Drinking in letters
 

I know for Alpha Xi, we CANNOT drink in our letters. What about other GLOs? I have seen others in letters drink but i was wondering if their were rules against this from other nationals.

I know that KD's aren't ever allowed to drink in their letters, and on my campus neither do the Tri Delts, Kappas, Thetas, or Chi-o's. The only sorority that does is Theta Phi Alpha and my friend that is a Theta Phi told me that they have no national rule against it. Hope that helps...

ASTs cannot drink in letters as well. National rule for us.

AOII doesn't allow it

We tried to be cognizant about it and refrain if we had our letters on. Inevitably, someone would forget to take off their lavalier or carry a mug with our letters on it to the bar and forget to tape over the letters, but for the most part we didn't. Though I think there were some girls who took delight in drinking in letters. Pretty much, though, you knew everyone at the bars or parties and which house they were from, whether they had their letters on or not.

Add Alpha Delta Pi to the list.

Drinking while wearing letters is one of the faster ways to a Standards hearing!

ADPi's (at least in my chapter this is what we were told) are not supposed to drink in their letters....but there are times people do forget they're wearing their letters, so we try to remind them when we see this happening

ETA: Honey, you beat me to it! :)

Yup, we're definately not allowed to.

I don't know if Alpha Chi Omega HAS a specific rule against drinking in letters, but I know I never would. The stereotype as Greeks as problem drinkers is bad enough without my adding to it by drinking in letters in public.

Gamma Phis also arent allowed to drink in letters. :cool:

My freshman year many people drank while wearing letters. Within a few years the campus stopped doing it. It was a matter of risk management and the greek stereotype. My senior year we had Greek Olympics with t-shirts designed by the President of IGC. The genius had a cartoon character wearing letters drinking a beer. What a douffus! :rolleyes:

NO drinking in letters for Phi Sigs either... sometimes it's hard to remember your jewelry.... but yeah it's definitely a way to be called to Judicial Board ....

Members of my chapter of Alpha Phi Omega aren't allowed to drink in letters...we're not even supposed to be in a bar with letters on. I'm not sure if that's a national rule or not...I would suspect not, since I know some brothers in other chapters who drink with letters on. But I could be wrong.

Nope for DGs as well. Although I will say that forgetting jewelry is common. I know that I tried not to have my lavalier on in the bars (but since I wore it every day it was hard!)...but if I did, I either tucked it in my shirt, put it in a pocket/purse if that was an option, or if not, just didn't make a big deal about it--usually if you don't make a deal about having them on you don't call attention to the fact that you do.

We don't allow drinking in our letters, though I have no idea if this is a national rule (it sounds like it is) or just widely encouraged.

I know there are chapters who don't allow smoking in letters, or smoking in front of the house -- if they want to smoke they have to at least cover up their letters and/or go out to the backyard.

I'm not sure if Alpha Gam has a specific rule against drinking in letters. However, our Greek Affairs office had a strict rule against it for all Fraternities and Sororities on campus.

During my final semester as a collegian, we revised our Code of Standards to say that no smoking is allowed with our letters showing. It was a chapter rule, which didn't really matter anyway because only three of us smoked. Even then, I remember wearing my letters and just feeeeeeeening for a cigarette.

The no drinking in letters thing was always a rule.

As for drinking with lavalieres on, personally I'm pretty lenient with it. Sometimes, say at Taco Tuesday, you forget that you have it on. Technically you're still wearing your letters, but as long as your lavaliere isn't 10 inches tall then it's okay by me.

The Code of Standards only applied to collegians, but even as alums we still hold ourselves to it because we like setting good examples for our youngins. ;)

Alpha Theta Chi does not allow members to drink with lettered sweatshirts on. A few years ago there was an amendment made state that we could drink while wearing party t-shirts with our letters on them. The only reason they ok'ed that was because if we were hosting a party everyone knew who we were anyway.

This is the same for my Phi Mu chapter: no drinking, smoking, or swearing in letters!

I had never heard of this clause - but I find it commendable!!

As someone who does the hiring (and knows a few others who do so), if two people have the same skills, the nonsmoker will get the job everytime.

You can add Sig Delts to the list. But like someone said earlier, when I am at the bar or at parties, I generally know who is greek or not. :)

Phi Gamma Pi does not allow girls to wear letters while drinking. As for lavalieres: I wear mine all of the time, but I still remember to take it off if I even think I may drink.

Suggestion to those who wear lavalieres: just take it off at home/switch necklaces before you go out that way you know your lavaliere is safe and you're not wearing letters.

We weren't allowed to smoke in our letters, or smoke on property. We had to go out the side door and up to the church parking lot. We also weren't allowed to swear in the "common" areas of the house--front entry way, formal living room, library, tv room, dining room or study lounge.

We aren't allowed to swear on the main floor of the house either. Or go barefoot. Or have food or drinks other than water. I swear, it's like a church down there. :p

We're not allowed to smoke on the upper level of the back balcony but we ARE allowed to smoke on the lower back porch. I'm not sure exactly what the reasoning behind this is, although the upper level is pretty easily visible by the houses (Pi Phi, Kappa Sig and Theta, plus an apartment building and the private dorm) next to us and behind us and the lower level is much harder to see. I think we MIGHT be able to smoke in the front of the house, though, which makes no sense. Being a nonsmoker I don't really know, and we only have a couple girls in our chapter that do smoke, so I've never really seen them smoking outside at all.

