colonization?

I agree colonization should be explored at some point in the not too distant future. But I honestly believe that it makes no sense to colonize without a deep and thoughtful look at where we are today with our panhel and the issues surrounding fall recruitment. Colonizing without prior change simply adds another house and more people into a system that many will agree is broken and not working for many people looking to enter the community. We also need to be honest about the issues pnms felt during recruitment and realize that these things did happen. As a community, I feel that we need to agree or not that diversity is important and realize the challenges faced by minorities and first generation people in entering the system. But, most importantly each house has to be the best that they can be and be thriving before another house is added. So many of the posts here asked for transparency in recruitment and also asked for oversight from outside the system. It was shocking how many people disagreed with publishing numbers. I wonder why? The general consensus, rightly or wrongly, is that recruitment was cooked and certain houses had picked their classes in advance of events and so felt perfectly entitled to brutally cut in early rounds. There is no way to know the truth of this conjecture without data. Also, our panhel leadership needs to look in the mirror. Respectfully the AOPi members need to leave panhel so we can get on with the business at hand which is serious

After chatting with so many people this year after recruitment I have come to the conclusion that the system is so broken that maybe we should just acknowledge the failure and bring in 2 or 3 more houses and see if new thinking can fix what can't seem to be fixed by our current leaders (I don't believe this is the right way to go about this but in the absence of leadership maybe it is the only way forward for cal). If a house has retention issues then let it crumble. If a house can't figure out how to recruit then let it close. If a house can't figure out what its sisters want and need then let it shutter. If we don't figure these things out in a thoughtful and methodical way then future recruitments will be the same. People will drop when they don't get the one house they wanted or drop because they didn't get a 'top 5' whatever the hell that means! If the system can't figure out how to present 12+ strong and thriving houses and can't explain to pnms what makes each house unique then honestly we deserve to lose 1/2 our houses! Maybe Rome has to be burned to the ground and rebuilt by outsiders in order to be fixed as we sure as hell aren't doing anything to fix the situation. Totally disgusted.

Just heard that kkg is not doing COB. Given what just happened in recruitment how can a chapter unilaterally decide not to grow when the demand clearly exists? If more houses are in the KKG no COB camp then I would vote to immediately pursue the addition of 2 or 3 houses for spring. I know the process isn't that quick but we honestly can't afford to let our system by impacted by the short sighted thinking of the likes of KKG. Not sure what their leadership is thinking but in my mind it has zero to do with true leadership!

Just talking to my cousin at Wisconsin and she just pledged Alpha Xi Delta. She explained the history and philanthropy and it sounded like something that could benefit our system.