The title of Pledge was most often attached to the treatment of pledges--a pledge process which was linked to hazing for many chapters.

Exactly.

A pledge is a person and a process and a promise.

(How did this thread turn into another one of THOSE threads. LOL.)

Concur. That's why I really like Alpha Omega Epsilon's term of "candidate". I think it is fully respectful without the insinuation that you are already in.

However, I don't honestly see anything wrong with "pledge" or "rushie". I feel like changing those words is like Netflix changing to Qwickster. It creates the illusion of addressing the problem, without actually doing much of anything.

Netflix changed to Qwickster?

I'm so glad I never bothered getting a subscription there. It sounds like it's getting worse day by day.

Sort of. The streaming part is still Netflix and the DVD by mail is Qwickster. This was their "apology" for hiking the prices 60% to $15.99/month.... although the price is still $15.99 and now you have to sign up and get two separate bills each month and your queues don't transfer.

/end side note/

Oh I know that (though I might disagree with the "most often" part.) I still say, though, that the term "pledge" isn't in itself demeaning. To me, it's a baby-bathwater thing, or a cosmetic change, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.

For us, at least, the pledge is the beginning of the "pledge process," not the end or goal. At the beginning of the process, a man makes a pledge not to join competitor orgs and to present himself, if he is ultimately approved, for full initiation at the end of the process. (We still us the term "pledge" to refer to this promise.}

My impression is that many orgs used/use the term this way. At the same time, I think that some here have said that New Members are indeed members of their orgs, with the only difference being members who haven't experienced ritual yet. Not my lane though, so I could be wrong.

And this kind of thread almost always becomes one of THOSE threads. :D

Yep.

I've always been a fan of that too

I propose that we henceforth refer to our new members as "dwarves".

I hear "Baby Owls" far too often. I do not like the term and as far as I know, the HQ still discourages it.

I stand with others who never had a problem with the term pledge. It is/was a perfectly good word -- both the noun and the verb.

I do not like the term "new member," but I use it to be correct. :) Technically, I see the new members as probationary members until their initiation, which for us is the next semester.

That reminded me. We used to use "provisional member" (quotes included). A sister said it at a rush party one year and there was a group cringe. I don't think it was ever actually used in day to day life though.

The jettisoning of "pledge" is just so silly. There are lots of words that get twisted around by certain groups of people or their actions - "Christian" leaps to mind - but that doesn't mean the people who know what it really means stop using it.

Forgive me if this has been said. I glanced through the thread and didn't see it, but could have missed it.

My chapter used babies until last year. We were then told that it could be construed as hazing. Our chapter advisor told us that so I am unsure if it came from HQ, however judging by the other responses from KD sisters it doesn't appear so. The advisor wasn't new so I'm not sure why the change if it didn't come from nationals.

Which term, "baby" or "pledge"?

DaffyKD

Better than "hooters".

I actually attended formal meeting as an advisor yesterday and I was asked to remind the chapter to not say babies/baby doves/etc.

Sigh...that doesn't stop some girls in my chapter from calling our NM's 'baby Gammas.' I was called a new member in 2005...this "baby" crap didn't start until my senior year.

This was always my gripe (post-Initiation, of course ;)). There was a problem with retention in my chapter, so I definitely had a problem with calling these girls new members when chances were they were going to drop out of their pledge period.

My chapter, just this semester, started using "baby".. it's all over Facebook. Even tonight, a picture was posted of the new members after their pinning ceremony, and it was labeled "Baby Taus!" ... it makes me cringe. And you definitely don't need an animal to make it work. Unfortunately.

I would definitely be mortified if anyone yelled "baby" at me across campus. Unless of course it was a totally hot guy. Kidding, of course. But I think that for a lot of girls, this is the kind of little stuff that can completely turn them off from sorority life.

And would the girls who act up and are sent to Standards be called Bad Apples? :D

Better than Tiny Taus, right? I guess y'all could go with Little Fuzzies?

Any women with excessive alcohol issues sent to standards, Rusty Anchors? Oh noes, that is Blanche Deveraux's favorite bar! Those who stop showing up, Dead Weights? If a woman is often shacked up, she Dropped Anchor? Oh, the chapter facility or meeting place, the Anchorage.

With Alpha Gamma Delta's new programming I could see a move towards a system similar to ADPi. New members are Alphas, initiated members Gammas, alumnae are Deltas, or Rosebuds, except that already has a usage for use. Hmmm petals, sisters sent to sorority court thorns?

When I joined my local, I was a pledge until I was initiated.

When we went AEPhi, I was a new member until I was initiated.

For AEPhi, most things that would imply that new members are "inferior" to sisters are discouraged. There are certain privileges (like wearing letters and participating in membership selection and ritual) that are not extended to new members. Aside from that, terms like "big sister" and "little sister" or "baby _____" are discouraged, and new members are considered "almost but not quite" on a par with initiated sisters.

Besides, I might have belted anyone who called me a baby giraffe... :p

ETA: "Thetartots" had me LMAO. I might have belted anyone who called me that, too, had I joined Theta.

Babies, I edited my post. Sorry!

Agreed! Can we please just cut the PC stuff and go back to pledge and rush? I've tried to be PC here and use PNM and recruitment, but half the time just use pledge and rush. If someone if offended, they don't have to read it. I think the whole terminology thing is over the top. :rolleyes:

Tri Delta pledges have always been called pearls.

