"Tent Talk"
 

PNM's,

As you go through recruitment, there will be periods of "down time" between recruitment parties. Typically, there are tents and chairs set outside the houses before you head into a party. This is a time where gossip and rumors spread like wildfire. Enjoy chatting with your fellow PNM's, but avoid listening to the gossip and rumors.

"OH, at XYZ, you have to be a blonde to get in."

"Did you hear that at ABC they haze you and circle your fat?"

"Someone told me that the DEF's have a mandatory bible study!!!"

IGNORE THE TENT TALK! They're just rumors!!!!!

Sorority women, please chime in...

Yeah, at every school there seems to be the rumors of various chapters being... ones who take "everybody", the one's that "are the smart ones" , are the "pretty ones", are the "slutty ones"... so don't believe it... I heard all sorts of rumors going through recruitment... from charges of virgin sacrificing, forced rape of men, to have to be a Baptist to get in, and not being allowed to wear baseball caps... and none of it has turned out to be true... so go thru rec. w/ an open mind, and a closed ear to the gossip

and the infamous "i heard TRF was closing because of ____________"

Actually, I did hear at DEF that they do drop you in a coffin to be reborn HG!

I heard:

ABC: They talk about sex all the time

DEF: They're non stop drinkers

GHI: Are all about having a good time and partying

JKL: They're the best one to get into (no reason given though, lol).

MNO: They all have short hair (look around people, no, they don't)


And plenty of other stupid unrealistic reasons that aren't even true. So yeah, don't listen to a word of rumor you hear. You're going into those houses to talk to the real girls.

Some "gems" I heard:

AB: You have to be a size 0 and gorgeous to even be considered.

CD: All have 4.0's and you're screwed if you don't.

AAA: Only take talented singers and dancers that will help them win Greek events.

CCC: All fat skanks who will take anyone.

XY: Haze their pledges.

EF: Only take blonde, skinny, party girl types who drink alot.

These are ALL GROSSLY FALSE :rolleyes:

This thread is making me think about the falsehoods that my chapter/campus has. Yes, we all know what the lies about our own chapters are from others in the Greek Life perspective, but what about from the PNM stand point?
Kinda also makes me think how all this nonsense started...guess thats what happens when you put a bunch of girls together in a room.

I've told this story elsewhere, but when I was rushing, one favorite topic among PNMs was how one of the ASAs was a crazy pathological liar, because she claimed to be dating/have dated two very famous major league baseball players (maybe reasonable at USC, but not considered in the realm of possibility at Penn State). Caused quite a few girls to cut ASA.

I ignored this, figuring that there were loonies in every sorority, which proved to be true, and joined ASA anyway.

Turns out the girl wasn't psycho, but was sort of a groupie (girls in the sorority had met the guys, so she did know them). We didn't really know whether "baseball groupie" was any better than "pathological liar", so we didn't do anything to contradict the rumors, other than ignoring them.

My personal favorite was that for the past several years, we've been accused of being racist because MY FRESHMAN YEAR an african-american woman and 2 Carribbean women joined the only (at the time) other sorority on campus. The next year and every year after that, we lose some of the coolest girls because this stupid rumor won't just lie down and die. :rolleyes:

I've had girls who were able to look past the rumors & stories. Unfortunately, it's not good when you have a recent alum who tells her own family member NOT to put down that she's a Sk legacy. Towards the end, this sister became disillusioned not with the chapter but with some of the other girls in the house. It's sad that she would say things like this about us based on her experience with only 2 girls. Oh Well.

While serving as recruitment adviser, I knew of a legacy who told our girls that her sister told her not to pledge us because our chapter wasn't as good as the one at the SEC school where her sister was a member.
She did end up going to another group--we were probably better off!

My personal favorite, from a Rho Chi no less....

"D Phi E only takes Jewish girls"....NOT TRUE!

I heard that AB cut all the girls whose shorts were shorter than x inches above the knee. It was really funny too because these girls usually had a party reputation (although they didnt' party any more than any other organization), so I don't know how the short short thing came up.

And the ADPi stereo-type is that all our girls have medium length brown hair (and we're all average height). Ironically enough, most of us fit this description, but after watching recruitment 4 years and being the recruitment chair, I have no explanation as to why this tended to hold true...we certainly didn't have a preference for brown haired girls...in fact one year my grand-diamond made a big push to get more red headed girls before she graduated (as a joke of course).

