Hillsdale
 

Hey girls I was wondering if anyone knew what happened to the Zeta Sigma chapter at Hillsdale college in Michigan. I'm from Ferris State in Michigan so it's sad to see a Michigan chapter go.

Re: Hillsdale
 

I found this about with happend: Hope it helps.

[URL=http://www.hillsdale.edu/collegian/126/articles/september/sororitylost.html]

[URL=http://www.hillsdale.edu/collegian/128/128_10/news/scholarshipcup.htm]


Alpha Xi house to close

Dear Editor,

On Sunday the women of Alpha Xi Delta decided to close our chapter. The decision has nothing to do with either the men of Delta Tau Delta or the administration. Our National Council presented this choice to us.
Until May 2004 we will remain a functioning sorority. We will compete in Derby Days, Greek Week and for the Scholarship Cup. We will initiate Laura Branning, who made the decision to stay with us. In May, all members will be placed on alumnae status.
The saddest thing about this outcome is our inability to share our sisterhood and ritual with new members. We are still Alpha Xis; we are still sisters. We gained more from our Greek experience than any of us could have imagined. We are strong women who gave you all that we had to give. Our chapter of 15 accomplished what other houses did with 70 members. The National Council expressed concern that we were not enjoying, nor having, a combined collegiate and sorority experience.
We know the rumors that circulate around campus about our chapter. Over the past three years, our house grew astronomically in both character and personality. If this campus had gotten to know us, this decision would not have happened. Everyone cheers for the underdog, but no one wants to join the team. For this simple reason, next fall you will return to campus with only three sororities.
Our greatest desire is that you continue to support the Greek system. It provides members with leadership training, character development, a social outlet, interpersonal skills, and above all else, the opportunity for its members to share in sacred fraternity beliefs. We pray one day the campus realizes what it has lost.

Sincerely,

Courtney Kaye, President
and the Women of Alpha Xi Delta

Are there any plans to open any other chapters in Florida? I know there used to be chapters at University of Florida, Florida State University and Jacksonville University. The last chapter at UF to colonize was Delta Zeta in 2003 and all but two chapters (who have been there longer than DZ) didn't make quota. FSU's last chapter was SDT, who re-colonized I believe somewhere around 2003-2004. I would love to see these chapters recolonized at our flapship universities.

I was just browsing through here and noticed someone referencing the Zeta Gamma chapter at Ole Miss, so I thought I'd comment and say that my mom was a sister there in the 70's. I've always thought it would be really amazing to be an Alpha Xi especially since she was, but there isn't a chapter at my school. :) Kennesaw State, anyone?

From what I have heard the chapter at UF will never be reopened because it had such a hard time with recruitment. They tried to turn all the actives alum and start over, and it was a complete failure. (There is actually an article about it in the UF paper online, just look up university of florida alpha xi delta on google.

I also would love to see chapters at these schools, since they are the schools that our state is known for. I dont know anything about FSU, or even why they closed, the rumor is hazing.

I'd also like to see chapters at USF and FGC. FGC would be great because it such a new school, and over time the chapter would be apart of the schools history.

Heck Im not picky, I just want more florida chapters, lol.

wow thats too bad. I just read the article again, but it doesn't say anything why the chapter couldn't sustain on campus. it would be great to see a new chapter go to UF, no matter what GLO, but Alpha Xi would be nice considering its history on UF campus and possibly given another chance.

http://www.alligator.org/edit/issues...06sorority.htm

I have a good friend who is an alumnae from the UF chapter and we've spoken about the closing quite a few times. It is quite painful for her even now, but she still loves the fraternity and is active in the alumnae capacity.

The first thing she stated was that the house (like, the actual building) was not competitive with the other chapters on campus. There was quite a bit of renovating that needed to take place, but the corporation board was not able to provide the funds needed. This was due to fundraising requirements I believe, not the chapter or national fraterity. From reading different posts on GreekChat, what a house LOOKS like is virtually as important as the members within it. I'm not sure if this is how it is at UF.

As for the membership, the UF chapter was extremely "diverse" at the time of closing. I'm referring to diversity in personality, not diversity in other respects. Many chapters pride themselves on being diverse, yes, but it can also be a curse if you don't use the term in the correct manner during recruitment efforts. The women in the chapter were so different, they had a hard time recruiting new blood. Again, this is what I've been told by an actual chapter member....please don't flame me.

