Beta Beta chapter at Michigan State

[susan314]

Pardon the thread crash, but I'm curious...

According to the MSU Go Greek website, Pikes are now living in the 120 Spartan Street house. (What has been the SDT house for as long as I can remember - at least going back to my freshman year in 1992.) However, there is no address or house listed now for Sigma Delta Tau. Does anyone have any update on the chapter?

I went to Michigan State - rushed Fall 1992 and was involved with the Greek system on that campus until 2002, when Alpha Gam closed there. It was a sad time for the Greek system - Alpha Xi Delta, Alpha Gamma Delta, and Phi Mu all closed within a year and a half of each other. After the 3 of us closed, Sigma Delta Tau was the smallest chapter left remaining (with AOPi being fairly close behind).

(I'll try not to go off on too much of a tangent here, but briefly...I always thought throughout the mid 90s that chapter total should have been lowered on campus. Recruitment numbers had been steadily sliding - total was 110, and only 5 or 6 chapters were consistently at total. There was another large cluster in the middle that generally hovered around 10-20 under total. And then there were 4-5 chapters that typically had 70 members or fewer. Instead of adjusting total to fit what was happening on campus, they let those smaller chapters just continue to struggle and shrink. Fast forward to 2001-2002, and 3 of those chapters had shrunk enough to close.)

Anyhow, I would appreciate any update you guys might have on your Beta Beta chapter - I hope its good news. I had really hoped that once AXD, Phi Mu, and AGD were forced to close, that the rest of the smaller chapters would somehow manage to pull through. It just really concerned me when I couldn't find a house listed for you...

[susan314]

I see from efcheerBB's old posts that your chapter moved from the Spartan St location to the old AOPi house, after AOPi began renting the Alpha Gam house when we closed. (After our chapter closed, I didn't pay as close attention to the goings on in Michigan State's Greek system. )

However, Theta Delta Chi has moved into the location on 445 Abbott. (Their old house at 139 Bailey...which was briefly the Alpha Gamma Delta house, before our 333 Charles St location was built...was purchased by the city and demolished this past week to make a parking lot.) So...although I was unaware that Sigma Delta Tau had moved from 120 Spartan St to 445 Abbott Rd, it appears that their current location is still a mystery.

[Buttonz]

I'm not sure where they are currently housed but I know they under went a recent and successful re-organization this past year.

I'm gonna try to get efcheerBB to come check this out because she can tell you more then I can I'm sure

[susan314]

Originally Posted by Buttonz

I'm not sure where they are currently housed but I know they under went a recent and successful re-organization this past year.

I'm gonna try to get efcheerBB to come check this out because she can tell you more then I can I'm sure

Glad to hear about the recolonization - I was a little concerned when I saw that there currently wasn't a chapter house (at least, not on the website).

That house on Abbott was owned by one of the local apartment management companies - AOPi had been renting it from them until our house became available. If your chapter was undergoing a recolonization and wouldn't have been able to fill it while the process was going on, it may not have been possible to keep renting it from that company. (Especially when they had Theta Delts waiting in the wings to fill it...)

I'm interested to hear how the recolonization is going - we're in line to come back to campus one day (hopefully soon ) once the Greek system picks back up there again. It would certainly be a good sign to see Sigma Delta Tau having a successful recolonization attempt.

[Buttonz]

Originally Posted by susan314

Glad to hear about the recolonization - I was a little concerned when I saw that there currently wasn't a chapter house (at least, not on the website).

That house on Abbott was owned by one of the local apartment management companies - AOPi had been renting it from them until our house became available. If your chapter was undergoing a recolonization and wouldn't have been able to fill it while the process was going on, it may not have been possible to keep renting it from that company. (Especially when they had Theta Delts waiting in the wings to fill it...)

I'm interested to hear how the recolonization is going - we're in line to come back to campus one day (hopefully soon ) once the Greek system picks back up there again. It would certainly be a good sign to see Sigma Delta Tau having a successful recolonization attempt.

It wasn't a recolonization but a re-organizing, we never left campus.

I hate hearing about a chapter closing

Like I said, she can tell you more about it, I posted on my LJ for her to check out this thread.

[efcheerBB]

Have no fear I am here!! lol

First I want to say that I may have ran into you once or twice (maybe) as I rushed (yeah, I'm sort of old school... lol) during Fall 2002. That would be kind of cool.

