Students with disabilities?
 

The Mizzou alumni magazine arrived this week. This woman's story is very inspiring. She's a Kappa:
http://mizzoumag.missouri.edu/2012-S...take/index.php

I wondered how many students with disabilities join NPC/NIC organizations.
When I was an undergrad the DU chapter had a blind member, and about the same time an Alpha Gam chapter (Marietta, I think) had a blind member.

I know there is a fraternity at RIT with members who are deaf. Also, my sorority has an incredible member that they did a story on a while back. She is wheelchair-bound and she uses one of those computer things to help her with speech. I forget the school but, it is at one of our more recent colonizations. She is an inspiration and so are the members of the RIT fraternity.

My alma mater is very disability-friendly and generally has at least a few disabled members in the Greek community. In my time as a collegian, my chapter initiated three women who used wheelchairs.

I don't recall it coming up, but I can't see a woman with physical disabilities being able to deal with the restrictions at so many sorority houses because they're old and not ADA compliant. I'm confident a chapter house built within the last 20 or 30 years would not have a problem, but my chapter house for instance is 80+ years old and requires steps to get into any door, to say nothing of the bedrooms and dining room. Of course, that would probably be a scenario where she'd be let off the hook for the live-in requirement because it would be a terrible reason to deny membership to an otherwise fully qualified and desired member. And for the unhoused chapters, why not?

We made accommodations for women in wheelchairs coming through rush. As I recall, someone rushed her on our porch, which otherwise would not have been allowed.

My boyfriend is an RIT Greek alum. He was not in the deaf Fraternity, but we somehow got on the subject this past weekend. Sigma Sigma Sigma has a chapter there that he said was the "deaf sorority" (the majority of members were deaf) and that members of the two chapters often dated. RIT has an entire deaf school, from what Mr. KDR was saying.

We follow ADA accommodation guidelines when dealing with physically or mentally disabled members, in other words we let them define their limitations and suggest accommodations that both allow them to assimilate while meeting the needs of the chapter and the individual. For example, one of our sisters had a heart defect and eventual transplant she needed to rest regularly so we made sure that she was given the opportunity to sit during ritual and sporting events.

The tricky part of mental disabilities is that their academic accommodations allowed by the school do not meet our requirements for membership. For example the university may lower the minimum GPA or credit requirements to get full-time student benefits like healthcare and student housing but our chapter uses GPA, credit hours, and volunteer activities in member selection so a wonderful woman who is only 3/4 time is not eligible for membership according to our by-laws.

Delta Zeta has a chapter at Gallaudet. Alpha sigma theta is a sorority at RIT that was founded by deaf women. Its website now says it has three chapters total.

We had a deaf member in my chapter 20+ years ago. I was always in awe of what an amazing lip reader that she was. She was a senior when I was a freshman, so I didn't know her too well.

A few years later another sorority on my campus pledged a young lady with lower extremity weakness (perhaps CP? Honestly, I am just not sure) that ambulated short distances with forearm crutches and used a motorized scooter for longer distances. The chapter built a ramp for her to get into the house, but I can not remember if she lived-in or not. All rooms were on 2nd and 3rd floors, so they would have had to make accommodations there too.

We had a sister who was deaf-she could read lips and she was able to speak. She was a great rusher! She lived in one of the dorms on campus that had special features( captioned phones, lights for fire drills, etc.) for hearing impaired students.

I had a pledge sister with a muscular distrophy. We never even talked about it really. It was brought out in the open and a couple of accomodations were made along the way, but then we all kind of just forgot about it. I think I had a chapter sister with a type of dwarfism too, but again, it wasn't talked about. Our relationship was with the person, not the disability.

We also have a scholarship available for hearing impaired sisters.

Remember Heather Whitestone, the almost totally deaf Miss America? She was a pledge of my daughter's AOII chapter.

Unfortunately she never initiated. I don't know why she didn't...maybe because she won Miss America and didn't come back the next semester. She spoke at convention in 1995 when I attended as a junior in college.

This brought to mind the lovely woman who initiated into Zeta when she was in her 90s. Perhaps AOII and Heather may mutually reach out to one another? Perhaps? It's just a thought, that's all.

On this topic: way back (when God was a baby) and there was no ADA or anything of that nature, our chapter had an outstanding member who was wheelchair-bound. We never gave it a second thought; I don't even remember talking about it when I went through recruitment. She lived in the facility, in a ground floor room. It's just how it was, and that was that. In hindsight I'm sure she had many challenges that we weren't aware of.

The fraternity is Pi Kappa Phi. I think it is a great organization and apparently that chapter does a ton for their philanthropy (Push America). I love hearing that about Sigma Sigma Sigma because I have always thought they were classy women since going through recruitment at Penn State. This solidifies my belief that they must be classy all over the place!

Gallaudet's Greek System is sort of mixed with for the Fraternities, two long existing Locals and two Nationals (Kappa Sigma and Delta Sigma Phi) and for the Sororities, two long existing Locals, one NPC National (Delta Zeta) and Alpha Sigma Theta (which has chapters at the three universities in the US with strong programs for the Deaf: Rochester Inst. of Technology, Gallaudet and Cal State Northridge)

I'd like to see Alpha Phi Omega return to Gallaudet...

This sounds so like us :)

One of our sisters had an arm that stopped at the elbow - I think her mom had taken Thalidomide. People would talk to her for an hour or two before they'd even realize it.

