New to the site - looking to start a local and need help!

[xxstardust]

Hi, everyone!

I've been lurking around the site for a week or so and finally joined so that I could post, and possibly get feedback/advice from anyone who'd be kind enough to offer it! I apologize in advance for the length of the post, I'm sure it'll be a long story ...

I'm just starting my junior year (first day of classes is today, actually! ) at a very small, private liberal arts university in the NYC tri-state area. My school has very little by way of greek life. The only GLO we have on campus is Alpha Phi Omega, and while they're great and I'm friends with several members, it's just not what I was looking for and wasn't the best fit for me. I really want to be a part of the sisterhood that comes with being in a sorority, and while the APO members are active and do a lot of good service events, they don't do much by way of a social aspect or brotherhood, from what I've been told. Aside from APO, greek life is something that hasn't really been looked at positively at my school, though to my knowledge the university has no official policy on the matter.

There are three colleges all on the same street in my area, all within under 5 minutes of each other. One of these has an active greek system with several national fraternities and sororities. Something which has always been said at my school is that we were able to rush at our neighboring university, which was in line with what my best friend from home (who is an active member of an NPC sorority at her own school) had told me - that students whose schools had no greek life, or even didn't have a specific fraternity/sorority said student was looking to rush, were technically allowed to pledge outside of the university at which he/she is enrolled. So a friend of mine from school and I decided we were going to go through the recruitment process at the other school this year, as being members of a sorority was something we both were very interested in doing. (I know at this point you're probably wondering why we waited until our junior year - one, getting the bravery to go to a university where you know few if any people is hard, and two, my home university doesn't allow cars until junior year, and we wanted to wait until we knew we could get there on a consistent basis to be good, active PNMs/pledges/members.)

We were unfortunately told by the director of student life at the other university in town that we had been incorrectly informed and it was their policy to not allow students from either other college in town to participate in their GLOs. Which hurt to hear, because it's something we would both so dearly like to do, but we're hoping not to let it stop us!

The two of us have decided that we would like to pursue starting a local sorority on our own campus, if at all possible (and we also have hopes to push for affiliation with a national GLO, but let's not put the cart before the horse! ). We know it will definitely be an uphill battle, but we think that there's room on our campus for a women's group devoted to sisterhood, service and scholarship, as the only other women's group on campus currently is Womyn's Concerns, which is more focused on activism. We also think that there is interest on campus - if no one was interested in it, surely the rumor about going through formal recruitment at another school wouldn't exist and float around as frequently as it does now?

So we're putting out feelers to gauge the interest on campus, and starting to get our organization in order in respect to our university's policies for student organizations. The name we've chosen is Beta Gamma Theta, the open motto for which is Beginning Great Things - we felt that was fitting for a group of women beginning something so new and exciting for our school! I've googled it several times and haven't seen any other GLO with that name come up, but if I've somehow missed one please let me know. =]

Anyway, I just wanted to post my story in the hopes that you guys could provide some guidance, since you all are so much better established and can hopefully give us some insight from your own experiences. Are we foolish to even try? What can we do to make our organization, and our case, strong to present to our administration? Any help or ideas you have would be helpful - the two of us are truly passionate about this and want to succeed!

[knight_shadow]

I think you need to ask your administration before you get started. They may not want to support Greek life on campus.

Also, visit this thread: http://www.greekchat.com/gcforums/sh...ad.php?t=93174

Good luck.

ETA: I would take some of the details out of your story. I was able to figure out which school you attend with a 2-minute Google search.

[MysticCat]

Originally Posted by knight_shadow

I think you need to ask your administration before you get started. They may not want to support Greek life on campus.

. . .

ETA: I would take some of the details out of your story. I was able to figure out which school you attend with a 2-minute Google search.

Yep. Of course, that two-minute Google search turned up a page at the OP's college that gave this answer (in FAQ) about what makes the OP's school different from other small, liberal arts schools: "Many [students who chose us] also cite the absence of fraternities and sororities as a welcome feature." If that's the administration's attitude, I think it will be an uphill climb indeed, at least if the OP wants her local to be recognized by the school.

[xxstardust]

I wasn't sure if the forums had a policy about disclosing university names or not, which is why I worded my post the way I did, not out of any personal desire to keep it a secret. Is it okay to post school names? I just didn't want to step on anyone's toes, being new ...

In terms of the administration - we've had a lot of turnover in our administrators in the last year or so, and a lot of attitudes towards things the school's generally not been fond of in the past are starting to change. We actually had an information session about the traditionally African American fraternities and sororities, with representatives from nearby chapters, here in the spring semester last year, so things are looking more open then they have in the past. That new openness is something I'd like to push and keep going, so I was hoping for advice in that arena. I've looked through quite a few posts but the few that addressed schools without Greek life in place don't seem to have much resolution .. they seem to just end without any details as to their success or failure.

[knight_shadow]

Originally Posted by xxstardust

I wasn't sure if the forums had a policy about disclosing university names or not, which is why I worded my post the way I did, not out of any personal desire to keep it a secret. Is it okay to post school names? I just didn't want to step on anyone's toes, being new ...

You can reveal as much or as little information that you want. That was more for you -- not sure how much info you want floating around the net.

In terms of the administration - we've had a lot of turnover in our administrators in the last year or so, and a lot of attitudes towards things the school's generally not been fond of in the past are starting to change. We actually had an information session about the traditionally African American fraternities and sororities, with representatives from nearby chapters, here in the spring semester last year, so things are looking more open then they have in the past. That new openness is something I'd like to push and keep going, so I was hoping for advice in that arena. I've looked through quite a few posts but the few that addressed schools without Greek life in place don't seem to have much resolution .. they seem to just end without any details as to their success or failure.

