A Fall 2011 Fraternity Rush Story

[wareagle93]

Congrats to your brother!

[DeltaBetaBaby]

I'm going to assume this was at Illinois? DChi did some serious rebuilding when I was there. Like, they were an average fraternity, and then all the sudden, they had HUGE pledge classes a few semesters in a row, and bam, they were a force.

[lovespink88]

Originally Posted by Psi U MC Vito

Ok so I told myself I wouldn't ask, but can you PM which chapter was the only fraternity worth joining at UI?*coughs* sorry I mean Psi Upsilon. :P

PMing you!

Originally Posted by DeltaBetaBaby

I'm going to assume this was at Illinois? DChi did some serious rebuilding when I was there. Like, they were an average fraternity, and then all the sudden, they had HUGE pledge classes a few semesters in a row, and bam, they were a force.

I think some of that size stuck around for some time. I always thought of them as one of the big chapters. According to my brother, though, they're pretty average sized again. (Not that that's a bad thing!) I think he said they have about 80-85 (average size on campus is about 75-80...then of course there's a handful of chapters that have double or close to double the average size )

[DeltaBetaBaby]

Originally Posted by lovespink88

PMing you!





I think some of that size stuck around for some time. I always thought of them as one of the big chapters. According to my brother, though, they're pretty average sized again. (Not that that's a bad thing!) I think he said they have about 80-85 (average size on campus is about 75-80...then of course there's a handful of chapters that have double or close to double the average size )

Do they still have the house over on 1st street? I think 80ish is a good chapter size; but the range was so huge there. There were housed chapters with like 12 guys, all the way up to the giant ones getting close to 200.

[lovespink88]

Yup, still on first 1st, right next to Aggers! They also had a neighbor to north...Pi Lambda Phi I think? But that chapter closed and the house was demolished while I was there though. Never knew what happened there...

80 does seem like a good size. Yes, there are still HUGE ranges in chapter sizes. Delts, Sig Ep & Pikes have over like 160 I think, then there's ones like Sigma Tau Gamma which has a house but have less than 20 brothers.

When I was an undergrad, Delta Phi had 5 members living in their big house on 4th (I only knew this because one was the same major as my roommate and she told me this bit of information that she found out from him.) Delta Phi has since closed down as well. That house then became the temp Pike house while their obscenely large new house was being built. Now I think the Tekes live there for some reason, and Theta Chi is in what was the Teke house on 4th & Gregory.

I swear, from the time I first became acquainted with the campus in 2006 there has been at LEAST 10 fraternity/sorority chapter house moves...

ETA: Ok so only 8 switches that I could think of...

Alpha Xi Delta now in the Phi Sigma Kappa house
Fiji now in the Phi Sigma Sigma house
AEPi now in their new house, they were in this white house on 3rd across from AEPhi that has now been demolished and apartment buildings have been built
Pikes now in their new house, lived in Delta Phi during the construction
Tekes now in the Delta Phi house
Theta Chi now in the Teke house
SAE back in their original house (was rented by Acacia)
Acacia in the Beta house

But that still seems like a lot!

[DeltaBetaBaby]

Originally Posted by lovespink88

Yup, still on first 1st, right next to Aggers! They also had a neighbor to north...Pi Lambda Phi I think? But that chapter closed and the house was demolished while I was there though. Never knew what happened there...

80 does seem like a good size. Yes, there are still HUGE ranges in chapter sizes. Delts, Sig Ep & Pikes have over like 160 I think, then there's ones like Sigma Tau Gamma which has a house but have less than 20 brothers.

When I was an undergrad, Delta Phi had 5 members living in their big house on 4th (I only knew this because one was the same major as my roommate and she told me this bit of information that she found out from him.) Delta Phi has since closed down as well. That house then became the temp Pike house while their obscenely large new house was being built. Now I think the Tekes live there for some reason, and Theta Chi is in what was the Teke house on 4th & Gregory.

I swear, from the time I first became acquainted with the campus in 2006 there has been at LEAST 10 fraternity/sorority chapter house moves...

ETA: Ok so only 8 switches that I could think of...

Alpha Xi Delta now in the Phi Sigma Kappa house
Fiji now in the Phi Sigma Sigma house
AEPi now in their new house, they were in this white house on 3rd across from AEPhi that has now been demolished and apartment buildings have been built
Pikes now in their new house, lived in Delta Phi during the construction
Tekes now in the Delta Phi house
Theta Chi now in the Teke house
SAE back in their original house (was rented by Acacia)
Acacia in the Beta house

But that still seems like a lot!

