The Machine won.

Not surprised.

I kind of rooted for The Machine here. Some tried to turn this into a race thing when it really wasn't. I can't imagine that sororities voting for their own members or Greek Life voting in blocks is unique to Alabama. So AGD chose a member to support and then a member went rogue and voted against her. It is not racism or anything nefarious or even unusual that the group asked members to vote FOR the member sponsored by the group, not against the other member as suggested. Am I missing anything here?

The candidate the Machine supported is not an AGD. She is a Phi Mu. While Halle technically wasn't AGD's candidate, because she nominated from another organization, they still should have publicly supported their own sister regardless of the Machine.

It's also frustrating to know how controlled by the boys these young women are. I get it, I know it happens, but I wish they could just realize how much power they do have, collectively. Instead they're letting the boys assign their value and popularity. Again, very frustrating since these are groups that are supposed to strengthen and empower women.[/QUOTE]

THIS^^^^

The sorority women at Alabama need to take charge and realize that the fraternities need them more than they need the fraternities. What would the fraternities do if all the NPC sororities boycotted swaps for a semester? I imagine if only a few groups went against the machine they would lose their perceived status/tier level.

Shame on the machine for bullying and that's exactly what this is.

Southern women are exceedingly strong "Steel Magnolias" and if they unite they can create change.

To steal from Alpha Chi Omega, "Real.Strong.Women"

<stepping off soapbox>

So Phi Mu wins it today and AGD wins it tomorrow. That's the sort of horse trading which makes these things work.

The AGDs committed to support another Greek org candidate (a Phi Mu) agreed upon by the machine (which is comprised of almost all of the fraternities and sororities). Because of this, they did not sponsor a candidate on their own (which probably would have been their own president if they had).

Sometime later, another campus org (BLEND), that Halle Lindsay (AGD) helped found, announced sponsoring her for HC.

This created the awkward situation for AGD with the other Greek "endorsers" (machine) of the Phi Mu candidate. Much as some of the usual media sources would like to milk this for more U of A racial drama, it didn't have anything to do with race.

There isn't really anything politically new about orgs banding together to endorse/support a particular candidate. The problem in the eyes of most is the fear of social retribution for not supporting the chosen candidate (might be that this isn't all that politically unusual either :/). That and it seems odd when a sorority is endorsing another GLO's member when suddenly there is a candidate in their own GLO who enters the race.

I don't really feel that this taints the Phi Mu candidate's win as suggested elsewhere in the thread. She likely would have widespread Greek support anyway -- her platform is suicide prevention and last year her boyfriend, also Greek, took his own life. She is highly-regarded and very accomplished on campus, so although other candidates are also worthy, she deserved the honor.

AGREE!

The fact that the queen candidates have platforms kind of makes me feel better about so much importance being placed on the race. I think. In other words, this isn't juat to get a crown and a big picture in the yearbook, they actually do something under the auspices of their title.

Okay, so they support this candidate and next year or the year after, an AGD gets the crown. While the Machine is famous, I doubt these sorts of arrangements are all that uncommon. An organization can't take advantage of a voting bloc like that unless they remain loyal regardless of whether an individual member goes rogue and tries to launch her own candidacy. I don't agree that the chapter should have publicly supported a member who very much on purpose dragging her own chapter through the mud by forcing this situation.

I agree with 33 girl. I like the idea of having a platform or being in the running because of campus activities/ie volunteer activities. I may be wrong, but I believe the University of Texas has done away with Homecoming royalty altogether and I know Texas A&M doesn't have homecoming royalty.

Apologies if this was mentioned on a previous page, but is homecoming *really* that big of a deal at these schools? My alma mater has a homecoming court, but their only real duties are showing up at university sponsored events. It's not "the first step in becoming XYZ" or anything like that.

Is this not the case at these other schools? Is homecoming serious business?

Big deal at Alabama..

Can't someone still secretly vote for who they want even if their chapter is officially supporting candidate X?