From Local to National to Local to National
 

I was doing research on a local at Dickinson College and came across an interesting scrapbook they have in their archives.

https://cache.nebula.phx3.secureserv...1-a912aeb20b33

I was going to put this in the ZTA at Tulane thread, but that closed.

I'm sure this isnt the first time something like this has happened, and I'm sure it doesn't happen too often either...It was kinda sad, but funny.

To go from being a local organization, then become a chapter of a large international sorority, only to disagree with policies of that organization to become a local once again.....then years later become a chapter of DIFFERENT international sorority!! Man, I bet some alumnae are confused!!

BG

Honestly, in the late 70s - early 80s in the Northeast...I'm sure much more of this happened than you would guess.

I find it anything but "sad" that a group of women refused to put up with racist behaviour. I also find it turbo awesome that the administration of the college was 100% in their corner.

http://deila.dickinson.edu/cdm4/docu...CISOSHOW=38747

Thanks for the full link. This is pretty awesome, and one of the reasons I get very frustrated when my group (and others) continually insist that our ritual should remain unchanged because of its historical importance.

The sad part I was referring to was the reasons for the separation.

Bg

That was such an intriguing story!

This is a heartwarming story. Thanks for sharing it.

A very good story. I'm glad the BD's of Phi Mu/ADE's stood up for their beliefs. There was like a 12 year gap between national affiliations, so I don't think that's bad, either.

This, times a million. While tradition has value, it does not mean that our organizations should not grow and change or keep parts of the tradition that are harmful.

ETA: I should add I'm talking about traditions/practices loosely, not ritual (or even GLOs) specifically. Obviously, I only know my own org's (which is not Phi Mu) ritual, and while I find it lovely, I don't know if or how it has changed over time.

This is simply untrue. You may want to check that.

Yes, they made slight changes in 2010 (which is public knowledge) to please the insurance company and to clarify initiation attire. They have made no changes to reflect the increasing diversity of our membership.

It's no secret that most NPC rituals are based in scripture, as Phi Sigma Sigma publicly states they are one of the only orgs with a ritual NOT based in scripture. I piss people off every time I go down this road, but asking women to participate in a Judeo-Christian ritual is a good way to make sure that Muslims, Atheists, and others feel excluded from your organization.

That's still not what I'm talking about. Other changes have been made more recently. You might want to attend a collegiate initiation if given the opportunity. You'll see what I mean.

Not necessarily, maybe it is different on the fraternity side, but being part of a fraternity originally founded as Catholic based many of my brothers were atheists and were not discouraged by the rituals. So I think most of it boils down to the person themself

Self-selection bias: the fact that people who joined your organization are okay with it does not mean that nobody chose NOT to join your organization because of it.

I'm not saying that everyone should go and totally change their ritual, drop their traditions, etc. I'm just saying that I often feel that the white, Christian majority in most of our orgs (NPC and NIC) can be blind to their own privilege as the "in group". Everyone has dropped the actual WASP clauses decades ago, but that doesn't mean that "tradition" doesn't still stand in the way of true diversity, in many instances.

While I (underlined) was able to just play along with the religious aspects of our ritual and there were Jewish members who just stood quietly through the parts that contradicted their beliefs, the fact is you shouldn't have to. You're not told as a pledge what the ritual says and a devout Atheist might be SERIOUSLY unhappy at the turn of events. I've never raised a stink about this because 1-I know it would be a losing battle and 2-if there was any sort of success with a petition to clean up the ritual, some chapters would probably go ballistic over removing the religious aspects. I see this as causing a huge rift in the sorority if it happened. But I'd love to compare our ritual to Phi Sig's.