NPC Expansion Advice Request
 

Hi,
I am an advisor for an NPC chapter at a small school in the North. We have five NPC sororities, only two of which are at total. Greek life has grown very quickly here, not due to demand, but due to the insistence of the office of Greek Life. We have added 3 chapters in less than 2 years and they have voted to add another chapter in the fall. The director of Greek Life wants to keep the chapters as small as possible (total used to be over 50; now it's 40 and we can't get there). She also hand picked the national organizations that she wants on campus, and sent expansion packets only to them. She wants to choose the organization "with a philanthropy that people like." Has anyone ever heard of this before?

We (the advisors) feel like the college is creating a no-win situation for us. We are never going to get to total if they keep adding new colonies. Our chapters have voted against expansion in the past, which resulted in vindictive treatment from the GL director. The chapters felt forced to agree to expansion again to please her.

Does anyone have any advice on how to handle this situation? Thank you for listening.

Your first stop should be your organization's National Panhellenic Delegate. She should be able to tell you the steps you need to take.
If there are other groups concerned as well, they should contact the same. Good luck!

I concur. The delegates all chat with each other. She may not be able to find anyone who will want to come this time around. But all 5 groups should express their concern to their delegates.You also should contact your NPC Area Adviser. Your delegate can tell who that is or you can contact NPC in Indianapolis.

Make sure also that your director of collegians (or whatever the groups call her) knows that the GA is a hot mess and that's why you're not reaching total, just so the chapters aren't penalized.

It sounds like this GA watched Field of Dreams one too many times and thinks "if you build it, they will come!" Or else is trying to make herself out to be a superstar and vault into a more prestigious school or position.

How do the members feel about chapter size? Do THEY want the chapters to be smaller? That's a big difference in the North vs the South - the northern school would often rather see 8 chapters of 40 than 4 chapters of 80. But even taking that into account, this is over the top. What is this person's background? It sounds like she went to a very small school with a local system.

Good luck on getting things straightened out. As Titchou said, the word is probably out amongst NPC delegates on this one.

Why are the chapters there voting in favor of expansion? As someone who was part of these decisions for my organization, I would never suggest my chapters vote in favor of expansion when more than half the chapters couldn't achieve total...... I don't get it....

Thank you all so much! I reached out to our International HQ and spoke to our NPC rep. She's been in contact with the GL director, who refuses to budge. She told our NPC rep that she wants the women on our campus to have "lots of choices." Our NPC rep said that she will speak to her colleagues and hopefully rectify this mess.

The chapters on campus voted down expansion last year. As a result, the chapters that voted no were punished. For example, my chapter won Greek Sing but she stripped us of our title (2 months later) because we were supposedly against Greek unity. I've heard that other chapters were punished too, but I don't know specifics so I don't want to spread rumors. We know we are guests on this campus and we don't want to make waves, so we do what is needed to get by.

What is the fraternity situation there? Are there a ton of small groups as well?

The more chapters/smaller totals would be fine if the students had asked for it and/or the chapters were bursting at the seams, but it sounds like the rapid expansion has caused a lot of confusion and disarray and is actually deterring students from rushing.

I think getting NPC to chat with her might be the best tack. Hopefully your delegate can make that happen. Two other thoughts...what group does she belong to? Perhaps her national org can chat with her. And next, who is over her at your school? That might be an option...

Agree with Titchou & others' recommendation to involve your NPC delegates. ALL the chapters need to be in accord on this & make it a united effort. This (what the GL director is doing) is bullying. That's just for starters.

The "lots of choices" comment smacks of "the choices here aren't good enough for my taste". GRRR. Being punished for not going along with her agenda? Oh man, that makes my blood boil.

Good luck to you and the other chapters. This GL director is not acting panhellenically at all.

This was going to be my suggestion. Not at this stage, but yes, if NPC can't sway her, perhaps her boss needs to. Her job is to work in the best interest of the students, and if she isn't doing that, she needs to go.

I agree with all of the above advice. NPC should be involved. If she's cherry picking which groups to send packets to, she's not following NPC extension procedure. She may find that this time around, no one is interested in colonizing. A total of 40-50 isn't too alluring -- that's barely break-even for a sorority's investment of resources and support to a chapter, and if chapters are struggling to make that total, potential groups will be concerned about the viability of a new chapter.

We also have a FSL director who has been "full speed ahead" on extension, but I think we've gotten to the point where "the word is out" -- you can issue invitations, but NPC groups are savvy and they don't have to take the bait.

I think we're also at the point where expansion overall has slowed down enough that national orgs can be more selective about where they go and don't feel pressured to plop a colony down whenever Coastal Nebraska with a total of 12 and quota of 2 opens for extension:p

I think I may use "Coastal Nebraska" whenever I have to come up with a fake school from now on. (The chapter name will be Omicron Nu Omicron)

Please do, I don't know where I got it and I take no credit for it. I have used it as a school name in every project I've had to do in my grad program. Coastal Nebraska has a lot of issues I've consulted on!

ROTFL! I love it!

antacidaisle, you've gotten some great advice.

What the misdirector of Greek Life is doing contradicts the NPC Unanimous Agreements with regard to expansion. She's getting the local Panhellenic Association to "agree" to expansion by punishing chapters that don't go along with her agenda. She's sending expansion packets only to sororities that she has selected, contravening the standard procedure of sending packets to every NPC sorority that doesn't already have a chapter at the school. (Even when there is a local sorority that wants to affiliate with a particular NPC sorority, every sorority - not just that one - is notified that the campus is open for expansion.)

Hopefully everyone has gotten the memo. There are 5 NPC chapters, total has been lowered from 50+ to 40 and only 2 chapters are at this lowered total, and only a cherry-picked few NPC sororities are getting expansion packets? I hope they respond with a resounding NO, at least until the five chapters currently present can stabilize. This isn't a situation where there are more women interested in joining sororities than can be accommodated. This is someone on a power trip.