"It's all greek to me": chapters come and go
By: In Depth News Staff
Issue date: 3/14/08 Section: News
Communication professor Jeffrey McCall '76 was a member of Lambda Chi Alpha fraternity when he attended DePauw more than 30 years ago.
The organization no longer fields a chapter on campus, which McCall said is the result of a University policy change that resulted in low rush numbers.
"Lambda Chi and Deke [Delta Kappa Epsilon], in my opinion, were the two fraternities that were victimized by freshmen moving into the dorms," he said.
Freshmen males previously rushed fraternities immediately upon arrival for their first year on campus. The policy change moved rush to the start of spring semester.
After rush was re-scheduled, his fraternity had a bad rush, McCall said, and the low numbers had an adverse effect on the following year's rush. Eventually, the house no longer had enough members to sustain itself, and closed in 1995.
"Lambda Chi managed for a year or two," he said. "Financially, they couldn't carry on."
McCall also said Lambda Chi's struggles show that one negative incident or one unproductive rush can put a fraternity into extinction.
"It doesn't take much for your house to go from thriving to being at risk," he said.
A similar situation occurred with Delta Delta Delta sorority when it was forced to shut its doors in 1991.
"Tri-Delt left because they had one poor rush, and it affected the chapter's ability to continue," said Candy Daly '81. "It was really too bad because the house had numbers before that."
Daly said a mistake was made during recruitment planning that allowed houses to bring 160 women back for their final "pref" round instead of the usual 80. As a result, Tri-Delt did not get nearly as many women back for their final round. Much like Lambda Chi later in the decade, Tri-Delt was not able to recover the following year.
McCall said alumni whose greek houses are no longer on campus may feel less connected to DePauw.
"I do think, for the alumni whose houses have been closed, it's been disappointing to them," he said.
Daly said while it is a little disappointing not being able to go back and see her sorority house, the relationships she made living there are what really matter.
"It's really my friends and my sisters I want to see," she said. "It [the building] is just a house."
McCall said Lambda Chi alumni often talk about the possibility of bringing the fraternity back.
"I think its one of those things that stays in people's mind," he said, adding that he thought for a fraternity to come on campus another one would probably have to leave. "I would think there would be a prospect- for a sorority re-colonizing because there is only six."
Daly said she would love for Tri-Delt to come back to DePauw.
The organization no longer fields a chapter on campus, which McCall said is the result of a University policy change that resulted in low rush numbers.
"Lambda Chi and Deke [Delta Kappa Epsilon], in my opinion, were the two fraternities that were victimized by freshmen moving into the dorms," he said.
Freshmen males previously rushed fraternities immediately upon arrival for their first year on campus. The policy change moved rush to the start of spring semester.
After rush was re-scheduled, his fraternity had a bad rush, McCall said, and the low numbers had an adverse effect on the following year's rush. Eventually, the house no longer had enough members to sustain itself, and closed in 1995.
"Lambda Chi managed for a year or two," he said. "Financially, they couldn't carry on."
McCall also said Lambda Chi's struggles show that one negative incident or one unproductive rush can put a fraternity into extinction.
"It doesn't take much for your house to go from thriving to being at risk," he said.
A similar situation occurred with Delta Delta Delta sorority when it was forced to shut its doors in 1991.
"Tri-Delt left because they had one poor rush, and it affected the chapter's ability to continue," said Candy Daly '81. "It was really too bad because the house had numbers before that."
Daly said a mistake was made during recruitment planning that allowed houses to bring 160 women back for their final "pref" round instead of the usual 80. As a result, Tri-Delt did not get nearly as many women back for their final round. Much like Lambda Chi later in the decade, Tri-Delt was not able to recover the following year.
McCall said alumni whose greek houses are no longer on campus may feel less connected to DePauw.
"I do think, for the alumni whose houses have been closed, it's been disappointing to them," he said.
Daly said while it is a little disappointing not being able to go back and see her sorority house, the relationships she made living there are what really matter.
"It's really my friends and my sisters I want to see," she said. "It [the building] is just a house."
McCall said Lambda Chi alumni often talk about the possibility of bringing the fraternity back.
"I think its one of those things that stays in people's mind," he said, adding that he thought for a fraternity to come on campus another one would probably have to leave. "I would think there would be a prospect- for a sorority re-colonizing because there is only six."
Daly said she would love for Tri-Delt to come back to DePauw.
Viewing Comments 1 - 9 of 11
Mike
posted 3/18/08 @ 1:48 PM EST
In my opinion, Dr. Bottoms did his best to destroy the Greek system, and he may have succeeded. Most of the best memories I have from DPU were the result of my greek experience. (Continued…)
Jeff Xi 1060
posted 4/23/08 @ 6:07 PM EST
Jeff McCall and Mike both got it right. I too feel the Bottoms administration made a very well thought out and deliberate action to destroy some (non specific) chapters and generally weaken the Greek system overall. (Continued…)
Lauren
posted 4/23/08 @ 6:26 PM EST
Why do you alums even care? Your experience is over, get off it.
Mike
posted 4/24/08 @ 11:25 PM EST
Lauren, you are misguided. While your DPU experience is just beginning, the alumni's experience is far from over in terms of their relationship with the school or their chapters (even if the chapter is not presently on campus). (Continued…)
Jennifer
posted 4/26/08 @ 4:50 AM EST
I agree with Jeff and Mike.
I was the Panhellenic President while attending the University of Colorado. The Greeks also hit rock "Bottoms" with our campus administration. (Continued…)
Mike
posted 5/02/08 @ 12:59 PM EST
Lauren, your experience never really ends with DPU. I do business with many fellow Alumni. Also, do you have any idea how much money we give to the school? I guess we should just "get off it" and close our checkbooks. (Continued…)
Geoff '72
posted 5/08/08 @ 10:26 PM EST
Yup, Bottoms has done all he could to kill the Greek system and it benefits the financial status of the University...Who cares about tradition on campus anymore? Even old DPU has become a liberal hotbed for far left hotheads. (Continued…)
Matt / Xi 1316
posted 6/10/08 @ 5:33 PM EST
I had the misfortune of being a member of the Lambda Chi chapter when it closed.
The problem was that pledge class quotas were set too high (i.e. if you added the pledge class quotas for all chapters together, the sum was much higher than the total number of male students going through rush). (Continued…)
George Xi1010
posted 6/11/08 @ 3:09 PM EST
This is source of great bitterness for me. I wrote to Bottoms when this change was first publicized and expressed my misgivings about it, as I felt it would send the wrong message to the students, that they couldn't be trusted. (Continued…)
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