The NPHC organizations don't operate the same way as the NPC ones. Many (maybe all?) of the NPHC organizations have city-wide chapters. This is not the case with NPC.

[xxstardust]

Thanks, knight_shadow .. I appreciate the help, I really was just anxious not to offend anyone =]

We've been advertising via facebook and have been in touch with quite a few girls who are interested in starting a local sorority at our school. We're looking to get together for an informal planning meeting some time this week. We've also thought about presenting ourselves to our administration foremost as a service sorority, since we already have an approved service fraternity on campus. Working with a philanthropy is one of our biggest goals, so this isn't something we're we doing just for approval - we're really like to do some good for local organizations.

I don't know much about NPHC - my friends from home, who have been assisting me, are all involved with NPC sororities so that's where a good deal of my knowledge base comes from. I'm doing some research on NPHC right now but if anyone has an insider's knowledge that can let me know a little more about it, I'd really appreciate it! =]

[xxstardust]

I doubt anyone's really following this, but if anyone's interested -

Things seems to be going really well! We've been advertising around campus and have 65 girls who say they're interested in BGT .. of course, not all will actually follow through, but that's so many more then we thought would want to get involved! We only need 16 to demonstrate interest to the student activities board =]

Our Student Activities director also is interested in giving us a table at the Activities Fair this Friday, even though we aren't an approved group yet, which is awesome!

I'm feeling very optimistic right now and just wanted to share =]

[knight_shadow]

Great news!

You need 16 new members or 16 members total to show interest to the student activities board?

[OLD_GOLD3]

Despite the appearance CUNY has a large Greek system, not traditional but its there. Alpha Sigma is a popular local multicultural org to my knowledge that is at most of the CUNY schools there are also a bunch other locals that are specific to certain schools. If you look on Facebook there is CUNY Greek life group, join the group I believe there is a list of organizations there. Also there are a bunch of national organizations that have citywide chapters that you could apply to. Ultimately I would say find an organization that suits you and contact the nearest chapter in your area, in most cases there is probably a chapter or member(s) at your school.

[xxstardust]

We need a minimum of 16 people who are willing to put their contact info on a list saying they're interested in joining the organization. They don't actually have to ever follow through with it, join, etc - but I've have 65 responses so far and a good number of them have offered help with anything we need - paperwork, advertising, looking for advisers, really everything. I've even had one girl who was in a sorority at the school she transferred from who is really interested in helping get organized. So things are looking good!

I emailed the SA director last night with a description of our group and why we feel we'd be a good addition to the campus community, so she could consider it and see about getting us a table at the activities fair. She opened it at 11:30 last night but hasn't replied yet. I know she's very busy and has other things to deal with first, but eeek! It's everything I can do to keep myself from compulsively checking my email. =]

My partner-in-crime and I are going to get things ready for the fair today, even though we haven't heard from her yet - since the fair is this Friday, we don't want to be left with nothing to show people if we don't find out quickly enough! We're going to make a big poster for the table this afternoon, and may even craft ourselves some teeshirts.

Wish us luck!!

Old_gold - I don't go to a CUNY school, but thank you for the information about the citywide chapters. If in the end, this goes bust (fingers crossed that it doesn't!) that's something I'd definitely look into. I live in a small suburban town at school, though, so I don't know how that'd pan out.

[DubaiSis]

If you've actually found a decent group of women who are interested, it may be possible to get an NPC group to colonize on campus. I have to tell you I don't know how one would do it AT ALL, but it would still probably be easier than starting your own local.

Good luck. It sounds like quite a challenge!

[xxstardust]

Our biggest issue with colonizing a NPC sorority on our campus isn't interest, but getting the school administration to say yes (NPC won't allow extension without approval from the university/college). We've been really anti-Greek in the past, but like I said, attitudes are changing (yay!). They're doing it very slowly, however, so while we're starting a local we are starting our local with the intent to petition NPC to expand to our campus. We'd like to do that quickly ... but we think that by starting a local and showing our school how beneficial we can really be to the campus community, we can soften the negative attitude towards GLOs and hopefully get a national to take our local on as a colony!

In more recent news - WE OFFICIALLY HAVE A TABLE AT THE ACTIVITY FAIR! Yay, I'm so excited!! Sarah and I are headed to the craft store to get poster board and stuff in a few minutes, so we can have a great, informative and attractive table for Friday.

[knight_shadow]

Good luck at the fair!

[xxstardust]

The activity fair on Friday went really well! We got quite a bit of attention and got 40 girls to sign our interest forms - many of whom hadn't joined our facebook group, so that was exciting.

But the most exciting part of the day was finding out from some other girls at the fair that the director of Residence Life is actually pushing to bring Greek life to our campus, and wants to have a Meet the Greeks with national organizations! Which is REALLY exciting! We sent him an email, and we're hoping to hear back from him soon. We would love to be involved with that process and bring a national to campus - it would remove the middle step of starting a local and pushing for affiliation with a national.

We used to have Greek life, I was told, so to recolonize one that was already on campus would be a lot easier then to have to start from scratch. Does anyone know if there's any way to find out what fraternities/sororities used to be on a campus? The student activities director is new to campus and doesn't know, and while I'm sure there's a way to find out through the school I'm curious if there's anyway to research that kind of thing online.

[Psi U MC Vito]

Your best bet would be to either try old year books, or maybe checking out the websites of the individual NPC fraternities/sororities. I think most of them have even inactive chapters listed.