Alpha Phi to open next semester

In 1989, the Gamma Phi Beta sorority opened its doors at the University as part of a plan to expand the greek system. Nineteen years later, the Alabama Panhellenic Association is finalizing plans to bring two new sororities to campus: Alpha Phi and Delta Gamma.

The 15 APA sororities currently on campus have been feeling a pinch lately, greek life director Gentry McCreary said.

"This is the first time we've done sorority expansion since 1989. It's very uncommon and it's something we're very excited about," he said.

"The Panhellenic organizations have grown tremendously over the past few years and the growth in that community and these organizations has given rise to the need to add more sororities," he said. "Because more women want to come to the University and be part of sorority life at Alabama, the more sororities we need."

APA president Erin Cornelius said the growth has presented several problems to sororities.

"They're eating in shifts and they can't all fit in their chapter rooms without breaking fire code," she said. "Three hundred women had to be released from rush in the fall.

"We've had a lot more interest in recruitment. It's really been growing the past few years."

McCreary said the issues currently facing the sororities are not debilitating, but are simple growing pains that can be easily alleviated.

"The growth is a good thing, and the problems are good problems to have," he said. "One-thousand four hundred ten women participated in recruitment in the fall, which, according to our information, is the second-largest recruitment in the country, just behind Indiana University."

The University has grown by 25 percent since 2002, while the greek community has grown by nearly 40 percent in the same amount of time, McCreary said.

The two sororities that will found "colonies" at the University are Alpha Phi and Delta Gamma.

Alpha Phi will come to the University in fall 2008 and Delta Gamma will follow in fall 2010.

Several sororities were invited to look at the University as a possible place to found a colony, and three applied.

The sororities were then evaluated for their national strength, alumnae support, ability to pay for housing and construction of necessary facilities and strength in the region.

McCreary said Alpha Phi is very strong nationally, but not as well-known in the South.

"Nationally, it is very strong, in Virginia, Texas, the East Coast [and] the Midwest," he said. "With the changing demographics and more women coming from out-of-state - especially Texas - it's good to have a sorority that's strong and well-known where they come from," he said.

Both McCreary and Cornelius said Delta Gamma has a very wide base of support in this region.

Cornelius said the sororities will have houses.

"Alpha Phi has a two-year lease on the Sigma Delta Tau house," Cornelius said. "There's also a plan in the works for more houses around sorority row."

The Sigma Delta Tau house is currently occupied by Lambda Chi fraternity, whose house is being renovated.

The colonies are expected to be the average size of most sororities on campus - 220 women. Certain national benchmarks must be met before they can be called "chapters."

McCreary said the new organizations will also have the ability to attract women to the greek system who might otherwise not be interested in sorority life.

"This will bring in women with an entrepreneurial spirit, who might be more resistant to joining an existing chapter, but want to be the start of something new," he said.