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NALFO/NPC
I've looked all over GC and I haven't found a thread that answers this.
I went through formal recruitment at my school and ended up getting dropped from all the houses. I still really wanted to join a sorority for the sisterhood, and I pledged and was initiated into a NALFO sorority (I will not go into which one) and thought I would fit better there because I am Latina. After a semester of being in it, I realized that it was not a good fit for me and ended up disaffiliating. Currently there is a colonizing NPC sorority on my campus that I'm interested in. I know that I could potentially pledge this sorority and it would be allowed, technically, since the other sorority is not NPC. My question is if the sisters in the colonizing sorority would have a problem with it. Since it was not an NPC sorority and I have valid reasons for disaffiliating, do you think that would hurt my chances and the sisters would look down on that? Even if they don't ask, should I take it upon myself to tell them I was previously affiliated with a multicultural sorority or should I keep it to myself if they don't ask? I only have this concern because they are on the same campus. Please let me know your thoughts. |
I can't speak for all women, but I imagine they wouldn't care if they found out. Unless you are constantly saying, "in ABC, we did it this way," which will just annoy them. I could be wrong, but I'd take your previous membership as having been in a totally different thing.
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Usually national officers of the NPC colonizing sorority interview the prospective members and then hold a couple of rush type parties on successive days.Your former membership in a NAFLO sorority should be a non-issue. If you want to share with your interviewer, go ahead, but it is not necessary. Good luck.
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For this, Greekchat can only speak to official rules and regulations. Greekchat cannot speak to unofficial rules on that campus; and how the people in that chapter feel about this type of thing.
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I know that no one here can give a definitive answer, I guess I just want to know what the NPC greek community's general opinion on this is. Obviously I wouldn't lie if they asked about it, but I'm wondering if it would be bad if I didn't outright give this information without being asked. Either the sisters would think I was being deceitful or they think that it's irrelevant information and that's what I'm trying to determine as to not step on any toes.
I understand there is a big stigma attached to crossing between NPC and NPHC, but I was unsure about NALFO since it's less talked about. |
Whether there is a stigma varies by campus and by circumstances.
It can vary by GLO practices. It can also vary by the racial climate of the campus. And it can vary by how you, yourself, have expressed your racial and ethnic identity while on campus. |
If you tell, the worst thing that can happen is you don't get a bid.
If you don't tell, the worst thing that can happen is you become ostracized from your new group because they don't know what else you lied about. Unless you want to spend your entire college career waiting for the other shoe to drop, I would come clean. Colonizing rush often involves older volunteers from the national sorority. You may find it easier to discuss your situation with one of these ladies than someone your own age. |
If I was on your campus, I would refer to you as the disloyal girl who dropped one lifetime commitment in pursuit of another one.
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We had an alumna initiate at Convention in 2010 who joined a NALFO sorority as an undergraduate. This was included in her biographical blurb in the Convention program. However, she hadn't resigned from that group...she was still a member, so co-membership is obviously fine with us. I can't speak to other NPC sororities.
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Would co-membership have been fine with your sorority if this was collegiate and not AI?
