PHC History at Texas-Austin

[TxAPhi]

STL Kappa made me think about posting the stats for UT. If there are any mistakes please let me know. The rapid colonizations and then closings are another interesting study of the sorority system.


Active chapters listed by year founded:

Kappa Kappa Gamma - Local: Founded 1902, Beta Xi Chapter
Pi Beta Phi - Local: Founded 1902, Texas Alpha Chapter
Chi Omega - Local: Founded 1904, Iota Chapter
Kappa Alpha Theta - Local: Founded 1904, Alpha Theta Chapter
Zeta Tau Alpha - Local: Founded 1906, Kappa Chapter
Alpha Delta Pi - Local: Founded 1906, Delta Chapter
Delta Delta Delta - Local: Founded 1912, Theta Zeta Chapter
Alpha Phi - Local: Founded 1920, Omega Chapter
Kappa Delta - Local: Founded 1921, Sigma Epsilon Chapter *
Alpha Chi Omega - Local: Founded 1924, Alpha Phi Chapter
Alpha Epsilon Phi - Local: Founded 1925, Omega Chapter
Alpha Xi Delta - Local: Founded 1929, Beta Alpha Chapter **
Delta Gamma - Local: Founded 1939, Beta Eta Chapter
Sigma Delta Tau - Local: Founded 1939, Tau Chapter

* KD was active at UT 1921-1934, recolonized in 1981
** AZD was active at UT 1929-1943, recolonized in 1963

We also have some very old chapters that have closed – (listed by year of closing):

Phi Sigma Sigma - Local: Founded 1920, Tau Chapter - Inactive: 1933
Phi Mu - Local: Founded 1918, Phi Chapter - Inactive: 1965
Alpha Omicron Pi - Local: Founded 1941, Pi Kappa Chapter - Inactive: 1973
Delta Zeta - Local: Founded 1924, Alpha Tau Chapter - Inactive: 1977
Gamma Phi Beta - Local: 1922, Alpha Zeta Chapter - Inactive: 1988
Delta Phi Epsilon - Local: Founded 1934, Chi Chapter - Inactive: 1990
Alpha Gamma Delta - Local: Founded 1940, Epsilon Delta Chapter - Inactive: 1996 ***

*** AGD closed in the mid seventies and re-colonized in the mid eighties


As far as I can tell, these NPC groups have not had a UT-Austin chapter:

Alpha Sigma Alpha - No UT-Austin chapter
Alpha Sigma Tau - No UT-Austin chapter
Sigma Kappa - No UT-Austin chapter
Sigma Sigma Sigma - No UT-Austin chapter
Theta Phi Alpha - No UT-Austin chapter


Sidenote:
The office of Greek Life and Education is looking to compile a written history of the Greek community at UT. We are planning to interview Greek alumni and are hoping that you can help us with our project. We would like to have a broad representation of chapter members dating back as far as possible. If you are interested in participating in this project, please contact Laurie Hahn.

Laurie Hahn
Graduate Assistant, Greek Life and Education
Office of the Dean of Students
University of Texas at Austin
1 University Station A5800
Austin, TX 78712-0175
(512) 232-2865
lehahn@mail.utexas.edu


ETA: new info from tinydancer and g41965 -- thanks for the info!

[TxAPhi]

If you put it in a timeline, you get an interesting picture of some periods of rapid expansion, and then closings - much like the process that FSUZeta described in the Mizzou thread:

