re: "Hey Y'all!" its bid day at Arkansas!

So sad to see young women so chubby.

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It probably had something to do with sororities not being able to have houses.

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I do think that's part of it but they've always had their own place even without houses and Frat Row definitely has their own. But I also think the fact that E. TN never developed the social mores and cultural norms the same way the rest of the South or even our own state did, is a part of it. Back when frats were establishing culture there wasn't really social or stratification by class. Even if you were rich you were expected to not act like it and hang with all kinds of people. We never had plantation society and northern-style blueblood type societies were virtually non-existent as well.

Even so, it's still strange that it never developed even centuries later in a way that even comes close to resembling other schools but it didn't. We're an anomaly (weird) when it comes to all that.

Even today when people describe the modern society type stuff in Nashville it's strange to me.

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And this has what to do with Greek life?

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Nothing directly but a LOT in a less direct way. What I'm saying is that the culture of high society and various social societies never developed the same way it did in a lot of places. IOW, we don't have a rigid class system and we're an old enough university to where those things would've shaped our culture. We were established in 1794 and were the first/oldest secular (non-denominational, virtually all unis had some affiliation with religion/religious sponsors even Harvard back then) this side of the Continental Divide and we are one of the oldest public unis in the US.

To put how old we are into perspective - Thomas Jefferson is the one who suggested to us that we should move to the Hill when the campus ran out of room where it was at.

Frats were initially designed because students attended roll call and their names were called by virtue of their social class/family and frats provided a way to rise/make up for being of a less influential family in that area. But social class wasn't the same here. IOW, they didn't fill the same needs because of our broader culture and so very likely didn't gain the same cultural importance on campus that they did in the North East and other Southern schools.

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Arkansas was more like that 15-20 years ago. Frat was very important in the 80s, fell way off in the 90s, but it is larger than ever now. We're in the top 3-4 SEC schools in both greek community size and percentage of greek participation.

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That doesn't surprise since NW Arky had a great deal in common with E. TN when it comes to the various class issues - those distinctions just not being important as compared to elsewhere. It does surprise me that it's changed that much BUT so many more people now have college degrees and even in the older areas society is changing. Class lines are hardening in the sense that it's harder to move upwards than it used to be while at the same time we seek prestige and connections more and more as a society - beyond the fun, brotherhood, and old tests on file, Frats offer that kind of prestige and networking that can help.

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I don't know if its solely due to increased class consciousness in the region. There has been a big increase in money in the region, but I think a bigger driver is suburban north Texas kids coming here in much higher numbers.

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Oh I agree with you that it's probably not one thing. The increased money in the area makes sense as does the increase in a lot of out of state kids from the burbs.