I miss longer pledge education periods. More time to learn the history, policies and procedures, and to learn about each other. Being required to make grades gives you a greater appreciation for achieving initiation.

DITTO and DITTO (harmless pranks, of course).

I miss collegians standing when alumnae walk in the room (we even used to stand for seniors!).

I miss pledge class "bolts". Did anyone else do those? The pledge class would plan a secret out-of-town trip, prank the sisters somehow before we left (toilet paper the hallway, leave a mess in the suite, lock their doors from the outside, mess with the showers or toilets in the bathroom, etc.), grab a few seniors and our Pledge Master out of their beds with no notice and BOLT! Best weekend of our lives! :)

We are one of the only states (Texas) that still does frills. This was my first year going through from the inside and it was SO exhausting, but so worth it when we got all our new girls. We do everything except the food, and it's awesome! I'm sure we'll catch up with everyone else eventually, but I love all the frills too!!

I just though about this. Since we do still use real candles, one of the houses' curtains caught on fire last year. No one got hurt thank goodness, but it was kind of scary and they had to finish pref at the student center. I'm really surprised we're still allowed to use real candles after that.

When I graduated, my chapter still observed this and I heard that a few others on my campus did as well. I thought it was really nice. When I was at GA State day a couple years ago, everyone stood for National Officers and I think they stood when the alumnae chapters entered as well, but I'm not sure. Very nice tradition indeed!

Rho Chis are just to guide you through the actual week of rush. As several women have pointed out, some schools do still have "Greek weekends" and teas and such for HS seniors. Plus, if you have deferred rush, the rules should be such that freshmen can get to know sorority women just like they would any other people on campus. Rho Chis haven't replaced any of that, and they don't tell you all the sororities are alike - they just want you to make the decision for yourself, rather than having the first sorority you walk into be the sorority you pledge (even if it isn't right for you).

When we pledged, God forbid one of our pins were stolen by a sorority girl or we would have to do something to earn it back from her. Well, my pledge class lost two pins in the SAME DAMN WEEK and we decided to march across campus (in our Oxfords and boxers, no less) chanting "A-L-P-H-A, S-I-G-M-A, Alpha Sig, Alpha Sig, ASA" and once we reached the chapter room, she was serenaded with the two songs that she had previously chosen (which we actually worked our asses off for and made REALLY good!) Ah, memories... The sororities just give the pins back nowadays... :(

"Good morning, Big Sister Gorgeous One, So Lovely to Behold!"

Ditto, NutBHair!

FYI...Chi Omega still does this (we never changed!)

So glad my sisters used to razz you.:D:D

We had something similar called Walkout. AWESOME!

I had forgotten the walkout . ..fun times!

They were our favorites, man. Always pickin' at us in some way and we LOVED it! LOL

Sisters are still greeted inside the house (as sister so and so) and on campus, but only by name... there is more to it but i can't write about that :p
It IS nice to hear and to have that respect, we also greet the new members in turn but not in the formal way they are supposed to.

I think it's respectful to greet sisters as Miss (first name). You do it on interviews at work and in many other social situations. Standing for alumnae and National Officers - always a thoughtful gesture.

Sister interviews/signatures -how else are you going to get to know each sister? Imagine being able to meet every sister of your entire soririty, even for 15 minutes... it's very cool. Now, in chapters of 100+ girls, I imagine that's tough, but maybe they can do tandem interviews for 5 minutes. It was a great way to learn stuff you might not know otherwise, and forge new relationships.

I remember this! "One stands out of respect for the pin she wears!"

As Pledge Mother, I was pranked pretty well. The most memorable was when a few of us had stayed up 18 hours for a horror film festival (never again!!). One of the movies was Psycho. The pledges put cherry jello in my shower head, and needless to say, I thought it was blood pouring out of my shower!!

Nutbrnhair, I've always wondered how Chi Omega gets around the shorter New Member period with the grades. We use mid-term grades.

Wow, that's kind of an extreme view DGTess. I'll agree with you that some of the PNM vs rushee stuff is pretty lame...I mean, it is what it is. Sorority RUSH. Pledging. Initiation. Lifetime Membership. But in the big picture, all the NPC groups are pretty much the same at the national/international level, and they all offer very similar programming and membership opportunities. Each individual chapter and the individual members are unique and create their own chapter culture at any given time. I don't think there's any less opportunities for leadership or an expectation to conform particularly. just curious why you feel that way!

I repeat .... the need to make grades prior to initiation.

At my campus the guys still sing to us to get their pins back. My chapter's already stolen atleast one pin from 4 of the 7 fraternities on campus so they have a lot of singing to do! I don't think we get to pick the songs but they do come in their boxers and get on one knee to sing. It's pretty funny!

