Hmmm now I have to agree with what you all have said. I didn't think that earlier. But I do wonder what the other African American women who pledged & initiated with NPC groups on campus would think now. It would be nice to hear their stories of recruitment too (of course if they wanted to share). And why didn't the author do some research? There are at least 3 or 4 African American women currently in other NPC groups. The first African American woman I know of pledged when I was sophomore in 1997. Then in the early 2000s there were more women who joined NPC groups.

ETA: Hopefully I didn't swerve this thread too much...

I remember an AA girl came through my sophomore year which would have been 1991- I could be wrong but I want to say she was the first AA to ever participate in formal recruitment- (Sigma Chi pledged the first AA male that year as well I believe)--- we were told prior to the beginning of recruitment that she had "no intentions" of pledging an NPC group but wanted to go through for the experience. I had the pleasure of rushing her during "Coke Round"- (I think this is now philanthropy)- and was quite honestly CRUSHED when, as promised, she dropped out of recruitment right afterwards (prior to skit). I know for a fact that we as well as my roommates sorority had her on our invite lists for skit. She ended up pledging AKA -- I lost touch with her after that but always wondered why she went through if she had no intention of pledging and if she ever regretted not finishing and seeing where she would have ended up… or if she was completely happy just to see how NPC worked and knew deep down her "home" was with an NPHC.

Anyway- yes the thing that made me mad with this article was the implication that because none of the other girls had pledged one of the perceived "top" then it didn't really count… however I was very interested in learning that "5 of the traditionally black organizations had pledged white members"- (direct quote from article)- I guess I had never thought about the "reverse" before- a white individual breaking into a traditionally AA organization.

Now lane swerving back- I can't even begin to imagine pref being cut down from 3 to 2- there were 10 sororities there back when I came through and we still preffed 3-- I only see chaos, not to mention brutal cuts, if this is reduced to 2… (then again it is a whole new game since I went through) :-)

Kimbrely Dandridge who pledged Phi Mu in 2010 did many interviews about her experience.

http://acwhittaker.wordpress.com/201...s-in-disarray/

Big news! Happy to report that my DD was just named a Gamma Chi for fall recruitment. Seems like just yesterday she was a PNM. Hotty Toddy!

Congratulations!

Please note as of today, the calendar information and dates in the first post on this thread have been updated to reflect current and new information.

That's awesome! She will get to experience recruitment from a completely different point of view!

I might need to change my user name now that my DD has decided to go to Ole Miss. Because the date for Ice Water Teas has moved to the beginning of Recruitment will they have cuts after this round and will the dress change from nikes and t- shirts to something more dressy?

We know that much like in cop shows on TV, articles written about sororities are often in the range of misleading to wrong, whether well-intentioned or not. I wrote off the "game changer" thing as naivete or possibly a KD on the newspaper staff who has an inflated sense of self.

My perception has been, while there are very few women of color in NPC chapters at Ole Miss, it is not due necessarily to discrimination. You can't pledge girls who aren't there!

And why aren't they there?

That's not my place to say. I'm sure the NPHC chapters are a very strong draw. There is probably a stigma around women of color even trying to rush at a school like this. I would imagine the freakishly small number of women of color in the chapters now feels a lot like tokenism to the girls contemplating their choices (it's not my place to determine what is or is not tokenism because I don't know these women). I think the system could do a better job at getting a diverse group of girls to rush, and this badly written article was probably an effort in that direction. This isn't major league baseball where it only took 1 guy and then the floodgates opened. It's going to take time and effort because joining a sorority, as we all know is about friendships and a feeling of belonging, not meeting racial quotas or looking good on paper.

Perhaps we need a second Ole Miss thread for the diversity discussion.

A dear friend has presented me with a terrible quandry. Yes, I've given the snowflake talk.

PNM is absolutely lovely, gorgeous even, OOS, good family, well behaved, tons of activities, Greeks all over the family tree, and a 2.7 to 2.8 GPA. What should they do? To rush Ole Miss or not rush Ole Miss? If not now, when? And if not Ole Miss where?

GO

How about SMU where they have deferred rush and she can have a semester to pull her QPA out of the toilet?

Or, um, does she just not have the intellectual capacity?

My first question for your quandry-ridden PNM is this: why is her GPA where it is? Was she a slacker in high school? Are there extenuating circumstances that can be explained in a recommendation? Or is that simply her trying her hardest? I think the solution to her problem will change depending on why her GPA is so low, but deferred rush does sound like a good idea for her, especially if she was involved enough in high school to have a good resume otherwise.