No tents at Hillsdale, but the "tent talk" still flies.

Overheard in my dorm freshmen year:
"The only house I would consider joining is ABC, since they're the only ones classy enough to know that they need to wear pantyhose with their dresses!"

Let me assure you all that members of all three sororities at my school are "classy enough" to wear pantyhose. :rolleyes:

Another favorite - the infamous GPA rumour: "XYZ only takes girls who got at least a 3.7 first semester." (If that were true, XYZ would have been out of business long ago!)

This must be a national rumor because we hear it all the time too! It's simply not true!

I once heard that we take anyone b/c we are desperate to boost our #'s up. That made me laugh b/c it's so not true. Our #'s aren't high right now b/c we had a lot of gals go alum. This fall though, we hope to ROCK!!!

I've heard that one too :rolleyes:

What has the chapter done to combat these rumors??

We've given every single girl we met a fair chance, regardless of race. There's also the fact that we get pretty pissed anytime this rumor is mentioned, but it's not like we can throw a fit in the middle of the Student Union plaza.

We have girls from Switzerland, India, Pakistan, and Surinam, but apparently that's not good enough. We also do have recent african-american alumnae, but it's not like we're going to stick them up on a pedestal and flaunt them to prove our point. I think that would be disgustingly disrespectful to our alumnae and current International sisters.

Not saying throw a fit. Maybe get PHC to host a forum. "Myths about Sorority Life"etc. If you dont say anything then the myth will continue. JMHO.

It happened at UGA!

If the other sororities are the ones spreading the rumours and it's working to their benefit, there's NWIH they're going to participate in a forum to disprove them.

Like she said, they have recent A-A alumnae (whose faces would be on a composite for all rushees & everyone else to see) so it's obviously untrue. People just like to say crappy things about other people. :mad:

So...there is a rumor that a chapter is racist despite having African American members and no one is willing to do an educational program about this issue on campus. Interesting.

I'm sure A-Phi would be willing to do it - also, I am assuming the rumours are coming from other sororities and astro please correct me if I'm wrong - but half the time when you say "WE'RE NOT RACIST!" you end up looking like you ARE, even when you never were to begin with.

And with that I will stop tangenting this thread. :)

I'm not 100% sure where they're coming from, but I think it is from the Greek community in general. The guys are known for trying to start stuff between the 2 current sororities, so it could be from anywhere.

I'd also like to add that racism isn't a large issue on this campus, so having a forum or educational session would be pointless. The school actually did have one for a greek in-service about 2 years ago and even the international students who showed up agreed that it was the biggest waste of our time because it didn't apply here. The school is 20% international students. You could almost count the current organizations as multi-cultural because there are men and women from all over the world in every organization.

And thank you 33, you understood what I was trying to say perfectly. No one is going to let go of stereotypes that protect them.

It seems that the general consensus of this thread is for the guys and gals going through Recruitment/Rush.....make your own decision. It's one you have to live with, not anyone else. and it's not up to them either. You are the only person who knows best where you belong, so trust your own instincts, and do what you want to do, because you want to, and not for anyone else.

Also, as I've said in another thread, don't let your new best friend/new roommate make your decision for you. It's ok to be good friends or roommates and be in different sororities. My roommate and I didn't think we'd be in the same sorority because we were very different people. Even if you think you and your roommate/friend have so much in common, you may find you're happier in different groups.

I've seen many girls disappointed with their choice later down the road, or their friend that they joined with transferred, or they got in a big fight and weren't friends anymore.

Would you suggest that they do an educational program about it if it were another one of the rumors featured in this thread? Like if girls were saying that the chapter was full of sluts and cokeheads- would you suggest doing a program to dispel that rumor? Just curious.

I agree with 33- just because the rumor is there does not mean it is at ALL founded in reality. A-Phi even said when and how the rumor got started... and I think we all agree that's a stupid way to decide if a chapter is racist. The only way to even ATTEMPT to discredit those kind of rumors is tedious word of mouth- by making sure that none of your members are working against the chapter's goal, by publicly celebrating your chapter's diversity... and sometimes, even that doesn't work.

Did I not say that a chapter could host a program called 'the myths of sorority life'?? That program could address all stereotype associated with chapters.

If that is the way your chapter decides to handle that issue than good. I don't agree with it but my opinion doesn't matter since I'm not in your chapter nor a member of a NPC sorority.