We were an odd pledge class... we looked forward to walking into a room of screaming girls. Go figure. :rolleyes:

heh, we don't take pins (they're kinda hard to get) but pledge books/manuals are like GOLD on our campus. The tradition of stealing/obtaining books is really, really strong. There is usually a "price" to be paid to get them back (usually a doughnut or a song). Certain fraternity books have a very, very high price on their heads (our brother fraternity being one of them). It's mostly in jest, but the boys take it a bit too seriously sometimes. The "rule" is that it has to be the pledge's error. It can't be taken if, say, the pledge hands it to a fraternity man to get his chapter information. It can't be taken if it is in a bag. However, if she leaves it wide open on a cafeteria table while she goes and chats to someone on the other side...fair game.

I think TKE did this at my school but I don't remember hearing much about it. Though, I did see a brother smear his leftover Denny's in a plege's book once for not remembering some fact about their org - now THAT was funny. He walked out of Denny's dripping eggs and grits out of his book!

How do the fraternities know you were the group that stole it? Do you send a ransom note? I have these silly visions of a fraternity pin laying on a daily news paper wearing a itty bitty blind fold.

You can check out this post on my blog for a fuller explanation. It's not complete - I could probably write a book. The issue is indicative of the larger society. Look at the people crying "We can't use real candles" when in fact one person says they used candles, had a fire, and dealt. These are people who learn lessons, and the lesson isn't "don't use candles", it's "be careful with fire." Those are leadership lessons.

When my daughter when to University of Texas at Austin, rushees were required to PAY for the privilege of attending SIXTEEN houses on one day. Tell me she's going to remember squat? She and I decided it was an asinine system, and she's happily GDI.

"au contraire mon frere" -- or, I guess in this case, "ma soeur de NPC."

Our organizations have similarities on the inter/national level, but I see significant differences (which are fine with me, BTW)

I think these days it's more - multiple chapters had incidents with fire and their insurance companies said they require a no-fire policy as part of their coverage. Same thing with many of the other restrictions.

NutBrn, I meant all our groups are similar in the general sense that all of our National/Int'l officers share the same challenges in promoting scholarship, leadership, service and sisterhood among their membership and dealing with practical matters such as finances, liability, litigation, anti-Greek administrations, etc. Obviously each NPC group has a unique, rich and wonderful tradition and history loved and cherished by her own sisters.

Did you mean something different?

First off, as for the candles, several schools/landlords are the ones that have the policies - I know we rented from a regular landlord, and we weren't supposed to have any open flames at all. It was in our lease. Some chapters that aren't housed hold rituals in classrooms or all purpose rooms - these buildings are usually nonsmoking and any flame at all would have the sprinklers going off.

In other words, sometimes it isn't the sorority making the no-candle rules.

Tess, I read your post, and while I understand your frustration with people not taking responsibility for their own actions, I really don't understand your railing at some of the things you are. Dancing With the Stars? It's a silly TV show. I don't think anyone feels they are being "mind controlled" if there's a reminder to vote for Marie Osmond because she's a Mu Nu. Would I vote for a sister who was running for homecoming queen? Yes, because she's not just a sister, she's my friend. I want my friend to win a contest she enters. There are several discussions on here about "the Machine" but that is most assuredly the exception, not the rule.

There was a large discussion on here about a sorority member (I think she was a KD) running for political office in Washington, and several of her sisters said that while they supported the fact that she was active politically, they didn't agree with her politics.

Several of my sisters are members of the Fraternal Caucus group - it's a lobbying organization. They certainly do not want everyone to think the same way. If that was the case, the sisters I know wouldn't be involved with it.

And I am sorry that you feel that meeting all the sororities is an "asinine system." Many women go through this process, and they DO remember who they liked and who they didn't. I realize that coming from a very small chapter this is a bit mind-boggling, but every school is different. If you wanted your daughter to have the kind of Greek experience you did, you shouldn't have sent her to UT.

Political activism isn't always a sign of leadership. I think (and I think DA would probably back me up on this) that in the "good old days" of protests and marching, there were just as many people there trying to hook up as there were people devoted to the cause..."what's your phone number?" in between "power to the people!" Sadly, a lot of women who are involved in feminist groups in college are told - NOT by the sororities, but by the "feminist" groups - that involvement in both is not possible.

And sometimes it is the sorority... my GLO's policy on candles comes directly from nationals and applies to chapters that are both housed and unhoused. It is even part of the risk management chairman's materials direct from the GLO to make sure every chapter complies...

I'm not denying that.