Originally posted by FSUZeta
i do know that during the "hippie"(viet nam war) era, membership in most greek organizaitons suffered. guess everyone was "stickin' it to the man." that might account for the demise of some chapters on your campus, i.e.,membership drops as a whole as fewer girls participate in formal recruitment, the strong remain strong. even though quota figures may be down, the stronger chapters reach the lower quota figure. the mid-sized chapters begin to struggle or do year round cob and the struggling chapters have to close. now please understand that i do not know the reputations of any of the sororities on your campus, now or in the past ,so i am just speculating. i also realize that few of the closed chapters at mizzou left in the 70's, but lower recruitment numbers from that era might have caused problems that carried on into the 80's and 90's. i went thru formal recruitment at florida state in the fall of 1975. at the time there were 17 sororities, all housed. after formal recruitment two chapters left campus, one the following year and one that tried to recolonize was not successful.all the chapters that left had lower membership numbers and that 1975 recruitment was a make or break for them. this was near the end of the above mentioned era. one bad recruitment can have a huge impact on a chapter, and in some cases they are not able to recover.if they do hang on, it can take them many years to recover. i do think that all of the npc sororities understand better how to help their chapters who may need a bit of help, so maybe fewer chapters will be closing.

1902 - Kappa Kappa Gamma
1902 - Pi Beta Phi
1904 - Chi Omega
1904 - Kappa Alpha Theta
1906 - Zeta Tau Alpha
1906 - Alpha Delta Pi
1912 - Delta Delta Delta
1918 - Phi Mu
1920 - Alpha Phi
1920 - Phi Sigma Sigma
1921 - Kappa Delta
1922 - Gamma Phi Beta
1924 - Alpha Chi Omega
1924 - Delta Zeta
1925 - Alpha Epsilon Phi
1929 - Alpha Xi Delta *
1933 – Inactive: Phi Sigma Sigma
1934 - Delta Phi Epsilon
1934 - Inactive: Kappa Delta *
1939 - Delta Gamma
1939 - Sigma Delta Tau
1940 - Alpha Gamma Delta
1941 - Alpha Omicron Pi
1943 - Inactive: Alpha Xi Delta *
1963 - Recolonization: Alpha Xi Delta *
1965 – Inactive: Phi Mu
1973 – Inactive: Alpha Omicron Pi
1970s - Inactive: Alpha Gamma Delta closed in the mid seventies *
1977 – Inactive: Delta Zeta
1981 - Recolonization: Kappa Delta *
1980s - Recolonization: Alpha Gamma Delta re-colonized in the mid eighties *
1988 – Inactive: Gamma Phi Beta
1990 – Inactive: Delta Phi Epsilon
1996 – Inactive: Alpha Gamma Delta *

* recolonizations


ETA: new info from tinydancer and g41965 -- thanks for making the picture more complete; this will really help!

[astroAPhi]

Wow, so other than KD in the 80s, there hasn't been a new sorority at UT-Austin since 1941? Holy cow.

[tinydancer]

If I'm not mistaken, Alpha Gamma Delta closed in the mid seventies and re-colonized in the mid eighties. They later closed again, however.

[g41965]

SLIGHT CORRECTION AND SOME THOUGHTS ON REVIVED CHAPTERS.

KD was active at UT 1921-1934, RETURNED IN 1981 VERY GOOD RETURN, PRETTY GIRLS, SMART GIRLS AS WELL AND DOWN TO EARTH. MY OVERALL FAVORITE CHAPTER AT UT IN THE 1980'S. DATED A KD BEFORE I MET MY WIFE.
AZD 1929-1943 REVIVED IN1963 WE HAD NUMEROUS AZD LITTLE SISTERS AZD COBBED MORE THAN KD. SEVERAL OF OUR LITTLE SISTERS PLEDGED AZD DURING OPEN BIDDING.

OVERALL BOTH ARE GOOD CHAPTERS AT UT AND HAVE LESS SNOBBY GIRLS THAN THE TRADITIONAL "BIG 6" AT UT .

[texas*princess]

Originally posted by astroAPhi
Wow, so other than KD in the 80s, there hasn't been a new sorority at UT-Austin since 1941? Holy cow.

that's what i was going to say!!

[g41965]

DON'T KNOW WHY AGD DIDN'T MAKE IT AT UT .THEY STARTED OFF STRONG BOUGHT THE OLD SIGMA NU HOUSE.

[carnation]

Interesting history..I would love to see the finished report!

