GLOs that don't let new members wear letters?
 

Just being nosy here :) I did a search but didn't find anything relevant, please don't hate me if I missed something :)

Which GLOs don't allow their new members to wear letters?

AEPhi doesn't allow anybody but initiated sisters to wear letters - the Phi, at least, has to be spelled out, or you can spell out all 3 letters. The reasoning is that only initiated sisters know the meaning of the letters. Which makes it all the more special when you're initiated - I can think of at least a couple of my chapter sisters who brought letters to initiation and put them right on afterwards :) But it did put the kabosh (sp?) on some cute T-shirt ideas...

Well my GLO doesnt allow non-initiated members to wear letters except party shirts. They dont want you to go out and get the stuff for your car and other such things until you are truely a part of the GLO.

Tri Sigma's new members (well at least in my chapter) can wear pretty much anything except the stitched block letters. Does anyone know if this is the way it is with all Tri Sigma chapters? It may just be that all GLO's at Longwood don't let their new members wear stitched letters.

I'm pretty sure Theta and Pi Phi have the same rule. You can have clothes with the nickname, but not the actual Greek letters until after initiation.

I'm going to have to find out about this.

In the past, Delt pledges (OK, whatever you want to call them) could wear letters, but not the Crest because we didn't find out its' meaning(s) until initiated.

I think it's still he same.

My local (Iota Beta Chi) doesn't let any non-initiated sisters wear letters. And yes, the reason is because they don't know what the letters stand for. Once they become sisters though, we get their big sisters to lend them their sweaters for a photo shot.
They are allowed to wear shirts with our letters spelled our, or with IBChi on it, just not IBX! All of our girls seem to respect that....and are very happy and honored when they are finally allowed to wear the letters for the first time!
FYI...we also don't let our girls write our letters until they become sisters...for the same reason, they don't know what the letters mean. We also don't allow ANY of our sisters to write the letters of other greek org's for the same reason! We either write their nicknames or write the letters out in full!:)

DZ's are not allowed to wear or display the crest until they are initiated. However, letters are fine.

I believe Kappa Sig pledges are allowed to wear letters, but not the crest or the letters AEKDB (our motto).

However, my chapter doesn't allow pledges to even wear letters.

Collin

I had a friend in college who was Phi Kappa Psi, and he told me they were not allowed to wear letters until they were initiated. My GLO allows new members to wear letters before they are initiated, though.

Pi Phi doesn't permit pledges to wear the Greek letters or crest--only "Pi Beta Phi" written out. When I was a pledge, it seemed that the pledges of every other group except ours could wear letters and were flaunting them in our faces! (They weren't, of course!):rolleyes:

I know that there is some variance among chapters even.

Here at Nebraska, we as pledges were allowed to where letters, with encouragement if it was something that reflected well on the house (philanthropy or the like). But there were certain words that we couldn't say out of respect to the brothers unless they were in a song. And obviously we weren't allowed to use the letter closer.

I know that at Kansas, the Betas there rarely wear letters, even the initiated brothers. They also refer to themselves as Alpha Nu (their chapter name) rather than Beta. Also they don't have letters anywhere on their house so that you know it's a beta house. They have a lot of weird rules, that I don't think I could agree with, and I know that if I had gone to KU I would have joined a different house. I really have no idea about why...

I know that in my fraternity, phi kappa psi, we were not allowed to wear letters until we were initiated. I also know that some of the other fraternities at my school whose letters are part of the regular alphabet (Alpha, Kappa, Tau, Beta, Epsilon, etc.) can wear them, but they can not be embroidered, or large on the chest. I know that KA is one of them.

We phikaps have the same rule. You can wear the words spelled out but not the greek symbols. It's pretty much a traditional thing, but, a lot of the time, with the actual greek symbols, they mean something very specific to the individual GLO. Why would you have a pledge (come on, don't go all PC on me now) wear letters when he/she doesn't know the meaning behind them? Why would they wear them when they haven't earned the right to be called brother/sister, there are SOME perks that go with full membership, full usage of the name being one of em.

We have pledge jeresey that have letters on them. They only have one layer-no background color, which is the big thing on my campous. Most Fraternties here have letters over the heart that are smaller. They are either with background or without, depending.

We don't have a national policy either way.

My chapter actually had "pledge shirts" made, which were (are) T-Shirts with the chapter's design on it... the design incorporates the greek letters with a lot of the arts we include (an artist's palate, ballet slippers, music notes, etc.) as well as our open motto. (The design was done by one of our members, and something the chapter has used unofficially since). There was always one day every week when the new members were supposed to wear their shirts, and the actives wore whatever letters they wanted to that day.


I don't know if it was in our bylaws, but new members never wore anything or displayed anything with the crest until after initiation. Although, even after, it wasn't too common, mostly everyone wore the letter.

DeltAlum, ASA was the same way...letters but no crest...it was a big deal and everyone got crest sweatshirts as initiation gifts.

In our chapter the newbies shouldn't wear letters until after initiation. We tell the new ones not to, we don't enforce it though. We just think it makes it even more worth while and special if after initiation our sisters give us our first set of letters. And it really was. I was so excited when I got my first set of letters!

That's interesting b/c when I was a pledge I was not allowed to wear letters until after initiation. I'm not sure that still applies today (at my chapter), in fact I think they do allow new members to wear letters. I'm not sure what the deal is anymore. I don't recall any rules about wearing the crest, although the memory could be going?!!?:rolleyes:

Phi Mu lets it's Phis (our word for pledges) wear and carry the letters and any insignia.

