How is deactivating viewed on your campus?
 

I had an interesting conversation about a week ago with a friend who goes to a different school. At my school, deactivating is fairly common in sororities...a couple pledges usually deactivate before initiation, and then others will slowly drop out over time. It is considered not a big deal at all and our Greek system is very big and influential on campus. At her school, where the Greek system is fairly sized (about 80-100 per sorority) but really not "important" at all, she described deactivating as a slap in the face and said that it is extremely rare and there is usually a lot of fall out. This just seemed really interesting to me because I assumed deactivating from sororities was "no big deal" and relatively common everywhere.

How about your school (not just your specific chapter)? Was deactivation common or non-existent? How was it viewed by the chapter?

More common in the sororities than the fraternities. At least on the fraternity side of things, in my experience, guys just dropped off the face of the earth. There'd be some question of dues, but it would usually be seniors who would pay for one last year, and then about the third or fourth of week of school be completely absent.

Had a couple of friends who did the same thing in their sororities, but overall, I think it wasn't a huge deal for girls to deactivate. The way recruitment was structured at my school, where Total was an absolute cap that you couldn't go above, meant that the sororities were rewarded for their ability to retain their members through all four years. In some ways is was sort of a never ending cycle - the best houses had smaller pledge classes, meaning the girls got to know each other better, meaning they were more likely to have strong connections to the chapter, meaning they were more likely to stay involved, meaning that the chapter was closer to total, and they would take a smaller pledge class.

A smaller pledge class also meant that the chapter wasn't forced to take risks on girls they weren't particularly thrilled about getting. They could close out their class very early compared to the other chapters.

But it was also good for the weaker chapters because they were able to take enough girls each year to make up for their attrition, and all the houses stayed at the same size...

anyways, that got kind of offtrack...

When I was in school, it was a fairly big deal - unless the self-termination/deactivation was for something really benign and enforced by a national rather than chapter policy. One of the sororities had a really anal payment system, the girls couldn't have payment plans or something (plus their national dues were the highest on campus) and because of this some of them had to deactivate. A lot of them stayed close with the sisters even after they left.

Now if you quit because you just weren't feeling it, or if the sorority/fraternity terminated you for behavior or just being a general jagoff reasons, that was a huge thing. Sometimes you were almost afraid to terminate someone who came across as a nice person even if she was a shitty sister because it would make the sorority look bad.

Oh, and the entire time I was in college, we had a 100% initiation rate of women who pledged. I never knew this was so rare until I heard of sororities giving awards for it. We had a couple girls who signed open bids and then didn't pledge, but that was a different matter. I think most of the other sororities were similar. I attribute this to the fact that we had deferred rush and by the time girls started pledging they knew what being in a sorority was all about and that they were where they wanted to be.

I don't know how it is now, but it was a HUGE deal when I was in school - especially if the chapter terminates the New Membership or a Sister.

I once heard a Exec. Officer say that anyone can sign a bid - but can the chapter retain the sister? That's the true test of a chapter! (Yours must have been awesome, 33!)

It wasn't that big of a deal when I was in school. I remember taking an arobics class when I was a pledge and one of the other girls in class started telling me how she had just deactivated that year. Turns out she was my grand-big! She had financial reasons for deactivating and she still lived with three active members of our chapter.

We had a few other people go inactive for other reasons, and they stayed friends with whomever they were closest to-- since I never knew the whole story I continued to say hello to them and didn't shun them when I saw them.

I think the only time we were upset over someone going inactive is when they continued to wear letters or represent themselves as part of our sorority after they were inactive.

** for some reason I don't think inactive or deactive are the correct terms when a collegiate AOII stops being active, however I can't remember the proper term since we always called it "deactivating"

I'm not saying we never had anyone terminate (we did) or that there weren't people that we didn't say a year or so later "what in the world were we thinking?" but we got them through pledging. Again, though, I think most of the campus was like that.

One thing that my school deals with is abuse of "inactive status" (what we call deactivation). It arises because our campus doesn't have a quota each semester, but rather allows each group to offer bids up to chapter total. So, sometimes a larger groups will have members that "deactivate" but still attend lots of social events, etc., just not attending meetings. That allows the sorority to stay below chapter total and thus pledge more girls every year. The issues around deactivation surround whether the member has truly deactivated or whether a sorority is allowing (and possibly encouraging) older members to do this to have more bids to give out during Recruitment. So, the stigma is on whether the privilege is abused by the group, not on the specific member herself.

This annoys me to no end. When I advised, some girls would claim they couldn't "afford" to be in the house anymore. Yet, they still did just fine living in their own apartment, going out to the bars every night and sometimes even trying to come to social events by just "happening" to be at the same bar as a date dash or crush party. Um, no.

