school threatening to get rid of serenades.
 

hey yall im a sigma kappa at the university of illinois and the panhellenic board has decided to get rid of the way in which we conduct serenades at our school. since we have the largest greek system in the country, each sorority is given 10 minutes at whichever frat house they choose to go to, (approx 10-15) and do a dance and skit. usually bar clothes are worn and people traditionally drink. it's a chance to have fun and how off how hot the greek community is to each other. after two weeks of this the frats serenade us in the same style and then we all vote for the next social calender.

well they are wanting to get rid of it and so my question to all you greeks out there is how do you all do serenades or pick out the new social calender.

they are looking for alternative ways to plan the social calender for all greeks. any feedback would be great appreciated!!!! thanks yall.

Is this for all social functions like mixers or just big things like Homecoming? Sorry, I am serenade illiterate! :)

info
 

serenades includes barcrawls, exchanges, happy hours, and football block. they do not include homecoming or anything like that tho.

I am serenade illiterate too. Are you saying that you "try-out" to mix, hang-out with fraternities?

Ummm....when I was in college the fraternity's social chair would contact our social chair and ask if we wanted to have a mixer. Sometimes our social chair would contact their social chair, but it's usually the guys doing the asking.

Are you saying that XYZ sorority could show up at ABC fraternity's house, "serenade" them, then if ABC didn't like the skit they don't ask them to get together for any functions during the year? That's just shady.....

Also, if people are drinking at these things, perhaps that's why Panhel. wants to stop this.

@NT for mixers and homecoming the fraternity men come to our meetings and formally invite us to do those events with them. our greek week stuff is on a rotation set up by the greek councils.

I too am serenade illiterate.
and what are barcrawls, exchanges and football blocks?
(i'm such a loser!)

Yep...that's how it worked for us, too. Occasionally a fraternity would come to our house on chapter meeting night and serenade us as a thank-you for something we helped them with, or maybe to invite us in person to a party they were having, but we never serenaded a fraternity.

Re: school threatening to get rid of serenades.
 

Don't let your panhell stop it. Its probably motivated by advisors in the administration . . if not . . some whacked out girl on an anal power trip.

I have been an Exec on Greek Council before and see the influence that the advisors have over GC, IFC, and NPC.

Anyway, you might want to start a lobby and contact people in the other sororities. Your delegates really aren't supposed to create policy without a lot of input from their chapters, although in practce they often do.

But you have to start quickly.

When I was chapter president I would have threatened to recall our delegate if he voted for anything like that, and I would have called the presidents from the other Chapters on campus.

Our social calendar planning consisted of the social directors of each GLO calling each other up and planning a social. Then the social had to be approved by Exec Board. And then it went on our calendar.

However, throughout the year, fraternities and sororities would serenade each other 1) when promoting an event. 2) when giving out invites for a date funcion, 3) for a lavaliereing/engagement, 4) for fun

For homecoming pairings, fraternities select the sororities they would like to invite, and then they write a short serenade and skit, which usually includes giving roses to the sorority members. The serenades are scheduled for the same night, the sororities vote on who they would like for their partners, and then homecoming partners are announced. For Greek Week, partners are drawn at random and assigned.

Reading between the lines in the first post, I would lay odds that the reason the panhellenic board is trying to eliminate this "tradition" is the drinking. If you are going to fraternity houses, the fact that people are drinking goes against the AFH resolutions. It isn't the fact that you're going over and doing a skit/ song and having fun... it's that underage drinking is part of the actvity (and whether or not you agree with the drinking age being 21, it IS the law and this is not the place to debate that fact). Panhellenic cannot ignore or condone activities that violate state law or they are also liable for any unforeseen tragic events.

Negotiate with Panhellenic to continue the serenades sans the drinking and you might get further than a protest or kicking your Panhellenic delegate out of office. Yes, this probably came from Administration but there had to be a reason for it to become an issue now. Were there any incidents last fall that got out of hand?

