Initiation only when colony is chartered?

[Kevin]

I'll be a "founding father" of my Sigma Nu Chapter on March 9th. I personally have waited a tad over 3 years now to be initiated as a full member.

We recently had an Alpha Xi Delta chapter founded at our University and it was the same way.

The Pi Kappa Alpha Colony here I believe has the same basic rules for its active colony on my campus as well.

From what I can tell most major Greek Letter organizations work the same way in this respect. Until today I thought it was basically one of those universal truths about the Greek Community but I guess there's no such thing =)

[RockChalk]

3 years? Does it always take that long to get chartered?

[Kevin]

That depends on the house. Our HQ wouldn't grant our charter until we exceeded all men's average (35) members, were above all-men's GPA and had proven ourselves to be assetts to the Greek Community as outlined in our lengthy petition for a charter. Our HQ actually checked these facts and held out on us for as long as it took. For us it was 3 years.

We have another house on the campus that was only founded 2 semesters ago and gets their charter in April. They've had the lowest house GPA since they were founded but have performed well in other areas. It depends on your (Inter)national fraternity's opinion on what a brand new chapter should look like. For us the standard I feel was higher (and I'd have it no other way).

Other Sigma Nu colonies have started off lots faster, others are on about the same timetable. A new program (that was started after we had made lots of progress) sets up a colony to get its charter in 3 semesters now.

Being a pledge for 3 years makes you REALLY appreciate your fraternity.