Alpha Xi Delta closes its doors
 

...

Where is the SISTERHOOD??

The meeting began well, but Dickinson said it "took a quick,
brief nose dive when she [Sutton] asked them not to wear
their letters."

Excuse me? I don't care if you are a national big-wig...I am an initiated sister the same as you, and I'll wear the letters I worked for and cherish if I dang well please! Not that I would want to after all this...I hope that some A-Z-D sisters respond to this topic. I would love to hear how this will play out!

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"Alpha Chi Omega - If you only had 2 wishes, what would your second one be?"

I cannot believe half of what I just read one because I wasn't there and two because it would never happen.
As an active member of Alpha Xi Delta and a founding member at my university I know first hand how difficult it is to colonize a chapter.
It is not unreasonable to ask the alumni to take a step back. First they chose to let thier chapter close and re-colonize that means they are no longer active members of the sorority. On any other campus alumni are often invited to events (such as initiation) but they do not actively participate in the going ons of the chapter. Secondly we do not know the full reasons of why the chapter was asked to close in the first, I am sure their is more to it then is being released to the public.

Above and behond all of this Alpha Xi Delta was founded by ten wonderful women with great hopes for its future. In my personal experience as a Founding sister and an e-board member I know that every National officers strives to uphold the standards on which we where founded. Never would a National officer do anything to harm a sister. Whatever took place was in the best interest of that individual chapter as well as the National organization.

I have pride in my Sorority and I love all of my sisters Nation wide. I encourage everyone to take what they read with a grain of salt if you where not there than you do not know what went on.

Xi Love and remeber to realize your potential.

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[QUOTE]Originally posted by alphaxi_unlv:
[B]It is not unreasonable to ask the alumni to take a step back. First they chose to let thier chapter close and re-colonize that means they are no longer active members of the sorority. On any other campus alumni are often invited to events (such as initiation) but they do not actively participate in the going ons of the chapter. Secondly we do not know the full reasons of why the chapter was asked to close in the first, I am sure their is more to it then is being released to the public.[B]

They are no longer active members, but the minute they close that chapter they become alumnae and they are to receive the same rights and priveleges as other alumnae. One of these is wearing your letters. I don't care what the circumstances are - unless you have done something hideous enough to have your membership terminated, you are allowed to wear your letters any time you bloody well please. Also, if they didn't want the alums involved, they should have said that to begin with, not changed their minds halfway through.

[B]In my personal experience as a Founding sister and an e-board member I know that every National officers strives to uphold the standards on which we where founded. Never would a National officer do anything to harm a sister. Whatever took place was in the best interest of that individual chapter as well as the National organization.[B]

Your pride and trust in your national office and officers is great, and I hope that you are always able to maintain it. However, national officers are very human. They have faults and foibles just like everyone else. They sometimes make decisions that in their opinion are in the sorority's best interest, but it may not turn out that way in the end. Sororities are about PEOPLE first. When you stop caring about people and start turning it into a business, that is not in anyone's best interest.

Incidentally, my comments apply to ALL sororities and fraternities, not just AZD.

Maybe the newly-crowned alumnae were overweight and/or not attractive (hence the chapter operating at half the membership of other houses) and the advisors wanted to rush new, fresh, pretty faces in the house that wouldn't be deterred from joining "an ugly sorority" or one that no fraternities want to party with. Get mad if you want to, but this type of thing is happening with one of the sororities on my campus right now and is a real possibility.

How shallow. Sisterhood shouldn't be based on appearence.

Sometimes it is, Hootie. Even at a school like Florida, with one of the largest Greek systems in the nation...I'm a Florida native (yeah), and my "prettiest" friends at UF are all ABCs or BBBs...it just happens like that. Not that it's right. What happened, however, is wrong.

localsororities, how did the AZD's measure up to other groups on campus? were they more or less active (socially and service-wise)? Just wondering.

[This message has been edited by AlphaChiGirl (edited December 12, 2000).]

I am one of the scandalous Alpha Xi Delta alumnae that is terrorizing UF. http://www.greekchat.com/forums/ubb/wink.gif I was at the meeting that's mentioned in that newspaper article that Laura was so inspired to post. Please understand, we were *completely* willing to step back and let the group from nationals do their thing. The mess started when they started lying to us, constantly changing their mind about the role we would play and what we were allowed to do and saying one thing and doing another.

And as to the charge of whether we were an "ugly" sorority or not - our website is still up (I think because they haven't bothered to take it down yet) so judge for yourself.
http://grove.ufl.edu/~alphaxi

the pictures are all from the last year or so.

