2007 UGA Sorority Rec. Article
 

UGA sorority tradition: Young and in a rush
http://www.ajc.com/news/content/metr...ge_tab_newstab

By ANDREA JONES
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 08/12/07

(Here's highlights of the article.)

It is an annual rite of passage playing out for thousands of young women on hundreds of college campuses this time of year, a time of emotional highs and lows that some describe as more cutthroat and competitive than getting into college itself.

At the University of Georgia, where the process is now called "recruitment," nearly 1,300 sorority hopefuls arrived on campus Friday morning in sweltering heat to move into their residence halls. Red-faced fathers lugged boxes and bags to their daughters' dorm rooms as moms hovered, unpacking IKEA bedspreads, hair rollers and piles of clothes.....

....
On greekchat.com, an online network for people in sorority and fraternity life, a mother of a UGA student anonymously posted this after she said her daughter was not invited back to any sororities after the second round of recruitment last year:

"She was devastated, is devastated, and because she is in so much pain — so am I." Her daughter, she said, has "had her share of disappointments and handled them well."

"But, this has been more than she can process — cut by all [the] sororities in two days when her visits seemed to go so well."

Her daughter's experience is rare — most of the women receive invitations to at least some of the sorority houses at the end of the six-day, four-round period.........


Whatever the end of the week holds, the young women will venture out with the encouragement of blue-vested recruitment counselors who tell their charges to keep open minds and positive attitudes.

....
Overall, about 75 percent of young women who start the recruitment process pledge in sororities on Bid Day, the first day of classes at the university.

Some take the process incredibly seriously and solicit stacks of letters of recommendation from sorority alumnae before they get to school.

.......

There are more than 2,800 active college chapters and 4,500 alumnae chapters of national sororities nationwide, and the National Panhellenic Conference estimates there are more than 3.8 million women who classify themselves as lifelong members of sororities.

Nationally, about 82,000 new members pledge each year.

Greek enrollment peaked in the late 1980s and early 1990s, nationally and statewide. About a quarter of UGA's students were affiliated with a fraternity or sorority from 1985 to 1990. Now, 20 percent are.

................
It's a mantra that's repeated over and over during recruitment — that girls should go where they feel comfortable.

Your horizons are broad
 

The AJC article closed with this line, " It's a mantra that's repeated over and over during recruitment — that girls should go where they feel comfortable." That is so true, and girls should be open to the idea that Greek life is not the only option for having a group of friends in college. For those who are not chosen, for those who choose not to accept a bid, and for those who never go through rush (why does everything have to be renamed?), remember that there is life outside of Greek.

I graduated from FSU in 1974. Arriving on campus in the fall of 1970 I had high school friends who wanted nothing more than to be accepted by a sorority, some who disdained it altogether, and then there was me. I knew nothing about sororities, so I went along to some rush parties, dressed up in hose and heels in 98 degree heat and 98% humidity. I did not enjoy it, did not feel comfortable, and did not continue. I did not feel sad or rejected, just knew what was best for me. Back then we non Greeks were mostly Freaks, enjoying a laid back hippie style, and we had our own group, the GDI's, or to be polite, Independents.

My group included Greeks and Freaks, undergrads and grads, guys and girls. We played spades on Saturday nights, had cookouts, took road trips to the beach, and developed lasting friendships. No rules, no pecking order, no formals, no dress code, no dues, and we had a blast.

Greek life is great for many, but it's not the only option as there are many student organizations to join that can meet your social needs. The potential for rejection looms large in the Greek recruitment process. If you are rejected, or you choose not to accept, then in the words of the great philosopher, "Don't Worry, Be Happy." :) Make new friends and form your own GDI.

^^^While that's good advice, this is a board for members of Greek organizations, so we tend to think that Greek life is pretty good. Is it for everyone, no, but I can say that my college experience and my life have been enriched by membership in a sorority.

On the article, I assume there will be a correction between National Pan-Hellenic and National Panhellenic. Otherwise, I thought it was a pretty balanced piece.

The placement of this article is interesting. It is a huge article which takes up nearly half of the front page of the AJC and includes photos.

The writer used the term "all white" sororities in the article. From seeing bid day photos of chapters across the country I know that NPC groups are diverse. Is this a true statement concerning the NPC GLOs at UGA?

Well, although the NPC groups at UGA are diverse in term of ethnicity, they don't tend to have Black members. I suspect had there been one Black PNM the reporter would have interviewed her, so part of the problem is the lack of racial diversity in the PNM pool.

(Only a few of the groups COB/COR in the average year; the groups who are above total and recruit to quota in formal can essentially only recruit from the PNMs in formal in the fall. If African-American young women don't set themselves up for the joy that is SEC recruitment, the system is in a perpetual demographic loop.)

Sorry for the double post, but I re-read the article, and I have to say, it's pretty poorly done throughout. There's not that much factual information that you have to get right, and yet the article misses the council names, the idea of campus panhellenic, the decade of DPhiE's founding at UGA.

