Bid Day
 

The next morning I couldn’t wait to get to the Student Union to see if I got a bid! I got in line and couldn’t stop fidgeting until it was my turn. I told the girl at the table my name. She looked in the card file and pulled out an envelope. Yay! I had a bid. I ran out into the hallway and opened the envelope. There was a card inside with an etching of a sorority house. I knew immediately which one is was. It was…….








































Not the end of the story.

Nope, not by a long-shot.












I had received a bid to http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a3...terskiing2.jpgWater Skiing! I was so excited I was jumping up and down. I read the card and it said to call the chapter house right away. I bolted back to the lounge.

http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a3...tory-irene.jpg“Irene” had been at Water Skiing’s Preference too but I had lost track of her as the rushees were leaving the house. I wanted to call her too. Oh! I also had to call Suzanne.

I grabbed the hall phone and nervously dialed the phone number on my bid card. A girl picked up and said, “Hello, this is Water Skiing!” I timidly said, “Hi. This is Leslie _____.” I heard her shout my name out and could hear a crowd of girls in the background cheering and clapping. I giggled. They were so sweet! She told me to come down to the chapter house at a certain time that afternoon.

I got off the phone and dashed into the lounge to change clothes and find Irene’s phone number. I came out and was just about to pick up the hall phone when Robin from Soccer stepped out of the elevator. I was surprised to see her. She said, “Leslie, what happened?!” I felt horrible. “Oh, Robin.” I looked down at the floor and quietly said, “I’m not Jewish.” I looked up to see her face was a cold mask of fury. She turned on her heel and was back in the elevator before I knew it. I ran after her, “Robin, wait!” She wouldn’t even look at me as the elevator doors closed.

It took me a while to recover from that uncomfortable scene. I finally grabbed the phone and called Suzannehttp://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a3...ry-suzanne.jpg. She had received a bid from Croquethttp://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a3...h-croquet3.jpg and was absolutely thrilled. I was happy for her. Croquet was a wonderful house. She was happy for me and my bid to Water Skiing. Next, I called Irene. She had received a bid to Water Skiing too! I asked her if she had called them. She disinterestedly said she hadn’t. (Funny, it never occurred to me until writing this that perhaps Water Skiing hadn’t been her first choice.) I told her to call them right away. I knew she would love hearing the cheers in the background.

Later, Irene and I met up and headed over to the Water Skiing chapter house. We were greeted with hugs and laughter. The pledges all got these adorable hats. We took turns introducing ourselves to the entire chapter, which included telling them if we had eligible brothers. :p I met a lot of my pledge sisters and just loved them. I was blissfully happy.





I had no idea what drama was yet to come.

Uh oh! DRAMA.....a word synonymous with large groups of women spending loads of time together.

I CAN'T WAIT!!! (Partly because I'm really nosy and can sometimes be really overdramatic :rolleyes:)

Bring on the twist, Buttonz-style!

I am 99.9% sure I know who water skiing is. That kind of sucks that Robin stalked you to find out why you didn't pick them. Awkward!

Can't believe Robin came looking for you.:mad: can't wait to hear the final chapter of this wonderful story!!!

See, I wondered if perhaps there was more to it than a straight up stalking. I wondering if there were some bid day shenanigans perhaps.

I'm wondering if Robin's cold look of fury wasn't perhaps directed at someone else.

But of course, that's the beauty of the well timed cliff-hanger ending with promise of a twist.

That's what I'm thinking.

It really was awkward to see her that day. At the time I didn't know that that was kind of inappropriate. But, no, she was very angry with me.

For months afterwards I would be somewhere on campus and girls would start talking loudly or pointing at me and saying things like, "she's so ugly!" I would turn around and notice that they were looking at me. Then I would see the letters they were wearing. Soccer.

I honestly can't blame them though. Robin had clearly misunderstood me. I think she took my response to mean that I didn't like them and wouldn't join them because they were Jewish. Not that I felt like I didn't belong because I wasn't Jewish. Looking at it that way, my comment must have seemed very insulting and anti-semitic.

I harbor no ill-will towards them at all. In fact, to this day I have a soft-spot in my heart for that particular NPC.

I'm so intrigued by all the plot twists...can't wait to hear what happens next.

(If Kappa Delta wasn't Water Skiing or Soccer, then I can't even begin to imagine what's coming up next... :eek: Or how the girl from the bus ride plays into the story, if at all.)


