U of Charleston Suspends TKE

[Ghostwriter]

Originally Posted by Kevin

You read correctly, but you may have missed where it said the chapter had six members. A lot of national organizations would shut a chapter down if it only had six members.

Agree. Mine would either shut it down or, if there was a good level of alumni support, do a total restructure. I did read that there were only 6 members but if TKE is the only Fraternity, that makes them also the largest (tongue firmly in cheek).

UCWV must have a truly weak Greek program if this is it or maybe they are just really new at this.

[Psi U MC Vito]

I seem to remember that Psi U has a set chapter size required for chartering as well.

[Kevin]

You're going to great lengths to ignore/refuse to answer my question. Would your organization tolerate a 4-member chapter?

The standards are clearly different. And frankly, yes, I am a little surprised they shut down this chapter. The chapter at my alma mater was caught by the Greek Life Advisor (she walked in on this) holding a fundraiser for MDA which consisted of $3.00 all you can drink beer being served by a 14-year-old girl. Our campus was dry. That same semester, TKE had a sub 1.0 GPA, fell to less than 10 members and was de-recognized by the school, yet they held on to their charter. Anecdotal? Yes. But absolutely true.

Of course, that was a little while ago, and standards have apparently changed.

Sometimes an organization deserves to be criticized when it acts in poor taste. We're all lumped together by non-greeks and when one organization, particularly one as well-recognized as TKE tolerates bad behavior, it reflects on all of us. I've seen them tolerate some pretty absurd things in the past. Maybe they're turning a corner.

[DrPhil]

Originally Posted by Kevin

Would your organization tolerate a 4-member chapter?

Is this an NIC-NPC thing?

[Kevin]

Originally Posted by DrPhil

Is this an NIC-NPC thing?

Yes. Maybe I should have specified. 33 is a member of an NPC organization.

[DrPhil]

Originally Posted by Kevin

Yes. Maybe I should have specified. 33 is a member of an NPC organization.

Yeah I'm a GC regular so I know that 33girl is a member of an NPC organization. I asked that to explicitly place this within the proper NIC-NPC context (well, the TKE context is far more important than the NIC-NPC context) to remove the implication that a 4-member chapter is problematic, in general.

[AlphaFrog]

Originally Posted by DrPhil

Is this an NIC-NPC thing?

Yep...or at least NPC. My chapter was shut down for low numbers with 30 members. Not to say a chapter couldn't stay open with 30 members if that's at or close to total. Our total was around 80, but probably should have been lowered as evidenced by two chapters closing for numbers less than a decade apart and two of the 5 remaining chapters still struggling. I'm still relatively convinced it was a housing issue for us, since our house held 30 + housemother suite and we couldn't even get half the chapter to live in.

[ThetaPrincess24]

Originally Posted by Kevin

Sometimes an organization deserves to be criticized when it acts in poor taste. We're all lumped together by non-greeks and when one organization, particularly one as well-recognized as TKE tolerates bad behavior, it reflects on all of us. I've seen them tolerate some pretty absurd things in the past. Maybe they're turning a corner.

I couldnt agree more with this statement!

[33girl]

As I said to DrPhil, there may be an instance where an organization (mine, yours, NPC or NIC) will support a 4 member chapter. There are various reasons for this. So no, I will not definitively say that my org would shut down a 4 member chapter, solely for having 4 members.

Lots of strange dealings happen and to say "this will NEVER occur" is just plain folly.

This chapter in the original post, from what I can see, was not shut down for having 6 members. It was shut down for hazing.

[DrPhil]

Originally Posted by 33girl

This chapter in the original post, from what I can see, was not shut down for having 6 members. It was shut down for hazing.

That's what I thought and the fact that chapter size was brought up (and by a non-TKE if I remember correctly?) is why I asked whether there is a chapter size minimum for TKE.

There are Delta collegiate chapters with 6 and fewer active members; and chapters for other NPHC GLOs with 6 and fewer active members. Whether that works and "is appropriate" is up to the NPHC GLO and school.

[Kevin]

Originally Posted by DrPhil

That's what I thought and the fact that chapter size was brought up (and by a non-TKE if I remember correctly?) is why I asked whether there is a chapter size minimum for TKE.

There are Delta collegiate chapters with 6 and fewer active members; and chapters for other NPHC GLOs with 6 and fewer active members. Whether that works and "is appropriate" is up to the NPHC GLO and school.

For NIC-type groups, there is a fixed cost for operating a chapter because national consultants have to be flown in annually or bi-annually, so there needs to be a minimum amount of membership to make that cost-effective for the general fraternity to be able to continue that as a service.

Also, just to be competitive for membership, single-digits won't cut it. In most, maybe all cases where a fraternity is that far down in the tiers, the best thing to do is to shut down and start over with a clean slate.