I'm just saying that there ARE times when the national sorority has nothing to do with it. There are lots of instances on here where collegians or alums say "our nationals didn't let us do so and so" and nationals had nothing to do with it...it was a chapter bylaw, or a tradition, or something the school didn't allow. Kind of along the same lines of blaming the "brothel law" for the lack of sorority houses when no such law exists. Everyone seemed to be piling on nationals for not "letting" them do things whether or not the national was really the one who made the rule.

Yes, the no flame mandate is straight from Headquarters but it was set with insurance and safety in mind. Sure I miss the ambiance of real candles during recruitment and ritual, but I'd much rather have a standing house and all the members safe than a little ambiance.

See my post on insurance above. It's not just housed members who are covered in the insurance policy.

Yeah, I understand the logic and liability-avoiding reasons (just like with many of the restrictions that inevitably have to exist)... I'm just saying that I miss it and it is too bad that we couldn't just solve the problem some other way than a complete ban. I have no ideas as far as what that would be, but I'm definitely jealous of the GPBs' real candles!

As a campus Greek Advisor I get that ALL THE TIME! Except in my case, it's "the college won't let us..." Actually, if they were familiar with their organization's policies and governing documents, they'd know that the school had nothing to do with the rule (whatever it is). I call chapter officers out on that all the time! (there are times when sorority members complain to me about a rule that I've never heard of before...come to find out, the rule is in the chapter bylaws and the chapter leadership blames it on ME when they are reviewing bylaws with the chapter members).

Our campus DOES have the "no candles" rule..but it applies to everyone in any campus property. The sorority chapters have found places off campus to do initiation instead (which gives them a better room in my opinion).

PsychTau

"And I am sorry that you feel that meeting all the sororities is an "asinine system." Many women go through this process, and they DO remember who they liked and who they didn't. I realize that coming from a very small chapter this is a bit mind-boggling, but every school is different. If you wanted your daughter to have the kind of Greek experience you did, you shouldn't have sent her to UT."

I didn't SEND her to UT. She CHOSE UT. I raised her to make choices and live with her decisions.

Do the Theta Chis (or anyone else) still host Toilet Races? (go carts built out of toilets)

That was one of my favorite events. They usually had a concert tied to the event- the first time I went to a punk rock concert it was X in the parking lot at Long Beach State! and I'm pretty sure that Gwen Stefani sang at one of those concerts before she was famous. maybe someone else will remember that one....

When I left my chapter we still had the tradition of standing when alumnae walked into the room and I always thought it was a really nice show of respect, but since graduating I haven't found another chapter where they still do that.

I also miss the rush skits, sneaking into fraternity houses to steal their composites and scavenger hunts (which weren't allowed when I was a member but we did them anyway.) We also had a really fun tradition in my chapter where the seniors would take the juniors out at the end of the year for a sort of "senior initiation" night. The senior initiation "ritual" was probably the best kept secret in our chapter because no one wanted to spoil it for the younger classes, but it was always a ton of fun.

The year after I graduated, my sisters had a chapter consultant come in who basically threw out all of our chapter traditions because they were "hazing." We used to have a tradition for big sis revealing where the big sis would buy two sets of matching pajamas, one for herself, one for her little and the little would have to search the house to find her new big. Apparently that was too much like a scavenger hunt. My friend was the pledge mom that term and came up with a number of alternate ideas that were all rejected by the CC so the only thing they were allowed to do was a sort of candle passing.

The CC also banned study table hours because apparently it was hazing that we had a system where the number of hours you had to do was determined by your previous term's grades instead of making everyone do the same number of hours (really you'd think it'd make sense to have the girl with a 2.2 do more hours than the one with a 4.0 but apparently not... :rolleyes:)

And we had a system of priority points that determined room assignments and parking, based on involvement in the chapter, campus activities and grades. If you had enough points, you could use them for something we called "priviledged absences" where you could opt out of informal chapter meetings and minor events, which we thought was a fabulous reward for people who had put a lot of time and effort into the chapter. Apparently that wasn't allowed either. :mad: I'm not bitter, not at all...

Your WIU Chapter (Delta Sigma, I think) stood for Alum when I was there a few years ago. I'm pretty sure they still do.

As I was looking up information on the website for another thread, I came across a tradition that my chapter doesn't do.

One of our founders, Ida Houghton, and her mother arranged the first Alpha Phi banquet following initiation.

I'd like to see that revived. It would be nice to have a sit down meal with my sisters after initiation.

Epchick,

We do the banquet of sorts after initiation. When my colony got its chapter, it was a huge deal, but we still take the new initiates to a nice restaurant and do a banquet.

Canadian