Okay, I haven't really heard a whole lot about what's been going on with the Beta Beta chapter recently, but here is what I do know:

We did have a reorganization starting back in 2005 (I think). Since then, recruitment has been going well. I do not know about the numbers and all of that since I am in Missouri (where I am from) and haven't been up to the campus in almost 2 years. (sad I know)

As far as I know, they do not have a house yet and have all of their meetings and such at either Hillel or other locations on campus. The sisters either live on campus or in apartments.

We had initiation a few weeks ago and initiated 5 girls (I think. I would have to look up my emails to find out for sure). The house seems to be on a slow but steady climb. Yes, during the re-organization, we were not able to secure the house still (which was really sad because the house at 445 Abbott was the house that we had when we recolonized back in 1984 so it has some memories for us) so the company rented it out to another fraternity. I know that the last few years I was up there there was a musical chairs of houses (of sorts) as chapters moved and all of that. It was crazy. I don't really know where everyone ended up at.

I am going back to State in October for a wedding and hope to get in touch with the chapter and find out how the Greek Community is going up there. I miss being involved and hearing about everything that is going on.

I hope that this helps. If not, just let me know and I will try to get answers for you!

[efcheerBB]

Originally Posted by susan314

However, Theta Delta Chi has moved into the location on 445 Abbott. (Their old house at 139 Bailey...which was briefly the Alpha Gamma Delta house, before our 333 Charles St location was built...was purchased by the city and demolished this past week to make a parking lot.) So...although I was unaware that Sigma Delta Tau had moved from 120 Spartan St to 445 Abbott Rd, it appears that their current location is still a mystery.

Wow, they finally got the parking lot thing to go through. I remember them talking about that a few years ago. 445 Abbott has seen many residents since AOPi left. I think that there was another fraternity there between SDT and TDX. But then again, I don't know for sure...

[susan314]

Originally Posted by Buttonz

It wasn't a recolonization but a re-organizing, we never left campus.

Of course. My apologizes - I knew you hadn't left campus (pretty sure I would have heard about that), but sometimes I use the terms recolonize and reorganize interchangably. (Even though I technically know they mean 2 very different things - I just mix them up when I speak and/or type sometimes. )

[Buttonz]

Originally Posted by susan314

Of course. My apologizes - I knew you hadn't left campus (pretty sure I would have heard about that), but sometimes I use the terms recolonize and reorganize interchangably. (Even though I technically know they mean 2 very different things - I just mix them up when I speak type sometimes. )

It's fine I just wanted to make sure that you knew that we didn't leave campus

[susan314]

Originally Posted by efcheerBB

Have no fear I am here!! lol

First I want to say that I may have ran into you once or twice (maybe) as I rushed (yeah, I'm sort of old school... lol) during Fall 2002. That would be kind of cool.

Okay, I haven't really heard a whole lot about what's been going on with the Beta Beta chapter recently, but here is what I do know:

We did have a reorganization starting back in 2005 (I think). Since then, recruitment has been going well. I do not know about the numbers and all of that since I am in Missouri (where I am from) and haven't been up to the campus in almost 2 years. (sad I know)

As far as I know, they do not have a house yet and have all of their meetings and such at either Hillel or other locations on campus. The sisters either live on campus or in apartments.

We had initiation a few weeks ago and initiated 5 girls (I think. I would have to look up my emails to find out for sure). The house seems to be on a slow but steady climb. Yes, during the re-organization, we were not able to secure the house still (which was really sad because the house at 445 Abbott was the house that we had when we recolonized back in 1984 so it has some memories for us) so the company rented it out to another fraternity. I know that the last few years I was up there there was a musical chairs of houses (of sorts) as chapters moved and all of that. It was crazy. I don't really know where everyone ended up at.

I am going back to State in October for a wedding and hope to get in touch with the chapter and find out how the Greek Community is going up there. I miss being involved and hearing about everything that is going on.

I hope that this helps. If not, just let me know and I will try to get answers for you!

Thanks so much for the info!

I hadn't realized that they had moved from the Spartan St address over to Abbott, so when I saw that Pikes are living in the Spartan Street house I got a little nervous. With 3 chapters just recently closing in 2001-2002, it would have upset me greatly to see MSU's Greek system lose another NPC group. Glad to see that's not the case!

I can't recall whether I attended Fall 2002 recruitment or not? I pledged in 1992 and graduated in 1997. However, I stayed involved with my chapter in one capacity or another pretty much until it closed. But it is possible that I may have bumped into you, even though I'm old.

