Bama Rush Question
 

Hey yall,

I'm looking at attending bama , and I would be interested in rushing. I am a legacy of a certain sorority there and when I visited I was very surprised that there is little to no ethnic diversity in their sororities:( Im not sure if it is because the minorities do not rush or because they are denied membership??

The whole thing worries me and I could use some guidance.
Thank yall :)

ps. im sure this is a touchy topic but.....the truth is always nice...ill take PMs too!

This is an example of what all GLO's call doing your research first before you post... It is clearly obvious, you have not done it.

Search on GC and Google as a START it -- is your friend.

Find the answer to this question: What is the RUSH system? That can easily be found here, on your college's website and the National Panhellenic Conference's website, and all associated affiliate organizations.

I am unclear of any sorority by the name of "aha"... "Alpha Eta Alpha"??? :confused:

Good luck!

ETA: Going to college and getting an education needs to be your first priority before you think of joining any extracurricular activities... Congrats on your acceptance, but seriously, as easily as you got accepted, you can be easily kicked out if you are unable to manage your coursework. If I have seen it once, I've seen it a million times...

Are you joking? I'm pretty sure she meant "hahaha" just in shortened form.

Assuming she is talking about a NPC sorority, what would "finding the answer" to this question prove? That she knows what recruitment is? That doesn't really answer her question.


Of course, I am not from Bama, so I can't give a good answer. But my advice (if you are talking about an NPC sorority) is to rush. You won't ever truly know the answer to your question unless you try. If they do cut you b/c of your ethnicity, then you gotta think--is that the type of sorority I want to be in?

I'm also assuming she was talking about NPC since the OP said she was African American and that she was worried about the lack of diversity.

Anyways, I don't know enough about Bama's rush to offer any help but I did want to agree with epchick, if they do cut you because of your ethnicity then it may not be worth it to you, as disappointing as that would be. Keep in mind that membership selection is private so you may never know why you were cut, if you are. Also, Bama's rush is very competitive from what I understand so don't automatically assume you were cut because of race :)

I hope you enjoy the rest of high school and good luck in college and if you do go through recruitment I hope you come back and share your story!

wow...i was saying aha as in laughing...not a sorority

i never asked what the rush system was, i am very informed on how the process goes.

i asked this question because there are pre-rush things going on and rush is before school even starts...and thank you for your concern of my involvement and time management skills but i think your post was unneccessarily rude for something you completely misunderstood.

The second section first. She doesn't know there is a difference. She does not understand why there is a lack of diversity at the University of Alabama and it concerns her. If she wants to be in a NPC sorority, then I was suggesting that she understand what the term "Rush" means before she starts an entire thread about something she obviously has little understanding... :rolleyes:

This goes to say, that I don't care which organization she pursues. Gook luck. But shortened acronyms typed in lowercase is offensive to me... At least try to use the terminology fully if you really want to pursue membership. Moreover, if she is a legacy, she has a strike against her already, seriously... Even though she might be able to skip on in, she will be like numerous others, hurt, downtrodden saying "why did I do this, I wanna drop"...

So basically, she would want to "slow her roll" and try to GO TO college, get excellent grades, and then think about any NPHC sorority at the University of Alabama... :rolleyes:

and thank you epchick and sceniczip for your advice...if they were to cut me for that i wouldnt want to be apart of that kind of organization anyway, but i will not jump to conclusions as to why i was cut. :)

and akamonet i am referring to NPC sorority recruitment (formerly known as rush) not NPHC intake...

but thank you for trying to help.

Oh I can be ruder... LOL... I thought my post was very insightful... Oh well.. :rolleyes:

Defensive much?

Did you NOT post something about the lack of diversity in sororities at the University of Alabama?

Why would you post this if you did not care about those facts? If you can answer these questions for yourself, then pursue the organization of your hearts content, no one cares what organization you want pursue. We do not have to do any hard sells here...

Yes, I am well aware of decisions you have to take prior to starting school. But if you understood the "rushing system", then you would know that if you see a Sorority that fits your values, then you can pursue it...

Good luck in your endeavors...

THANK YOU!!! :) Finally, someone with experiential knowledge...

thank you ksuviolet, will do :)

Wait . . .isn't the word "process" usually used by NPHC sororities?

And as to legacies at the University of Alabama - well, there are plenty of threads about that. Alabama is a competitive recruitment for EVERYONE. Do your homework as KSUViolet recommended. Good luck.

Wow, then you TOTALLY read her post wrong. She's is pursuing an NPC sorority. She doesn't need to learn what "rush" (p.s. its called recruitment) is. She'll go through that soon enough.

I didn't know that "hahaha" or "aha" was an acronym for something. And the fact that it offends you, is well.....whatever.


ETA: GAgal, do heed KSUviolet's recommendation. That's the best advice.

Hence, my confusions as to what she was talking about... :rolleyes:

She edited her post to accurately reflect what she was saying... It is different from what I originally read... Maybe she intended to say one thing, then realized it could easily be misinterpreted and changed it.

Your youthful interpretation skills are still intact, because I cannot understand it these days... I am not "hip" anymore... LOL...

I'll have to remember to use NPC upgraded terminology, in addition to my own Sorority's terminology... LOL... :rolleyes:

I thought they used the word "intake?"

Either way, she didn't mean "process" as in NPHC terminology. In the context of her sentence, she was saying that she knew how recruitment works.

I'm not fluent in NPHC - I always have to get my NPC/NPHC dictionary out. :)

Seriously, I would take any sentence she writes like a "wait and see" attitude... If she follows KSUViolet's advice to the letter, then she will become successful...

