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Old 11-29-2006, 05:48 PM
AXiDTrish AXiDTrish is offline
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Join Date: Dec 2004
Location: Atlanta
Posts: 390
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
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