Closed/Dormant chapters?

[PhiPsiRuss]

To the best of my knowledge, the AEPhi chapter at NYU is still active.

[aopirose]

I agree with NutBrnHair in that there are a variety of reasons that chapters close. It is silly to imply that these closing are the “end all, be all” testament to organization strength and stability. DZ, for example, closed their chapter at Santa Clara because the university withdrew recognition of Greeks. DZ, from what the DZs on here have said, does not operate on a campus without university recognition.

I also have one correction. AOII never had a colony at Mississippi State. We ceased efforts before it got to that point. We did not find enough qualified women to fill a competitive size chapter. Further, we didn’t want to put those we did select into a game of perpetual catch-up.

Originally posted by NutBrnHair
Interesting list. (How nice of your friend to provide it.)

My only comment...I'm not sure these closures speak only to membership programs. It's never that simple.

[honeychile]

Originally posted by aopirose
I agree with NutBrnHair in that there are a variety of reasons that chapters close. It is silly to imply that these closing are the “end all, be all” testament to organization strength and stability. DZ, for example, closed their chapter at Santa Clara because the university withdrew recognition of Greeks. DZ, from what the DZs on here have said, does not operate on a campus without university recognition.

I also have one correction. AOII never had a colony at Mississippi State. We ceased efforts before it got to that point. We did not find enough qualified women to fill a competitive size chapter. Further, we didn’t want to put those we did select into a game of perpetual catch-up.

Splendid post! It's hard to say, "Oh, they lost 4 chapters last year" when those four schools all banned Greek activity - it makes a HUGE difference.

Also, I like AOII's policy about not putting a colony into perpetual catch up!

[sugar and spice]

I think it's an interesting statistic to track but, as pointed out, what it says about the organization is open to interpretation. Obviously a sorority with 200 chapters has more "wiggle room" to be closing a chapter a year than a sorority with 50 chapters. And the lack of concrete factors in deciding when to close a chapter is a big thing that varies widely between sororities -- on my campus, for example, XYZ HQ might decide to close one group when it gets below 50 members, whereas ABC wouldn't close their chapter until it gets to 20 girls. Kappa's accomplishment of not closing any chapters since 2000 is impressive -- but to put it in context, there was a poster here whose Kappa chapter went down to four members in recent years. Many other sorority HQs might have closed that chapter before they had a chance to prove themselves. Kappa did not, and the four-person chapter had a great rush that year and is now 3-4 times larger than it was. Either way it reflects highly on Kappa, but the lack of closed chapters can mean a number of totally different things.

Some sororities might be more likely to keep "sub-par" chapters open, or below-average chapters at certain schools (Ivy League and their ilk, SEC). And like aopirose pointed out, there are totally random factors that can lead to chapters closing too.

Plus I'm not sure the number of closed chapters matters all that much (as long as you have a viable number that are kept open) -- what matters more is the number of weak chapters that are NOT closed for whatever reason, which is obviously much harder to judge, and count, than the number of closed chapters.

[honeychile]

SuthernBell, your friend needs to double check her facts. The Washington State Chapter of Alpha Delta Pi is NOT closed - I just called to confirm this.

[XOMichelle]

I would think the most frequent reason chapters get closed is finances. If a chapter has a morgage on a house, and can't recruit enough members to pay their monthly bills, the chapter has to close unless someone comes up with a lot of cash fast. You can keep really small chapters open if they don't have to pay any bills!

[33girl]

Re the stability of membership programs, I know that there are chapters of ours (and everyone else has them too) with such long established histories and cemented reputations that the pledge program could consist of washing a yak daily for 6 weeks and they would still pledge quota and be over total.

[AEPhiSierra]

Originally posted by SuthrnBell
I think that when you talk about closed chapters it is important to look at not just which chapters an organization has closed over time but also which chapters they have closed in recent years so you can see how strong or stable their membership programs are. My sorority tracks chapter closings and one of my friends provided me with this list of each organization’s closings since 2000.

AEF (5)
Yale
SUNY Oneonta
Duke
Miami
NYU

Please accept my apologies if I have misspelled your school’s name or made any other mistake about a closing.

SB

The NYU chapter has been at colony status for about a year now. They weren't shut down too long - I think about 3 or 4 years (our old advisor was from their chapter in the late 90's). As for Duke when did they close? I know they had been small but I had also gotten the impression they were ok with being small.

[adpiucf]

Originally posted by SuthrnBell

ADP (2)
OSU
Washington State

Please accept my apologies if I have misspelled your school’s name or made any other mistake about a closing.

