A local sorority at USC?

[SC2013]

I'd like your thoughts on how plausible starting a local sorority at USC would be.

Our school has a very, very established Greek system, with "tiers" that have been kind of set in stone and things like that. However, more and more students rush every year, and pledge classes are just getting bigger and more and more PNMs are dropping. (Over 1000 girls rushed in the fall, maybe 600-700 stayed around long enough to get bids, pledge classes were in the 60s.) There are currently 11 sororities: 8 that have no problem making quota/having successful formal recruitment, 1 that has been around just as long as the other 8 but has a hard time during formal recruitment, 1 that went from being a local around the 2003 mark into a chapter of SDT that chooses to not participate in formal recruitment, and ADChi a Christian-values oriented sorority.

I personally am already involved in a professional fraternity, but I believe that the bonds of sisterhood are something that cannot be replaced by any other kind of organization. Of course, by reading my past posts, you can see that I have gone through formal recruitment but didn't receive a bid to a house I'd be comfortable in. I wouldn't even consider starting a local sorority (that would perhaps become a Chi Omega, or Sigma Kappa, or Kappa Delta, or another chapter that at one time was at USC but isn't active currently) if I didn't see how crazy the numbers are concerning recruitment. Also, considering a local chapter recently became a NPC sorority, there perhaps is a chance for success.

So what do you think? Is it too soon for another local to be established, while one FR chapter is struggling and two others are relatively new? Would this sorority have to bring something new to the table, or would being a local instead of a national already be that "something new"?

Another note: I really like what Kappa Delta in particular stands for. With four national philanthropies and especially their work with Dove Campaign for Real Beauty (perhaps what USC needs), I feel like their national focus on helping out the community brings a lot to the table without being strictly a community service fraternity. Also, yes I'm nerding out but I like their symbols. There used to be a chapter at USC as well, at least according to Wikipedia that says Joan Lowery Nixon was a Theta Sigma...but she graduated in 1947...There are a few chapters in California, such as at UCLA, but I don't know if their alumni presence is as strong as, say, Pi Beta Phi or Kappa Alpha Theta in California. I could be wrong!

I feel like, as great as our Greek system is and how well-rounded our members are, most chapters do not really fit closely to their national mottos and creeds to better themselves academically, philanthropically, but only socially. I would want to form a local sorority that focuses most strongly on I suppose the more "serious" side of what being a sorority member means. I'm not saying it would be all work and no play, but I mean philanthropies wouldn't just be about getting drunk in the middle of the day on campus. I mean girls attracted to this kind of sorority wouldn't feel like they're doing the community a favor by waking up at 9am on Saturday for a beach cleanup. I mean if your motto is "Let us strive for that which is honorable, beautiful and highest," you follow it and don't just paint it somewhere in your house to pass by while you get ready to prance down the Row in a micromini.

I guess I'm thinking about all of this during the recent backlash our community's gotten. And it made me think, getting in trouble for all these things won't change anything except put bad behavior underground. For the most part, fraternities are about getting hazed until they become active members, at which point they'll have a house that won't deny them entry to Thursday night parties. Sororities are about getting the hottest members to "best represent" themselves, and sending their most attractive members to the "best" frats, and spending the most time and effort on only a few "top" fraternity philanthropies. And then requiring a couple hours community service. That's just the environment the Row is in right now...of course, I feel like individually Greek students don't act this way but somehow when the entire system comes together that's what's happened. Our president put the Greek system on probation, and that's not going to have current members question their behaviors and the status quo. They're just mad they can't party.

That's not what the GC community is about. That's not what being an alumni, being a member for life, is about. I feel like our school's Greek system in general has deviated too far from what each national organization stands for, and I'd like to return to those roots. Am I SOL?