As I mentioned earlier, there were a lot of things we could have done in the early to mid-90s to prevent some of the numbers problems that happened for chapters since 2000. (Easy to say in hindsight, I suppose.) I was on the Panhellenic exec board, and I really wished that we would have pushed harder to lower chapter total a little at that point. When only 5 groups out of 16 are actually at total, it seems hard to justify keeping a chapter total of 110. But, there was a lot of politics involved...sigh, if I had known then what I know now, I would have tried harder to make some changes in the mid 90s though. I firmly believe that at least one, if not more, of the chapters that closed in the 2001-2002 era could have been saved if that had happened.

Eh...I didn't mean to go off on a tangent!

Thank you so much for the information though, and I'm relieved to hear that the chapter is doing well.

[efcheerBB]

Originally Posted by susan314

I hadn't realized that they had moved from the Spartan St address over to Abbott, so when I saw that Pikes are living in the Spartan Street house I got a little nervous. With 3 chapters just recently closing in 2001-2002, it would have upset me greatly to see MSU's Greek system lose another NPC group. Glad to see that's not the case!

I had no idea that the Pikes had taken over the Spartan house. When we left the house back in 2003, Delta Tau Delta took over starting Fall 03. I wonder where they are located at now. I can't believe how many times the houses move!! It's crazy! It will be interesting come October to drive around there and to see where everyone is located now. Of course there will be the same houses for most of the sororities and fraternities, but the other ones will be a surprise!

[susan314]

Originally Posted by efcheerBB

I had no idea that the Pikes had taken over the Spartan house. When we left the house back in 2003, Delta Tau Delta took over starting Fall 03. I wonder where they are located at now. I can't believe how many times the houses move!! It's crazy! It will be interesting come October to drive around there and to see where everyone is located now. Of course there will be the same houses for most of the sororities and fraternities, but the other ones will be a surprise!

I think that all the movement amongst all of the houses is a relatively new thing. In the 10 years I was a member of/active alumnae of MSU's Greek system, there were very few moves. (I'm hoping all of the house jumping isn't a sign of instability in the Greek system - I'd like to have my chapter come back sooner rather than later. )

Delta Tau Delta is no longer listed on MSU's Go Greek website - I would guess that means that the chapter isn't active anymore, but I don't really have any details of course...just their absence from the website. (I always think of 330 N Harrison...next to SAEs...as the Delt house. According to the website though, Sigma Pi is there now.)

I brought back 2 boxes of college mementos/stuff from my parents' house recently - my mom found them while she was cleaning out the basement. In it, I found my rush booklet from when I went through in Fall 1992, and also a fraternity rush booklet from 1992. Too funny! Now that I know about all of the housing moves that have went on recently, it would be interesting to flip through those books and see where everyone was back then!

(BTW - I have a retroactive recruitment thread going in the recruitment stories forum, since I found the booklet/my notes. Keeping the recruitment thread junkies entertained in the off season. Knowing what you know about the locations of the houses on campus, you could probably figure out what I mentioned about certain houses being at a disadvantage during Phase A. I'd elaborate, but don't want to spoil the surprise for anyone who might be digging for clues right now.)

[efcheerBB]

Originally Posted by susan314

I think that all the movement amongst all of the houses is a relatively new thing. In the 10 years I was a member of/active alumnae of MSU's Greek system, there were very few moves. (I'm hoping all of the house jumping isn't a sign of instability in the Greek system - I'd like to have my chapter come back sooner rather than later. )

Delta Tau Delta is no longer listed on MSU's Go Greek website - I would guess that means that the chapter isn't active anymore, but I don't really have any details of course...just their absence from the website. (I always think of 330 N Harrison...next to SAEs...as the Delt house. According to the website though, Sigma Pi is there now.)

I brought back 2 boxes of college mementos/stuff from my parents' house recently - my mom found them while she was cleaning out the basement. In it, I found my rush booklet from when I went through in Fall 1992, and also a fraternity rush booklet from 1992. Too funny! Now that I know about all of the housing moves that have went on recently, it would be interesting to flip through those books and see where everyone was back then!

(BTW - I have a retroactive recruitment thread going in the recruitment stories forum, since I found the booklet/my notes. Keeping the recruitment thread junkies entertained in the off season. Knowing what you know about the locations of the houses on campus, you could probably figure out what I mentioned about certain houses being at a disadvantage during Phase A. I'd elaborate, but don't want to spoil the surprise for anyone who might be digging for clues right now.)

Oh, I am on my way to find the thread and have some fun figuring out what houses you are talking about during each phase (although there were 3 more houses there from when I went through)