It's up to each individual chapter to coordinate their social events (mixers, dinner exchanges, etc...). They are usually just set up by a phone call between social chairs. They have to be scheduled at least a month in advance for many chapters (sororities especially) who have to turn paperwork into their Headquarters.

Elaborate skit serenades are used for the main 3 things: Homecoming, Greek Week and Varieties. These are pretty in-depth with costumes, props, and the whole chapter (or a good number) participating. Return skits are usually done by the chapter being serenaded after they have formally accepted.

Simple serenades are done for invite-only social events (formal and house party) and sometimes other special events (if a chapter is having an anniversary or something). Fraternities will often serenade sororities on Bid Day, sometimes on Founder's Day, sometimes when a woman is lavaliered and sometimes for their initiation or Inspiration weeks.

Ah, serenades...the age old question...

It still disgusts me that chapters can't police themselves, and it disgusts me even more that PHC gives them a slap on the wrist when they break rules. Amazing how it is the SAME chapters over and over again.

Glad to hear that some things haven't changed at UK and that serenading is still the same. :cool:

And by serenade I mean showing up at the sorority house and just singing. No Hoochie Coochie Chippendale dancing is involved. :eek:

here is how it all works.
 

panhell are at a select few fraternaties while the sororities come around to serenadea nd make sure that there is nothing shady going on such as extreme sexual behavior or something against panhell rules. when there is no panhell, then pretty much anyhing goes and that doesnt mean that ridiculous sexual things happen but we do allow ourselves to dance with each other a bit more sexually than if panhell were there. but every house does this and because it can be nervewrecking, people do predrink to calm their nerves. panhell of course has banned drinking for serenades but you cant stop people from predrinking.

so on desighnated sundays, for two sundays, the sororities go and serenade the frats and then the tuesdays for two tuesdays, the frats serenade the sororities.

after this we all vote on who we want events with and then the social chairs go and do the call.

exchanges are just where a frat and a sorority go to a bar and rent it out and have a good time. usually they have themes.

barcrawls are ones where we begin at 9 or 10 and for 1 hour we stay at an assigned bar. there are a string of bars in the heart of campus. so we travel to the different bars as a huge group.

football block is the pairing of a frat and a sorority and they drink and have bbqs before the football game and sit in a block section.

this is news to me.

Seranades at our school was alway something super classy. And it took place during fraternity recruitment week. It was a way for the sororities to show off their new members (since formal rush is the weekend before the fraternities) and it was a way show the new fraternities members who the sororities were. Each group got to sing like 2 songs, dressed in all black... some carried candles, others got flowers, etc.

Sigma Chi used to have seranades for derby days and all the participating houses would sing to their coaches.

But not during pub crawls... although i have never seen a sac state pub crawl either.

Well, I've never seen a serenade at Illinois, but from some of the terms used in the posts -- "bar clothes," "predrinking," sorority members "sexually" dancing with each other -- I can see why Panhellenic might be concerned. Assuming that this is going on outside the fraternity houses, in public view, there could be a serious question as to whether an appropriate public image of NPC women is being conveyed.

I know it may seem like Panhellenic and/or the university's Greek life office is trying to cut down on fun, but I would hope that some alternatives could be found that would allow for fun and fraternity - sorority interaction without feeding a -- gonna be harsh here, maybe too harsh -- "drunk and slutty" stereotype.

I'm illiterate when it comes to serendades because my sorority doesn't do them and I don't think any on my campus do and same for the fraternities on campus.

Although, I've seen pictures at my bf's fraternity house of serendades that they have had from the DPhiE's and the girls all wore white (ritual attire I do believe). Afterwards they usually either left or they would change and all go to the bar.

Oh wait, I actually remember the Sigma Pi's coming into one of our meetings, giving us flowers and serendading us for Sweetest Day (a michigan/hallmark holiday). It was very very cute and sweet.

