Vol. 127, No. 42 Thursday, October 12, 2017
OPINION
SPORTS
STAND IN SOLIDARITY
SOFTBALL PLAYER FINDS PASSION IN SINGING
PAGE 11
PAGE 14
A&C
HAUNTED PUB TOUR SPOOKY FUN PAGE 19
Sorority recruits wait in their recruitment groups for the bidding selection process to begin in Spring 2017. PHOTO BY ELLIOTT JERGE COLLEGIAN
Sororities face decreasing retention rates By Piper Davis @PiperLDavis
Colorado State University’s sororities are facing decreasing in retention rates over each academic year, while fraternities not only retain, but increase chapter size every semester, according to reports released by Fraternity and Sorority Life. Disparities in sorority chapter size exist between fall and spring semesters, according to
reports. Looking at Chi Omega, the sorority with the largest chapter size at CSU, its spring enrollment varies greatly from its fall enrollment. Sororities open bid in the spring and many of the members are lost right after bid day. But, for the 2016-2017 academic year, Chi Omega’s enrollment decreased from 210 in the fall to 179 in the spring, meaning a decrease of 31 members the first semester of the
year—a loss of nearly 15 percent. In comparison to the previous academic year, Chi Omega faced a loss of around 5 percent of its members, with a chapter size of 190 in the fall of 2015 and 179 in the spring of 2016. And, three years ago, the chapter only lost 2.5 percent of members with a chapter size of 159 in the fall of 2014 and 155 in the spring of 155. Conversely, most fraternities at CSU experienced an increase in members each semester.
According to the same reports released by FSL, Kappa Sigma, the fraternity with the largest chapter size at CSU, has seen a continual increase in enrollment since 2015. In spring 2015, Kappa Sigma had a chapter size of 101. Fall of 2015 retained the same chapter size and grew to 107 in the spring of 2016. Kappa Sigma’s chapter size experienced its greatest percent gain of enrollment for the academic year of 2016/2017. In fall
of 2016, the chapter size was 110, and as of spring 2017, their chapter size grew to 126, an increase of nearly 13 percent. From fall of 2015 and spring of 2017, Kappa Sigma gained 25 members, an increase of nearly 20 percent. According to former sorority members, the decreasing retention rate can be attributed to several factors.
see SORORITY on page 4 >>