[AGDee]

Originally posted by g41965
DON'T KNOW WHY AGD DIDN'T MAKE IT AT UT .THEY STARTED OFF STRONG BOUGHT THE OLD SIGMA NU HOUSE.

In all honesty, you'll see that this recolonization was around the same time as our Mizzou recolonization which also failed. Alpha Gamma Delta expanded and recolonized aggressively in mid 80's/early 90's and a large number of those chapters never got strong enough to remain viable. I think we overextended our resources. Currently, the focus is to help chapters who are struggling stay afloat and possibly re-colonize some chapters that have closed rather than continue to expand aggressively. I am glad to see our resources being poured into our current chapters and making them strong. The Big Squirrels do what they feel is best for the Fraternity at the time, but they also learn from mistakes. They are currently trying some very innovative and pro-active ideas to keep our strong chapters strong and to inspire our struggling chapters to be the best that they can be! It is a similar philosophy to that of NPC on a local campus. Don't expand until the chapters you have already are strong and I think it's working well because we haven't closed a chapter in the past 4 years!

Dee

[STL Kappa]

This is wonderful!!

I'm feel like I've created a trend or something.

I hope others start threads for their school, too!!

[Jill1228]

STLKappa and TXAphi,
Thanks for putting the THOUGHT into your PHC threads. I for one appreciate it. Very interesting reading the history! Y'all rock!

[tinydancer]

TXAphi, I'm just thinking out loud (so to speak) here, but do you think there is a need for expansion at Texas? Are many women going bidless? I wish some of the chapters could re-colonize because there were some old chapters there.

[STL Kappa]

Wow, so other than KD in the 80s, there hasn't been a new sorority at UT-Austin since 1941? Holy cow.

This is VERY similar to Mizzou.

KD colonized at the University of Missouri in 1975 and has been a wonderful and strong chapter since.

But other than KD... no successful colonizations since 1924, when Zeta Tau Alpha was founded.

It's not that there hasn't been "new" sororities between the founding of Zeta and KD... it's just that, unfortunately, all six of the chapters founded between 1924 and 1975 eventually closed.

[TxAPhi]

Originally posted by tinydancer
TXAphi, I'm just thinking out loud (so to speak) here, but do you think there is a need for expansion at Texas? Are many women going bidless? I wish some of the chapters could re-colonize because there were some old chapters there.

I think expansion at Texas is definitely *possible* in the next 5-10-15 years depending on a number of different factors. This is my personal opinion and observation and in no way represents the opinion of Alpha Phi, the University of Texas, etc. (thought it was a good idea to throw in that little disclaimer )


ETA: UT Panhellenic Council Bylaws

EXTENSION
A. When all NPC chapters at the University of Texas at Austin are close to or over Total, the Panhellenic Council shall consider raising Total or adding another chapter through the National Panhellenic Conference extension process.
B. Such a chapter shall be organized through colonization by an NPC fraternity or through organization of a local sorority which may petition an NPC fraternity for a chapter.
C. Consideration should be given to NPC fraternities that have previously had chapters on the campus and to those NPC fraternities which have filed letters expressing an interest in the campus.


Recent History at Texas - alumnae support and legacies

So UT-Austin has had 21 out of the 26 NPC orgs and currently has 14 of the 26. So conventional wisdom would say that the 7 chapters who were previously at UT would be "favored" especially in Texas where tradition and legacies get some attention. Also length and recent history play a role due to alumnae support.


Gamma Phi Beta - Alpha Zeta Chapter 1922-1988
Delta Phi Epsilon - Chi Chapter 1934-1990
Delta Zeta - Alpha Tau Chapter 1924-1977
Alpha Gamma Delta - Epsilon Delta Chapter 1940-1996
*AGD closed in the mid seventies and re-colonized in the mid eighties
Alpha Omicron Pi - Pi Kappa Chapter 1941-1973
Phi Mu - Phi Chapter 1918-1965
Phi Sigma Sigma - Tau Chapter 1920-1933
Alpha Sigma Alpha - No UT-Austin chapter
Alpha Sigma Tau - No UT-Austin chapter
Sigma Kappa - No UT-Austin chapter
Sigma Sigma Sigma - No UT-Austin chapter
Theta Phi Alpha - No UT-Austin chapter


Out of the 800-1000 girls who have signed up for recruitment each year over the last 10 years that I have had sometimes intimate and sometimes passing knowledge of UT numbers, there have been surprisingly few legacies to these 7 groups from their inactive UT or from other chapters.

