Lovely UF recruitment story
 

They spell Rho Chi correctly in the article. There is a place where he says something about "across Sorority Row Chi Omega lines up..." or something to that effect. It is used correctly. The article was nice for DG, but not so much for some other groups, in my opinion.

I would agree.

Why does it end with that Jenna weirdness, for example?

I agree that this article shouldnt have listed the supposed stereotypes of some of the chapters...and im sure it focused on DG primarily because that is probably who the reporter "shadowed" and interviewed.

As for the "Row Chi" thing..there should have been a comma in between Row and Chi:

"On the other side of Sorority Row, Chi Omega sisters line their front walk."

I'm sure the Phi Mu's didn't appreciate their use in the story!

I hope that the paper publishes an apology. They could have just as easily not used that line about Phi Mu, it contributed nothing to the article.

No offense to DG, but seriously there are 15 other chapters on the UF campus and the article primarily focused on them. Heck, most of the pics were DG as well.

I don't know I guess for me, if a newspaper is going to focus on recruitment, don't focus on one house then naming "stereotypes" of like 4 others.

IMPO while the article was "well meaning" it was in bad taste.

the absence of more chapters being represented in the article could be because many of the national offices do not want their members "winging" an interview and possibly misrepresenting the sorority. i know zeta feels that way-i was surprised to see a zeta quoted. i would be surprised if her comments were authorized, or if she even knew to get permission before she spoke.

I wondered the same thing when I was reading this. Did all of these women have permission from their National Headquarters to speak for their sororities? Somehow, I doubt it.

It was good to see that PNM had enough sense to be vague when asked what house they wanted to join! Ugh can you imagine? Being quoted as wanting to join ABC but getting a bid and joining XYZ? Talk about awkward!

I'm not sure I would describe that article as lovely. Like others have said, it didn't paint to pretty of a picture for anyone other than DG.

Maybe I'm some sort of free speech freak, but I don't think that national offices should have to give permission for that kind of casual interview. Does it really seem like any person reading that would assume that the girls quoted DID speak for the official policy of the organization?

I fully understand that when a controversial situation comes up, then we need to think about official policy and PR spin, and in certain situation, we have to accept that we cannot give interviews as members of our GLOs.

But a "you can't give interviews about recruitment without permission from nationals" is too rigid, I think. If people give ditzy answers, hey, you've got ditzes in your org. Everything shouldn't be spinning for the media.

i am happy with my sorority's policies.

Cool. I don't even know what my GLO's policies on this are, but I'm not in any danger of giving any interviews.

(I seem to remember some group that I'm a member of drawing a distinction between an interview you gave as an individual verses interviews you did as a representative of the group.)

Would general Zeta policies allowed the girls to make statements like those in the article?

Your GLO has a similar policy.

Just finished reading the article.

Awful.

Why was it necessary to say that you "don't want to perpetuate stereotypes...," then go on to list 4 stereotypes in the newspaper? (Especially since some of them had such negative connotations.)

Wouldn't it have been sufficient to acknowledge that sterotypes exist, but PNMs are encouraged to disregard them? :confused:

I am usually all about free speech and being (semi) anti-authoritarian, but I actually like the policy. It not only protects ZTA, it also protects our members.

Will you please show it to me?

I went looking for it on the IHQ but couldn't find anything. I suspect we do have one, but I haven't read it in a while.

Poor Phi Mu.

What an absolutely dreadful article. I don't think even DG comes off well - they come off as jerks who spend $1000 on a purse.

What I want to know is, how much of that is true about skits and pref ceremonies being completely gone? I mean, I looked at those pictures, and contrary to what the article said, I didn't see a tank top or t-shirt in sight.

I agree, poor Phi Mu! That is awful!

Some stereotypes have evolved- not done total 180s, but not quite the same as when I was there.

Some have not changed one bit.

No matter how positive a stereotype could be, the way they said them came across as negative for all of them.

When the truth is, the president of ZTA when I was there was a very sweet girl and honor student not into partying. And another honor student who was a Tri-Delta had long thick brown hair. And two girls from the campus church I attended- neither one of them overweight- were in Phi Mu.

Bah humbug for stereotypes and so-called reputations.

I'd wager a guess that the reporter isn't greek and doesn't know that writing those words can be damaging. I held many stereotypes in my head before I joined and I'm sure the reporter doesn't know better. I'm going with the benefit of the doubt, no matter how bad it sounded.