zeta?

Zeta felt that there were not enough "quality" girls interested- they expected 500 girls to rush Zeta. During the rush process, they selected 150 girls who they felt would be good Zetas, rejecting about 100 interested girls whom they felt wouldn't be good fits for Zeta. Zeta had demanded a quota of 180 girls, and felt that 150 girls would not be strong enough to compete with other sororities. Because the number could only be brought to 150 "quality" girls after weeks of rushing/recruiting, Zeta left. Tulane even told Zeta from the beginning that Zeta would only be able to find about 150 'Zeta quality' girls at Tulane, especially with formal rush being just over. Tulane believed that the 150 girls would have made a strong chapter, the girls believed that they would have made a strong chapter, but Zeta didn't and pulled out, leaving the girls with basically no alternatives after dragging them through two weeks of getting their hopes up.

THat sucks. THese girls were all excited on becoming founders and starting something really exciting. What a slap in the face. Personally, I am glad ZTA is not re-colonizing at Tulane. They seem to set their requirements way too high for this campus and probably would not have made a good fit with the local NPC. They would have been more of a problem within the local NPC. Can these 150 girls seek another NPC Org. to colonize? I would think another NPC org. would be very happy colonizing with the 150 PNM's, but ZTA wanted to go for domination.

Almost forgot: The rejected PNMs wouldn't be able to just "seek out" another NPC group if ADPi hadn't already been invited to colonize -- that's strictly up to Panhellenic. They would, however, be able to petition a non-NPC group (e.g., Kappa Beta Gamma), or perhaps create a local sorority if they were willing to put in the work -- a number of locals at other schools have grown out of failed NPC colonies.

What makes Tulane different from, say, Vandy, Penn, or NYU -- all schools wherd ZTA has succesfully colonized recently.

I don't think Tulane would recognize a local sorority. The best option is see if ADPi will colonize sooner than planned.

ADPi will probably be more reasonable in their colonization process. Everyone but Zeta acknowledged that 150 was more than enough girls to start a pretty solid chapter. ADPi, knowing why Zeta pulled out, will likely come in with more realistic expectations. In one of the two instances of a sorority failing to colonize at a school, another sorority swooped in right after the 'failed one' pulled out and created a really strong chapter from the disappointed girls that had been brought together. ADPi will hopefully look to that example and come sooner rather than later.

if another group came in and took the 150 girls, wouldn't they always have to live with the stigma of being "ZTA's leftovers"? That's not a great way to start a colony

Zeta may have overextended themselves and could not devote the time required to support a chapter at Tulane. Five colonizations in one year is a lot. For whatever reason, they obviously were not a good fit for Tulane. The Greek system at Tulane will survive this.

It kinda feels like a giant hole blown into the chest, after Zeta spent 10 days getting hopes and dreams up and telling the girls to identify as Zetas. The girls were encouraged to spend that time growing close and building bonds, which are now tainted with bad memories. The 150 are not better off with nothing when they could have had a cause to fight for. They would rather fight than be abandoned the way that they were.
"Those 150 women can go through recruitment and join the existing chapters"? NO, THEY CAN'T. Many freshmen girls decided not to do formal recruitment so that they could do Zeta, and most of the 150 are sophomores and juniors who cannot rush again. Recruitment isn't an option for most.
"The heartache for the PNMs is a very small consideration." Your only true statement. The decision not to colonize was made by a group of women who had never even met the PNMs, who knew nothing of what they were capable of. They never asked the PNMs how they felt about it all; they never asked for an opinion or sought out how strong they were as a group. They never listened to them, and never even gave them a chance.
ZTA wasn't being a risk taker- it was playing it safe as a business that thought that it could come onto Tulane's campus and start out as a top-tier sorority. ZTA's quota of 180 was set to reflect current chapter sizes at Tulane, which have grown by about 50-60 girls in the last two years. If ZTA had come two years ago, they would have had no problem with 150. Ask anyone on campus, and 180 girls was an unrealistic number to expect for any colonizing sorority, especially right after formal recruitment. Tulane is pretty miffed at Zeta for pulling out without observing how strong and dedicated the PNMs that it had gathered were.
ZTA also failed to listen to anything that Tulane told them- ZTA thought that it would receive a reception at Tulane akin to Vanderbilt, not realizing that Tulane and other large southern schools are nothing alike. Tulane TOLD Zeta that 150 was IDEAL from the start, as Tulane is trying to get the existing chapter sizes to come down and predicted 150 to be the number Zeta would get all along. 150 would have been more than enough to start a chapter; ZTA just didn't want to give the chapter time to build up.
Zeta was selective enough (rejecting about 100 girls who rushed) that it wouldn't have started out as another Phi Mu, which had almost half of the number of girls that Zeta did when it colonized three years ago. While it's understandable for Zeta to want to be the best, it was unreasonable and unrealistic for them to expect to start off as the best. Zeta didn't take a risk; it gave up.

I personally think ADPi will be a better fit for Tulane--hopefully they will have better luck