When most people think of Greek life at universities, it is probably what they see on TV. Media keeps portraying people in the Greek community in big universities with 100+ members per chapter, but there are universities that have smaller chapters. I am not expecting there to be a movie anytime soon portraying smaller Greek communities, so here are a couple of things you should keep in mind about smaller Greek communities.
- Everyone knows everyone. This can be a benefit just as it can be a disadvantage. On the upside: you can make deeper bonds with all of your sisters and even some people in other sororities. It is a huge advantage to be able to go to any of your sisters and genuinely know them. On the downside: you really have to watch out for what you do and don't do anywhere, because chances are there is someone around you who knows you. It can be really annoying, and you can't use the excuse "I'll probably never see them again anyway".
- You probably don't have a house. There may be some universities that do have a house, but chances are if your Greek community is small, you don't have a house.
- Stronger bonds. This goes along with point number one, but I really do have to emphasize that the bonds you make with sisters will be so much stronger. I'm not saying that if you have a large community you won't have stronger bonds with sisters, however, it is just easier to know all of your sisters on a more personal level.
- Meetings are shorter. This one just makes sense. If you have fewer people in a meeting, it goes by faster because its a lot easier to get everyone on the same page. Side note: we still have some meetings that take forever because we have a lot to cover, but if it takes so long with only 50 people, I can't even imagine how long it would take to cover the same material with 100+ people.
- We are just as awesome. Just because our member count isn't as big does not mean we are worse than any big chapters. We are doing great things for our community and our members as well. Even without big numbers we still get recognition for all our accomplishments. We are very similar in a lot of ways, except for our small numbers.