Yes, but we weren't allowed to own or possess anything with the crest on it until after initiated, simply because we didn't know what it meant.

I don't remember never being allowed to wear letters before initiation.. in fact, I do remember being asked if we had any that we could wear for Wednesday's (Greeks wore letters on Wed on my campus) and if we didn't, other members lent us some until we got our own. I thought it was a great was to get the NM participating right away.

It's been a long time since I was initiated, but I don't remember being told we couldn't have anything with the crest on it. Maybe I'm wrong, though....

In my organization pledges are not allowed to wear letters until they are initiated for most of the reasons that have already been mentioned. They are allowed to wear party shirts and shirts with the name spelled out.

Have a nice day :)

Gamma Phi Beta allows its new members to wear the letters, but not the crest. They aren't allowed to know what the crest means until they are initiated.

When I pledged Zeta, we couldn't wear anything with the crest or the letters until we were initiated. The only time we got letters was when we were on pledge retreat.

My chapter of D Phi E was no letters or crest until initiated, although you could wear a shirt with the words on it. In fact, we made pledge class t-shirts that we wore sometimes. Other chapters aren't the same though...they allow new members to wear letters and such. I know that the crest is only for initiated members though.

My sister was a Chi-O in college (about 10 years ago), and I think I remember her saying that she wasn't allowed to wear letters until after initiation. Maybe that was just her chapter's rule?

I guess it depends upon which chapter you join. We were allowed to wear letters before we were initiated.

Achtung, that must have been something her chapter did. We are allowed to wear letters, just not the crest until init.

I am curious about DG though.....at Kent they were not allowed to wear letters until initiation, which we all thought was so bad....their pledge shirts always spelled out Delta Gamma......is that national or just Kent?

When I first pledged in 1989 we could not wear letters. I was a hold over, and during my second plege semester the rules changed and we could wear letters.

I had the cutest sweatshirt made when I couldn't weat letters. navy with a pink heart on it and thru the heart in white script: Chi O.

:)
Amy

In Alpha Gamma Delta, we were allowed to wear letters. However, we were not allowed to own or display the armorial bearings. It made it special once we were initiated to be able to put the armorial bearings on our cars and wear them.

I believe there are only rules about the crest, not actual letters. My chapter allowed letters on t-shirts, as long as they weren't embroidered or raised (like a billboard sweatshirt, etc.)

AOII lets NMs wear just about anything, however, the only AOTT jewelry they are allowed to wear are lavaliers and their pledge pins.

On my campus the big thing was a sister's disc (the round disc in silver or gold, usually with crest or letters, you wear on a chain) more people wore them than lavaliers, unless it was your BF's, so our Bigs gave us those at initiation.

pledges were allowed to wear AXO letters, they could not wear the crest or have a lavalier. I received my lavalier from my big sis on initiation night.

In Theta nationally the new members cannot wear letters. They can only wear the words" theta, or kappa alpha theta" of course they can't have the crest. Every year when we get our new girls there is usually at least one excited theta that goes out and buys everything and I always would feel bad telling them to turn their lavalier to their big because they cannot wear it until after initiation. I believe theta and pi phi are the only two sororities that are nationally strick on this policy. On my campus I don't know if it is pi phi nationally but if an active doesn't make grades or is on financial probation they cannot wear letters and have to wear pi phi.
I love the no wearing letters policy until after initiation. In my sorority the letter stand for something beautiful and you shouldn't wear them until you can respect and know about them and as a pledge you can't to that until initiation.

HELL NO!
 

No way a pledge is wearing our letters before becoming a brother, they have no meaning to them, to them they are letters, to the brothers they have mystic meanings, and a sense of pride in earning the right to proudly display the letters, you earn the right to wear them, not everyone is priviledged only the great :)
Ed

Alpha Phi Omega allows only those that have been initiated wear block letters and use our crest and motto. All others are allowed to wear shirts with the name spelled out and/or screen printed letters such as those from events like formals. Our pledges wear only a pin and a pledge jersey with screen printed letters.

maybe I just came from a weird chapter, but I always got to wear whatever I wanted from day one, except of course for the active's badge. No one ever wore any clothing or jewelry with the Kappa coat of arms on it, active, NM, or alum. The fraternity SIGNATURE, however, that's a different story. NM's are not allowed to use it, they have to sign "love" until they learn what the signature means.

i was not allowed to wear letters (doubled stiched) until after initiation...the same goes for lavaliers and the sister badge (obviously) this is just our chapters tradition however as it doesn't go against phi sig nat'l to wear them. traditionally our first set of real "letters" come from our big (sappahire) sisters.

Me too, KSgirl. Not picking on anyone either. While I agree that not everyone is privelaged enough to be a member, you have already chosen the NM as someone you want as a member, they're just not a brother or sister yet.

If you live your ritual, and rush to it, you sign PNM's who already espouse the ideals of your ritual and brotherhood/sisterhood. You cant change soemone to your ideals. You have to sign people who's ideals are simular to that of your orgs. (i.e., patriotism, learning, morality, friendship.) Hopefully you have.

I have always believed that if your brothers or sisters are living their ritual, then the new members can see that. The new members know what your letters stand for. They just dont know they know. I even used tell them when I was Pledge Dad, that its right there in front of them. its in your actions, words and deeds. So I think its a proportional deal, the closer to ritual you live your life, the more comfortable you should be to the NM's wearing regalia.

We dont have any policies inter/nationally regarding when a member can wear what. Just how it is in my chapter.