But if it's on HQ's page, I guarantee you that lots of people would see that as implicit approval, and not without reason.

So it sounds like the national sorority offices don't like the term babies and the connotations that are going along with it. Why don't they individually or the NPC do something about it now - much like when they erradicated the previous terms.

Because that would involve admitting that they made a really stupid mistake when they tried to jettison "rush" and "pledge" to begin with.

You can't really do anything about campus traditions or popular opinion/word usage. There are certain nicknames national HQs don't like, but on some campi, you can yell "proper nickname" till you're blue in the face and use it on every t-shirt and written communication, and everyone is still going to call you "nickname HQ hates" for forever. The bigger of a deal you make about it, the more of a douche you look like. Which no one wants.

I also think that the "baby" thing is something peculiar to this generation. When 22 year old girls are running around in Hello Kitty and Disney t-shirts without a smidge of irony, it's going to be a little different than the girls who came before. My class would have rather been called "bags" than "babies" any day.

Thank you for that, MysticCat. I will have it removed.:cool:

By George! I think you're on to something. It's a Millenial thing.

So, curious: what happens if I use the term "pledge"? Seriously.

I slip and do that constantly.

I have not really heard of chapters calling their new members anything "baby ________." I have seen G Phi Babes, which doesn't bother me at all, used purely as a term of endearment and limited to Bid Day. Also Red Hots, which doesn't bother me either, on Bid Day, and then let's just call each other sisters and friends.:)

Count me on Team Rush and Team Pledge. Sororities are unique organizations unlike any other women's organizations and "rushing" and "pledging" are part of our unique heritage.

The baby thing has been around in various forms for a long time. 20 years ago, I was a high school freshman and I recall being greeted by a "Welcome Baby [Insert High School Mascot Here]" banner on my first day.

Did I mention that [Insert High School Mascot Here] are the Trojans? :D

I doubt we're going back to the terms "pledge" and "rush." I think "recruitment" more adequately expresses what is occuring than "rush" if you don't have any conception of Greek Life before college. That's a big reason I didn't "rush" until sophomore year. And yes, I was a "rushee" and was sad when we could no longer use that term in our door songs.

What is a uniform name for a new member other than new member or pledge? First Years?

Nice! I see that the banner has been cropped out of the photo.

I disagree. I think any process in which you choose sisters for life in 4-5 days, and having met 10-12 women for a total of less than 5 hours, is certainly rushing things.

"Rush" supposedly got its name because university students used to rush down to meet the trains which brought the new students to campus. Some sororities/fraternities would arrive at the station in a town up the track in order to give a pledge pin to the most desired men/women! Imagine that.

I've made an assumption. When NPC adopts its unanimous agreements, each member organization pledges that each member will "abide by and honor the UAs."

Since that's one I'm not willing to honor, I'm presuming I would not be welcome as an advisor or officer at anything above the chapter level. I seriously doubt DG would revoke my membership because of it, but I respect that DG has signed up to something I cannot support.

At the University of Texas you would not have your way. The new Theta members paint on whiskers, wear cat head bands and most wear tails. And they do this publicly. I find it strange but it's how they roll.

Well, the terminology change is not a UA so don't worry about that! I slip up all the time too - and on DG terms- I lapse into ABC instead of ATC, Finance Adviser instead of COA, etc. Everyone does at some time.

I'm sorry, this is the most dramatic wailing over a terminology change I've ever seen in my entire life.

You "cannot support" it? Really? You "cannot support" referring to new members as... new members? Like, this is the most offensive thing ever to you? Because you're certainly posting like it is.

Please take a chill pill. Part of this discussion broke off into the "new member" and "baby" and "pledge" and "rushee" discussion.

I do not and will not support the change to "recruitment" and "new member" -- I won't use the terms in place of those I believe to be more accurate. Someone asked what would happen if one used the old terminology, and I stated that I was surmising, and implied I could be wrong. If you disagree with me, that's one thing, but it is your opinion, and opinion only, and it differs from mine. No need to get nasty.

Oh yes, please, take a stand over something as innocuous as a terminology change from rush to recruitment and pledge to new member. You're so brave to stand against it in the face of something that threatens everything you hold dear!

I tell you what, those jerks who wanted to make this change are nothing but commies! Socialism! Obamacare!

I think this is somewhat of a ritual? I don't think it's supposed to be known to the public that they are called pearls, at least that's the impression a friend of mine gave me. Could be wrong though!

But because I've only been in a sorority for a year and a half, I can't help but be curious - why was rush changed to recruitment and pledge to new member? Why were those words decided to be inappropriate? It just seems silly to me how much trouble people get in these days for accidentally uttering rush.

Believe it or not, this did cause major drama at a collegiate-alumnae event. An alumna who had been in charge of an open house event just before recruitment continued to refer to it as the Rush Open House, and would not change the marketing materials. There were actual tears, and accusations about socalism and communism. I believe Vietnam was invoked. It was dramatic and ridiculous.