As for the article, uhhh yeah, the sister was upset...which of course she would be if she wants her chapter back. It is normal procedure for alumnae not to be utilized in a recolonization. Think about it....if the alumnae from the recently closed chapter couldn't do the job, why would it be different the second time around? There were obviously deficiencies. I can completely understand why she was upset. I believe there is a movement in NPC to change the recolonization timeline from 1 year to 2 or 3 years in order to graduate the alumnae still in school as well as allow the reputation of the previous chapter to disappear a little.

I personally would love to see the UF chapter back, but colonizing at large schools take a LOT of money! Just look at AOII and Univ of Arkansas!! I would love to see a recolonization at UGA too, but the financial requirement to get a chapter off the ground just for recruiting is phenomenal.

I'd say take a deeper look into how feasible it would be to recolonize the chapter....the money, the recruitment effort, if other NPC's are doing well or not, quota, housing availability comparable to the other NPC's, alumnae base, etc. All that, plus a lot more goes into making decisions to recolonize. One day, I hope, Kate's chapter will return....and I KNOW she will be celebrating the day it does!!!

Anyway, just my 2 cents!
-Trish

Well the first part makes sense to me about housing. While not being in a sorority at UF, I would think it would be hard to compete without a house or atleast a decent house. UF has some very gorgeous sorority houses and most are on two sorority rows. The youngest house at this very moment is the Delta Zeta house which is only about three or four years old. Tri- Delta is building a new house that will be housing 72 women and will be the biggest house on campus. Kappa Kappa Gamma is renovating their house as well, so most houses do renovations on them all the time (these are just the ones I know about). Most houses have been around for years and are very large.

I would also think bringing new alumnis in that were just turned alumni from that chapter. These women will never be able to an active again and probably couldn't do a very good job since they don't have the experience to build up or start over a chapter. Waiting a year or two would also make sense to me as well (not to knock AXiD or anything...I'm really not trying to).

I would think it would take a lot of money to recolonize a chapter at a major university with a thriving Greek system like UF. Saving money to start over again would make sense to me as well. I am not trying to pry into ritual information, but is there a recolonization budget or savings account when a chapter closes?

(Disclaimer: I don't know what it takes to recolonize a chapter. What makes sense to me sometimes does not or would not work for a major organization like Alpha Xi Delta. While I am not thinking this chapter is going to re-open before I get there, but I think the AXiD chapter deserves another chance...throwing in my opinion and thats all it is, my opinion.)

You know, that's an interesting question where additional funds would go to when any NPC or NIC chapter closes. I assume it's different for each organization. I honestly have not been (and pray I never have to be) part of the closing of a chapter, so I have no clue about that.

As far as colonizing or recolonizing, I would assume that all national organizations have a yearly budget for travel, staffing, purchasing needs, etc. As a colony advisor, I know we solicited area alumnae for their assistance...which in Atlanta was quite successful...and still is now with the chapter being around almost 3 years.

I have a friend who is part of another NPC and her chapter reorganized while she was active....their reorg was similar to our definition of recolonization. She was kept an active chapter member as well as small group of women with great potential for rebuilding their chapter. I think it would depend on the scenario within the specific chapter as to how membership within a recolonizing, reorging...whether alumnae or maintain active status...of course that would also depend on the chapter maintaining their charter or not.

I wouldn't consider these "ritual" questions. They are probably pretty standard across all NPC and NIC groups.

The Theta Phi Chapter at UAB or University of Alabama AT Birmingham was chartered in 1997 or January 25, 1997, not 1994. We just celebrated ten years.

triads
 

i know that this has nothing to do with the topic, but i do have a question i hope someone here can answer. i was looking up some of the other sororities on wikipedia. i saw that gamma phi beta, alpha phi and kappa kapp gamma are in a syracruse triad. i was wondering if alpha xi delta is in a triad with any other oranganizations and if so which ones?

A triad (or similar term) means the organizations were all founded at the same school. Since we were the only ones founded at Lombard, no.

Actually the Syracuse Triad is Gamma Phi Beta, Alpha Pi, and Alpha Gamma Delta all of which were founded at Syracuse Univ. Kappa Kappa Gamma and Pi Beta Phi form the Monmouth Duo because they were both founded at Monmouth College. Kappa Delta, Zeta Tau Alpha, Alpha Sigma Alpha, and Sigma Sigma Sigma are the Farmville Four.

i feel kind of stupid now, but thank you for explaining that to me.

errr - does anybody know if Gamma Epsilon chapter (CSU Fresno) is still around?

I'm doing research for the internet presentation for convention. Our national website doesnt have a link for their chapter, and I wasnt to the CSU Fresno greek website (http://www.csufresno.edu/StudentOrgs...anizations.htm), and they arent listed on there either. The might not have a website, but I would think the school webspage would at least list that they are on campus....