Sorority suspended before initiation
 

Hi everyone,

I go to a fairly school on the northeast with a smaller greek life population. Joining a sorority was crucial to me during my college experience and I received a bid from my top choice this past february. However, it was cut short when a week into my new member process the sorority was suspended due to a mistake by one of our new members that basically had nothing to do with the sorority. Now our new member process has been stopped and the sorority is no longer recognized by our campus, we've been told that they won't be back on campus until at least this coming fall but they may never come back. I really don't know what to do because I feel I have been robbed of my chance of joining a sorority. I need any advice you can give??
Thanks in advance!

You're only a week into pledging. I think you are confused on some of the terminology. You are bound to your sorority bid until next formal recruitment at this school. Therefore, you have two choices if you have not yet been initiated. (1) If they've been suspended but may be back in the fall, you can wait and see what happens in the fall. If they are still there, resume pledging and initiate. (2) If they're not back in the fall, then re-rush in the spring when you have formal recruitment and attempt a bid among the remaining sororities.

At the very least, you can call the Office of Greek Affairs at your school to find out what is going on and what options they recommend. You can also speak to your sorority new member coordinator or president.

Is this a local sorority or a chapter of a national sorority?

Reason for my asking is national chapters usually don't get "derecognized" and "suspended" at the same time.

You should have been told at your final meeting what your options are. A call to your national's headquarters should give you clarity.

I don't know what school we are talking about, but this is not always true. If a chapter is suspended, they may release the NM's from their commitment.

Agreed. The new members(pledges) might be free and clear to join another sorority right away.

I'm pretty sure the Manual of Information specifies something about that but I don't have the energy to look it up right now.

Well, it's not clear from the OP what exactly happened. If the sorority leaves campus, that's really different from a group being suspended pending investigation or just put on social probation.

They told us that we are technically no longer "new members" but I am confused as to whether or not we are still bound to our commitment.

Also, this IS a national sorority.

But NPC sororities don't get kicked completely off campus for 1 new member screwing up. There's more to this story than we've been told. There's possibly more to this story than SHE'S been told. But I don't think we're in a position to advise based on the information given.

My instinct is this is a local and there was a last straw scenario that happened, but based on the information given I could be completely off base. I'm also perplexed that the chapter didn't advise the girls of their options and just closed up shop. Is there an NPC group that would be giving this harsh of a punishment to a chapter and not have someone from headquarters in discussing every phase of this? I mean, there's a lot of money at stake.

/eta If you are no longer new members, then you should be free to pledge a new chapter as soon as someone will take you. I'd address this question with your Greek Life office.

Call your sorority's HQ. All 26 NPC sororities have websites with contact information. They will be able to help you and answer your questions.

ETA: I am only talking NPC, not NPHC or any other (inter)national sorority. I try to only talk about what I know. And not get annoyed.

In the same boat. Even if it isn't NPC, it might behoove you to talk with the (inter)national headquarters. Or try your greek life office.

I thought I had figured out the chapter, but it turns out that the guessed chapter didn't participate in recruitment this year. Hmmm, back to the drawing board.

Does this story make sense to anybody? How could a sorority get suspended because of something one pledge did? I mean all the ones I could find in google that were recently suspended had some history of bad stuff and probation and reviews and things before it happened. Sometimes I think I am always confused here!

I'm sure there's more to the story - and probably a lot more. The proliferation of information in chapters can be highly inaccurate, especially in regards to risk management and corrective action.

I don't mean to discredit the OP, just pointing out that information from HQ/the university is not often reliably transferred from chapter leaderships to general members.

There's not much more to the story as far as I know. It is an NPC sorority. Obviously, I cannot go into specific details but the school is small and very strict and the reason that the sorority has been suspended is because they need to have a judicial hearing which will take a couple months and they can't continue our new member process because of the hearing. Honestly, the whole reason for suspension would be laughed at at another school, it is ridiculous. Nonetheless, the sorority is suspended and we are no longer new members. It is really a very confusing story and it seems to be out of the ordinary for a sorority. I appreciate everyones input and I will definitely go talk to the greek advisor and also national in order to get more information. Thanks for everyones help!