Our sweetheart has never hooked up with any of us, shes just good friends with a lot of the guys. Shouldn't you ask her this instead of us, we obviously have no idea about her particular situation. If you're the jealous type then DON'T date a sweetheart because she is going to have to do a lot of things with the fraternity, including date functions.

Just curious, if your sweetheart is not dating a member and she is invitedto a date function, can she bring any date that she wants? So say your sweetheart starts dating a guy in another fraternity, is he able to go to your date parties?

thanks for clearing this up..2 answer the #3 post..they do respect me..and as a matter of fact my girl says its a possible that I can get a bid...ohh yeh that particular chapter is pretty wack. so, I really have no insecurities and jealous attitude towards them but even a square can get a groupie

No, she goes with guys who have dates cancel at the last minute. She also finds like five guys dates from her sorority for all of our functions.

ok, who are the 5 guys and why can't they find their own dates?

I dated the Tri Sig sweetheart for a while. I don't think they would have been too jazzed about me coming to a date party, LOL.

troll.

This strikes as a touch of snobbery going on here.

Not all Greeks are the most outgoing and social of people and so don't have as large a pool to draw from.

Or it might be that the guys have asked several girls, but the girls have legitimate reasons for not being able to attend.

It strikes as asking why sweethearts are being used as a dating service.

I would say that with most Sigma Chi chapters, the Sweetheart could bring a date. And I would guess some have. However, I have never known a Sweetheart to do so. Frankly, while some might, I would be surprised if a member of another fraternity would want to attend another fraternity's date party in the first place.

This is the scenario I am most familiar with.

In addition to what others have said, I saw the following situation more than a few times. A brother would be dating someone at another school and their "steady" was unable to attend. The Sweetheart (someone both he *and* his steady trusts) helps him get a date. Someone he might know as a friend and could go to the function and have a good time without any worry about "hooking up". This is much better than him ending up with some random girl that may not have his best interest (much less his girlfriend's) in mind.

Among other reasons, Sweethearts are elected because of their friendship with members of the chapter. As such, most help their friends (chapter members) out of the genuine goodness of their heart. I would hope that a woman would be able to do so (help her friends) and not be viewed as being used or as some sort of a dating service.

Just so you know, the NPHC organizations don't give bids. We do things differently from other GLO's. In this thread you have members of different GLO's posting whose processes are different from the NPHC regarding sweethearts and other things. Like I said in my previous post, Iota Phi Theta is the only org in the NPHC that nationally recognizes their sweethearts. The other orgs in the NPHC no longer recognize or permit these groups.

NPHC Fraternities:

Alpha Phi Alpha
Kappa Alpha Psi
Omega Psi Phi
Phi Beta Sigma
Iota Phi Theta

NPHC Sororities:

Alpha Kappa Alpha
Delta Sigma Theta
Zeta Phi Beta
Sigma Gamma Rho

You're not getting it... If a guy has a steady girlfriend and she can't go to the formal, why the heck would he take someone else? Even if she can't go and is cool with him taking a non-romantic date, what the heck kind of guys is the group taking if there's a chance that he chooses his own date that he'll hook up with her? Why would the Sweetheart choosing make it less likely that he'd hook up with his date? Is she going out of her way to choose ugly or awkward women? Why would a member in a relationship automatically take a "random girl" that "may not have his best interest in mind" if he chooses his own date? That just speaks to the poor taste of YOUR members, not the skills and kindness of the Sweetheart.

Furthermore, I think a lot of us are asking, why is it the Sweetheart's job to get him a date? No offense, but what if your fraternity bids a weirdo or something? Does the Sweetheart have to go with him to every formal then, assuming he can't get a date?

None of the orgs at my school had sweethearts and I'm not much liking the sound of them. It sounds lame... I sure as heck would not want to be sweetheart if I'm going to have to find lame guys dates or something. I know you're actually trying to defend the idea that sweethearts are classy and not groupies but actually your words are making me think that they ARE. But I don't have any experience with it so who knows?

...................

Sometimes people just don't have dates for one reason or another and she wants us to meet as many girls in her sorority as possible to improve relations, they're actually our homecoming partners for next year so its good to meet them now.
Maybe GLOs aren't as big where you're from, they have 150+ girls so its impossible to know them all and when you have 93 guys in your house, occasionally a few of them don't have dates.

Well, part of what I'm wondering is if maybe other chapters don't adhere to the high ideals you say your chapter did.

Um... I don't think the issues I brought up (defense of sweethearts sounding like condemnations of them) had been brought up in this thread before. Like I said, I don't have any personal experience. Thus I must judge them on what other people tell them. The positive things you had to say in defense of sweethearts made them sound incredibly creepy to me. So I judge based on both positive and negative opinions that have been put forward.

You can have a good time without a date. Why would he be so concerned if he looked like a loser? This one isn't really a big deal however. I just wouldn't let my boyfriend take another woman to a formal. But I guess if all parties involved are ok with it, then fine. I still don't see why the sweetheart needs to be involved unless the guy really is a loser.

I notice you didn't address my comments about why having a sweetheart choose the date would make it less likely the guy would hook up with his date and not choose a woman "with bad intentions."

If it's not her job why does everyone keep bringing it up as something a sweetheart does?

My friends like to set one another up in college as well. But they weren't obligated to do so.

YES, I'm sure, TSteven. Please have respect enough for my knowledge of these issues. You're talking to someone who was a chapter president and almost a consultant for her sorority. I knew people in pretty much every fraternity, including Sigma Chi, and I never once heard of any fraternity EVER having a sweetheart. I'm guessing this is partially because W&L only went co-ed in 1985 and they had no tradition of having sweethearts previous to that. I have been to EVERY fraternity at W&L in my day. I know people in all fifteen of them (some of them are gone now though). W&L is a small school. Everyone knows everyone. Heck, I know half the guys in my class's "pledge names" (lame). W&L has 1700 students. They are almost all Greek. It is like a huge, gossipy, high school. Everyone knows everything. I would certainly know if there were formalized sweethearts. The closest anything ever came to that is that the fraternities and sororities all nominate women for Homecoming. But they weren't "sweethearts."

UGH. Please don't suggest I don't know what happens at my own college. I bet a lot of things about W&L and the way W&L men treat women would surprise YOU. It is not happy-happy-fraternity-land.

I've been around on GC a long time and have read a LOT about sweethearts and am only now offering my true opinion about it. I'm glad you like Sigma Chi's program. I'm sure it was founded with high ideals. At the same time, I'm not foolish enough to think that most fraternity chapters strictly follow the ideals of the program. In fact, I would take things I read on GC as probably more indicative of how the program works than things I read on the national website. I must judge on this basis since I don't have any personal experience.

Pi Phi banned the practice of sweethearts ("Arrowmen") in our policies & position statements and I'm certainly glad we did. I'm glad you like your org's policies but to me they seem ridiculous.

And.... the link you posted doesn't seem to be working.

;)

I honestly feel like there are some people who do not get the full scope of it.

There are several different concepts of sweetheart.

They are not all the same to various chapters/groups/ (and obviously by some of the posters' responses) councils who have them. I want to make this point because my big is a past TKE chapter sweetheart and she is not a dating service, cookie baker, resident slut, or any of these other things. She is a nice girl who dated and continues to date the same chapter member, they knew her, they liked her, they respect her, they honored her. She is respectable.

Sometimes it's a matter of picking based on politics (trying to get in favor with XYZ group), sometimes it's something else. The reasons vary, but do NOT ever ASS -Ume that all sweethearts are a bad deal or concept.