We loved to wear ours. We were proud to be Pi Phis and Greeks. The first week, all the sororities' NMs wore pledge ribbons in our colors behind our pledge pins.

We wore ours (with ribbons underneath of course) M-F 9-5 (or whenever you were done with school). That was pretty standard for all the sororities on campus. We also were allowed/supposed to wear it with everything - thank God. DZs had to wear theirs with dress pants or skirts only (in other words they had to dress up for school for 6 weeks) so that made me certain that DZ and I were not meant to be. ;)

I had the pre-op nurse tape over mine, just like a wedding band!

We all are, KR, we all are.

And none of that M-F bit, either - we were expected to wear them at all times! Oh, the humanity!

Same here!

The thought of wearing it all the time is nice, but I personally like that we wear it just when we are dressed up. I generally went to class in yoga pants, t-shirt and hoodie. My pledge pin deserved more than that. You can represent your org by wearing a t-shirt, carrying a bag, wearing jewelry with letters/colors/symbols, etc.

Back in the day . . . we wore our pledge pins when we were dressed up (mostly for pledge meetings and chapter functions). Otherwise, we wore ribbon pins in our sorority colors (all of the 15 chapters did that); and on 2 days of the week, we had to wear our pledge t-shirts with our letters on the front and first names on the back. Also had to have our pledge notebook with us at all times, so we didn't get demerits from the actives.

Ohhhh...in the old days, we wore our pledge pins every day. Before we got our pledge pins, we wore the ribbons. Once we got our pledge pins, we had to wear our pledge ribbons on our bra straps LOL I'm currently seeking therapy KIDDING!!!

Not always. Not my lane, I know, but our probationary members cannot wear letters, and I seem to remember from past conversations about that here that at least some NPC groups may have a similar rule. I know that some have a rule (as do we) that PMs/pledges/NMs can't wear anything with the org's coat of arms.

The thing in my mind that distinguishes a pledge/NM pin from other things (like wearing colors) is that it doesn't just represent the org, it specifically symbolizes the wearer's place and role in the org. Different orgs may reach different conclusions about whether that's a good thing or a bad thing.

We wore ribbons until we received our pledge pins in our pledge ceremony (a week after bid day)

I agree with you. While we wore them all the time, I think it makes sense to treat it like our badge.

That's one of the most vexing terms for me. Back when I was a pledge, I didn't mind being called a pledge because, well, I WAS a pledge. I looked forward to going through initiation and gaining the right to be called "sister". I don't like that things have become so PC that pledges don't have to "earn" their sisterhood.***

It reminds me of how Maryland's governor Martin O'Malley insists on calling illegal immigrants "New Americans".

I mean, you can bake half a dozen baseballs and call them biscuits, but they'll still be baseballs. Unless they're biscuits I baked. In which case they will actually be biscuits but will taste more like baseballs.

***by "earning their sisterhood", I don't mean having to dress identically and walk together through campus, submitting to being forced to drink and being dumped somewhere and having to find a way home or any other demeaning or dangerous acts we know to be hazing. I'm talking about things like I had to do like learning about our Founders and our history, learning a little about other sororities, going to mandatory study hours and weekly meetings.

LOL!

Right, sorry, I wasn't 100% clear. I am aware that there are GLOs that don't allow NMs to wear certain things. This is why I said letters/colors/symbols but I guess that would have made more sense if I said letters or colors or symbols. The slashes were ors, not ands. I know that different groups have different rules.

I'm with you with your second point!

:)

Worth repeating! (Excellent article -- I re-tweeted it!)

I know that it has been ruled as a form of "hazing" at certain schools. I was not allowed to wear letters until I was initiated and knew what they stood for while the girls this year received their letters on Bid Day. Personally, I think it gave you a sense of appreciation for your organization.

*facepalm* Because everyone should always have the same privileges all the time. It's not demeaning to not let our MIT's not wear letters simply because initiated sisters can. Frankly, I think the wait makes it more special, like you've actually accomplished something with the history you've learned and the time you've spent with the chapter.

We do, however, make bags with letters on them for our new girls so that they have something, since we don't give them shirts of any kind when they pledge.

When I was in college in the mid 80s sorority women wore their pledge pins every day, not just on the days when they had chapter meetings. Not being Greek myself, I always found it fun to try to figure out which group a woman pledged just by her pin - especially since so many of the pledge pins were very different from the initiated members' pins.

Theta, Pi Phi and I believe AEPhi don't allow NMs to wear letters until initiation. Are there any other NPC groups that have that stipulation?

What? I highly doubt that's a national rule for Theta and Pi Phi. Really?

Obviously only members of those GLOs can answer this definitively, but I know that at my school Thetas and Pi Phis were not allowed to wear letters prior to initiation.

I had a nice pledge pin and then one that our educators made with two color ribbons. Those HAD to be worn at all times and on your outer layer, so you'd have to move it from your hoodie to your t-shirt if you took your hoodie off. Our school wanted us to get rid of ribbons/pins for all orgs because they considered it hazing...they considered everything hazing. I don't remember anybody being called "baby" anything while I was still a student but apparently other D Phi E chapters say things like "baby unicorns".