It's like they just trotted out the usual junk but couldn't even get the details right. Here's an idea, AJC, why not let someone familiar with the NPC at UGA cover NPC recruitment?

Other schools
 

While recruitment is ongoing at UGA and yet to occur at many schools, both in GA and outside of GA, the article should not have mentioned any sorority by name. As we all know a sorority at one school might be really great and "in demand" while at another school the sorority could be not very well rated, reputation, etc. While DPhiE was founded as a Jewish sorority and has been at UGA many years as such, it is not majority "Jewish" at many schools. There are other strong and active chapters of DPhiE that might now be damaged with regard to the labeling of the AJC article.

Even with bids from some of the more well known strong southern sororities and having four generations of legacies to another sorority my daughter chose DPhiE at another southern school (not UGA) and the members are not "mostly Jewish" nor is my daughter. The chapter is actually one of the largest and most popular sororities on her campus.

With that said the "labeling" done by the AJC article was detremental to DPhiE and could happen to any sorority on any campus (good or bad). Just goes to show that saying DPhiE is Jewish does not really apply to all chapters!

Myonlydaughter--I certainly understand what you are saying about DPhiE. I am a member who is not Jewish, in fact, I went to a catholic college. That said, I don't think this article is going to damage the reputation of the organization across the country. The reality is at UGA, DPhiE has historically been known as as a "Jewish chapter" and, to many in the community, that's all they know.

Reputations are unfortunately hard to lose in a system like UGA. I think that was the point of the article--that the system at UGA is stratified based on history or perceptions (and I was pleased that the article attempted to address that issue). DPhiE unfortunately never found an identity after the disbanding of the Jewish quota system at UGA--thankfully that is not the case on many campuses where we have been able to establish strong chapters.

It is certainly hard to see a chapter that just celebrated 70 years close--but hopefully we'll return to UGA in future.

Actually the woman who wrote this article is an alumnae of a UGA sorority. Who would have guessed?

an NPC sorority? That blows my mind. How could she get the Pan-Hellenic and Inter-fraternity Council stuff wrong then? Or not check her D Phi E dates?

ETA: I'm not saying that a member of another type of sorority would be more careless, but I might not expect them to know the info. the same way I'd expect an NPCer from UGA to know about the process.

Don't miss the photos with the article
 

If you go the front page of ajc.com there is a link to about a dozen photos with the article.

Since so many posters were curious about 'what to wear' - you can see what the PNMs are wearing in the heat of Georgia!

The writer could have had it correct only to have her editor "fix" the names.

I'm seeing flip-flops like whoa.... hmmm.....

Here's the gallery.

A lot of D Phi E's chapters are at smaller schools where if you actually found 2 Jewish people, you'd be shocked. I think the rushees at those schools are going to figure out that the "Jewish sorority" label isn't something that applies to every school they're located at. Same with some of the other NPC groups that are "Jewish sororities" (by default or by design) at bigger schools.

My info says the decade of DPhiE's founding at UGA is the 1930s... does someone have other information?

Did anyone read the new article that has been posted? The author talks about how the sororitys bump and organize meeting and remembering girls...

Can you post the link?

I can't believe the AJC is giving this much coverage to UGA recruitment when there isn't a *gasp* scandal going on!

:p

Actually, DPhiE was not founded as a Jewish sorority.

"On March 17, 1917, five women at New York University Law School took a pledge of sisterhood and loyalty and so founded the Alpha Chapter of Delta Phi Epsilon, one of the first non-sectarian, social sororities and the only one founded at a professional school." Taken from http://dphie.org/general/index.shtml

While this is true, the five founders were Jewish and sorority membership for more than fifty years was almost entirely Jewish, so DPhiE is often considered to be one of the "historically Jewish" sororities.

I'll never forget the first time I heard this though--I was in NewYork and I told someone I was a DPhiE, and she said, "Oh that's the Jewish sorority." I said, "Not at my catholic college!"

Perhaps it was corrected in the online article. It said something along the lines of D phi E had been on campus since the 1950's when I first read it. I'm glad they fixed it. Does anyone have the early Sunday print edition to see?

Do you know which sorority? Is it an NPHC GLO? I tried to locate AJC staff reporter bios and could not....
:confused:

I've been wondering the same thing.

The second article hints at insider information about how the groups handle recruitment, but none of it seems particularly well informed.

Because in a lot of instances, reporters aren't the ones responsible for checking facts and editing their articles. I don't know if that's the case in this article, but it may be.