SB [/B]

Again, clarifying that WSU ADPi is not closed. They are currently in the process of COR/COB and taking on new members Currently, the chapter house is undergoing some repair work, so the live-in members were being put up at an off campus hotel until the furnace was back in order. I wonder if that's where the confusion might be.

Fun Fact: The WSU chapter is a single letter chapter (Upsilon) and it was chartered when ADPi was known as Alpha Delta Phi!!! In fact, the old ADPhi crest is prominent in the house and ADPhi letters on a historic pin exhibit in the house. There's a lot of history there The Upsilon chapter was originally a local sorority, and some of those historic pins are on display, too. If you're ever in Pullman, check it out!

[OleMissGlitter]

[QUOTE]Originally posted by SuthrnBell

AOP (5)
DePauw
Illinois Wesleyan
Syracuse
Purdue
Southwest Texas State
+1 colony (Mississippi State)

Well techincally, the AOII colony never even existed. They barely had an interest group at Mississippi State going because of the lack of interest in a new sorority. (Don't get me wrong the Panhellenic was supportive and so were two groups in particular, KD and Sigma Chi, however I would even call it a colony. Just my thoughts.

[FSUZeta]

in south carolina has an outstanding zta chapter that is very much alive and kicking. these girls are consistent crown chapter award winners and often win silver at convention.

[MFC2002]

AEPhi closing at Duke was in the last NPC update.

[MFC2002]

Well techincally, the AOII colony never even existed. They barely had an interest group at Mississippi State going because of the lack of interest in a new sorority. (Don't get me wrong the Panhellenic was supportive and so were two groups in particular, KD and Sigma Chi, however I would even call it a colony. Just my thoughts.

There are about 5-6 old threads about AOPi's colony at Miss State including one or two started by you and a different one started by aopirose. For whatever reason the colony didn't work out. So pulling the plug is better than installing a sick chapter especially in a big expensive colonization on a housed campus. However trying to say now that "technically the colony never existed" is like saying someone is a little bit pregnant. Either you are or you aren't. Just my thoughts.

http://forums.greekchat.com/gcforums...ppi+state+aopi

http://forums.greekchat.com/gcforums...ppi+state+aopi

http://www.ur.msstate.edu/news/stories/2003/aopi.asp

[33girl]

Originally posted by MFC2002


There are about 5-6 old threads about AOPi's colony at Miss State including one or two started by you and a different one started by aopirose. For whatever reason the colony didn't work out. So pulling the plug is better than installing a sick chapter especially in a big expensive colonization on a housed campus. However trying to say now that "technically the colony never existed" is like saying someone is a little bit pregnant. Either you are or you aren't. Just my thoughts.

http://forums.greekchat.com/gcforums...ppi+state+aopi

http://forums.greekchat.com/gcforums...ppi+state+aopi

http://www.ur.msstate.edu/news/stories/2003/aopi.asp

I clicked on all of those threads and nowhere do I see anything about colony members being chosen or the colony participating in campus activities. Therefore a functioning colony never existed. They couldn't install the chapter, there was nothing to install. They put the process on hold like a week after they began.

By your logic, every time I went for a job interview, I had a job at that company...whoo hoo, I'd better call Federated and Ketchum and ask for my back pay...I'll be on easy street then!

Whatever has crawled up your backside about AOII (the proper way to type it thank you) please crank it out.

[dzandiloo]

Originally posted by SuthrnBell
I think that when you talk about closed chapters it is important to look at not just which chapters an organization has closed over time but also which chapters they have closed in recent years so you can see how strong or stable their membership programs are. My sorority tracks chapter closings and one of my friends provided me with this list of each organization’s closings since 2000.

Several people have already said that # of closures is not necessarily indicative of an unstable membership program within an org.... We all know there are many factors that cause chapter closures--but to me, it's more interesting to note the number of schools who have lost more than one chapter in the last few years --what does that say about the strength of the Greek systems/environment at those schools? Again, I know there are many factors involved here, but it's something to ponder...although we already have seen examples of the posted list being inaccurate, I was surprised about a few of the schools that appeared to have more than one closing in that short period:

Arizona State(2)
Clemson (2)
Cornell (2)
Embry-Riddle (2)
Frostburg State (2)
Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts (2)
Miami (3)...I wasn't sure if this was a combo of Miami of Ohio and Miami or not....
Michigan State (3)
SUNY Oneonta (2)
Syracuse (2)
UNC-Chapel Hill (2)