Do you know what happened to Phi Sigma Kappa?

Pi Lambda Phi suffered some serious numbers problems beginning around 2000; I guess they never recovered. At the same time, AEPi was growing a lot. I think that's what ultimately put them out of business, as they competed for the same group of men. I had no idea that AEPi had a new house, though.

Fiji wasn't there when I was there, and Delts came back my junior year, I think.

Moves I can think of when I was there:
Phi Kappa Tau got booted. Then Sig Eps moved into that house (4th and Gregory), then Sig Eps got big enough to take their house back, which the TKE's had been renting. I think, at that time, Sig Eps and TKE effectively switched places, but the details are fuzzy.

Delta Sigma Phi got the boot my sophomore year, I think, and their house was unoccupied after that (2nd and Armory, maybe? I know I rented a parking spot there, as it was close to Phi Mu).

Alpha Chi Rho moved back into their house (3rd and Armory) my senior year, booting Chi Psi, but I can't remember where Chi Psi went, or if they were unhoused after that.

Evans Scholars knocked down their house and built a new one, as well.

Virtually no movement on the sorority side, but the guys were always coming and going. Rumor is that the Phi Mu house is being sold soon, and I'll be very curious to see what group is big enough to buy it (it houses 67; one of the bigger on campus).

[lovespink88]

Originally Posted by DeltaBetaBaby

Do you know what happened to Phi Sigma Kappa?

http://www.news-gazette.com/news/cou...-ui-frat-house

Originally Posted by DeltaBetaBaby

Pi Lambda Phi suffered some serious numbers problems beginning around 2000; I guess they never recovered. At the same time, AEPi was growing a lot. I think that's what ultimately put them out of business, as they competed for the same group of men. I had no idea that AEPi had a new house, though.

Yup, it's next to the new Pike house. Never been inside, but it looks very nice!

Originally Posted by DeltaBetaBaby

Fiji wasn't there when I was there, and Delts came back my junior year, I think.

Wow, never would have been able to tell Delts were off campus in recent times. They're currently the largest on campus!

Originally Posted by DeltaBetaBaby

Moves I can think of when I was there:
Phi Kappa Tau got booted. Then Sig Eps moved into that house (4th and Gregory), then Sig Eps got big enough to take their house back, which the TKE's had been renting. I think, at that time, Sig Eps and TKE effectively switched places, but the details are fuzzy.

Oh that's very interesting. And now it makes sense as to why Teke moved to the old Delta Phi house...I hadn't realized that the 4th & Greg house wasn't their permanent home.

Originally Posted by DeltaBetaBaby

Delta Sigma Phi got the boot my sophomore year, I think, and their house was unoccupied after that (2nd and Armory, maybe? I know I rented a parking spot there, as it was close to Phi Mu).

Alpha Chi Rho moved back into their house (3rd and Armory) my senior year, booting Chi Psi, but I can't remember where Chi Psi went, or if they were unhoused after that.

Evans Scholars knocked down their house and built a new one, as well.

Delta Sigma Phi is back and as far as I know they are back in their house. I actually had known about that chapter closing too--my boss of my first job had two sons that were members when it closed down. Small world!!

Chi Psi is in this very odd looking building on Armory (I think) it does NOT look like a fraternity house.

Originally Posted by DeltaBetaBaby

Virtually no movement on the sorority side, but the guys were always coming and going. Rumor is that the Phi Mu house is being sold soon, and I'll be very curious to see what group is big enough to buy it (it houses 67; one of the bigger on campus).

Ok, this is VERY interesting to me. I had heard that Phi Mu was absolutely not selling their house (I had only heard this because my chapter is looking for a permanent home, last I heard. I know that we still have our lease for our current house, but I hadn't heard if we've secured something yet). Obviously, you know more about the Phi Mu house than I do though

[DeltaBetaBaby]

Originally Posted by lovespink88

Ok, this is VERY interesting to me. I had heard that Phi Mu was absolutely not selling their house (I had only heard this because my chapter is looking for a permanent home, last I heard. I know that we still have our lease for our current house, but I hadn't heard if we've secured something yet). Obviously, you know more about the Phi Mu house than I do though

Well, long story and lots of rumors, at this point. I would love to see it go to another sorority, though.