Longwood U. sororities
 

I've seen many photos of the sorority women at Longwood University wearing jumpers-the tri sigs in purple jumpers, the ASAs in red. Anyone know what the story is behind these? I tried looking it up on the Longwood website but I think their server is down at the moment.
It seems like a really weird tradition so I was wondering what I've missed concerning it.

Longwood Glossary
But yeah that's all I found except for a mention of a campus event where they'd talk about "Jumper Day" and its origins. Hopefully someone else can enlighten us.

Amazing no one seems to realize that things were different in the days before all of the new Posters were ever on this Site or many others!;) DAR!:eek:

We were not born yesterday were we?;)

Please stop spamming posts related to sororities.

I googled "Jumper Day" Longwood and found this....
http://good-times.webshots.com/photo...ost=good-times


Um.....wow? Is that what you were talking about? They look like teachers.

The new members make their own jumpers and then wear them for a week. I also think it's hideous but its a long held tradition and they're not giving it up!

*call me crazy* I'd wear it, no it's not super chic, but at least it's modest and something traditional and something they do panhellenic-wide. So while it's quirky, I appreciate the spirit of the idea.

Ok so I know an alumna of our Alpha chapter at Longwood. She said it's a big tradition there and all of the sororities there wear them for "walk" which is their name for bid day. She said she thinks that the tradition got started because the school used to be a teachers' college.

Well that makes sense! And while I think it "looks" weird, I do think it's a cool tradition.

Hmmm. I think this alludes to what Tom was saying. It doesn't look weird to me, it looks familiar and brings back memories.

That would be it, yes. I've only seen the photos of the ASAs and tri sigs.

That is a cool tradition. What is it about being a teacher that practically requires you to wear a jumper though? (To all non-jumper wearing teachers don't kill me it's just what I remember growing up)

Teachers wearing jumpers
 

I taught at a private school where the kids had uniforms. I joked that teachers needed uniforms - we could have service bars, and medals for surviving difficult students (or parents!) To answer your question - I ended up wearing jumpers because any nice suits or dresses I wore would get ink on them, caught on a desk, torn, etc. Teachers don't have the salaries to wear designer clothes, or replace outfits all the time.
Jumpers are sturdy workhorses - especially if, like me, female teachers had to wear dresses (they still do - I quit only 7 years ago).

I've seen a picture from 2005 of the ASTs at Longwood in their green jumpers, but I don't know if they still wear them or not!

There is an Alpha Gam Chapter. I remember them wearing the jumpers one year to an area training conference.

Here's a jumper picture from Longwood College's Greek Life page:



http://www.longwood.edu/ofsl/images/collage1.jpg

The NPC sororities there are:
AGD
ADP
ASA
AST
DZ
ZTA
KD
SK
SSS

So you can probably figure out the jumper colors from there.

^^^^ So why is that chick sitting in a dress withe her legs wide open? :eek:

Oh good Lord, it's fairly innocent if you ask me. :rolleyes:

I'm sorry...
 

...but everytime I hear "jumper," I think of these freaks:

http://pics.livejournal.com/jillbert...07ew1/s640x480

omg, thats so sad. i can't believe someone made that to create laughs.

???????

honeychile - i'm with you! i have no idea what this refers to!

The pic was removed.

I will admit to owning and wearing one jumper as a teacher. It was a hideous solid pink courduroy jumper -- thank goodness there are no pictures of this.

You know, growing up and going to private school, I think I would cry if I got to college and rushed only to be told I still had to wear a jumper!

They're interesting - I think they'd be cuter if the members got to decorate them a little.

When I pledged wayyyy back in the day when it was legal, we made our line clothes. Jumpers and sheath dresses were the easiest things to make. That's why I said it brought back memories for me.

*whew*

I thought that last little bit of my sanity that I've been clinging to had finally left!

Jumpers
 

Hey. So I am an alumna of Longwood. Back in the day, Longwood was a Normal School (a school for women wanting to become teachers). Each woman was required to wear a school uniform of sorts- a long dress (jumper). Some of the women in sororities decided to dye their jumpers with their sorority colors. So, still today, each sorority wears jumpers about once or twice a month (even during the winter). Each woman usually picks out a pattern and has a dress maker in town make the jumper or some moms or grandmothers do it. Colors for each sorority:

ZTA- turquoise
AGD- gingham with green, red and yellow
ASA- red
DZ- pink
Sig Kap- maroon
Tri Sigma- purple
ADPi- blue
AST- green
KD- green top and white bottom

I loved jumper day- they are very comfortable! :) Longwood has tons of quirky traditions, all of which I loved! Hope this clears things up!

I'm so happy to finally see pictures, and they look better than what I was expecting.

Teacher style is often most baffling to those of us who are teachers but have no interest in little red-school house embroidered sweaters or wooden yellow pencil jewelry.

As SWTXBelle noted, dressing professionally and appropriately for a job with a lot of random duties is more challenging than you'd think, and jumpers, any time you can sort of fashionably get away with it (these things do seem to have a cycle) make sense.

But it still doesn't explain this:

http://www.homeroomdirect.com/product.html?t_q=CR541

When did pledging become illegal?

In NPHC land "pledging" has an entirely different meaning.

Why is that sad? That family is a bunch of fundamentalist freaks. Srsly. Have you seen any of their tv specials?

i have wondered if the only way that that family can afford to feed and cloth so many kids is to have tv special. it was just a thought.

I agree... Humans were not meant to have that many children, I think it's rather irresponsible.


I like the jumper tradition, and really they aren't all that bad.. I'd wear one, (as long as everyone else was too HEHE)

The Duggars ARE definitely NOT part of mainstream America but four of the girls aren't wearing jumpers in the picture that was on this thread. No need to associate a Longwood Tradition with the First Fundie Family. Longwood is a public university funded by the Commonwealth of Virginia. It is not a religious school in any way, shape, or form.

Well it used to be relatively common even in the USA, but a lot of children didn't live to maturity. :(

Big families are not possible for a lot of people for physical and economic reasons . . . even assuming they had the desire.

wow, talk about overthinking & tenuous connections...

OTW simply meant that when she hears the word "jumper" she thinks of something that fundie-freaks (such as the Duggars) make their kids wear. Her comment had nothing to do with Longwood or its religious affiliation or lack of same. I mean, I wasn't offended, and my sorority actually has a chapter there.

I went to Longwood and I was an ADPi there. And let me tell you about those JUMPERS!! They are soo comfortable and fun to wear. We make our own or use a family passdown one(which usually are embarrassing and ugly!). Every sorority has their own color and its fun when all the sororities where them on the same day. Its a great tradition Longwood has thats been around since the beginning. They started from ladies in sororities wanting to wear something to show which sorority they were in back in the 1800's. So since it was an all womens college for teachers to be, they dyed their jumpers the color of their sorority! And we have followed that tradition since. We wore them at least once a week, Bid Day in the fall, and other greek events around campus. I miss wearing mine...

Epsilon Chi! You all were "my" chapter during roll!