I'm so sick of all of this. It was one of the most heartbreaking things I've ever gone through or watched friends go through. Keep in mind, those of you who say that our nationals *must* have known best, that we *must* have been ugly, that we *must* have been unsocial, whatever, for all this to happen, this simple fact ...

You were not there. We were, and we know in our hearts what the truth is.

The Zeta Omicron Chapter of Alpha Xi Delta at the University of Floria exemplified sisterhood in the truest sense of the word. I have never felt such love and support from any group of people, save my family, in my entire life. Our National Organization chose not to give us the support we needed over the past couple years, and events spun out of our control. Even other Greeks at UF likely do not know anything more than rumors and exaggerations.

Our charter is gone but the sisterhood lives on!

TFJ to all who share this in their hearts.

G8Ralphaxi

G8Ralphaxi, my condolences. This has to be hard for you and your sisters. Do you have an email address that I may contact you at? Thanks!



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Always
Seek
Knowledge

Alpha Sigma Kappa - Women in Technical Studies

G8Ralphaxi~
Thank you for clearing things up. I did not mean to say your chapter in particular was shallow. I was pointing out that the person's comments before mine were shallow (not to mention the comments that directly followed mine).
It is a sad day when a chapter is forced to close. Its even worse when it is the fault of the National Organization. I can understand and appreciate your words and so I hope that you can all continue your sisterhood outside of the walls of AXD.
Good luck and remember to keep your chins up!
LICO!
Amy

Hey whats up UF AxiD. I just read that they shut your chapter down over there...i go to north florida. Hey i got a friend thats a sister of yours named Jessica Harold. Tell her Kinny said hey for me ok? Thanks

When I was at UK, something similar like that happened to another chapter on UK's campus that recolonized the year i went through rush.

I wont mention the chapter, but the former members were given alum status. However, similar problems arose........rumor has it that the new alums were told they couldnt wear letters etc. and the new alums were mad. Drama went down, but in the end that chapter's recolonization effort was highly successful, and as far as i know everything else worked itself out and everyone is happy.

AXD recolonized for a second time at UK the year I came to EKU. As far as I know it went well, but I havent heard of any kind of drama that went with it, other than after the chapter closed, Sig Ep used it briefly as their house while their new house was built and did a lot of damage inside that had to be repaired which if i understood correctly, Sig Ep didnt pay for which if true is ashame.

:( how sad...
the whole thing is nothing but sad...

I agree that it sounds pretty sad but has anyone else noticed that this happened over three years ago? And it looks like only one side of the story is represented here.

Just my 2 cents.

Yeah...what happened was, a couple former members were unhappy and made a fuss. The bad thing was, the local newspaper decided to run an "update" article on the lawsuit on the first day of fall recruitment. Not cool.

I went to UK at that time and I did hear stuff, but you can't believe half what you see and nothing you hear. The fraternity who used the house while it was empty did rough it up a little...I saw it. Not sure if they ever paid, though, either.

when my chapter closed we were not going to be allowed to wear letters if they recolonized at our school. they ask girls not to out of respect for the chapter and the new sisters. we aren't even allowed to have contact with the chapter really. that's sigma kappa national policy. luckily they didn't recolonize before i graduated. in fact they still haven't recolonized which is probably better off for now since there are still a couple of girls still there who went alumna with me.

when i was told that we wouldn't be allowed to wear letters, i was a lil pissed at first, but decided i had to do what was in the best interest of the chapter, whether i was an active or an alumna.

shelley j
sigma k

What about "respect" for the sisters who worked as hard as they could to keep the chapter going?

The new girls know that they are part of a recolonization. If the old girls aren't terminated, they are that chapter's alumnae and the new girls and national will have to get used to that. When there is an attempt to "cover up" the old girls, it makes the sorority look really bad.

If the national doesn't want people wearing their letters, they need to have the guts to terminate them, not give them half-assed alum status.

you know, it doesn;t make sense to recolonize a chapter while there are active alum still attending the school! At Rutgers, if chapter closes here, it must wait at least 4 years before it is allowed to recolonize. That gives all the current members time to graduate, so things like this wouldn't happen! granted, I know the National wants to restart a chapter right away, especially at big Greek schools, but it doesn't seem logical to me. I would be SO insulted if my chapter closed, granted alum status, then I was told I couldnt wear my letters so people wouldn't confuse me with the "new" sisters... I find it distasteful to re-colonize so soon.

I have to agree with 33girl here. If your chapter is closed, you're an alum (unless, for some reason, your nationals specifically terminates you or you deaffiliate), and as such, you are entitled to all the rights and privileges of an alum, including wearing letters. It shouldn't matter if your GLO recolonizes while you're still a student there.