Also, I'm somewhat intrigued to learn which chapter was Alpha Gam...I've never heard anything about our former Maryland chapter, as it closed in 1992 (the year I pledged). At first I thought perhaps it was fishing, but since 4 chapters closed between 91-93 I suppose its possible that fishing could have been one of the others too. :confused: Will be interesting to hear! Not as intriguing as all the plot twists, of course, but still something that piques my curiosity. ;)

Oh, you poor thing! That must have been horrible...did things between you and Robin/the rest of Soccer ever get resolved?

I don't know how someone would misinterpret that. If you wouldn't join a chapter because they are Jewish, you wouldn't go to their preference. Obviously, Leslie liked them a lot because they got along well and she went to their preference.

Despite the fact that they may have been upset with you, it still doesn't justify the actions of those individuals. Not to mention that it reflects poorly upon their chapter, which is a shame since I'm sure they were acting individually and Soccer as a whole wouldn't have approved of their actions. :(

That really is weird and does, as VioletPretty I think said, suck. Their whole reaction to it seems strange from her visit to the appalling junior-high-level campus behavior of the group.

I don't know how I would feel if someone told me they wouldn't join my group because of my faith and maybe that would change my outlook, but I can't imagine/remember being mad at someone who preffed my group but ended up somewhere else instead, especially angry to the point of going to see her and asking her about it.

I'll have to go back and look. Did you even know Robin before rush?

As am I.

So, do go on :)

C'mon, don't leave us hanging now!!! Update! Update! Update!

/mini-hijack (sorry)

Are AEPhi and SDT the only 2 sororities considered historically Jewish? I thought DPhiE was too (I know that it was founded by Jewish women and the only DPhiE I ever knew personally was Jewish as well). Just curious...

/end hijack

A lot of girls come to my school and assume they'll be DPhiE because they're Jewish-then they meet the chapter! Their all Hispanic and far from the "national stereotype". They are also one of DPhiE's largest chapters! After every recruitment we always hear the story "I'm Jewish so I was going to be a DPhiE, but..."!

Did she say in this thread if it is nationally Jewish or just happens to be Jewish? Because there are few more sororities at Maryland that are at least half Jewish other than AEPhi and SDT.

My SAI little, as I have said a few times, is an SDT legacy. She told me yesterday that while SDT is no longer a "jewish only" sorority, every chapter has to be completely one way or the other-fully jewish membership or fully non jewish membership. I don't know how true that is....but, I would assume she is right because her info came right from a sister.

So what if an SDT legacy came through recruitment at a school where the SDT chapter was so-called "non-Jewish"; would that mean she couldn't receive a bid/pledge there? That doesn't seem fair.

I believe that DPhiE was founded as one of the only non-secretarian sororities, so they weren't specifically founded as one of the historically Jewish sororities.

I suppose on some campuses they may have a higher proportion of Jewish sisters than other groups (can't say for sure - we didn't have DPhiE on my campus), but religion wasn't a basis of their founding.

(DPhiE sisters - correct me if I made any errors regarding your history. :))

I doubt that. That is blatant discrimination. Now, GLOs have the right to choose their members, but that scenario seems unlikely. There are non-Jewish members of SDT at Maryland, althought it is predominantly Jewish. I know at other schools, SDT isn't locally Jewish, but it wouldn't make sense that they'd be like "sorry, we can't take you even though you are a legacy to a "Jewish" chapter of SDT, this is a non-Jewish chapter." Maybe she was just referring to the fact that SDT is very Jewish at some campuses, diverse at others, and happens to have few if any Jewish women at others.

"Sigma Delta Tau is completely non-discriminatory in membership selection and each undergraduate chapter of SDT is entirely autonomous in their selection of members."
http://www.sigmadeltatau.com/
They must have been entirely Jewish at some point, but I don't think they are now. This sounds like if a chapter happens to be entirely Jewish, it's due to the members in that chapter, not National HQ. :confused:

You read my thoughts! See above...

And the non-sectarian founding may have attracted Jewish women who couldn't find their niche anywhere else, which may explain why they have a lot of Jewish women on certain campuses.

I don't think that's true - she may have misinterpreted something. Unless something has really changed since my undergrad years.

We had an SDT chapter on my campus, and although the majority of members were Jewish it certainly wasn't a requirement. (efcheerBB was a member of SDT at my campus, albeit several years after me :o...she should be able to confim that)

That's what I thought. But, I'm always kind of gullable and tend to believe something if the person has more credibility in the subject than I do.

Sorry guys! :o

No need to apologize...this has given us something to discuss while we wait for Leslie Anne to finish her story! *hint hint* (although I didn't intend for my mini-hijack to take us off on this much of a tangent)

Yeah, Leslie, we're waiting.....*hint hint* :p

Tell us more! :D

come on, you know you want to! :p

Seems like at least half of the retro recruitment stories have had an odd tangent go off in the middle.

