Beanies on Pledges?
 

On investigating the location of a new member of Greekchat, I ran across the local Mu Theta at Alfred State and on their recruitment page (http://mutheta.com/recruitment.html) is "During both pledging seasons, you'll probably see Mu Theta pledges around campus or even have class with one. You can tell them apart from non-greeks as well as other pledges by the green and blue beanies they wear."

I thought using beanies on pledges was something that died when the schools stopped requiring freshmen to wear beanies.Other than them being brought back at Wabash (as mentioned on greekchat at http://www.greekchat.com/gcforums/sh...ad.php?t=81813), has anyone else seen beanies used to designate pledges?

There's even this graphic at the Mu Theta website:

http://mutheta.com/images/ad.jpg

National orgs have pledge or new/associate/probationary member pins, but those are produced on a large scale. Locals often find other ways of identifying pledges. Can't say I've seen beanies since Animal House, but maybe there's a campus tradition at play here.

Meanwhile, they weren't beanies and they didn't replace probationary member pins, but we all had pledge hats back in the day. I still have mine -- it bears the signatures of all the active brothers when I pledged.

IMO, I kinda like that idea.

Yes. I see nothing wrong with it since different GLOs have different ways to distinguish their "prospectives."

Beanies have different meanings. I wear beanies, and they have cultural significance for some groups, so there are campuses where beanies would not be the choice to distinguish "prospectives."

I have never even seen a picture of Chi Omega pledges wearing beanies, but I did buy one on eBay a few years ago. It is white felt with red stitched X and horseshoe.

I thought beanies were used in the 1940s and 1950s? But went out of style/use some time in the 1960s?

side note: those Delta Gamma sailor hats they wear are freaking adorable. Those DGs look like something you want to scoop up and hug when they are wearing those white sailor hats.

One of my ChiO friends in college had a picture posted on the door of her room (on the ChiO floor - we didn't have houses) of herself as an infant, sitting in a stroller, wearing a Chi Omega beanie. Too cute.

Beanies never went out of style. :)

This is, arguably, hazing. THAT'S why it went out of style.

Lest we be reminded that GLOs have different ways to distinguish their prospectives from everyone else. I would never tell other GLOs that requiring prospectives to wear a pin or something else in this context is, arguably, hazing.

And, no, beanies did not go out of style in the non-Greek and Greek worlds.

Well... not sure about the hazing issue, honestly, because we've all trotted down those avenues in other threads.

I just have this to say: I still have my beanie from Brownies. And I even have a picture of my Girl Scout Troop from either 3rd or 4th grade, and believe it or not, the majority of us still talk to each other. Seriously. And I looked dorky in a beanie then, but maybe I should try again?

No.

I havent seen or worn beanies since I left Girl Scouts about 3rd grade or so
(1986-1987).

Beanie = embarrassing attire = hazing
Pledge pin = not embarrassing attire = not hazing

I'm not certain which part you are disagreeing with, that a beanie is embarrassing, or that embarrassing attire is hazing. In any case, it's not an argument I'd like to have with my dean of students.

(NB: I am talking specifically about the felt beanie-type things shown in the pics of Mu Theta.)

My mom wore a beanie during her first year in the 70s. I know that the SUNY system in NY (of which Alfred State is a part) has a long history with Beanies.

No.

I disagree with your assessment of beanies and I also disagree with thinking you can tell someone what hazing is for their GLO.