Perhaps they just don't list these legacies? Maybe some think that if the group is not at UT it is inconsequential to list on their forms.... who knows what their motives are and if one of these groups were to return to UT, the number of legacies of that group going through might then increase.

If they are not leaving it off of their forms, then the 7 groups previously on campus, and indeed the 5 groups that have not had a chapter, would be on even ground.

[TxAPhi]

Originally posted by tinydancer
TXAphi, I'm just thinking out loud (so to speak) here, but do you think there is a need for expansion at Texas? Are many women going bidless? I wish some of the chapters could re-colonize because there were some old chapters there.

ETA the same "disclaimer" as above: I think expansion at Texas is definitely *possible* in the next 5-10-15 years depending on a number of different factors. This is my personal opinion and observation and in no way represents the opinion of Alpha Phi, the University of Texas, etc.



Name Recognition in the State

Then I would look at the number of chapters those 7 groups, the ones that have previously had a UT-Austin chapter, currently have in Texas, and perhaps more importantly where those chapters are. Many Texas high schoolers stay in state and compare notes about groups on other campuses where their high school friends are going to college.

The flagship schools, or big public research universities, are UT-Austin and Texas A&M University at College Station, these have large undergrad populations. More "weight" also to the "big" greek systems - Texas Tech, Baylor, Southern Methodist, Texas State, Texas Christian.

Also of note - "Five other public colleges in Texas -- the University of Houston, Texas Tech University, the University of North Texas, UT-San Antonio and UT-Arlington -- also aspire to become flagships, or top-tier schools, which are engines for regional economic growth, magnets for the best students and teachers, and sources of statewide pride, but they are not there yet." (from an Austin American Statesman article) This quest to become a flagship has a role in the growth of greek life on those campuses. For example, U of North Texas and U of Houston have recently added greek housing to help edge into that top tier. UT-San Antonio has added more dorm space.



These numbers/chapters are from my campus listing from 1999-2000 and my personal knowledge, I know there have probably been some other closings/colonizations. So please PM me with any changes either way and I will update. Or post here if yo have interesting info about closings/colonizations.


Texas chapters for those NPC groups not currently at UT-Austin:

Delta Zeta - 10: Angelo State, St. Mary's, Texas State, SFA State, Tarleton State, Texas A&M, U of Houston, UT-Arlington, UT-Pan American, West Texas A&M
Gamma Phi Beta - 7: Midwestern State, Southern Methodist, Texas A&M Commerce, Texas A&M Corpus Christi, Texas Tech, Texas Wesleyan, Texas A&M
Sigma Kappa - 4: Angelo State, Midwestern State, Texas Christian, UT-San Antonio
Phi Mu - 4: Houston Baptist, Tarleton State, U of Houston, UT-San Antonio
Alpha Gamma Delta - 4: Texas A&M Corpus Christi, Texas Woman's, UT-Dallas, Tarleton State
Sigma Sigma Sigma - 3: St. Mary's, Texas Woman's, Sam Houston State
Delta Phi Epsilon - 2: Schreiner U, Texas A&M Kingsville
Alpha Omicron Pi - 2: Texas Woman's, UT-San Antonio
Alpha Sigma Alpha - 2: UT-San Antonio, U of the Incarnate Word
Theta Phi Alpha - 1: Texas A&M Kingsville
Alpha Sigma Tau - 1: St Mary's, another one?
Phi Sigma Sigma - none?