This thread is over THREE years old!
 

Somewhere in the Panhellenic information are the guidelines that say a chapter can re-colonize within a certain period on the campus where their charter was withdrawn----either one or two years. That's why you may still have members from the old chapter around.

It is not unreasonable when trying to re-establish to ask those old members to stay in the background. I would agree that they should always be able to wear letters but they ought to understand that doing so on campus and in classes during the recruitment process may confuse the situation with the PNMs.

COMMUNICATION! Obviously didn't happen! If everyone on both sides had worked a little more on it maybe all the misunderstandings wouldn't have occurred. Alpha Xi Delta has a policy that alumnae can't be advisors for most positions until they've been out 2 years. I can't imagine that someone still trying to go to school would have the time, knowlegde or maturity to be an advisor for a chapter at her same campus! Yes, they should be involved in other ways.

My question-------why in the world is this thread back up THREE years later????

The information on this thread as it related to Alpha Xi Delta is a few years old, but the posts regarding treatment of recent alumnae during the recolonization process is definitely timely and pertinant.

I agree with whoever said that National needs to have the guts to terminate someone who they don't want wearing letters. If someone is a sister in good standing, she has every right to wear her letters when and where she sees fit.

I think what AXiD did may be fairly common. It's called reorganizing, not recolonizing. An org will give the chapter one last chance to stay alive on the campus they're at, and they make the women alumnae perhaps because their reputation was bad on campus, they weren't living up to the expectations of the org, they were bad recruiters, etc. Then they advertise to PNMs on campus the chance to start a whole new organization from scratch.

An org tried this on my campus and it didn't work, I think mostly because we had deferred recruitment and by the time formal recruitment came around most PNMs already knew about reputations of that chapter and others on campus, and wanted to join one of the "it" chapters on campus. It was unfortunate, however, because the failing org took a fall new member class, so they only had one semester as XYZs.

I saw it work quite well with one of the fraternities, however they didn't make everyone an alum, they just culled the dead weight.

Theta does not colonize rigth away when a chapter closes, atleast this is my understanding. They usually wait a period of 5 years or so to make sure people have graduated and such and remnants of a former reputation are non-existant. Theta also has to be invited back to recolonize at that school by that school's panhellenic.

Reorganizing is when the present actives are allowed to stay active. The national takes more of a hand in rush, member selection etc. than usual. This can also be called an "expansion rush."

Recolonizing is when all or most of the present actives are made alumnae and a new group is chosen by the national. If the actives all are made alum, it's recolonizing whether you wait 6 months or 6 years.

I think that sometimes the groups make the chapter "inactive" or "dormant" rather than close it...the group still has a charter at State U, they just aren't functioning. They have I think a year under NPC rules that they can do this. This way they are still on the school's Panhel...if you are at a big school (like UF) and you pull out it can be hard to get back in. I understand that reasoning but sometimes a year just isn't enough, and you might as well pull out rather than come back too quickly and not do well.

Gotcha. I was misled...

Whatever came of this? Is Alpha Xi Delta still at UF?:(

Holy crap, I cannot believe that this is being dragged up again. And, of course, the misinformation is running wild!

AGAIN, let me reiterate, I WAS THERE, ALL OF YOU WERE NOT. I lived in the house for a couple years and was very active (not going to identify what offices because the last thing I need is some overzealous idiot from Nationals tracking me down). Those of you who were in Gainesville at the time and read something in the Alligator (not exactly the bastion of accurate journalism) or heard some salicious rumor flying around campus, need to realize that there is a possibility that you don't know the true story!

We didn't have a "bad reputation." We weren't "risk management problems." We NEVER had a disciplinary/risk mgmt. problem with either UF or our Nationals the entire time I was an active undergraduate. What we did have is about 5 years of not being able to control our own rush process.

My freshman year, we were just under chapter total, with about 100 sisters. That was a stable number for UF, in no danger of closing. "Top-tier" chapters had closer to 150, but we liked our size. Our numbers were stable and we were financially secure. To me, the sisterhood was one of the few I saw during rush that actually exemplified the words in the songs and creeds that everyone recites.

Then, Someone-Who-Shall-Remain-Unnamed decided that our little chapter wasn't good enough, or more like it, not big enough. Our rush chair had lots of great plans, as usually we were planning a rush that showed the individual personality of our chapter, our wacky sense of humor, going for personal connections rather than superficial things.