An NPC sorority at my undergraduate college had a member with one leg who walked in crutches. It was such a loving and cool relationship. I took a class with the NM and two of the sorority sisters. A bunch of cool people on so many levels.

Not NIC, but our electronic alumni newsletter just had this article about a recent grad from our Alpha Rho chapter (UNC-Chapel Hill) with Tourette Syndrome. Last year, he received the Collegiate Brother of the Year Award from Province 20 (the 11 chapters in North Carolina).

One of my pledge sisters had that disability. I didn't even notice for several months! She was a fantastic artist and she used that hand for her artwork.

Just a quick FYI Not all Deaf people consider themselves disabled. I am a deaf woman at Gallaudet University. 95% of our school is deaf students and we have a wonderfully thriving greek life.

What I've found is that generally Deaf people don't consider themselves disabled and deaf people do.

(Fairly strong correlation between the capital D and those that don't consider themselves)

As for the Greek system at Gallaudet, I'd say that it is unusual in that I can't come up with many schools that have both *multiple* locals that have been around for more than a Century and national GLOs. However given the alumni support for the locals and *high* number of Gallaudet Alumni who now are employed by the school, I expect that those locals would be considerably more likely to survive a Risk Management issue that (for example) might cause University of Maryland to shut down an NIC fraternity.

(I expect that the only schools with a higher number of school alumni in high positions in the school would be the Military Academies).

I've visited Gallaudet looking for information on my fraternity there (Alpha Phi Omega), quietest library *EVER*....

The two biggest local frat/sorority on campus are Kappa Gamma and Phi Kappa Zeta. The reason their organizations have stood so long, like you stated, the alumni support is there forever for them AND what they stand for. Kappa Gamma and Phi Kappa Zeta are DEAF strong organizations. What I mean by this is, most of their members have deaf parents or some kind of affiliation with strong deaf lineage.
Kappa Gamma was actually suspended from campus in the 1900's and they had been running their fraternity and keeping it strong Off campus. Later when they asked to come back on campus as an organization, they marched in line wearing their colors (blue and gold) onto the campus, supposedly one of the largest groups ever.

In some ways, Kappa Gamma and Phi Kappa Zeta are probably in the strongest position relative to an administration/Dean of Students as any Greek Letter Organization that I know of. It sounds like Kappa Gamma more or less ignored the suspension and continued to take on new brothers. I truly wonder whether the administration would be able to eject either group permanently for anything short of unrecoverable hazing (death or something like a permanent Coma) (See Gamma Phi Gamma at Wilmington College)

This certainly won't be true for the National groups (though I wonder to what degree Delta Zeta's focus on hearing issues as a National Philanthropy helps or hurts among those who consider themselves Deaf)

One of the members of Sig Ep on campus was/is blind and had a service dog (who, by the way, got a lot of love whenever he was "off duty".

As far as anyone could tell, this member was treated no differently, and had to do all of the typical late 80s very public "pledge stuff" along with his pledge class.

One of the Clemson cheerleaders has been dealing with the gradual onset of blindness for a while now-her news story was all over my Facebook feed recently: http://www.myrtlebeachonline.com/201...ly-losing.html She is a Sigma Kappa here and truly inspirational.

There was a sister at our Mu chapter (Mizzou) who is deaf, and they actually found a DG who is fluent in sign language to be her interpreter for initiation. There's a short bit in an old ANCHORA about her:

http://digital.watkinsprinting.com/p.../?i=138253&p=4

I noticed that the national groups with strong bonds to their fellow chapters nearby have it better than those groups that do not. For example: Kappa Sigma Mu Iota chapter has strong bonds with the chapter of Kappa Sigma at University of Maryland and the newest colony at Catholic University. Last year, the Kappa Sigma brothers and alumni brothers hosted an ASL workshop for the chapters nearby. From the pictures, it looked like a fun event and everyone got the opportunity to get to know one another. As for Delta Zeta, and their national philanthropy, there is a somewhat mixed feelings at Gallaudet's chapter. Some women feel that Gallaudet should be taking a stand and educating other chapters, others feel that it is a national philanthropy and they should support their sisters no matter what.

I should also point out that the Deaf/deaf labeling is in the process of being thrown out of the window due to the complexity of labeling and where the line should be drawn. For example: Am I deaf because I was educated with hearing people and did not learn ASL until later or Am I Deaf because I chose Gallaudet University? The lines are extremely blurry so the use of D/d is fading.

It's good that Kappa Sigma has such tight ties. I didn't realize that there were other KS chapters that close.

I'm taking ASL classes through my wife's church so I have a feeling for what could be taught in a workshop.

As for DZ, nothing like the conflicting issues of *being* a philanthropic target and not wanting it...

I think Deaf (or some other similar symbolism) will continue to exist as long as there are those who don't think of being deaf as something that needs to be fixed. (or at least until that percentage drops to where it is for the blind)

I stutter and I'm a member of ZTA. I remember recruitment being completely terrifying because I knew I had to talk to so many girls, introduce myself a thousand times (introducing yourself is a huge challenge to people who stutter because of time constraint pressures). I guess it worked to my advantage though, because at least it made me stand out and be remembered, at least that's what one of my sisters told me later on.
It put me at ease too, when one of my Recruitment Counselor's was in a wheelchair. She was in another sorority on campus. But just having her there, and in a sorority, meant that I could do it too.