Augustana Observer

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Augustana Observer

Greek council rejects quota that would've limited amount of new members

Greek Council voted to reject a quota on Monday that, if upheld, would limit the amount of new members an organization could take on in the spring.

It stated that Greek chapters cannot have more then 64 members in each group (excluding outgoing seniors).

Greek Council President Amy Fagan said the quota would affect all seven of the sororities besides Sigma Kappa Tau that currently has 22 members, 12 of which are seniors who will be graduating.

If the fraternities wish to keep their current amount of actives, the quota would have no effect on any of the seven chapters, since each has less than 64 members.

Fagan said on Tuesday that the quota was voted out of the constitution at least ten years ago; the article was just never actually taken out of the constitution itself.

Renée Millette, Sigma Kappa Tau president, said that having the quota would have lead to a system of checks and balances, because of a large gap in terms of the number of members between the Sigma Kappa Tau sorority and the other Greek groups.

She said there is a systematic problem of groups growing exponentially while other Greek chapters remain stagnant.

“It’s mostly just found with Greek sororities,” said Millette. “The fraternities are a lot more fluid, but with sororities, it’s super competitive.”

Millette said even with the larger class sizes, other groups have been getting more members, while the Sigma Kappa Tau sorority has seen a steady decline.

Fagan said one of the reasons she voted against the quota was because students may not want to join groups they did not prefer, especially when students will “suicide” groups, meaning they request to join one chapter. 

“They’re a wonderful group of girls and one of the oldest sororities on campus, so of course we don’t want to see a chapter like that fall through, but we also have to do what is best for the majority of our chapters,” said Fagan.

Fagan said there are chapters that have smaller numbers, such as the Alpha Sigma Xi fraternity, which has 19 members, and the Omicron Sigma Omicron fraternity, which has 15 members.

“Getting rid of the quota or even changing it to a higher number is in turn going to hurt more chapters and more potential new members and make Greek Life look like more of an exclusive system than it already is, and that’s not something that we want,” said Fagan.

Millette said a sustainable number for the Sigma Kappa Tau’s would be at least 30.

She said with more than half of the sorority graduating this year, the decision as to the future of the Sigma Kappa Tau will be left to the younger classes.

Correction: An earlier version of this article said Fagan only wrote down one group as her preference when she rushed. She wrote down three chapters.

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Greek council rejects quota that would've limited amount of new members