aggieaxo, that's a great idea for new members!!

We get ribbons as part of our pinning ceremony.

As for wearing them on campus, as honeychile said, if everyone in the chapter doesn't do it, it's considered hazing. I know that seems silly when we are talking about a few pieces of ribbon 2-3" long, but I'm thinking about what ADPi Conniebama said about long homecoming style ribbons. Some people could get out of hand with it and make it look foolish. Of course this isn't the idea to begin with - it's to show pride in the our chapters by wearing our colors.

We always had a cow bell tied to the end of one of the shorter ribbons on our homecoming mums. I don't know if this was a Texas thing or not, but I can just picture Suzy New Member walking through the Quad with double blue and gold ribbons down to her ankle with a giant cow bell attached. :eek:

I don't understand why ribbons would be considered hazing if actives didn't wear them. On my campus at least, new members are given ribbons so that they can wear them whenever they want as opposed to their nm pins that they can only wear when they dress up. If it's like an nm pin basically, then how would it be hazing?

Under ADPi policies, requiring a new member to wear this ribbon throughout their new member period would be seen as hazing.

ETA: Even making it noncompulsory would still considered hazing for us. It has to be the entire chapter participating or none at all. We can't single out the new members for anything outside of their executive board and internationally approved new member education planning outline for their chapter. I can see where other groups would see this as extreme, but it's an international policy for the sorority.

We got hints about our big in our pledge pocket too! And our reveal was really fun. After dinner, each pledge was given a piece of yarn. She had to go to the top of the stairs in the house and unravel her yarn. It was strung ALL around the house-- and intermingled with the other pledge's yarn. You can just imagine the chaos!

You followed the yarn all the way to the dining room where it was attached to a balloon. When you popped the balloon, you found a slip of paper with the name of your big inside!

I thought it isn't mandatory.

Our ribbons are given as part of ritual and we encourage them to be worn every day until women are initiated and recieve their badge. The pledge pin is given about a week after the ribbons. Every active had ribbons and they were worn for chapter founding, nat'l founding, wed spirit days and other important events along w/your badge. I can't imagine if you give women the ribbons, as part of ritual or just bid acceptance, and encourage (not require) them to wear them as a symobl of their membership that this can be hazing.

From what I was told, the ribbons go back to pre-formal rush nonsense when 'rush' literally ment rushing the new freshman women from the train, bus, whatever, back to your house to be pledged. The ribbons were put on while you were rounding women up so you could tell where women were supposed to be going. With every org having different colors, it made it easy to distinguish who your ribbonees were. Maybe this is a myth but that is how I understood the ribboning to have started, obviously, since then it has taken on meaning for some chapters/orgs.

When our NM's (AXiD) are required to wear their pin and colors the initiated sisters are required to wear their pin as well. This way no one is doing something the other isn't. For us it's not a matter of hazing fears, but respect. I'm not sure if AXiD's nationally follow this, but they should (in my opinion).

When I pledged my women's music fraternity we had to wear our pins, etc throughout the whole semester because it was built into the "pledge" program. Personally, it drove me nuts! The reason is this.....if I forgot them one day, it wouldn't be an "oops! it's ok, remember them tomorrow" it would be let every sister see your book to doc you stars! God forbid hack someone off and they give you a dot! That, to me, was hazing.....then again, had I joined my NPC first, I probably would have know that WAS hazing and would have put my foot down. My music fraternity experience is why I'm so adament on NO hazing and ultimately do not support them as an alumna.

I don't think any chapter made it MANDATORY to wear the ribbons. If you didn't want to, you didn't do it. Of course, nobody didn't wear them! Everyone wanted people to see where they'd gone. Not to mention, as one of the very first 'gifts' from your GLO, it was something that was very special!

Two of the sororities on my campus do this--Phi Mu and Kappa Delta. The KD's wore theirs like on their bras or something because the fraternities would steal them from them. I don't know, we didn't really have an issue with that. I thought, that wearing that ribbon was SOO important. If I would forget to put it on and realize it when I was outside of my classroom, I would walk back to my room and put it on even if that mean I would be late. I guess I have always been a little enthusiastic about this whole Phi Mu thing :)

http://members.ispwest.com/navane/GPhiBbadge.jpg



Ask and you shall receive! I posted a photo of my badge and my pledge ribbons. Of course, the ribbons look huge, but that's only because it's a close up photo of the badge. I hope this helps you picture what we're talking about.


.....Kelly :)

http://www.alphaxidelta.org/grafx/colors.gif

Ooh! Here's a better picture courtesy of the Alpha Xi Delta website. The ribbons shown here appear to be a little wider than normal; but you get the idea.


.....Kelly :)

that's what they look like!!! our new members were given the ribbons in a pinning ceremony-they were not told they had to wear the ribbons afterward. the day after they were formally pledged and received their pledge pins. everyone wore the bid day shirt to class after bid day-they were not "made" to do so.

frankly, i think some of this hazing pc stuff is sheer bunk. it should apply to those things that would humiliate, endanger or degrade
a new member. soon, we may not be able to give bid day goodie bags and flowers to the new members because only new members receive them and that would be singling them out. gheesh!!

Or you'll have to initiate them on bid day because actives will be initiated and can wear their badges and NM's can't and this too will be singling them out.