Do you ask if the person is a smoker? I have never been asked whether or not I smoke when applying for a job.

i honestly don't know if it's a national rule or not but my chapter definitely doesn't allow it. we always thought it was kind of trashy when one of the local sororities on our campus always comes to bars rocking their letter shirts or their windbreakers (with the huge letters) but i think that particular sorority seems to like having the party animal rep. The other nationals (AZD and SDT) and the other two locals seem to stick to the same rule as us.

i have definitely never heard of the smoking rule before (nor anyone else on my campus) and i think some of my sisters would definitely go nuts if that ever came into effect. we often have a cigarette break during meetings when sisters are always wearing letters.

You can almost always smell it on a person - even if they haven't had a cigarette all day. It sticks to you.


Delta Omicron doesn't allow drinking or smoking in letters. Lavelieres aren't considered rule-breaking, but you may get a stern look or a request to take it off.

No drinking or smoking in letters here either. We're not allowed to smoke on Pi Phi property according to our House Corporation so smokers go across the street.

There have already been several threads on this:

http://www.greekchat.com/gcforums/sh...threadid=20887

http://www.greekchat.com/gcforums/sh...threadid=13509

http://www.greekchat.com/gcforums/sh...&threadid=2560

http://www.greekchat.com/gcforums/sh...threadid=25744

And I will say again, if everyone knows what group you are in, it doesn't make a damn bit of difference if you wear or don't wear your letters while you are smoking/drinking/cussing/buying Britney Spears CDs. (That was for you ZTAngel.) If those things are "bad" or "disrespectful" in letters, you shouldn't do them out of letters either.

DZ doesn't allow drinking in letters, and I know of several chapters that have a no smoking policy as well.

33girl -- I agree with you 100% regarding your above post.

I disagree that it doesn't make ANY difference. There is a difference between knowing somebody is in a GLO and having a huge, neon pink reminder of it on their tee shirt while they're at a party. You're less likely to make the immediate connotation of sorority girl + completely trashed if you don't have that constant reminder of it. When someone who is in a sorority happens to be drunk, her (non-Greek) friends and acquaintances usually think of her as being drunk AND being a sorority girl . . . if she was wearing her letters at the time they're more likely to think of her as a "drunk sorority girl" -- the two end up being connected instead of two separate things. (And yeah I've discussed this with my non-Greek friends who happen to know a handful of Greeks, so there's where this comes from.)

But I agree, if people know you're in a GLO and you're drinking, you're still re-enforcing the stereotype.

maybe that all applies if you're at a bigger school (which you are) where everyone doesn't know you, but if you're someplace small, whether someone is wearing letters or not you know what group they're in. I never forgot Alicia was a ZTA, or Julia was a DZ, whether they had on letters or not. Mainly because I saw them wearing their coats/sweatshirts week after week, month after month.

I never heard such vehement prohibition on this when I was in school, back in the dark ages...it was more being proud of your group and wanting to show off your letters. Drinking and smoking weren't the Gateways to Hell! they are seen as now.

It also seems to me that as pledge programs have decreased in mandatory activities and degree of difficulty, it's been replaced with more rules and regulations for the actives. But that is another thread.

Interesting observation....never thought of that before. Would make for a good discussion (as long as everyone keeps their cool
:cool: )

PsychTau

Thank you, Sheila! That made me chuckle. :D

I think of this issue not as one of, "well, I know Sara and she's an XXX, and she's drinking." I think it's more of "Oooh look! Here are a bunch of people, whom I don't know, and they're all wearing Greek letters and they're DRINKING! See, all people in fraternities and sororities are ALCOHOLICS!"

Simply stated, it's about not perpetuating the stereotype to the outside world. If someone sees me at a restaurant having wine with dinner without letters, nothing is said. But, if I'm chugging beer at the dive bar around the corner with my letters on...it looks like another drunk sorority girl.

Phi Chi's are not allowed to drink in our letters under any circumstances. We can't wear letters into a bar. We can't sit in our apartment with our friends in a recruitment t-shirt and have a beer. This includes lavaliers - we can't wear them into a bar or while drinking.

zeta ladies are not supposed to.......
 

drink while wearing letters. i don't recall if smoking in letters was verboten, but zetas were not supposed to walk across campus smoking (they should be seated) and walking and drinking a coke or water(or anything along that line) should also not be done while walking. in my chapter booklet(not the national one) it also said that we should always have on shoes while in the common areas of the house, should answer the house phone ," good morning/afternoon/evening, zeta tau alpha, how may i help you? "and should gladly take an actives lunch plate and glass into the kitchen for her, which of course now adays would be considered hazing!! lisa

I think the standing and smoking thing varies from campus to campus ... when I went to Ole Miss I knew they werent suppose to but down here in New orleans its completely different and that rule isnt even ever talked about ... I doubt it is a anational thing

ZTAs are not wear letters and smoke nor are they allowed to smoke in their car if their cars have letters on it.