I look forward to learning the response from the president to your letter.

Here's the problem: that definition of hazing covers virtually EVERYTHING. You can't separate PNM's by room because some might feel bad? Okay. Now you can't have the president say hello to some PNM's and not others. Now you can't make PNM's sit in the back row during the skit. Now you can't rank PNM's on your bid list.

I disagree that it covers everything. If PNMs were separated randomly, it would be ok but they're not. They're separated by girls they want and girls they don't want.

The problem isn't even really that they're separated. I'm sure that happens everywhere to some degree. The problem is that the one's they want are put in a room for conversation. The ones they don't want are put in a room with creepy jumping up and down that is called a "dance party".

1. No one has provided any proof that there is a different room for desired PNMs where they are rushed rather than having to dance. I have it on good authority from a UT Member of said sorority that EVERYONE dances.

2. It may be rude to some, but obviously some people like it as they continue to be very successful.

3. Conflating this with "evil" or "hazing" is ridiculous. Every chapter has a personality and does things differently. This is tasteless and tacky but not evil.

4. Things will change when returns for this chapter are adversely effected and not before. They have no incentive to change.

5. As for them making ALL Greek life look bad...if having a dance party and not talking to PNMs makes everyone look bad, why do women still go through recruitment at UT every year despite this "tradition"? It makes that one chapter look bad.

Look to every big recruitment school, SRC use rooms to separate the PNMs they want from the rest. It happens. All. The. Time. Is it wrong? No. It's their system and can have it's benefits, like introducing those women to the movers and shakers of the chapter. Do women who aren't in those rooms get bids? Sure, but they aren't the PNMs that are being fought for by the chapter's big competitors.

Except that there are TWO other chapters at Texas that show/designate their "chosen" to the other PNMs at the parties.
Read last year's Texas Recruitment thread.

And, before someone says that I shouldn't be commenting on this unless MY group is involved ...

It is clear to me that UT has seen this "dance party" as an infraction and fines the chapter as a sanction. The chapter builds these fines into their recruitment budget. Lots of chapters do that for various things they want to get around during recruitment(extra decorations, piece of jewelry, etc.). What is so stupid is that the Panhellenic council, Greek life, or school administration has not nipped this mean, rude, and hurtful behavior in the bud. I also call bulshit on it being a part of ritual. My campus got rid of mid party singing years ago (excluding pref of course) and hasn't looked back. A semester or year long of social probation as a sanction would force these girls to change their behavior. Your alums can't buy their way out of that and social probation doesn't look so nice to a PNM that wants a fun experience. Plus, Nationals would have to acknowledge a probation sanction and the infraction. A rush fine just gets swept under the rug.

I wholeheartedly agree. It isn't wrong to separate PNMs and go out of the way to introduce top candidates to the movers and shakers. But that is different than just not talking to them altogether and ignoring them.

PNMs already feel vulnerable, do we really need to make the process more stressful engaging in different behaviors for different groups?

But they do it to all PNMs, no matter how "desirable" they are. If a PNM can't look at the party and decide those girls are rude, write them off and move on, she's got bigger problems for life in the future. Not everyone will always be nice. I find it distasteful that this chapter would rather do this than actually talk to people, but no one is being singled out.

I totslly agree with AOPi Angel. It is what it is. The other chapters on that campus don't give it 2nd thought. Trust me, they have a RTP list as well and are savvy with their selection process. The losers in the process,however, are the pnms who go through the process not being savvy enough themselves to know they haven't got a chance with these groups and drop out when they are released. I believe I'm right that less than 75% of the girls who started the process ended with a House this year and well of 95% still had a chance with a groups that still had them in the mix.

A lot of that probably has to do with the perceived need to be in one of the top 6 groups. Bama is better now because so many OOS students now go through and don't necessarily care what the "traditional" strong groups are. This has been a problem at every Southern university with predominantly instate students. Tent talk precedes recruitment. People come in with a goal to be XYZ not Greek.

/swerve:

AFFECT. Please, thank you.

that is all, return to regularly scheduled programming.

/end swerve

I think there has been fall out from this accepted behavior. Texas is a very large very competitive school, but the Greek system is not nearly as large as otherwise comparable schools. So yes, the dance party doesn't keep all girls from rushing, but it could be keeping 200-300 highly qualified girls from exposing themselves to such humiliation.

Humiliation? Really?

But hasn't UT's Greek system been appreciably smaller than most comparable institutions for a very very long time? It seems more like (as someone said upthread) they offer more types of groups that can confer a similar social standing as GLOs.