The Pi Phis that I knew could wear the name "Pi Beta Phi" or "Pi Phi" as pledges, but could not wear the greek letters until they initiated.

You are correct. That happened last year.

As for baby ladybugs, having recently researched one, ick! Those are pretty ugly baby bugs. I'm also not sure when it happened, but pearls is now considered a "slang" and we have moved onto new members.

The hardest part of changing terminology all the time is that it becomes difficult for the new members and alumnae to have intergenerational conversations and actually know what everyone is talking about!

There are some chapters of ADPi who insist that they can only order pins with pearls and blue stones (blue topaz, aquamarine, sapphires). This is NOT an edict from EO - it's a chapter tradition. Two very different things!

My daughter is a Theta and cannot wear the actual letters until after initiation. Her gifts on bid day just said Theta.

I do not know if this is still the tradition, but when I was a pledge, we were not allowed to wear the Tri Delta Crest until we were initiated.

I think the crest is universal - NOBODY can or should wear the crest unless they are full sisters.

I remember being a little worried last year when my sister sent me a text message saying "If one more person calls me a baby bunny I am going to punch them in the face!"

Luckily she didn't pinch any of her new sisters :)

I think you're right, but there's something about that that always baffles me -- why do some people consider it bad, or even hazing, to say that members who haven't been initiated yet can't wear letters, yet they don't raise the same argument about not letting pledges/new members wear coats of arms? No, the pledge/NM doesn't know what the arms mean, but they don't know what the letters mean either. I don't see any difference.

Not always true.

Alpha Sigma Alpha and Alpha Sigma Tau both have open mottoes that correspond to their Greek letters, so you can't say that pledges "don't know what they mean." Anyone looking at the banner below the crests would know what the letters mean. (Whether they mean MORE than that may or may not be another story.) There may be other groups that have open mottos too, but those are the two I thought of off the top of my head.

This is why I consider it silly when I hear my sisters saying pledges should not wear letters - but I would never presume to tell anyone else the same thing. I have no idea what their letters mean or don't mean. If Theta has ritual saying they shouldn't be worn until after initiation, it's offensive if a school or anyone else tells them they should do things differently.

To look at it in a purely practical sense, there is usually too much imagery on a crest to explain what it all means on bid day/whenever you pin in your pledges.

Back in the day, our Pi Phis were not allowed to wear the Beta. They couldn't even spell it out. Their bid day shirts always had Pi Phi in script. I think they may have changed with the script now. I believe, I have seen girls from campus with bid day shirts with beta written out, but have been told they still are not allowed to wear the greek Pi Beta Phi letters until initiation.

A friend of mine is a Tri Sigma, and apparently at their school they call their new members "Baby Sailboats." I didn't realize a Sailboat could be a baby, but I chose not to point that out.

LOL! Two chapters at GMU have used "babies" on FB this year already. You would think with all of the talk about it over the past couple years, their advisors would have said something to their chapters by now. :rolleyes:

Perhaps they should just call them Sunfish or AquaFins?

You know, it's funny, ZTA does not prevent NMs from wearing letters (they cannot wear the crest until initiated), but in my chapter it seems like NMs don't WANT to wear them til initiation. Maybe it's because they get so many as gifts then. :-)

If it's a campus tradition, regardless of what your HQ or bylaws say, most people will follow along by what the rest of campus does.

Oh, PLEASE don't call them dinghies!!

I just saw a pic online that has 2 girls (I won't say from which sorority) holding a poster that reads:

"No maybes.. ABC has the hottest babies!"

Does anyone else find this saying disturbing?

Or maybe dingheys? :)

And DZ pledges can be hatchlings!

Maybe my group can start calling alumnae "cougars"!

Very true, and I should have (1) remembered that, and (2) qualified my bafflement as relating only to those organizations where pledges do not know any meaning for the letters -- in other words, where the letters and the coat of arms are on equal footing in terms of pledges not knowing what they mean and in terms of that information not coming until initiation. That's what I was really getting at -- if pledges do not know either the meaning of the letters or the meaning of the coat of arms (or whatever other symbol), I'm a little baffled when some people say it's wrong, or even hazing, to tell them they can't wear one (letters) but accept telling them they can't wear the other (arms).

To be clear, absolutely any group can and should have whatever policy they think is appropriate, and no other GLO, campus or non-member should question or criticize that. What raises my eyebrows a little is when it's described as "hazing" not to let pledges/NMs wear letters. It raises my eyebrows both because I think it can imply that those groups who do things differently might be hazing, and because if it's hazing not to let pledges wear letters, why isn't it also hazing not to let them wear the coat of arms? There just seems to be a logical inconsistency there -- again, if the justification about not wearing the arms is that pledges don't know what they mean and if letters and arms are the same in terms of what pledges do or don't know about them.

Sure, but on top of that, the explanation is often part of the initiation ritual that only initiated brothers/sisters know. It's always been my sense that's how it is for most groups.


Back on topic, I do feel the need to point out that my own fraternity did in the early days informally call new members (and new chapters) "kittens." It was all part of the pervasive cat symbolism reflected in my username.