This criteria would put Delta Zeta and Gamma Phi Beta in "the lead" with Sigma Kappa and Phi Mu close behind along with Alpha Gamma Delta, Sigma Sigma Sigma, Delta Phi Epsilon, Alpha Omicron Pi, Alpha Sigma Alpha, Theta Phi Alpha and Alpha Sigma Tau. Phi Sigma Sigma has no current Texas chapter (do they?let me know if they do!), but they have a history at UT-Austin.

But, again, this is only one factor....



You're thinking you need a point of comparison though, right, to see why do these numbers even matter? So how do the numbers above compare to the groups at UT?

Zeta Tau Alpha - 15: Baylor, Lamar, Sam Houston State, Texas State, Southwestern, Stephen F Austin, Texas A&M, Texas Christian, Texas Tech, U of Houston, U of North Texas, UT-Arlington, UT-Austin, UT-El Paso, West Texas A&M
Chi Omega - 13: Baylor, Midwestern State, Southern Methodist, Texas State, Stephen F Austin, Texas A&M, Texas A&M Commerce, Texas Christian, Texas Tech, U of Houston, U of North Texas, UT-Austin, West Texas A&M
Alpha Chi Omega - 12: Baylor, Houston Baptist, Lamar, Sam Houston State, Southern Methodist, Stephen F Austin State, Texas A&M, Texas Christian, Texas Tech, U of Houston, UT-Arlington, UT-Austin
Alpha Delta Pi - 10: Baylor, Lamar, Sam Houston State, Texas State, Southwestern, Texas A&M, Texas Christian, Texas Tech, U of North Texas, UT-Austin
Delta Delta Delta - 10: Baylor, Southern Methodist, Southwestern, Stephen F Austin, Texas A&M, Texas A&M Corpus Christi, Texas Christian, Texas Tech, UT-Arlington, UT-Austin
Delta Gamma - 7: Southern Methodist, Texas A&M, Texas Christian, Texas Tech, U of Houston, UT-Austin
Kappa Alpha Theta - 7: Baylor, Southern Methodist, Texas A&M, Texas Christian, Texas Tech, UT-Austin, UT-Dallas
Kappa Kappa Gamma - 7: Baylor, Southern Methodist, Texas A&M, Texas Christian, Texas Tech, U of North Texas, UT-Austin
Pi Beta Phi - 7: Baylor, Southern Methodist, Texas A&M, Texas Christian, Texas Tech, U of North Texas, UT-Austin
Alpha Phi - 6: Midwestern State, St. Mary's, Texas A&M Commerce, Texas Tech, U of North Texas, UT-Austin
Alpha Xi Delta - 5: Texas State, Southwestern, Texas Wesleyan, UT-Austin, UT-El Paso
Kappa Delta - 5: Baylor, Texas A&M, Texas A&M Commerce, Texas Tech, UT-Austin
Alpha Epsilon Phi - 1: UT-Austin*
Sigma Delta Tau - 1: UT-Austin*

*Alpha Epsilon Phi and Sigma Delta Tau are predominantly and historically Jewish at UT-Austin. UT-Austin draws a lot of exceptional Jewish students and has several well established student groups whose membership is also predominantly Jewish. I note this only to explain to those not familiar with UT the current fact that each group's only Texas chapter is at UT-Austin. To many PNMs they fill a certain niche that cannot be filled in the same way by the other 12 chapters at UT-Austin.


I'll let you chew on the last two posts for a while before I go into Housing, Local Alumnae support, and proliferation of "quasi-Greek" student involvement groups at UT-Austin and their effect on recruitment...




ETA: Rice is also a flagship/top-tier univeristy, but is a private school with no Greek Life.

ETA: corrections from several GC'ers-- thanks ladies!!

AOPi chapter at Texas State is no longer active.
DZ chapter at U of North Texas no longer active.
Both around 2000 or after.

Colony Nu (UIW) is no longer a colony of DPhiE.


Also since 1999-2000:
DPhiE has a chapter @ Texas A&M Kingsville and Schreiner U.
Theta Phi Alpha has a chapter @ Texas A&M Kingsville.