Deaf/Hearing Impaired Greek Chapters
 

Does anyone else have a hearing impaired (deaf) chapter or belong to a local deaf group? Tri Sigma has a deaf chapter, and we were the first NPC chapter to have one. I think it's amazing and met a representative this summer at our national convention in Florida. We have an interpreter every national event and it just reminds each and every one of us how different we can be.

I'd like to hear about anything else out there similar.
Thanks!

What a coincidence...
 

Interesting that you mention this today, Tracie...check out my latest post to the "U&CNG of the Week!" thread. :)

Delta Zeta's national philanthropy is Gallaudet University and it is a school for the hearing impaired and of course there is a DZ chapter there!

Right you are, dzsaigirl! One of the sisters in my alumnae chapter is Gallaudet's CCD and we celebrated Founders' Day with them this year. Delta Zeta is the only NPC sorority at Gally and, although they only number in the twenties, they are very active! I believe all of the members are hearing-impaired with the exception of one who is majoring in Deaf Studies there. We definitely kept her busy translating all evening!

We also funded the dance studio at Gallaudet. It is called, aptly enough, the Delta Zeta Dance Studio! :)

I know at our sigma kappa chapter they have a sister who is deaf, she represented them in the Lambda Chi Alpha Watermelon bust pageant. She is very nice and their chapter is all learning sign language.. she can read lips though, and is a true asset to their chapter!
Sarah

Like a couple of my sisters have already mentioned, Delta Zeta's national philanthropy is Gallaudet University for the Hearing and Speech Impaired, and we do have a chapter there.

I also know that the ADPi chapter on my campus had a very involved hearing-impaired sister who pledged the same year I did. Her disability never stopped her from doing things she loved.

She was a very intelligent woman with a wonderful GPA, and she competed in beauty pageants during her college years. If I remember correctly, she was a representative in the Miss Georgia pageant in the early 90's, and she may have even won that title. It's been so long ago now that I can't remember the outcome of the pageant that year. Regardless of whether she won or not, she was a definite asset to her chapter and the Greek system in general! :)

Kappa Sigma has a chapter at Gallaudet University - they are a thriving chapter, and the guys there are amazing brothers.

D Phi E used to have a chapter at Gallaudet that started in 1988, but apparently closed. Congrats to all the great work you DZ's do for them and the university!

Thanks, shadokat! :) :D :cool:

I was wondering, out of all the names you mentioned......I noticed no one really mentioned much about deaf members that are not in a Deaf univeristy or an unversity with a high Deaf population. We just started a local hearing/deaf sorority at CSUS.

Sorry, this is totally inappropriate, but when I read this paragraph I thought of the line from Ms. Congeniality..."I had winners 9 out of ten years, and that year the winner was a deaf mute, you can't beat a deaf mute".... sorry, back to your regularly scheduled thread...

Re: Deaf/Hearing Impaired Greek Chapters
 

While we are on the topic of chapters and people who hearing impaired, this is a wonderful warm & fuzzy thread..... :)

KSig, I agree. We had a mixer with Kappa Sigma last fall, and a couple of your brothers from Gallaudet came to the mixer. I took a few years of sign language in high school, and so did a couple of other girls, so I think all of us had a really great time, no one seemed to be left out of anything. But yes, AWESOME guys, and we're looking forward to hanging out with them again!!:D

The TKEs here have a deaf member majoring in aerospace engineering. He's a member of the crew team as well. Sweet kid, and one hell of a hitter at softball too!

What was your motivation for starting a hearing/deaf sorority? It seems to me that if the primary goal is to have a sorority for deaf members, then you wouldn't call it a hearing/deaf sorority...because deaf women are always welcome to join any sorority

not to change the subject, i just wanted to throw in my 2 cents....just wanted to let everyone know that people who are deaf dont mind the term deaf and would prefer it over the term hearing impaired. in the deaf community, "hearing impaired" is often taken as an insult because it is implaying that you NEED hearing to function and yours doesnt work, and because it doesnt work, you are lacking something, when in fact the only thing deaf people cant do is hear, so anyways, dont be scared to use the term deaf because its not considered derogatory :cool:


just my 2 cents from being fluent in sign language and having to take many deaf culture classes :D

If that is your primary goal, why wouldn't you call it that? And there are black, multicultural, latino GLOs.... are they not welcome to join any GLOs? I dont think i understood the post, and that's what i got from it:confused:

The Delta Lambda Phis here at Kent State have a deaf member. He and the rest of his brothers are really cool. When he pledged, they did their best to try to learn sign language.

we are focusing on the deaf culture/history/community/language but we only have 12 deaf students and 4 are females. But we have an ASL program and recently establshed a deaf studies minor. we have 33 ASL classes all of them FULL and people wanting to add. hearing people tell me they want ot know more about deaf culture and be involved but they are often shunned by the Deaf community, this way there is NO language or communication barriors and we have the same goals. It should not be deaf only/hearing only...... it is true that deaf people can apply for other greeks but they are not comfortable and it depends if the other pledges and bro/sis are willingly to learn sign and learn about them. One girl i know dropped cuz she said they blindfold her and they go out iin the dark, lip reading is very very important and with that gone, she might as well be Helen Keller. Csun has a deaf/hearing sorority also called Alpha Sigma Theta, there is one in RIT (rochestor) and in Gallaudet University.

Phi Mu welcomes all quality women into its chapters... though I'm pretty sure we don't have an exculsively deaf chapter. We do, however, have plenty of deaf sisters!

Cardinal026, I love the quote in your signature, where'd you find it?!

JaimeNicole, thanks for the heads-up. :)

BabyP, I welcome you to Greekchat. It's nice to have another Sac State Greek on this board cuz I don't think there are too many.
Good luck with your new local. It sounds like a great organization.

Oh Ok...that totally makes sense. I guess I just needed more information about your org. I wasn't trying to be rude or anything, I understand now. That's totally cool, my roomates father is deaf and learning sign language and other aspects of deaf culture interest me!

We have a chapter at a University for the deaf (they always sit in front at national gatherings and have an interpreter). I know we have a rule for ritual that deaf members cannot be blindfolded for any reason.

That's a great policy and sounds like it would make potential Deaf members feel a lot more comfortable!

one of mymany roommates in college was deaf and belonged to Kappa Delta. Here best friend growing up was miss america heather whitestone.

When i initially began this search for alumnae initiation i looked at a possible affliation with Delta zeta because the national philantrophy was connected to galludet University. Plus , i have a connection with eastern star and DZ ( history) too. That is besides the point, being as i posted in another thread i have some hearing loss and that is what really attracted me to that side of DZ because of the hearing impared awareness they had.

I believe that AlphaPhiBubbles was making reference to the original subject of the thread, which is deaf GLO members. I don't think she was excluding other groups of people or trying to say that they were not welcome in certain GLO's.

I was just wondering, what difference a sound impaired person has from a sight impaired person or a Black, Asian, Latino, or any other thing have to do with a person being in a Greek Organization?

Oh, is this I dont like you because you are not exactly like me.? :(

I think that My Brothers who are Afro-American or India-American, or Spanish, would not understand this. How about the Asians or Latinos who are in National Greek Organizatins, (Supposedly All White or Christian) , would they understand this?:confused: I am older than you is that bad?

I hope, that We All look at a person for who they are, Not what they may seem to be!:)

Tom,


I don't think that this thread was started as a way to create drama. The question that was asked was if any GLO's had any exclusively deaf chapters at any schools. There are alot of men and women out there that do not join GLO's, because they are deaf and don't think that they will belong or be welcomed because of the stereotyping that has been done against GLO's. So by different GLO's having deaf chapters or deaf members and talking about it, they are showing other organizations that we are not exclusive in our membership. My chapter doesn't have any members that are deaf just because of the population in general at my school is not very big (only about 12,000),but we do have non-traditional students that are sisters. I am very happy that DZ has a chapter at Galludet University. DZ could have just taken them on as their philanthropy and not allowed a chapter at the university, but by having a chapter there, DZ is helping to change the stereotype of all GLO's

There is no drama starting here on my end!:)

I just get upset when some one says well they are different!:eek:

I think we are all a little different, am I correct? No matter who We Are?:confused:

And your problem is?:confused: ;)

well people tend to feel comfortable around people that are similar to them. There are african american, mexican, asian,etc greeks (multicultural focused). that is what we are. there is no issue with the phone, blindfolding, lack of communication and understanding. And unfortunately there are greeks that only accept the ideal and the one that fits in their perfect image..... you know what i am talking about...I am glad to hear that more and more deaf are involved in the greek system!