Depending on the reason, resigning membership wasn't a big huge deal at either my undergraduate campus or the campus where I advised. For the most part, we were friendly with girls who resigned, too.

As far as I can remember, we never stopped talking to anyone. Most of the reasons for deactivating were financial, and those were few and far between. How could you snub someone for this?

The few that depledged usually were asked to leave, and our campus was so big that you may never run into them after that.

We never had a problem with those who deactivated showing up for social events.

Like ISUKappa said, there's a difference between the girl who deactivated for $$ reasons who you know is working 3 jobs and barely keeping her head above water, and the girl who says she deactivated for $$ reasons who's walking around with super expensive clothes/purses and partying every weekend.

I mean, if the sorority isn't important enough to you that you don't WANT to pay the dues anymore, just SAY that. Don't make it seem as if you CAN'T. But don't expect everyone to be cool with that decision and still treat you like a sister when you're basically saying that the sorority and its members aren't important enough to you for you to go without a new LV bag.

What about the member who was recently initiated, but then realizes (thanks in part to the shortened new member periods) that she made a huge mistake - especially when the members realize it, too? I would be less apt to shun her, than someone who's made off with chapter funds or such.

One of my friends in another fraternity told me that they had a huge problem with this. Members of their chapter would activate and de-activate monthly, depending on their finances. Literally, they would say: "I can't afford dues this month, I'm going inactive. I'll go active again next month."

Our chapter made a rule: If you are going inactive, it's for the whole semester. But, unless you drop out of school, you still owe us the dues for the entire semester. Do you need a payment plan?

On our campus some chapters retain better than others, but in general there's little stigma attached to a girl who de-pledged or quit because of financial reasons, extreme personal circumstances, or some sort of emergency. I don't ignore anyone who voluntarily dropped out of any chapter here, but personally I'm in general a little less close to the ones that quit because they didn't give it a chance. To me that makes me wary of them and their dependability. The only people I can think of that have a stigma from many Greeks in general are a small group of girls who were either kicked out or asked to leave. That, though, was extenuating circumstances. And of course, it's a bigger deal when an initiated sister quits than a new member. 9 times out of 10, though, they have a good reason. New members sometimes drop because of financial...and sometimes because they think they made a mistake. Personally, that doesn't bother me much, seeing as how they have four days of recruitment plus limited contact for two weeks before that to make a lifetime commitment. It's understandable if they decide sororities aren't for them during their new member period. Most of our chapters still have good retention rates, though, on new members.

The ones that irritate me the most are the ones that CHOOSE to leave and then continue to wear letters, keep letters on their cars, and refer to themselves as a member of XYZ.

Wow, that's not right...membership shouldn't be a semester-to-semester thing. Gamma Phi Beta doesn't have an "inactive" status - all members must be active members. Some girls in my chapter would try to "go inactive" every once in a while and then have to be told, "Sorry, there is no 'inactive,' only active or resigned membership." When forced with that scenario, most chose to stay active rather than completely resign membership, especially seniors who seemed to think they could disappear their last year and get away with it.

Deactivating wasn't uncommon at my school. In my freshman year, one sorority took quota in FR, but only half of the class was still active by the end of our senior year. Whether your sisters were friendly or unfriendly to you after deactivation kind of depended on why you deactivated... deactivating for financial reasons = ok, getting terminated for risk management reasons = not ok.

You could also (at least in my chapter) temporarily go inactive for a legitimate reason. One of my pledge sisters went inactive to do a semester abroad; another sister went inactive for a semester because she had major medical problems (she didn't take the semester off school, but she dropped all her extracurricular activities). Those situations were no big deal.

Kappa Delta works pretty similarly to Tri Sigma, from what KSUViolet posted. Sisters can request inactive status for medical or financial reasons (with documentation) for a semester or two at most, if I remember correctly.

When I was a collegian it was a HUGE deal to resign membership at my campus. It just wasn't done unless there were extreme circumstances. Depledging happened but that really wasn't seen as a big deal at all and didn't carry much of a stigma if the girl went through Rush again.

Back to what Honey said about the new, shorter new member periods, I remember talking to Kappa Delta's National President about this a few years back. She said that since the shortened periods resignations had gone up something crazy like 700% across the board Panhellenically. (one of the reasons the shortened time-frame irritates me.)

Whether it was the shortened period, just a different campus culture or the fact that this was nearly 18 years after I was a collegian I don't know. But when I worked with another KD chapter at a different campus resignations were rampant. I'd say about 20 a year. The girls thought nothing of it. I was baffled....and annoyed.

Wow indeed!

With all due respect, why should your or any other GLO policies be applicable to others GLOs? If it works for Sigma Chi Fraternity - and works well I might add - who are you to question it?