As someone who HAS seen many serenades (and participated in 8 seasons of them), I am saying that PHC does a very poor job of policing itself. A few years ago, they started placing PHC officers in the fraternity houses to watch/censor the serenades. So what happened? Chapters got caught doing bad things, got sent to J-board, and were fined $25. So then the next semester, they did the same thing, and--oh no!--this time the fine was $50. The rules are pretty liberal...for example, you could talk about having a drink, as long as you didn't talk about getting drunk or underage drinking. No overly provacative dance moves, no lyrics about sex, whatever. It is not hard to do a good serenade that follows the rules.

My point is that if some chapters insist on breaking the rules, then the PHC should punish those chapters, not decide that a very, very old tradition needs to be eliminated.

Be nice.

Almost any good time looks bad on paper, because almost any good time involves overtones of sex and/or drinking.

Almost every story that each of us could relate that would make us break down in hysterics looks like a risk management nightmare.

Unless you and others here think of socials as basically Church-tea-and-cake-parties then you know the purpose of them: they are to let loose and fraternize with members of the opposite sex. No matter how much we pretend otherwise.

Honestly, looking at say, the movie Animal House as a context, there are a hell of a lot more Dean Warners here in the guise of sorority girls than members of Delta House.

Yep. :)

The men always came dressed in either nice khakis and collared shirts or sometimes sport coats. They didn't need any "Hoochie Coochie" dancing...they looked good enough. ;)

Also a quick review.

Umbrella organizations when beginning have intrinisically little power. They accrue power over time because they start traditionally focusing on certain aspects of the greek system. Greek Week etc.

NPC, in its purest incarnation, mainly concerns itself with Rush correct?

Keep it that way.

You do not want to create an umbrella group that does the job of the administration. Thats moronic. I mean how stupid can you possibly be to surrender that power to a bunch of kids, of which you only have one delegate, and you know is going to be more influenced by the administration than your chapter policies.

Just say no to becoming a puppet of the administration.

I'd never heard of "seranades" until I read this thread, but from what I can gather, it makes me wonder if the advisors are just concerned that things have gotten a little out of hand?

Kind of like at Pitt's Derby Days a couple of years ago when some sorority pledges at a lip-syncing competition shed their shirts and took the song "Pour Some Sugar on Me" waaaaaaaay too literally.

Derby Days
 

Oh Tracy, I can relate to that. Try "Sex Shooter" with no bras & extremely short skirts. I won't name the sorority, but for the rest of the year we referred to the lead singer as "the XYZ with no bra." She teaches children now. :rolleyes:

KillarneyRose, hey, not to be a Dean Wormser or anything, but it's "new members," not "pledges." As for going shirtless -- was the air conditioning not working? Or was it just to get into the spirit of a titillating song?

back then it WAS pledges!! LOL!!!!!!!!!!

Damn, beat me to it! :D I love Chi Delta! (I'm coaching you guys for miss greek too...)

Values Congruence
 

I have to say that as a somewhat "older" member who's had the opportunity to step back and really reflect on my own personal expererience, I cannot in any way agree with the poster of the above. Serenades are an old and cherished tradition began by our oldest GLO chapters. It is hard to imagine a time in the late 1800's where members wore "bar clothes" and drank heavily while performing dances on someone's lawn. Quite to the contrary. Serenades were a sign of great respect toward the chapter being serenaded. Perhaps they were to honor the new fiance of a brother who became engaged. Perhaps it was to congratulate a chapter on a major accomplishment. The songs were of the oldest tradition and done in a tasteful manner. For some reason, many campuses have strayed away from the honor of our traditions and turned them a twisted idea of a "good time" which includes drinking to excess and singing songs that have no place outside the basements or backrooms of our chapter houses. I am even more greatly concerned that the men's groups cannot seem to grasp the spirit of the National Panhellenic Conference. NPC and our local Panhellenic associations are about so much more than recruitment. NPC is the largest women's organization on the planet. We have more on our mind than just recruitment. Do we seek to have values congruence with our host universities? You bet! Does it always happen? Probablly not. But, do know that the women's group try very hard to respect our history and heritage and not trash it up for a cheap thrill. I wish the men could find their way clear to approach our entire Greek system with more respect and dignity.