Baby Deltas? Baby Dolphins? Puh-leeze. :eek:

:( We don't in seriousness call them babies. It's meant to be endearing, it really is. We aren't schemingly oppressive, we love our new women.

As for Thetartots, it's just something silly. It makes me giggle, but I wouldn't want to be called that lol.

Idk *sigh* I feel like there are much greater offenses to our founders out there, but that's a whole 'nother can of worms. This doesn't really bother me. But really, I think this might only bother the generation or so older than us, because it's so widely-used in colleges without hardly anyone in the sorority, other than HQ, fussing about it. This is just an observation, though.

I'm amused with this thread. I have two daughters, two different sororities. My Phi Mu daughter says she was a "Phi" during her "new member" phase but , here's the kicker.. when showing bid day photos she says "here I am with my pledge class!"

I know my Delta Zeta has called herself a "turtle" but nothing with baby attached. She had a "turtle time" last night. Whatever that is! LOL

AZ- I loved reading this!! How have I missed this fascinating story? I never knew about Bettie & her kitties. I have "more than a few." Makes me see more of a connection with her :)

Agreed. The various NPC founders, for the most part, would be clutching their pearls over our clothes, hair, make up, and practically everything else that is part of many greek systems day to day activities.

Date dash? Shameful!

Baby _____? Not so much!

Would that make the initiated members "big hooters?"

I've never had a problem with the term New Member. I believe that the moment you accept your bid you are a member. While you cannot know Ritual until you are an INITIATED Member, you still pay dues and attend all chapter functions. I am, however, a fan of extending the New Member period to a full semester. That way New Members could only be initiated if they proved themselves academically. 6-8 weeks is just too short to know if someone is a grade risk.

I *KNOW* the thread that you're referring to, because I have been on these boards since the dinosaurs.

I vaguely remember it being about "baby squirrells" and then the discussion went from there.

DG refers to its new members as "Pi Alphas" as that's what it says on the new member pin (i.e. pledge pin) . I think it's commonly accepted as a term and is considered respectful, etc.
http://www.fratpin.com/Scans/6-8-11%...mma_pledge.JPG

I wouldn't be surprised if any new members were called "baby Hannahs" or whatever...I'm not a fan of the whole calling young women by the diminuitive of "babies", but maybe if you had asked me when I was my 18 year-old-self and rushing, I might not have minded as much -- it's hard to say....

Trying to find that thread for you now....

You would like my sister, I received a text message from her on bid day to the tune of "If one more person calls me a baby bunny I'm going to assault them!"

In retrospect I'm not sure if her objection was to being a baby or being a bunny...

Bwah ha ha ha....GOOD ONE!:eek::D

This is definitely misleading in Advantage, then, because it makes it seem like one of those things that has always been.

And I hadn't heard anything about not calling them just Pearls - that's what we were called.

This is actually Tri Delta. New Members are Pearls, Collegiates are Pines and Alumnae are Pansies. However, I have seen "Baby Delta" here and there and I cringe every time I see it.

Well you know if you do something once in a GLO it's "tradition" and if you do it twice it's "the way we've always done it." :p

Remember unthread when we talked about not making assumptions about other organizations? New Members can be pearls in Delta Delta Delta and Alpha Sigma Alpha.

We're just New Members, Collegians and Alumnae. I've seen some chapters use Pandas or occasionally Baby Pandas for new members. We have one chapter that calls themselves Angels, so I know they use Baby Angels. Back in the day, my Great to the 5th Grand Big Sis called all of her family members "Baby Pi". We called her Granny Pi. That's as far as Baby went, and it was a localized term of endearment.

That sounds like students at my alma mater. They call traditions things that didn't even exist a few years ago. It's usually amusing, but a few years back in the school newspaper, the Panhel president attributed rules about parties (i.e., that they have to be held outside the house) not to risk-management policies but to a sort of brothel law. Argh.

And there you have it.

The men have never changed their terminology and are still using rush and pledge. The women hear it and realize it's far less lame than the PC ridiculousness we are supposed to use. The women use the old terminology despite all their "education."

(....waiting for a national officer to jump in here and say that in that case, we shouldn't socialize or hang out with fraternities.)

And wouldn't that do wonders for our membership numbers? :rolleyes:

For the record, the NPHC fraternities also officially changed certain "pledge terminology" to match the NPHC ban on hazing and pledging.

Unofficially, NPHC sorority and fraternity chapters/members still use the terminology.

(I don't know whether you are only talking about NPC and NIC when you say sororities/fraternities and women/men.)

Ours are Pearl, Ruby, Crown...but apparently that's -newer - than I had first thought.

I wonder if yours are Pearls for the same reason ours are. ;)

Yeah, I meant the NIC boys.

There have always been NIC fraternities who called their pledges something else officially, but as for whether they did it in daily life - that's another story.

Gotcha.

Do you know which NIC fraternities still officially use "pledge terms?"

It would probably be easier to list which don't. Delta Chi uses Associate Member officially, and I believe Lambda Chi Alpha does as well. I was also under the impression that Phi Delta Theta pledges were called Phikea, but that might just be the name for the pin. Of course all of the NPHC/NIC groups would also fall into this category.

Now I'm curious, I'll have to do a more comprehensive search when I have some more time.