OK then, that's what I was asking. I don't think that a program like that would be a BAD idea... but I would guess that the guilty parties spreading the rumors would not realize that the program was directed towards then. However, our Panhellenic does put on a program on the myths of sorority life on Convocation night of Recruitment. It is an excellent way to address these topics to potential new members. We do not have rumors of racism on our campus though, so that is not a feature of the presentation.

AND YES, YOUR OPINION DOES MATTER. If I didn't think your opinion mattered, I would not have asked you in the first place. Naturally you don't have control over what my chapter does... but I wouldn't put it out there on GreekChat for public consumption if it weren't open to opinion.

I tend to agree that this could be a REALLY GOOD thing to do. I know on my campus, every sorority has their stereotype...it isn't just one or two. By holding a program such as this, maybe that will dispel some of the BS. Good thought Epit!

I still remember what one of my roommates told me when she was going through recruitment.

"I heard that ABC serves little cheesecakes at their parties and they watch if you eat any. If you do, you get cut because that's how they make sure they get girls who are watching their weight."

According to her, that group also "circled the fat" too.

I did read in a rumor website or book a loooooong time ago that some sorority offered a girl seconds during rush. And that the girl accepted. And that they cut her off automatically due to that because "it was not ladylike to have seconds".

Anyhow, I had heard horror stories about a certain sorority on campus. From "they did drugs" to "they are a cult" and then some. Yet at rush, they were one of the houses I liked best. It was the last one I went to. And I remember when I went home telling my mother how much I liked that house.

Some facts are verifiable, such as "this house has many honor students". But others are just junk you should not listen to, such as "this house dresses you in plastic bags and circles your fat". And yet others are rather positive, but trickier to confirm, such as "they are very prim and proper" or "they are very athletic".

a/c
 

Auburn holds recruitment is August, in Alabama. So it's REALLY hot.

This one is my favorite.

"Eta Omicron Tau turns off their a/c to weed out all the complainers." The truth is that it's August, in the South, there are over 150 people in a small chapter room, and the a/c units aren't designed to handle that much heat. If the a/c is off, it's not because the sorority wanted it to be that way.

My favorites have been:

XYZ makes you drink until you puke on Bid Night.

BB has a coke problem and you will too, if you join.

AAA are all brunette.

RSTs are all sluts and you have to sleep with three fraternity boys before initiation.

MN is all blondes and you have to be born below the Mason Dixon line to get in.

GHI makes you pair up with an AB fraternity pledge for the semester and go to all their parties, but you can't date/hook up with anyone but him.

JKL makes you go through initiation naked and it involves drawing blood.

And all of these are insane and untrue. I'll be trying to squash these rumors as a Recruitment Counselor when Rush comes, but they always end up leaking into girls ears...

We always said that about a certain chapter on campus. When even the Asian girls and black girls are blonde you have to suspect something's up. They were also the chapter that was "known" for having eating disorders.

This is the aspect I think would be difficult when it came time to planning a program on the so-called myths. Some of the reputations (whether negative or positive) are what they are simply because they've been earned. Meaning, XYZs really do only take girls with 3.8 GPA or higher, or ABCs are all overweight, or every homecoming queen for the past decade has been a QRS. It would be wrong for the program to insinuate to PNMs that everything they hear is false, when we all know that some of it is very true.

Don't get me wrong, I think a program would be a good idea, it'd just be hard to find a way to dispell actual myths while at the same time not dispelling actual (and maybe deserved) reputations.

Or, maybe it would be good to try to dispell all (true and false) reputations. I don't know.:confused:

If an ABC really has been the homecoming queen for the last 20 years, that isn't a reputation, that's a fact. However, it doesn't necessarily mean anything. Maybe it's because they were all drop dead gorgeous. Maybe it's because they were all super fugly, but they had someone behind the scenes who manipulated the votes. Maybe it's because they were smart enough to only nominate one girl from their chapter, while the other sororities were stupid and nominated like 3 and the votes got split up and ABC won just because they were a little more politically savvy.

Grades are a different matter, if your national says you can only take above so and so GPA that's that.

And I have yet to see a sorority where EVERY SINGLE SISTER IN THE CHAPTER was overweight.

Yes, but unfortunately, 3 or 4 who are get you the "Cow" rep. Even if the rest make Nicole Richie look like a heifer.