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The end of my chapter
I recently received a letter from the headquarters of my sorority (I am an alumna).
The executive leadership of my college chapter has asked to return its charter and dissolve, as part of the "Abolish Greek Life" movement. The chapter leadership conducted a vote of membership and the chapter "voted to dissolve" because they believe that sororities are harmful and discriminatory. The current college members believe that legacy preference is harmful; that dues are discriminatory to low-income potential new members; and that the Greek life system needs to be ended. Our sorority's headquarters are seeking input and feedback from alumnae of our chapter, as well as updating us that this happened. They will issue a decision soon about their response to the chapter's plans (they do not have to "accept" the dissolution/return or charter and what they do next may be sorority-specific, so I will be vague for now). The vote held by the leadership of the chapter and its members has not been shared publicly anywhere (I can't find anything about it on the chapter's social media or website or in the news). I am not including info about my sorority here, because I don't want this to become public until there is some sort of outcome. But the sorority is a nationally recognized, common, well-known sorority. And the university is a nationally-known, well-respected university. And the chapter is a VERY old chapter. The chapter is over total; has dozens and dozens of active collegiate members (I don't want to identify the number because it could identify the situation); and has not had any issues with recruitment, operations, etc., as far as I know. I am very sad to hear this, and things feel a bit complicated to me. I don't really know why I am posting this, but I am. I wish sisters who no longer feel like they could be part of the chapter would disaffiliate or ask for alumnae status, rather than dissolving something that has been important to generations of women. I also understand that I am not a 21-year-old and may be out of sync with this generation. Tough. |
First of all, so sorry that this is happening in your chapter of initiation. As we all know, the college generation is where we "try on" various roles and persona and are very passionate about everything! This is their way of showing their passion for others. Hopefully your Council will find a way to retain the chapter and release those for whom Greek Life no longer seems relevant.
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As someone pointed out on Grank Reek, the more the people who are concerned about matters of social justice leave the Greek system, the more it will become the discriminatory, stereotypical pit they claim it to be. Although I question their commitment to their values when they do things like this. It’s always easier to leave the car on the side of the road than it is to fix the flat tire. If they really had confidence in what they are espousing they would have confidence they could turn the Greek system around.
I hope all the HQs deny these requests and say “if you want out, terminate yourself.” I also wonder about the chapter members who don’t agree with this (I guarantee you none of these votes have been 100% unless there were 3 people in the chapter). |
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I think you quoted the wrong part c :)
Also BRAVO x 1000 to whatever sorority this is for reaching out to the alumnae for input instead of just letting the collegians run roughshod over decades of tradition. |
Hopefully your HQ and alumnae can invest resources in the chapter members who want to remain open and you can recruit women who don't harbor so much self-hate.
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I am so very sorry that this is occurring within your chapter of initiation. I am pleased though that the alumnae are being kept informed by your national headquarters. |
I saw a situation where over half a chapter disaffiliated for similar reasons. I'm happy your organization is getting alumni input and will hopefully stay on that campus
(Take note I'm a newer member.) Within my own chapter there was a lot of changes addressing certain issues. Even before all this came up we had a diversity chair who during chapter meetings would give a little presentation on topics like privilege and such. We were also working to avoid money related questions during recruitment, and many of the CPCs were donating to causes related to all this. I feel like many of these members aren't seeing the bigger picture. While greek life isn't perfect overall and there are problems within it, the only people who can really change things are the actives. While they do have overhead from nationals, if they decided to stay involved beyond college if they could, they can help be the ones to change policies to match up with what they want. Plus as I mentioned earlier, the specific chapters can try doing programs or incorporating diversity stuff during chapter or having discussions of these topics in general. |
The more I think about this the madder I get. It’s all just so damned selfish!!!
I think cheese popcorn is the most disgusting substance on earth - but I’m not going to go around blowing up all the cheese popcorn factories. I can’t stand Faith Hill’s singing but I’m not going to do her harm, I’ll just not listen to her. The utter lack of ingenuity and originality is what gets me. Dues are too expensive for some people? Start a Anonymousie’s U Greek Scholarship Fund that all the groups can participate in. Legacy preference is harmful? Discuss it with your HQ and give concrete examples of where it’s hurt the chapter. If it still isn’t your thing, fine, quit. But don’t ruin it for others who might enjoy it. If you think you are so much better, create an alternative and people will flock to it if you’re right. |
As I stated in the other thread, I don’t have a problem with people self terminating. What I do have a problem with is trying to make the entire chapter go away.
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In any case, nothing really changes if the conversation doesn't happen. I wish you the best, sincerely. |
Why does it seem the groups that want to do this are all at private, expensive (how discriminatory to the less financially fortunate!), selective (how discriminatory to those with low GPAs and test results!) colleges?
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If a school has made the decision that financial need won't be a barrier to acceptance, I can see why a chapter of a GLO would want their own organization to mirror those policies. I also admit that I don't know what semester dues look like for non-NPHC GLOs, whether it is more or less. In my organization, I do advocate for the local alumni chapter covering the initiation fees of at least one candidate who literally could not afford it otherwise. (I also advocate, as much as I can, for the reduction of cost in initiation fees in the first place, which is the real barrier.) |
I’ve heard of people getting more money from (PA example) a private school like Westminster than Penn State.
Not sure if this is feasible at OP’s school (guessing it is) but another way to reduce dues? Get rid of the house. Either sell it to the school or rent it to the school or another Greek chapter or special interest group. Again, this probably didn’t even cross their minds. |
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Well I guess I know what not to get you that DVD of Faith's Christmas Special and the 5 gal tub of cheese corn.:p All kidding aside, I have to wonder if the other major 2020 event is also contributing to these decisions for collegiate members choosing to end their Greek affiliation. How many have families that have been financially impacted due to COVID 19 and were being told that they could no longer afford dues? Members who might also be having trouble finding a part time job to pay for the activities/dues? Who has chosen to remain at home because all instruction will be online so why even go to campus if you can't participate in anything? |
I think the problem with dues is that in many cases, collegiate members truly don't know what they're paying for or why. Even if there are meetings establishing budgets, how many are paying attention to the breakdown? Is the breakdown distributed?
After BLM and COVID both became THE topics of 2020, there were many angry collegians wondering why national organizations were still collecting national dues and/or why they weren't donating large sums of money to BLM-related organizations and nonprofits. All of us here are aware of how our organizations operate and understand the relatively minimal amount of money per collegian our organizations typically receive through dues. They need to be able to keep the lights on, pay salaries, cover insurance, and run programs to provide members with helpful and meaningful experiences. But how transparent are GLOs? I was going through some NPC websites recently for reference for a project, and props to SDT for laying out dues on their website: https://sigmadeltatau.org/join-us/pr...national-fees/. I don't know if there are others who do the same, but financial transparency is especially important nowadays. Even before the s***storm of 2020, college costs have been exponentially rising, and if students are going to fork over even more money for something, they want to see the value in it and know they're putting it toward the right things. I know I'm playing a bit of devil's advocate here. But I think there is a higher level of understanding needed from both sides - the organizations and newer members - in order to come together and find solutions that will benefit everyone. But if collegians simply want to scream, "Dues aren't fair and are discriminatory!" then that's absurd. |
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In addition: people with the means to attend private, expensive, selective schools may feel they somehow don't deserve all they have been given in life, and thus they will feel a need to change/destroy what others may perceive as part of their privilege. |
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