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I don't see this going well for the OP at all. |
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It honestly says to me, as a person of color, that NPC orgs which allow this don't take the other orgs or councils seriously. Either that, or don't take themselves seriously. But I doubt it's the latter. |
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*** This thread is reminiscent of previous threads in which certain councils and conferences need to be told they are not THE definition of sorority and fraternity. |
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For example, I know a Gamma Phi who is an advisor at a university in California with a heavily Latina/Latino student population, and she shared that the NPC sororities on this campus were at a disadvantage because they were bound by the NPC pre-recruitment no-contact rule each year. The NALFO groups got a head start and begin recruiting new members before the NPC groups start formal recruitment. She wants to see a fair and cooperative agreement between the councils on that campus, but I don't know what incentive there would be for the NALFO groups to do that. |
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The NPC website uses the general description of "The National Panhellenic Conference is the premier advocacy and support organization for the advancement of the sorority experience." This presents the NPC as being the go to for the sorority experience before the reader is directed to see which sororities are members of NPC. It brought back memories for some of us who have heard that throughout our (non-Greek and) Greek Life. **** My sorority is one of the NPHC sororities that prohibits dual NPHC and NPC membership. They were probably making rules based on what they saw occurring at the time. This needs to be updated to include other councils and conferences to reflect what has happened at some schools and alumnae chapters where people are being denied membership if they are already a member of a general sorority that boasts lifetime commitment. |
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For example, my roommate is in a chemistry-focused (coed) fraternity and while I'm not sure whether they're officially classified as social or not, they do A LOT of social activities almost on the same level as an IFC fraternity. She's mentioned before how girls have pledged and initiated who were also in NPC, and it's allowed, but not too encouraged. This is not to say that there are ill feelings towards it, but rather that the fraternity would prefer take members who can devote a lot of time to their fraternity. My roommate often talks about how people will go through the process and become initiated and then almost drop off the face of the earth after that. She says a lot of people do this so they can put their affiliation on their resume since they're members for life after initiation. I've seen on many threads on GC about how it's almost completely acceptable to be in both NPC and a professional GLO (such as the chemistry fraternity mentioned above). The chemistry fraternity is clearly also a lifetime commitment organization, so I don't see why that aspect would make a difference when it comes to other GLOs that aren't NPC. |
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No disrespect but I think it is a good idea for you to silently read this discussion. |
An honors/professional fraternity, like Beta Beta Beta is
different from a social sorority for certain majors, like Sigma Alpha. |
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If it's not deferred and this is all happening before classes start, the NPC groups must not be putting on a very good rush. In other words, it the fault of NPC not NALFO and if I was NALFO I think I'd tell NPC to bite me. |
I'm reading Sciencewoman's post as, similar to schools in San Diego, that "silence" is in place from the beginning of the year but recruitment doesn't begin until a week or two into the semester/quarter. During that time other student organizations, including non NPC sororities are actively recruiting membership.
To the original question, since the NPC rule is an agreement among NPC groups only I don't see why it would be grounds for immediate disqualification from membership. It doesn't mean that individual women, either the ones selecting the colony or the chosen members, would not have a huge issue with it. So, yes, it could hurt your chances at membership and yes it could cause you trouble even if you do get selected to receive a bid. As for the idea that NPC should apply the no dual membership rule to all groups outside of NPC, I think that would require a new NPC UA. The current one, to the best of my understanding, was created to stop member organizations from cannibalizing each other. If NPHC wants to enter into some UAs with NPC then I think that could work. Since NPHC itself has no, or few, UAs I don't see that happening any time soon. **Post written before I finished my morning coffee. I apologize if anything doesn't make sense. |
It's a mid-October recruitment, and there is apparently a NPC no-contact rule once class starts. My take-away was that NALFO groups are getting a month or so head start recruiting members at the beginning of the school year, because they are not bound to the no-contact rule. I'm not sure when actual invitations to join are offered by the NALFO groups (before, during, or after NPC format recruitment).
ETA: Yes, SoCalGirl, your first paragraph is what I'm describing. In this case, I think the gap is actually more like a month. |
I think during the no contact period the CPC is supposed to be publicizing recruitment and getting women to sign up. A chapter is not supposed to promote their individual chapter but instead encourage everyone to go greek.
If a school has a greek system where the IFC and NPC work together to promote going greek but the MCGLOs are separate and able to give bids during that time, I think the school needs to either 1) move up recruitment or 2) get all the councils on campus to work together. In a perfect world all greeks would promote greekdom in general while educating PNMs about the different groups so the PNM can chose to pursue what's best for him/her. |
Are these NPC groups REALLY at a disadvantage? I doubt the extra week or so of NPHC/LGLO/MCGLO activities are cannibalizing NPC/IFC recruitment efforts.
