Carnation probably knows which sorority I'm talking about, but to be nice I won't name them. :cool:

Before I joined AGD, I became friends with some girls in a local sorority and because they were cool, I decided to rush and ultimately become a pledge of their sorority. Sure, they were sweet and kind...but after their Carnation ceremony (similar to NM ceremony), these bitches went on power trip mode.

I remember my first pledge meeting. I was told to wear my pledge pin at all times "or else". And then I was given a list of names in which the actives wanted to be saluted and the proper greeting in which they were to be saluted--because if I ran into them on campus I was to address them as such "or else".

Not to mention I had to carry around this ridiculous box wrapped in pink cloth "or else".

I still remember my first pledge meeting when I looked at my pledgemistress and asked her, "Bitch, you want me to call you WHAT?" Needless to say, I turned in my pledge book, pin, and materials. Wait -- I take that back. I threw the shit at those bitches during their morning meeting in the caf.

Needless to say, they weren't at all friendly to me after I depledged. I shoulda known that those twats were fake asses who butter you up just to lure you into pledging. That's why I don't feel bad when I told everybody what was in those pink boxes. Yeah, they weren't too happy but I don't give a shit.

At least I didn't have to carry around a stupid fucking pumpkin throughout Fall semester. Yeah, I said it.

I never really got to see what "or else" meant because I didn't stick around too long, but the pledges who did stick it out did have to go through intense PT at effed up hours in the morning.

I did experience missing windshield wipers from my car after I DP-ed, though. And that's despite the fact that I'd park my car at different areas of the parking structure. Who the fuck does that, for real?

OK, what do they carry in the pink boxes?:D I'm sure they won't care if you tell since they no longer exist!

LOL about the pumpkins. To be in that group when I was there, you had to be "cosmopolitan" (the local term for mixed race) and I never could figure out what the pumpkins had to do with anything.

The pink boxes were actually schoolboxes -- you know, the hard box kind with the flip top lid kids use to throw their crayons in. We had to get pretty contact paper/shelf liner to cover the outside. The inside then had to be divided into six sections and six types of candy was put in each section.

IT WAS JUST CANDY THAT WE HAD TO SERVE THE SISTERS. When people found out, they were like, "THAT'S IT?" For years and years and years they made it seem like there was some uber classified precious thing the pledges had to carry in their boxes. The boxes were covered in pink cloth, and tied the old Japanese way, to be carried in the proper manner around campus.

As far as the pumpkins go -- I have no idea why the other sorority chose that. I know their pledge period begins in mid-September and lasts till Hell Week in the Spring. If I'm not mistaken, their pledges carry the pumpkins around till the end of Fall semester.

These two sororities, to my knowledge, haven't held rush let alone pledge anyone in recent years. I visited my collegians during Greek Week and another local (one that was dormant while I was in school) is going strong, and from what I hear from my collegians...this group has a great bunch of girls and are NOTHING like the locals in the past. Good for them.

I had a similar situation where I went to school. I rushed and pledged a local (well we only have local socials) sorority to only depledge 4 days later. Doing sexercises (no joke), carrying around stupid stuff I had to go buy and waste my money on, standing a certain way..blah. Yes I got the threatening phone calls too. :rolleyes:

I looked at the UH website. Was it Beta Beta Gamma you're referring to? I think they were Korean back in the day.

I was happy to see that Hui Po'okela and the Waikiki Acrobatic Troupe are still active! I was co-advisor to the first and active in the other.

Yep..that'd be the BBGs. They were nowhere to be found when I was in school 10 years ago, but they're back!

Decades ago, these local sororities were pretty much exclusive to their own ethnic group. The BBGs were mostly Korean, Wakaba Kais were obviously Japanese, and Kappa Sigma Chi (was it?) was predominantly Chinese. Then you had the "cosmopolitan folk" like the Gammies and Phi Sigs. If I'm not mistaken, these groups eventually took on Greek letters once the University stepped in and said to stop being exclusive, with the exception of Wakaba Kai.

I'm sure these groups still hang on to their traditions, which I assume still have characteristics that date back to their founding -- but each group reflects the diversity of the present-day campus.

As far as Hui Po`okela goes -- their membership boasts a bunch of AGDs each year. My pledge sister was even president of Mortar Board prior to becoming our chapter president!

We almost have the opposite problem. Organizations are worried about carrying on certain traditions because others will try to pick it apart and claim that we're "hazing." Yes our pledges have tasks they need to complete in order to be initiated; but it's all group building activities like "go out to breakfast together. then sign a sheet so we know you were there." Scandalous? Well some girls think so.

As far as anything dangerous, degrading, or harassing goes, there's absolutely zero tolerence for that in our organization. Personally I don't see why anyone would want to affiliate themselves with a group that's just going to treat them like crap.

i agree. But I think universities are most concerned with the types of hazing that are abusive and cause any physical harm, severe emotional distress, or verbal abuse due to the pledging process.

Just use good judgement with activities in your new member process. If you have any doubts clear it with your university and/or headquarters.

not exactly hazing
 

My school only has locals, and I've gotta say, I'm kind of surprised with some of the things people are objecting to here. Wearing pledge pins and addressing actives and stuff...I thought that was pretty standard.

For us, there's no physical hazing, or drinking yourself into a stupor or anything like that. In fact, our pledging is dry, even if you're of age. It's an automatic DP if you're caught drinking (or high or whatever), and we're very serious about enforcing it. But there are definately mind games going on--I found pledging to be pretty emotionally traumatic. The thing is, I can honestly say that everything we did during pledging served some purpose, and I feel like changing our new member education program to make it "nicer" would also make it worse.

Yeah--if you were joining the Army maybe "emotionally traumatic" would make sense, but you're not--you're joining a sorority. All of the team building objectives that you've described can be accomplished with positive team builders and get to know you activities--what happened to you is hazing, and illegal, and therefore, wrong. If you were smart, you would work to change the culture in your group and on campus.

"Traumatic" is a pretty strong word. Sounds like hazing to me...

Anything that new members are required to do that actives are not required to do is hazing. We encourage them to wear their badges, but since initiated members aren't required, they aren't either. I'm not totally sure what addressing is, but assumed it's showing some sort of "respect" to initiated members. We view new members as members too, and therefore it wouldn't occur to us to have them address us differently.

In fact, requiring the new member period to be dry would also be hazing, since we do not require our initiated members to abstain from alcohol while they are members.

I wouldn't have joined an organization that hazed me in stupid ways. I personally don't see an issue with things that serve a purpose, but on the other hand, I do see why it's hard to draw a line and enforce it...it's safer to just put a blanket definition out there fore hazing and then ban it, and if that prevents harm to new members, fine. That and I choose to always abide by my organization's rules anyway, out of respect.

I DON'T understand requiring automatic submission to initiated members. I'm sorry, but seniority does NOT always mean the person is in fact the most mature, wise, or kind. I do understand required bonding events, provided they involve no harm to anyone involved.