Opinions on this.
 

Well, we had a man sign up to go through sorority rush. The greek life advisor has approved it, while encouraging him to go through fraternity rush as well. It was brought up at Panhel yesterday, and most of the chapters don't have a problem with him rushing, but don't know if anyone will bid him. But I guess what they want is for chapters to discuss it at their meetings and then report back to panhel on their feelings. My chapter feels that they wouldn't have a problem with him rushing or even him pledging our chapter.

Discuss.

That's crazy.........no way would I go for it

Are you a co-ed group or an exclusively women's sorority? I'm surprised the school would even let him rush, at my school, and probably at most schools, this would never happen. If none of the groups on your campus have a problem with him rushing, I would make sure that they talk to their alumnae before bidding him. Just because 20 or so actives don't necessarily mind it, it doesn't mean that a hundred or so alumnae who pay alumnae dues to the chapter won't.

ETA: All of the sororities on PhoenixAzul's Campus are local, so they wouldn't necessarily have to follow the same rules as NPC sororities do concerning rush.

You have a Panhellenic even though none of your orgs are Panhellenic?

As long as everyone's bylaws define members as undergraduate women, no one has to give him a bid. He shouldn't be allowed to go through. He should look at fraternities if he wants to go Greek.

Her school is all locals, no NPC groups. ETA Panhellenic means "all Greek." Several schools with local groups only use it. NPC doesn't have a corner on it.

I agree with Daisy, talk this over with the alums because once you go this way it's done and you could end up becoming co-ed.

Well, as part of NPC, I don't think legally it would fly here since the NPC creed starts with: "We as undergraduate women.....".

You don't have to deal with that since you're local. I'd definitely have a loooong talk with your chapter and your alumnae because you wouldn't want to bid a man and make them upset that they weren't consulted.

Once you bid a male member, you are co-ed and have to go about things differently. You wont' technically be considered a sisterhood and would have to consider this male's point of view in every aspect of the chapter: bid day shirts, housing issues, new member activities (how would pledges feel about having a pledge sleepover of something with a guy?).

Also, you may want to consult someone from your panhellenic and ask if they can discuss why the man signed up. You also might want to ask why they didn't insist that he sign up for men's rush.

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This guy is either looking for a co-ed glo but isn't finding what he wants on your campus, or is trying to stir up trouble by being the guy who got to join a sorority. If its the former, you may want to look into helping him form a co-ed group. If its the latter, don't touch this mess with a twenty foot pole

I should add that this particular man is gay. He's friends with a couple of my sisters, and seems like an all around super nice guy. I can't speak to his reasons for rush, but I don't know how it will affect him if he doesn't get pledged somewhere. I (individual I) don't have any say in the bidding of members this year (See signature!) so I guess I'm just curious as to the ramifications of this. One of my reasons for joining a sorority was to find positive female peers, and to find really smart strong women to bond with. I don't know if this guy can relate to this...

There is no co-ed on this campus, and i'm sure there would be a market for this at Otterbein as well. I don't know if that would be the way for him to go, or what. He is being "strongly encouraged" to go through fraternity recruitment, and many of our fraternities are very accepting and understanding.

I'm sure the alums will have something to say about this, but there really isn't time to discuss this with them! We're ending in 2 weeks, and then we come back after new years and *BAM!* recruitment time again. As a PX, I don't know how I will advise him in a group or what...if he ends up in my PX group, it's going to be interesting seeing how the girls react to him. I just want the kid to be happy and find a good house...but i'm not sure this is the way to do it.

I don't think that his sexuality should impact him rushing. If there are no co-eds in the school, then he should either try to start one or join a fraternity. I know gay guys in fraternities, so it shouldn't matter there. I would proceed with caution about bidding him if you don't have time to discuss this with your alumnae. Your sorority is pretty old, so you would have some older alumnae, and I don't know how happy they would be to find out that a guy was bidded into their sorority.

There's always a lot of talk about why we don't have "sweethearts" or "diamondmen" or "arrowmen" or whatever any more, because they jeopardized our status as single-sex organizations. It's my understanding that, in light of this SSO status, sororities don't have to accept men. The GC lawyers can probably clarify this. Calling KDDani ...

Well, if he's gay, and doesn't think he'll fit in with the existing fraternities, he might want to look into founding a chapter of Delta Lambda Phi. Its a national fraternity for gay, bisexual, and progressive men with both collegiate and city-wide chapters.

Yeah, there's that whole can of worms with girls wanting to be in fraternities, and wondering if IFC would let them rush/join. We have "honorary" members, our *male* adviser is an honorary member, he's allowed to wear letters and such and he participates in almost everything except for rituals/pledging/recruitment. He doesn't know all the sorority secrets, but he's a huge part of our sisterhood. I know that one fraternity has 2 female "members", one is their adviser and one is the mother of a deceased brother, but they are allowed to wear letters and I believe they may attend meetings and such, but I'm not sure.

This whole thing is really really complicated.