I'm wondering if anyone has actually looked at the numbers to see if there's any negative impact to NPC rush (at Sciencewoman's school) or if it's just a "THEY GET TO DO IT IT'S NOT FAIR" thing that's happening. |
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Would it have to be an NPC-NPHC UA? Could there just a be an NPC UA that no NPC sorority will initiate a member of an NPC, NPHC or NALFO sorority? Or could individual NPC sororities adopt their own rules on the matter, just as they do with rules about AI or initiating grad students, and just as some of the NPHC sororities have done? /lane swerve |
The hard part is defining "general interest sorority. " If there's the possibility for any rule in history to get super twisted, it's there.
And as far as a chemistry fraternity having a "process" I can't even with that. Don't make it social when it's not unless you want to eventually kill off the group. There's a difference between having enjoyable times with the members of an organization and acting like a social GLO when you're not one. |
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33Girl, your post seems to dismiss the social viability of the chemistry fraternity just because it's made up of people in a specific area of study. I don't know that specific organization, but Sigma Alpha and AOE are focused on a specific group of college majors but still seem to have a strong sisterhood and social life. On a national level, they both appear to be thriving.
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While I do agree that all GLO's should be open to intermingling and working together, there are many things that will not overlap. A prime example would be "bids." NPHC organizations (for sure) and the NALFO organizations that are active in my area do not do a bidding process. The NALFO organization currently on the campus has a process similar to those of the NPHC. While NPC organizations are sure to have recruitment every year (minus a campus ban or something extreme), the organizations I am aware of may or may not choose to have intake every year. There is no purpose to have a no contact period because we do not "recruit." If a person is interested (we do not use PNM in our language) they are more than welcome to come to events and learn about our organizations. I think that learning more about each others councils would be a great start, because it helps during conversations like this one. Having a program to promote all GLO's on campus is great idea, but we need to make it clear that each council is different and may have different goals/initiatives/traditions. Heck, we barely speak the same language (Community service vs. philanthropy/PNM/intake/etc. etc.) I can say that if I caught wind of a person who went through the process was initiated into a NALPO organization and then "quit" the organization and tried to get into my organization, it would be a swift NO. I give equal respect to the NPHC, NPC and NALPO. The NALPO is not just some fringe "multicultural" council. This chapter took their time and energy and decided to pick the OP to be in their lifetime sisterhood, and she quit. I see this same conversation about PNM's not wanting to be in a chapter when the women took their time and energy to offer a bid to them and there is no sympathy in those posts. I feel none in this situation either. Same difference. |
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I have a HUGE problem with groups making themselves into something they're not and something their NATIONAL ORGANIZATION does not intend them to be. I've complained on here many times about Alpha Phi Omega chapters that bid selectively, are full members of councils that are for social Greeks, and that make an unwelcoming environment for members of social GLOs who would also like to join. From the OP's post, this chemistry fraternity is doing the latter. |
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The issue eventually resolved itself, but I'm curious about how the NPHC leadership would view a situation like this. |
There is nothing wrong with membership in a social GLO and a service GLO. That is not "dual membership" in the sense that we are discussing in this thread. As for violating a service GLO's "lifetime commitment", not every chapter of service GLOs teach "lifetime commitment". Those that do will have difficulty overcoming the varying cultures. If someone has always been told a service GLO is a club to join to get more involved in the community but nothing more longterm and dedicated than that, there will be people who will view a service GLO as transitional.
ETA: That doesn't mean none of these people did community service before joining the service GLO. Some people join service GLOs because they love service and want to further their community service. When I was interested in joining APO it was after years of community service in high school and college. I ended up not joining for a number of reasons but some of the members of that APO chapter expressed a lifetime commitment to service but not necessarily a lifetime commitment to APO as an organization. |
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Because a woman dropping out of a NALFO org and coming to your org would be less offensive? You wouldn't want an NPC sister depledging for a NALFO or NPHC org in the same vein? In other words, the disdain is only felt intracouncil, not intercoucil. |
Actually the reason NPC groups don't do it is because we have a rule against it. The rule was instituted because groups were stealing members from other groups. NPC doesn't happen to have a reciprocal rule with any others. Should we? That's not up to me but it evidently isn't a priority for NPHC and NALFO and NPC at the moment (though I understand some NPHC groups forbid membership in NIC groups and maybe others).
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