I left the state for the summer and when I came back, the rush chair had been chased off - S.W.S.R.U. had spent the entire summer harassing her and undoing all her decisions, threatened to pull her pin and finally the poor girl just quit. And she took with her several people. So S.W.S.R.U. hand-picks a sophomore (i.e., has never been through rush on the sorority side before) as the new rush chair. Everything we had planned before the summer was upside down. S.W.S.R.U. was unpleasant as always, and needless to say, morale in the house suffered. Add to that the fabulous rumors that flew around campus, thanks a lot to all the backstabbers in Panhellenic, and it was really fun.

Real conversation I had during rush that year:

"I heard your rush chair and half the chapter quit, and your chapter's getting closed."
"That's not true, only 3 people left, and we're definitely not getting closed. Where did you hear that?!"
"My Rho Chi told us this morning." :eek:

Then, we fell below that magic 100-sisters mark and suddenly had a "numbers problem." I don't know how your chapters handle rush, but from what I've heard, most sororities have some kind of vote or at least input from the sisters on the rushees. For the last 4 years that our chapter was at UF, we had no voice at all.

A small sampling of things that actually happened:

S.W.S.R.U. and her cronies forced the rush chairs to fill out invite lists asking back virtually everyone. Their theory was that we should invite lots of rushees to have more to pick from. This is the WORST thing you can do at UF - looks really desperate. So then rushees that might have liked us got scared because we were inviting back everyone - fueling the whole "chapter closing" rumors.

Rushees that sisters desperately tried to keep out of the chapter were invited back. One freshman who had physically attacked one of our sisters when they were in high school - S.W.S.R.U. said "we shouldn't judge people from their high school reputations - she may have changed." Over the summer?

One sophomore had an extremely sleazy reputation around some of the fraternities. Also a little psycho. Even some of the exec council members were trying to block her. S.W.S.R.U. said we were judging on looks and we should judge the inner woman. O.K., the girl was a little pudgy but not bad. If she was as big as a whale but a good, fun person then I would like her. This girl was scary scary scary. So she gets a bid and she spent the next year playing Debbie Does Fraternity Row and causing so much nasty drama in the house.

The best part was the people we dropped during rush: one year S.W.S.R.U. and her appointed Village Idiot decided that maybe we were right, it does look bad to invite back everyone. They decide this at the last minute and just cross off a couple dozen names at the end of the list to turn into Panhellenic. No analysis, just the end of the list. One of them was my good friend, who rushed only to join our house. She was of course crushed, she knew many of the sisters and expected to join and we wanted her. She assumed that some sister must not have liked her and even though we finally convinced her of the truth, she was so turned off by the experience that she didn't even want the snap bid we offered.

Then, when we finally decide ENOUGH IS ENOUGH and vote to close our chapter my senior year, one of our #1 concerns was the freshmen and sophomores who had just joined. We didn't think it was fair to have them locked in and lose the whole sorority experience. We didn't even want to initiate them so they could rush again but weren't allowed to tell them anything. Nationals reassures us that they will be taken care of and will be able to rejoin once the initial colony is formed.

When they were trying to recolonize in Fall 2000, they asked us to help out - come to rush events, etc. Then suddenly they changed their minds about everything. Anyone who showed up was asked to leave. We were told to stay away from the chapter house and not wear letters. Most upsetting, regarding the younger sisters, they said that they woud "reevaluate their status later" but weren't going to let them participate at all for "an indefinite period."

As we all know know, their recolonization efforts failed miserably. They blamed the competitive atmosphere at UF but it's their own fault. DZ colonized recently and they've been a huge success.

Sorry for the long post, but I was shocked to see this up again and just needed to vent. I will always treasure the sisters in my individual chapter, but I have no loyalty at all to the larger organization. I am too classy a person to ever do anything like reveal my rituals (when I make a vow, I keep it), but Alpha Xi Delta darn well better not expect any donations from me EVER. If I have a daughter who rushes at a school with an Alpha Xi chapter, I'm not going to pay for it unless I am reassured that the management of the sorority is better people than during my time.

Ah, catharsis!

I understand what your saying, and I am not arguing with you, just at those at HQ who come up with crap like "out of respect for the new members and chapter" PHUCK THAT. Thats double speak for "we're embarrassed by you". What about the respect that all our members are afforded by the fact they are members? I will always respect a brother WAY before someone who MAY rush. And after they are new members, what does it matter what they think of the old alumni? If my org had EVER tried something like that, I'd have told them where they coudl stick it and I wouldnt wear letters only after they ripped them off my cold, dead, lifeless body.

I've often found when dealing with national orgs, my own included, our ideals, values, and word as an org is usually the LAST thing considered when making decisions. Maybe that's part of the problem facing all our orgs today....