Recruitment = actively seeking people who will meet specific criteria you are looking for (whether they had any interest in your organization at all) and persuading them to join your organization. NOT inviting everyone who pays a fee to Panhellenic and meets a GPA requirement to check you out.

Um, wow, no, that would be even more offensive than "baby" since it assumes you only pledge as a freshman. (Freshmen are referred to as "first years" at many schools) And since you already said you were a sophomore when you joined...

When we truly have "recruitment" and "new members" (i.e. women are initiated right away) I'll start using those terms...until then, as I said, they don't make any sense. I'm sure that there are people out there who are psycho about not calling someone a "pledge" (kind of what DGTess is talking about) but I tend to love to pull those kind of people's chains anyway.

Delta Delta Delta Pearls
 

The pansy, pearl and pine are all symbols in Delta Delta Delta. The explanation of these is public and included on many chapter websites.

New members are sometimes called pearls. The pearl in Tri Delta symbolizes the new member. The pearl grows and becomes a cherished jewel of great value and beauty.

I attended school after the new terms were adopted. However, on my campus, it seems there was always a mix of terms - in "formal" settings, it was recruitment and new members.. but "informal" settings it was sometimes rush and pledges.

Events were advertised as "recruitment," but girls would say they were "rushing". I even had a couple t-shirts that said "Rush AST" on them.

My nickname actually contains the word "pledge". And I just want to point out that I've never told someone that I'm "new membering a sorority".. it's pledging. I've always considered it such, and I wouldn't bat an eye if someone said that to me today.

I don't mind the word "recruitment" as much as I do "new member". Recruitment makes sense. New member doesn't.

And don't even get me started on the whole "baby" thing...

I love the therm "aspirant" (most used by NHPC if I'm correctly informed).

My group uses this term as well but in a different way.
Candidates for those signing up for "recruitment", aspirants for those going though their "new member/pledging period" and members for those who initiate.

"Baby Violet": A Plant, not a Person.

http://trisigmablog.org/?p=709

What excites me most about this is that AST's national president just posted this on Facebook :)

Do you call your NMs "violets"? I think that it is a nice term; no reason to add "baby".

Interesting...
I remember when I pledged KD (and we were still called pledges), Tri Sigma *(on my campus) had just started using the term 'New Member,' saying, "A pledge is a promise, not a person." How fitting that, *mumble, cough, mumble* years later, they've revamped the phrase.

Hey folks, you may want to get out your blood pressure meds. Apparently “recruitment” isn't a prefect term. Lafayette has a new vocabulary word:

What was once called rush has become Membership Exploration Week (MEW)

http://www.thelaf.com/news/sorority-...9#.UEkn7MjNnpM

The article ^^ has these tidbits, too:

“. . . This fall, 158 prospective sorority women showed up for MEW’s first day. About 138 women were matched with specific sororities on the final day of MEW. Only three could not be matched. The rest withdrew over the course of the week. . . “

Nah, won't work. They'll start calling the actives 'cats' and the PNMs/NMs 'kittens', and it'll be the whole baby animal debate all over again. There would be some comedic value in the chapters being referred to as 'cathouses', though.

Membership Exploration Week? It sounds like a porno movie.

Not only that, it completely negates the view that many groups hold that rush is 365 days a year and that formal rush is not the be-all and end-all of recruiting members.

It amuses me that the more politically correct schools try to be, the more they get the whole thing wrong.

So nice of President Umberger to reinvent recruitment and fraternity nomenclature for us. Maybe he'll rewrite our rituals for us next. :rolleyes:

Membership Exploration Week? It sounds like an event held at a children's museum.

No thanks.

Yes! "Recruitment Crush" just does not have the same ring to it.

Speaking of pledges, do they even wear pledge pins anymore?

We wore our pledge pin, but only to our new member meetings. Did sororities used to wear them all the time like fraternities do?

They did back in the dark ages when I was in college.

I loved wearing my pledge pin, which we "had" to, except during the three Ss - shower. sex, sleep.

At parties, we were told to wear the pin on the inside of the shirt, with the clasp bar on the outside. That way, you were still identified as a pledge (the school was small enough to know who you were pledging), so it worked out well. I remember I had surgery during my pledge period and asked my pledge mom if I had to wear my pin into surgery, lol. I think my pledgesister/a.k.a. next door neighbor held it for me.

Sigh. Good times.

I WANTED to wear my pledge pin all the time, but we couldn't. It was treated like our initiated sister badge - only to be worn with "badge attire." I was dressed up pretty much never, so outside of my pledging ceremony/initiation, I maybe wore it once or twice.

Yeah, we always wore them. (at least on my campus) I remember once going down to the cafeteria and realizing I'd forgotten to put on my pledge pin and going back to my room to get it because I didn't want the sisters to see me without it.

I am currently undergoing therapy for PTSD because the experience was so devastaing for me ;)