CONTEMPORARY VISION, TIMELESS TRADITION ... ALWAYS ALPHA PHI.

One of the advantages of a Greek system with 16 sororities and 52 fraternities is...well, you do the math. The guys had to really compete to get a sorority to come to a social, or do homecoming, greek week, etc. And the socials weren't beer bashes - but the guys had to put some work into it to get on the calendar for the next semester.

We girls would NEVER have to serenade, dance or have to do anything but pick and choose.

What's odd is that I come from the wild 80's, when we had IFC/Panhel sanctioned beer chugging contests, bar-to-bar relay races, and all sorts of alcohol-fueled shenannigans, but seranades were VERY old-fashioned. The guys actually sang multi-part harmonies outside the sorority suites, and they were reserved for pinnings and engagements, and thank-yous (Homecoming or whatever). The Betas, fascists preppies though they were (at that time and place), were miles beyond the other guys at doing this well.

WOO HOO! My Great Great Grand Sis Candace is the contestant. I am soooo gonna be there to root her on!

:cool:

Re: school threatening to get rid of serenades.
 

[/QUOTE]", each sorority is given 10 minutes at whichever frat house they choose to go to, (approx 10-15) and do a dance and skit. usually bar clothes are worn and people traditionally drink. it's a chance to have fun and how off how hot the greek community is to each other. " [/QUOTE]


OK, correct me if I am wrong, but:

1) it sounds like you just told everyone that your chapter dresses slutty, gets drunk and trolls "frat" houses in an attempt to get them to want to hang out with you socially.

2) you actually used the word frat


3) way to perpetuate the stereotypes and negative media publicity, your founders would be proud:rolleyes:

Also, James, the idea behind policing serenades is the same as the idea behind our alcohol/social policies: we police ourselves before the administration has to step in, so that one chapter doesn't ruin it for all of us.

The problem, IMO, is that we have been slapping chapters on the wrist for violating rules. Really, if you get totally out of control at serenades, and all the fraternities think it is awesome (which they inevitably do) and you have a great social calendar, you are gonna be okay with paying a $50 fine for inappropriate lyrics.

What SHOULD happen (again, this is all in my most humble opinion) is that PHC would step it up in terms of punishments. Wipe out a chapter's social calendar if that is what you have to do. Fine them enough that they will actually notice (chapters on my campus are operating on annual budgets of $30K+, not including housing). Prevent them from serenading at all the following semester. This crap about "educational punishments" is just that, crap.

Right. I never understood why some rush infractions go by with no hefty response either. If my sorority could walk away at quota for a slap on the rest . . . thats not a bad strategy.

In this case we are talking about situations that can get chapters removed entirely by administrations. And we are often talking about some of the "grayer' areas of our social programming.

A lot of campuses, especially in the NE, do not have PHCs or IFCs that are involved in a lot of the social and other aspects of chapter lives.

So what I am trying to say is that type of Power is not intrinsic to a PHC, its something that evolves, often with a lot of administrative input by the school.

In a pro-greek school, they are not really looking to be hard on a greek system, unless they are forced to notice. With hundreds of people looking for social infractions, you are much more likely to have to face administrative punishment even for frivolous things.

In an anti-greek school often the PHC or IFC becomes a tool in the hands of the administration to weed out chapters for . . . again . . often frivolous reasons.

I understand what you are saying about punishment Deltabetababy, but some of that is the problem that the PHC or IFC as pressured or manipulated into passing a rule against something they don't think is that serious.

They have to make it against the rules but they show that its more like jaywalking to them by making the punishment really light.

Another tangental problem to judicial IFCs and PHCs is that I have heard stories of favortitism, and certain rules getting enforced on certain chapters depending on who was on the exec board or the judicial committee . . .

Well anyhow . . I hope y'all save your serenades.

Interesting perspective. You are right...chapters are out to get each other, when the administration would probably never notice.

And to clarify, I am not at Illinois anymore, so I don't really give a damn what happens to serenades.