There is a second force in effect. If there are traditionally Jewish sororities on your campus, and a PNM is Jewish, many chapters assume she is going to join a Jewish house. If they are limited in the number of invites they can issue, they won't want to waste one on her. I have seen this happen even when the PNM didn't express that type of preference, in much the same way a chapter would probably release a triple-leg to another chapter.

SECDomination, were you raised in a household with a lot of sisters? Or maybe had English teachers who particularly attended to teaching foreshadowing? You're welcome to blame it on that later if you feel uncomfortable with being such a sensitive recruitment thread reader about the lady comment. ;)

At UGA when I was there, DPhiE and SDT both were locally traditionally thought of as Jewish groups. That didn't mean they didn't have other members, but it was a commonly accepted group identity comfortable for the members.

It seems like I've heard that DPhiE at UGA drifted away from that identity for while and that membership decreased as a result since many Jewish girls were looking for a home away from home religiously and went SDT, and other non-Jewish PNMs didn't get the memo that they DPhiE at UGA wasn't Jewish anymore.

All the groups at UGA were open to having Jewish members when I was there as far as I know; but Jewish girls at SDT and DPhiE could count on food in the house to be kosher, and they would have been on their own in that regard in other groups.

I think of it as just talking amongst ourselves at intermission between acts of the main drama.

For the love of all that is Kappa Delta --HURRY UP!!!
Sorry. I just can't help myself, I've become thoroughly engrossed.:rolleyes: A Kappa Delta story that takes place in Maryland...it doesn't get much better!

Hello everyone!

Sorry for the delay, I had to take a breather and run some errands. This discussion about Jewish sororities is really interesting. To this day, I don't know for certain whether or not I would have been allowed to pledge Soccer. They are a Nationally Jewish sorority, not just a chapter that happened to have many Jewish girls at Maryland.

Going Greek: Jewish College Fraternities in the United States, 1895-1945 is on my list of books to read (right after Bound by a Mighty Vow). I might find my answer in there. But it sure would be easier, for now, to hear from members of AEPhi, DPhiE, and SDT. Were any of them at one time "Jewish Only?" If so, when did it change?


Okay, so...the rest of my story. I'm having a tough time because I'm trying to pare it down. I could just tell you really quickly "blah blah blah, blah blah blah, THE END." The thing is, that's not the way it happened. More characters entered the story and A LOT more went on. I don't want this story to become a drag though. So what should I do? A quickie ending? Full story? Full story pared down as much as possible?

Let me know (you can PM me) and I'll get on with it.

Thanks for being interested!

Leslie :)

Full story; the ending of the novel can make the novel a good book!

My Mom has always told me that when she went through Rush in the 1960s at the University of Michigan, there were only 4 houses that 'took' Jews. 2 of them, I'm pretty sure were founded as non-sectarian (DPhiE and Phi Sig). The other 2 were definitely founded as 'Jewish' sororities (AEPhi and SDT). But she has always said that she never looked at the other houses because she was more comfortable where there were other Jews. I know they weren't discouraged from joining a house that didn't have Jews, but no one apparently did it. That and I think in 'mutual selection' both the 'non-Jewish' houses and the "Jewish" rushees would mutually drop each other. I think that Jewish girls were more attracted to houses where they felt like there were others 'like' them. Isn't that why we all joined our respective chapters in the first place? Someone in DPhiE confirm this--weren't at least some of your founders Jewish?

Contrast to when I rushed...when girls joined every NPC chapter on campus regardless of their religion. Yes, AEPhi did cater to more Jews (partially because so many of us were legacies because our Mothers/Grandmothers/etc. only joined "Jewish" houses) but they definitely took non-Jews too. I knew a girl who was a Lutheran who joined AEPhi the year we pledged. She was the only non-Jew in her pledge class. Didn't bother her one bit. I do know that some girls were a little turned off by the fact that AEPhi was 'so Jewish', but I also went to a school with a large Jewish population, so that was also probably a factor. I personally didn't join AEPhi, and joined a house that was pretty religiously mixed. There weren't that many Jews in my pledge class specifically, but I was far from the only one.

If memory serves me right, there was a time where some houses really didn't take Jews, and that had a lot to do with the Christian ideals that they were founded on. But someone PLEASE correct me if I'm wrong--aren't the NPC chapters all supposed to have non-discrimination policies nationally now?

/end hijack

I vote for the full story, but make it snappy sister!!

Wouldn't you know, the only Chi Omega that I know personally (IRL) is Jewish!