Things seem to be changing, at least at my org. I welcome the change from 'business as usual.' I hope they're changing for everyone.

Lifesaver, I agree 100% with every single word you've typed here.

That was the most heartbreaking thing for us - to realize that the vows we took the night of initiation meant absolutely nothing to the so-called leadership of our organization. In my mind, those idiots are NOT my sisters. They proved over and over again that they do not share the values that I hold dear as representing Alpha Xi Delta.

when i read this- i definately had a flashback- my sorority was known as the ugly fat lesbian sorority... known as the nu sig pigs- N X tra food.... nu sigma cow... etc etc.. and started dying off- the sorority that had been around for 75 as a local :eek: was down to 4 sisters.... i didn't pledge till last spring and i'm very proud of our sorority-up to 23 sisters and over 1500 alumni but we are still fighting the stereotypes..... there are girls of all shapes and sizes and i love them all- shown that we are more than just looks- plus we party like crazy :p anyway.... my point is- this does happen- it is a reality- but stick together things will turn around if your numbers are low- and for those that did not.. i am truly sorry but you will always have your sisters and i'm sorry others could not share that with you.....

Not entirely true you know. We decided to close our chapter at Rutgers because we felt the members were not following the rules and treating the house with respect. So we threw them out and restarted last spring, only 2 years after kicking them out. Sure there are some members floating around, but we do not let them get involved with the new chapter without our permission. Recolonization periods depend on the control and efforts of the entire group. It might be easier to wait until all remenants of that past are gone, but it is very simple to restart sooner.

AXPAlum

AXPAlum,
I think it's easier for guys to recolonize than girls....I don't think (huge generalization) that guys get as hung up on the image of what the group is as girls. Guys tend to think this is what we make it, girls tend to think this will make us what it is.

p.s. where have you been hiding? :)

G8Ralphaxi, I am so sorry you had to go through all that. :(

I feel your pain, to some degree. The year after I went alum, my chapter was reorganized. I was still around for grad school, so I saw what went on, but I wasn't directly involved. Basically the chapter was told to get a certain number of new members, or else. They didn't get enough NMs, so national officers came in and interviewed everyone and forced about half the chapter to go alum. A few women just deaffiliated outright (by their choice). It was really painful to see so many women who had worked so hard for the chapter, in some cases women whom I had rushed in, being told "guess what, you're alums now" ... or turning in their pins.

At the time, it made no sense to me that nationals was concerned about low numbers, so their solution was to cut the chapter's size in half. It still doesn't really make sense, but my chapter has really come back - still far under total, but strong nonetheless.

I don't think the new alums were told they couldn't wear letters, but a lot of them were so upset that they just didn't.

lifesaver - hear hear :)

:eek: Am I getting this right? They only selected certain people to go alum??? In other words, "You are cool enough to remain active... You are not"????? Please tell me I understood this wrong.

You didn't. :(

If I recall correctly, the newest sisters who had joined that fall were exempted from the process and kept on as actives. Everyone else had to go through the interview process.

I think nationals also took a heavier hand in recruitment for a year or so following that. The chapter's doing pretty well now - but then again, six years have gone by.

That sounds brutal aephi alum. :(

I know some sororities turn all of the active sisters into alumnae in order to reactivate. This is usually the last step before closing down and recolonizing several years down the road.

LXA when it closes a Chapter, normally waits for the Final Members to be gone ((4/5)) years.

But, unless the infractions are not that big, but many and depending on the Size and Name of the Campi does swing weight along with the Alum Group working with them.

While not being there and just reading what has been stated on site, It sounds like a raw deal. But not for me to decide. If the National promised certain things and renighed, shame on them.:(

Ok, maybe I was misinformed, but I always remember hearing that you had to wait until the current actives were alum... I thought thats why Alpha Sig and DI Phi waited so long until they were able to come back. Maybe its an AXO thing then, i dont know? (do any AXOs here know what our position is on the issue?)

I still stand by my opinion that a national org SHOULD wait a while, anyways. Any reputation the chapter may have will be gone, and it seems easier to start completely fresh... and its not like Rutgers is so Greek friendly to begin anyways.

the new Crow house looks amazing, btw.

This thread is really sad, and I definitely don't blame anyone who turns their back on their national organization after treatment like this. The problem is that often we put too much faith in our national officers to do the right thing, and usually they're right, but they are just as human as we are. The problem is that they're running a business, and you're a part of a sisterhood, and it's sometimes difficult to reconcile those two. I don't think that's any excuse for stuff like this, though. I think it's super trashy to ask someone not to wear their letters.