She didn't reveal how she was able to go "undercover," but my guess is that these girls didn't pretend she was a member -- they just brought her to events like she was one of their buddies. She doesn't mention being at ritual (the ritual details she provides were what she heard from initiated members of many groups, not just the two covered in her book). The fact that she followed two groups around makes it unlikely that she was pretended to be a pledge or transfer member.

Or maybe she pulled it all out of her nether regions.

Supposedly she interviewed "hundreds" of sisters from across the country on a variety of topics which probably included ritual and secrets. The "shadowed" girls were all from the same school.

S and S, I looked at the houses at UVA and they don't look very big so I don't know about that prospect. I agree that the part about deferred is probably not changed because she wouldn't understand that it could be a distinguishing feature.

Edited because navane is hella good at statistics and I am not. :D

The problem is that no Southern school with deferred rush really has a big house. UVA's are really small, but even SMU and Vandy don't seem to house more than 30-50 at the most. The only schools that I can think of with houses big enough to house 90 are definitely not Southern or don't have deferred rush (Oklahoma, Mizzou, Indiana, LSU, Kansas, etc.). So the housing thing is throwing me for a bit of a loop.

I still think it's SMU though. ;)


On another note, I think one of the things that hurts her credibility in this book is that, by not being Greek and doing all the research in a year's time, she doesn't really understand how common these things she's reporting on are. Like I said, I thought she handled some topics fairly well -- but when she tries to make it sound like "Naked Parties" are as common as intra-sorority squabbling and drama, the credibility flies out the window.

The biggest problem with her undercover work, is she makes soo much of it up, it's hard as a Greek to know when she stops. Names and Organizations have been changed. Is it too much of a stretch to think that she changed dates? Maybe when rush occurs? The numbers the houses hold? I mean, i know she wanted to protect her "sources" but there is so much deception that it's hard to know what to believe, when.

I really think she just 'pal'ed around with teh girls whenever possible, when times like rush meetings or rush convos come up, i really think that she's going word-of-mouth from her sources. And then, once again, you have the embellishment issue. The girls may have told her one or two things, but she's already lying so much i couldn't put it past her to "flesh" out the rest of the convos herself.

S&S, i could see it being SMU, except for like, what you mentioned about the price, Greeks run SMU pretty much(or so i've been told) and that she says its a State university, and SMU is private.


Kitso
KS 361

Come ON people...apparently, a lot of her "research" was through IMs & emails!

If she's used the internet as the basis for her facts, then PLEASE, do not take this book seriously!!!!!

I think thats become acceptable for interviewing . .. much as phone conversation or a letter would be.

There's a BIG difference in types of email, though. If any of you emailed me at work, my real name would show up. You could confirm with my work that I am that person. Same as if you had an address like "James@kappasigma.org."

However, anyone can have an address like "jennyalphasigmaalpha@hotmail.com". Hotmail obviously doesn't give a crap whether you are really what you use in your name. Same with IM.

maybe she's lying about that too. who knows what she made up and what was real.

Except for the numbers and the Southern part, this sounds just like my school. I went to a large Mid-Atlantic state school. It's not in my local library yet, but I'm very curious now.

probably.

eh, i'm not going to lie, i was entertained reading it. Maybe she's got a future as a fiction writer. Gotta mail my copy to my sister tomorrow to get her opinion. She's the one i go to about sorority questions, seeing as how i was never in one.

Kitso
KS 361

I maintain it's Indiana, and I'll explain why later.

You haven't even read the book, jer.

Opportunity for Education vs. Condemnation?
 

Don't you all have anything better to do with your time then tear apart a book looking to publically "expose" the school [and thus the women involved] ?

By no means was there no effort to highlight positive aspects of Greek Life.

Seems to me that time might be better spent collaborating together to communicate toward renegade chapters/orgs that actually practice the sort of antics which fill up the GreekChat Risk Mgmt forum than collaborating to write letters to an author telling her how much you think she sucks.

Re: Opportunity for Education vs. Condemnation?
 

Richard, please try again. We live in America, which is a nice country where we can criticize books. When I have the choice between writing another paper on Mark's apocolyptic eschatology or whether Lee Harvey Oswald was in the Klan or a LaGrangian funtion, or coming on GC and laughing at somebody, what do you think I am going to do?

Bad chapters KNOW that they are bad, particularily in the NPC. We get reminded of what a bad chapter is and does at least once a week, if not more. THEY DO NO CARE. I wish you would understand that. It takes at least 8 years to see a chapter completely turned around, and no chapter is going to come on GC and say "OH! A Gamma Phi and a Tri Delt from Wisconsin think hazing is bad, so we should stop 108 years of chapter tradition." It's just not that easy.

Re: Opportunity for Education vs. Condemnation?
 

People are going to write hate mail, and won't change the fact that the book has been published, and it won't change the author's opinion.

I think we should do exactly what we've been doing. Continue to work with NPC on risk management programming and provide this programming to all NPC members. There are going to be a few chapters that carry things to extremes. They will be exposed and they will be closed down. But meanwhile, NPC chapters have advisory boards in place to watch out for the women, they have leadership training and risk management education. If the women choose to ignore these teachings and go the other way, they will not be a successful chapter -- or a chapter at all. Group mentality (in any peer group) has a strange effect on people, and it takes someone with a very strong will and maturity to put her foot down and do the right thing.

I'm going to read the book eventually. I highly doubt that this book will be the end of the Greek System.