For what it is worth, Sigma Chi Fraternity believes that membership is for life. As such, we don't believe in terminating a membership "right off the bat" simply because someone may not be able to pay their dues for a semester.

Longer Pledge Periods...
 

I agree with KSUViolet and Leslie Anne. In Phi Mu we are able to take inactive status for sisters going abroad or if they have medical problems. I'd be willing to bet that both Tri-Sig and Kappa Delta work the same in that they have to be voted on. For instance, before we had a sister go abroad to London the one year she had to send in a sheet and have it signed off by Nationals and then voted on. If she waited too long to send in that paper-then oh well on her....When you go inactive for that semester you don't have to pay dues. I can understand this because if you are abroad in another country you aren't exactly participating in recruitment, formals, socials, etc. That I understand. Girls that just want to drop membership and regain it every other semester would not fly with pretty much ANY PHC org. I would assume. I also agree with Leslie Anne that it's frustrating when girls drop or depledge. I remember a girl I was friends with dropped a PHC org. and the girls of that Org. harrassed her continuously because then she joined a local service sorority and just ditched them. Was harrassment the right thing to do-No, however, I can see how those girls were hurt and it upset them. It wasn't my sorority, however, I can honestly say when a girl dropped my chapter after either pledging or initiating-I stopped talking to them (not harrass them). It was a tough pill to swallow that these girls had no respect for the organization I love so much. There were certain orgs. on campus that each semester they would lose ALOT of pledges or new initiates. I feel for them because personally I think that sucks! Can't we go back to longer pledge periods???

We had two categories on my campus-inactive and terminated.

Sisters who went inactive went on alumnae status with their Nationals. They were still sisters, but had no vote. They were invited to Formal and Homecoming and other events that alum were traditionally invited to. They wore their letters and still were on their chapters lists at fraternity parties, etc. This was pretty common on my campus. Usually this involved sisters in their senior year and the reasons for it varied.

Terminated sisters were just that. They were no longer part of the sorority and had their pictures blacked out on composites. Generally these sisters were terminated by the chapter for disciplinary action, such as hazing or nonpayment of dues.

Wow! I had no idea that the resignation rate was 700%!!! That little factoid is going into my arsenal of "Why I Don't Think That The Shortened New Member Period Works"!! I really appreciate having that in my arsenal!

FWIW, I made a donation to our Clasped Hands Fund recently, and got a very nice handwritten thank you with the form receipt. I was baffled by how effusive the thanks was - IMHO, Alpha Delta Pi has done so much for me, shame on me if I don't give back!

ETA: We also allow inactive status for medical or reasons similar to that of Kappa Delta & Phi Mu. We also allow Fifth Year Seniors to take alulmnae status. New Members can drop without too much stigma.

When I was in school, the sorority chapters were fairly large. People who voluntarily cancelled their membership or who were kicked out often had already burned their bridges and/or cut ties with the organization at the time of cancellation. They retained the friends they wished. No one went out of their way to hate the person or to strike up friendship anymore than would be normal.

For members who went financially inactive for the school year, it was the same.

If you quit your sorority, chances are you weren't terribly involved in the first place and you quit because you weren't getting anything out of it. I can't imagine you'd be missed too much because no one knew you or you dropped off the radar.


We called it membership cancellation if you were no longer a member, and inactivity if you were temporarily on financial leave due to emergency or study abroad. The inactive members were still members, but not entitled to partake in membership activities for the remainder of the school year. Deactivation sounds like something you can flip on and off at will. Membership cancellation is permanent.

For real - that blows my mind. I'm not sure it's all due to shortened NM periods, but I think it's definitely a factor, especially in larger chapters.

Wow, really? Now THAT is final! Come to think of it, there were a couple of sisters that left our chapter back in my day whose pictures I would have liked to take a black sharpie to... :rolleyes:

At a couple of the campuses I know best, there is actually a stigma attached to STAYING with a sorority after sophomore year. At one, the sororities would take pledge classes of 50+ freshmen each year, but they might only graduate 8 seniors. Rush is a huge deal for freshmen, but it's like you must be a loser if you're still relying on your sorority as an upperclassman. The attitude was, don't you have anything better to do? You're dressing up to go to a MIXER? To a large extent, this applied to the "cool" sororities too.

This didn't apply to fraternities; it was considered legit for guys to be living in the house as seniors, etc.
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NIGHTDREAMS

That is really sad. Some people have the misconception that your sorority is not for life, but just for the four years you're in college... now some folks are cutting that down to two? Your initiation oath kind of rings hollow if you plan on deaffiliating in less than two years. :(

From what I see deactivation at our school is uncommon for initiated members. New members are a different story I personally know of four who dropped out.