Yet it is still OBVIOUS that she has a concern about the lack of diversity in Sororities at the University of Alabama...

If I was in her shoes, I would ask... ;) Maybe... LOL!

You know if y'all were to write a NPC to NPHC terminology translation book, you'd make a ton of money... Seriously...

I will write the preface for you... ;)

OP make sure the family member whose sorority you are a legacy to fills out and sends in a legacy introduction form (or equivalent) to the chapter at Alabama. It should be sent in around the same time as recs. The form should be available on the members only section of the national sorority's website.

The only way you can really get a feel for diversity is by going through recruitment. FWIW there was one African-American girl on my campus who was in an NPC sorority, but she loved her chapter and it never seemed like there was a lot of racial tension between her and her sisters, or her and other sorority members for that matter. There were NPHC sororities available to students from my campus, but things worked well for her.

Seriously? You have no idea how easily she was accepted. Bama is not an easy school to get into; don't just assume that she just waltzed in.

NPC does not do things like NPHC. Please respect our system the way we do yours.

I'm going to quote my favorite TV show when I say, "God, tone down the crazy!"

I'm getting that vibe too. Strange...

Good luck with recruitment at BAMA. It is competetive, so do your homework.

I'm not sure about diversity in the houses, but you might be able to go on the individual chapter's websites and see if they post pictures. It may give you some insight into which houses are more diverse.

I think all the misunderstandings have been resolved, no? Let's not go further down the path and cast aspersions, n'est ce pas?

To the original poster - as has been stated, Bama Recruitment is very competitive. Get your recs in order, meet folks on campus at every opportunity. While you are doing your research regarding the diversity in Bama's Greek Life, be sure to check these sources as well as look for more recent information.

I think it depends on where you go to. Where I was it was an initial rush as in an open invitation to the sorority itself. Basically getting to know what the sorority was about, what it's positions were, etc. IF you got accepted, then it certain phases were called certain phases and you were an initiate.

She was responding to my question about the word "process", I think.

Certainly, you can get a feel for the current make up by looking at chapter websites.

I'd advise you to keep in mind that things change with time, but that sometimes people have to lead the change. It could end up being your leadership that results in a more diverse bunch of NPCs at Alabama.

If you google, you could probably come up with a bunch of articles about the racism of SEC greek systems in the past which has probably contributed to not too many non-white PNMs going through recruitment. But they wouldn't necessarily be representative of the attitudes of the women in groups there today.

Get your recs in order. Make sure your legacy status is known by your legacy chapter. Keep your grades up and make sure your activities look good on your application. Go to alumnae panhellenic information sessions if any are available in your area. Try to get some advice from greek women at Bama about exactly what to wear. (I'm not suggesting that you don't know this stuff, but you don't want to give anyone a stupid superficial reason for claiming that you won't "fit;" the chapters may be open to racial or ethnic diversity, but that doesn't mean they're going to throw image issues out the window.) You're going to have to shine just as brightly as any other PNM.

I don't know if this is the proper place to say so, but I think it's cool that the OP is an African American NPC legacy. I don't see that too much where I am.

It's a beautiful thing, isn't it! We'll be seeing more of that when our newer African American NPC sisters begin having children. I don't know that every chapter of an NPC group would pledge an african american tomorrow, but I sure hope we are moving in the right direction. I'm just not foolish enough to think that prejudices don't still exist in some places.

To the OP, good luck. I hope you find open women in the Bama chapters who will welcome you with open arms.

I think we are just now seeing the daughters of the first generation of African American women who started to break the NPC color barrier in the early 70s. These women are now in their 40s to early 50s and are at the age where they will have college-bound daughters. As years go on, it will be come less unusual as NPC chapters gradually became more diverse.

This isn't something that the OP should attempt herself by any stretch of the imagination, but is this an area where it might make sense to notify someone higher up in the NPC than just the chapter of the legacy status?

Certainly, the chapter makes its own membership decisions, and I like to think that all the chapters would be delighted to have a well qualified African American PNM legacy come through. But knowing that some cases have made the paper in the past, I wonder if HQs wouldn't want to make sure they were proactive in terms of all policies being followed?

On the other hand, it might make the chapter so angry that they weren't trusted to do the right thing that it would backfire. What do you all think?

I'm emphatically not suggesting that someone attempt to strong arm the chapter, but it just seems like the recipe for a PR disaster if the PNM is dropped that you'd want to make all your i's were dotted on your legacy policy and that every member of the chapter knew your GLOs policies about discrimination.

We had a very smart and very beautiful African American member in my chapter back in the late 80s/early 90s. Sad to say that not only did our NPC system lack diversity, so did our entire campus. So... we felt very special to have her in our chapter. (BTW- campus and greek life is much more diverse now.. so yes, "someone" does have to be the trailblazer)

She was a senior when I was a freshman so I didn't really know her well, but I know she was loved by all. I guess she is almost old enough now to have a daughter going off to college in a few years. So perhaps another African American NPC legacy soon.

Of course, an adopted daughter is a legacy as well...and because international and transracial adoption were huge in the South in the eighties, there have been several non-white legacies rushing lately, 3 of my daughters and 1 of my nieces included. I can think of several others.

I was just talking about this the other day with one of my sisters.

aww I'm happy to have so much support :)

ksuviolet I did that. I have 13 out of the 15 sorority recs, im just waiting on a response from the last two alum groups

Wow, I truly can't imagine being in an NPC Sorority, then again, I can't imagine being in ANY OTHER Sorority! :D