From a DPhiE at UGA alum
 

I was a DPhiE at UGA (2001-2005) and I can't tell you how sad I am to see that my chapter closed. It was the only remaining single letter chapter left that hadn't closed. To clear up everything, DPhiE is historically not Jewish. The founders were indeed Jewish and the membership during that time was Jewish but that is because at the time of our society, Jewish people were being discriminated against. Thus, these women decided to form their own sorority that was non-sectarian. When it was founded at UGA (1935), Jewish women on campus were being discriminated and they treasured what DPhiE nationally had promoted and thus brought DPhiE here. DPhiE at UGA couldn’t help that it attracted Jewish members, but one goes where one feels comfortable and where their friends are. Basically the same reason why we all find our own niche in our respective sorority. There’s something in a sorority that appeals to us because of what they have to offer. In this case, DPhiE offered this chance to Jewish women. Not all chapters of DPhiE were founded by Jewish women. Each of our chapters is different.

I came into DPhiE when it was reorganizing. There are a lot of opinions that state that DPhiE was stronger when it was Jewish (meaning before they “open” its doors to others), but I say that it may have been bigger and stronger during that time period of our society, but things have changed and a different society has emerged. Chapters that used to be smaller back in the day are strong and big today and vice versa. I’m half Pakistani and half Korean and I joined what most people on UGA campus and probably over the nation claim to be historically Jewish. There’s nothing historically Jewish about DPhiE other than it was founded by women who happened to be Jewish because they were being discriminated against. How can one assume that UGA DPhiE was Jewish when they can clearly see that I am not Jewish as well as see that other members in the chapter were clearly not Jewish. I have nothing against the Jewish population. Some of my closest friends are Jewish. I love DPhiE and joined it because of its non-sectarian beliefs. Yes, we can’t be discriminative to our membership these days, but DPhiE really promoted the non-sectarian principles. When I was an active sister, we had 3 sisters (including myself who were half Korean), one Polynesian, one Lebanonese, 3 or 4 Jewish sisters and the rest were Caucasian. Now how can you label us as being totally Jewish?

What is going to happen when a lot of Jewish women start going to other houses? Are those houses going to be called Jewish then and then will they start facing problems like we did?

I think that everyone tends to forget that this sort of thing “labeling” happens to all sororities and affects sororities differently across campus. It is really devastating to see that we tried so hard to keep our chapter running, but it was constant rumors and labeling that pushed us against from moving forward. There have been numerous chapters on UGA that had to go through a reorganization and now they are very strong on campus as well as nationally. I just don’t understand why it couldn’t happen to DPhiE. People tend to underestimate the power of words when it comes to labeling because it can definitely do damage.

Tammy:

Bravos on such a classy post, especially at what must be a very hard time for you right now. I wish you and your sisters lots of love and luck in years to come, as your chapter may close, but the bonds are still there. **hug**

AMEN SISTA!

The power of those six words sums up sorority recruitment across the world....

I did not realize that Andrea Jones' sorority rush articles were going to be a continuing series for the week. Did anyone ever find out what sorority this reporter is in, if any? I am wondering if she and the new UGA Greek Life director are sorors and perhaps this article was the new director's way of putting her mark on UGA Greek life. One of the Gamma Phi Beta collegians at the house today (I helped with rush for prefs there today) said the new director is really nice and should be great to work with.:)

UGA Greek Life got a new director?

Reporters are not responsible for checking facts?????!!!
What the heck, you mean they just write #$%%##@^ and no one calls them on it and validates it?
Hmmm

Yes according to Jones' first-page article on Sunday. The new director is named Dyonne Butler and she is Delta Sigma Theta.

Oh wow. I really had no idea. I thought Claudia Shamp was still the director. She was really great and tried to help DPhiE any way she could. I'm said to see that she has left.

http://www.ajc.com/metro/content/met...rush_0816.html

Another article by the same author from yesterday.

Editorial about UGA Recruitment from Atlanta Journal - Constitution

The AJC's editorial board evidently is supporting the idea of deferred NPC recruitment at UGA. The editorial is at:

http://www.ajc.com/opinion/content/o...shed_0815.html

What an interesting thing to make editorial comment about....

Exactly.

I agree with deferred rush, but what stupid examples to use...

1) After Princeton sent the "don't go Greek" letters...they got their largest pledge classes EVER.

2) Are they really concerned about the women, or about being like their "aspirational" schools? Many schools that are far from being considered "elite" also have deferred rush. The author seems to not understand that deferred doesn't always equal elite school.

There was an official AJC correction in that it used Pan-Hellenic instead of the corrected Panhellenic.

I find it interesting that as recruitment went along, the stories were buried in the middle of the Metro section...like, what's the point. You're not saying anything creative.

But today's article did say that parents were calling Greek life about any group that may be on probation (none are). I'd think the pnm's would already know that.

UGA actually did a study about switching to deferred recruitment a few years ago based on comparable schools and aspirational schools, and it concluded that it would have negative effects on the system and few or no positive effects for the school at large.

Unless the AJC series has somehow swayed public opinion, I don't see it happening.

I don't think it'd be that bid a deal to switch one way or another once the transition was established. It's just going to be a really hard change to implement because of the change itself.