What steps would help me get my Sorority recognized by the College?

Question

I'm party of a city-wide capter of a sorority. The college I attend has so far refused to recognize my sorority on campus. Our tenents include scholarship and service, and our sisters are stellar students and very active in the community both on and off campus. Still, the College refuses to recognize us, and this causes lots of problems when we want to hold community service events, advertise, or even hold meetings. We have had meetings with the Director of Greek Affairs at school, and even though we are not looking for a house or funding (just recognition and a place on the website is all!) we still haven't gotten far. I need some suggestions to catch the attention of the administration and finally get the recognition we deserve!

thanks for the incredibly useless answers! if you read the question, you'd have seen i was looking for IDEAS that would HELP us get recognized. the college doesn't want to add more greeks YET and we need to continue showing that were here, interested, and not going anywhere. thanks also for noting that we can't force them to recognize us, because i was sure until then i had control over free will.

Answer 1

Maybe you could try doing joint events with Greek organizations that are already recognized on campus.
If the university sees that you're accepted within the Greek community, they might be more willing to change their opinion.
You could also ask the other Greek chapters to sign a petition.
You could try involving faculty in some of your events. Host easter egg hunts or halloween parties for faculty children. Also, get a faculty advisor if you don't already have one. The more people at the University you can convince you're legit, the better chances you have.
I'm not sure the University can stop you from forming a community service organization even if they do say no to Greek organizations, you may even want to try establishing yourselves as this instead - at least then you might not have problems with holding events.
Another option is to go to the NPC and see if they're interested in colonizing a national organization at your University. It might just be that your University doesn't want local organizations.

Answer 2

It is unlikely that the administration would involve themselves in such matters, if they have a Director of Greek Affairs - they have given the job to a particular individual and can't make independent decisions on these matters without usurping this person's job.

Realize that the decision to add a Greek organization is not always one of the merit of the organization. I'm sure your sorority is just wonderful, but if the university has decided to keep Greek activity at a particular level, they don't want more and wouldn't add even the perfect organization. It may even be that in order to keep some other, less stellar, Greeks off campus, they told them that they were not adding any more organizations, and now they have to stick to that. It could also be that the other sororities don't want the competition, and the Greek Council holds sway at every university.

The only other thing I can suggest is you talk to the President of one of the Fraternities (to avoid direct competition with another sorority) about their suggestions.

The College doesn't have to recognize any organization, for any reason. You can't force them into it just because a few students want them to.

Answer 3

What are your campus rules for registered student organizations? I would start with your student activities office to find out the rules for registering your group on campus as an official group. Once registered, you would be official. Whether or not you could be listed as part of the Greek Life Office depends, again, on the requirements on your campus. Without knowing where you are located, it would be difficult to offer you additional advice.

Answer 4

I know how you can get your sorority recognized by me, but as for the college, no.