Since I have many friends and a sibling who attend Otterbein, I do not believe that this man's sexuality would make a difference. OC is a very open college, and a significant percentage of the student body is homosexual (including several of my biological brother's fraternity brothers). It sounds, to me, that the college advisor does not want a discrimination lawsuit on his hands and thus is allowing this man to rush. This seems to be a decision for each chapter to make. Good luck PhoenixAzul.

The women are honorary members, and therefore aren't full members. The guy you're talking about seems to want to be a full member.

Awesome! Anyone planning on going through recruitment?

Yeah I mean, we are a SUPER open campus, and I'm really glad that everyone is very accepting to at least hear the viewpoint. I think he should be allowed to at least rush, who knows, he might even decide that fraternity life is the way to go for him...I really think this should be left to fate/chapter decision.

But if a women's GLO gives him a bid, there will be no chance of that GLO becoming an NPC.

No offense, but our houses have been around for anywhere from 80 to 100 years...I don't think any house ever wants to become NPC. That's what we love about our system, is that we make our own rules pretty much...this particular rule just hasn't come up yet!

Your Greek Advisor asked about this on the Association of Fraternity Advisors listserv. The general consensus was that while the organizations by law, don't have to give him a bid, the university by law, cannot prevent him from participating in rush. That falls under Title IX.

If that's the case, then how do NPC sororities prevent men from rushing?

Suppose a woman signs up for sorority rush, but she does not meet the GPA requirements of any sorority on campus. (Assume for the moment that Panhel doesn't impose a minimum GPA to sign up for rush.) She will go through round 1, then be cut by all sororities because she doesn't meet GPA requirements.

This isn't too dissimilar. Here is a man who wants to rush, but he doesn't meet the requirement the sororities have, that you must be a woman to join. So he will go through round 1, and then be cut by all sororities.

If a particular sorority is open to the idea of having a man join, they might invite him back and see where things go. If they do bid him, the sorority becomes a coed GLO.

My sorority is a local that is technically co-ed. When I say techinically, it's because we have had members in the past that have been male, but currently we are all female. We actually decided that we were still going to be a sisterhood, and we only give bids to men who really encompass what KDChi is. We actually used to have a really big problem with guys pledging becuase their gfs were in the group, and that is definately something that we do not allow now. I think since you're local, if your group is open to it, go for it! It's a lot of fun having guys in the group.

Freedom of Association
 

From the National Panhellenic Conference web site.

Policies : : Resolutions and Recommendations

KDChiNicole - do you mean that your chapter has had members in the past that have been male, or on the national level? Is that something KDChi nationals has talked about? Are they "full" members meaning they have been through and are allowed at ritual or "honorary" members (like a male chapter advisor for example) that are not normally allowed at closed-ritual things? I'm just wondering b/c I think that's interestng.

We're actually a completely local sorority, established at Cornell College in Iowa in 1957. KDChi National is a Latina Service Sorority that was established in 1987. Two completely different groups, but I can see where it's easy to get the two of us confused as it has happened before.

Basically, what happened is about 10 years ago, there was a lot of interest for making our local sorority co-ed, as there were several men that spent a lot of time with our group, and really held the group to a high standard. We changed the constitution at that time to make it so that any member of the college in good standing could join the group, as opposed to only females. The guys that have been a part of the group have all done our version of rush, pledging, and initiation, and are all full members of the group.

We are a local though, so it gives us the room to do that.

Actually, fraternities and sororities that are exempt from taxation under IRC 501(a) are exempt from the non-discrimination policies of Title IX. See 20 USC Section 1681.

Phoenix~

My chapter was single-sex when I was an undergrad, but in 2000, we became co-ed when a gay man rushed.

He was a fantastic sister, is a fantastic, supportive alumni, and the chapter has NEVER regretted it. The sisterhood is still predominantly female (we've had four guys become sisters-- one dropped out shortly afterwards, though).

It definitely is something each chapter has to discuss, but it doesn't necessarily have a negative impact. :)

~ Mel.

I'm not sure they can stop him from signing up for rush. However, obviously you are in no obligation to invite him back, and if you're a national sorority, you probably wouldn't be allowed to even if you wanted to. ;)

If you're a local, however, I see nothing wrong in at least giving him a chance.

Hmmm...having a male initiate does not necessarily prevent you from ever ever ever becoming a part of the NPC.
Delta Gamma has had a male initiate (George Banta) and so have a couple of other sororities which are in the NPC. Mind you, that was like 100 years ago and now all of those male initiates are dead.

NPC Women: has your sorority ever, in history, initiated a man?

If a local wants to turn into an NPC chapter, wouldn't this problem just right itself because the women could potentially become members and the guy not? The local women would not all necessarily become members either, because they would have to "pass muster" with the colonizing NPC, n'est ce pas?

ack...Perhaps you can just talk to the guy and tell him that he is welcome to hang out with y'all, but the way that things stand right now, he can't actually become a full fledged member-member? Or, do what the other locals did in the above posts and let him in....it seemed to have worked for them (okay, now my brain hurts).