton colony is progressing towards a February chartering. Another upstate NY chapter to join Hobart, Cornell, Cortland, and New Paltz will be most welcome, hopefully with the Albany colony also chartering soon thereafter.

Have you heard anything about any other prospective colonies in your area?

I've heard that there was an interest group in Syracuse, but I don't know how much truth there is to that.

I also do know Albany was fairly close to chapter status, but something was holding them back. They avoided getting into serious problems when the university was trying to crack down on hazing this past November. From what I've known and experienced, they're a good group and should be a chapter very soon.

[modorney]

Cal Berkeley:

BETA-XI RECOLONIZATION UPDATE – OCT ’12

BETA-XI COLONY OFFICIALLY APPROVED – KAPPA SIGMA RETURNS TO CAL

Dear Beta-Xi Brothers,

Beta-Xi has organized over 30 new members and Kappa Sigma National has formally established a Colony at Cal! We plan to successfully have a fully-chartered Chapter in place for the Fall 2013 school year when we also move back into the house. More news to come soon.

from http://www.calkappasigma.org/fratern...-update-oct-12

[sieghart]

^Congrats!

BTW, Danville? Did you go to Monte Vista?

Davis got our official charter in October.

[modorney]

> BTW, Danville? Did you go to Monte Vista?

Nope, I'm from the East Coast (Wakefield, Mass), and moved to Danville during the dot com boom. My son went to Venture, in San Ramon, and is now a sophomore at Harvard, which has a very limited greeklife presence.

> Davis got our official charter in October.
https://sites.google.com/site/kappasigmaucdavis/Home

That's cool! Is Davis your chapter? It would be nice to see some current news, and pictures of the house and brothers. Danville (and Alamo and San Ramon) is crawling with Greeks, including Kappa Sigs. You might want to do a monthly get together at the Crown Pub with all your local alumni?

[sieghart]

Ah, I see!

Davis is my chapter, I'm graduated now, glad to see it finally take off after everything we went through.

I'll have to see who is around when I head back to Danville (I work for UC Davis now fulltime, but it's close enough to head home).

I believe our Grand Scribe is getting everything setup for current news for the Report, I'll send you any info I get.

[DJKSSLO]

I am one of the pledges/founding fathers for Nu Alpha Colony at Cal Poly. We became a colony in May and received official recognition from Cal Poly' IFC in October; allowing us to formally recruit and rush this quarter (Winter 2013). We plan on becoming a full chapter by the end of the school year in June.

[stufield]

Thanks for your informative post, DJKSSLO. It is great to see somewhat of a resurgence of posts to this site in the past couple of months. Of course, even more posts would be most welcome.

Good news that the Nu-Alpha Colony at Cal Poly SLO is apparently thriving. The recolonizations of Nu-Alpha, Gamma-Rho (University of Arizona), Epsilon-Iota (San Diego State), Beta-Xi (UC Berkeley), Gamma-Zeta (NYU), Beta-Rho (University of Iowa), and Nu-Psi (University of Cincinnati) are by far the highlights of the Order's expansionary activities last summer and over the course of the first half of the 2012-2012 academic year. That is a significant list of recolonizations, each of which, when the colony is rechartered, will be a notable addition to the active chapter roll. Hopefully, even more recolonizations are in the works.

On the other hand, establishment of colonies at schools at which the fraternity has never previously had a presence has been disappointing, to say the least. There have been only three. The first of them, at Southern Illinois University, Edwardsville is certainly positive, as it does have a healthy, expanding Greek system, which increases the colony's prospects of success, and is located in a State in which the Fraternity presently has only one active chapter, Alpha-Gamma at the University of Illinois. The second new colony is at Lindenwood University Belleville, a school that almost nobody who does not go there has ever heard of and that is without any Greek system (unfortunate characteristics of too many Kappa Sig colonies). This school is not to be confused with Lindenwood University, located in St. Charles, Missouri, another State in which the Fraternity is underrepresented (only five active chapters, none at SEMO, St. Louis U, Truman State, and UMKC, all schools with healthy Greek systems at which the Fraternity should have had chapters years ago), The best thing about this colony is that he host school is also in Illinois, and that if it manages to succeed, it will add another school to the Fraternity's minimal active chapter presence there. The third and most recent new colony is at Northwestern Oklahoma State University, further bolstering the Fraternity's already considerable presence in Oklahoma, but, let's face it, not a prominent school and one with a very small Greek system to boot. That is not a very noteworthy list of new colonies, especially given the large number of prominent schools with healthy Greek systems, in all parts of the country, at which the Fraternity has never had a chapter, and, in most cases, never a colony. Hopefully, some more new colonies, at some reasonably prominent schools instead of even more obscure ones, will be established in this second half of the academic year.

[KappaSig_Eta]

stufield,

I recently got to participate in the initiation and chartering of two new chapters within the past few months. The first Dec 1st, 2012, was Old Dominion University and they became Sigma-Theta. Then this past month at Christopher Newport University on Jan 19th, 2013 and they became Sigma-Lambda (I believe).

I believe that they were both first time colonies at their schools.

Also I transferred to Virginia Commonwealth University and really want to bring it back since it was kicked off in 2009 :/ But finding a group of guys that are younger than me, willing to work to bring it back, and while being a transfer trying to graduate on time is kinda hard lol

[Hockeynut]

Sigma-Nu at Binghamton was installed two weekends ago with over forty members, and from what I know they just completed their rush. I think the rest of us in the district expect Albany to be installed within the next month or so as well. They have massive (60+) numbers from what I know.