Apparently It Does Happen
 

I met a girl yesterday who had a shirt from XYZ on, so I asked her about it and we're talking and she mentions she's not a member anymore. So I ask why she dropped. She was in another sorority at PrivateU that wasn't at the StateU she transfered to. So not knowing the rules she went through recruitment at StateU, got initiated and was active for over a semester before someone from her old school found out and told XYZ at StateU.

She has since lost her membership in both orgs (rightfully so) .

:eek:

And she's still wearing letters. Not the sharpest tool in the shed.

She said she can't wear them on campus, but wears them off just as comfy clothes. I'm shocked she got to keep her stuff.

Wow!

They typically only have to give back badges and membership certificates....not speaking for all groups, obviously. Tee shirts are way to difficult to track and manage....as are caps, lavaliers, bracelets, paddles, squirrels, Hannah dolls, dolphins, anchors, etc, etc, etc.....

Good luck getting anything back. They hold onto that stuff and say things like "I was/used to be a blah blah". Keep it on their social media, etc. Sell their badges/pins on e bay, etc. I don't care. Posers. It's just stuff. They aren't members. They know it.

With a death grip! And often bad mouth whatever sororities they were members of when the expelled former member's actions were the cause of their terminations.

Yes. Exactly. One thing that I saw/heard about that has been effective: announcing in Chapter the names of members who were terminated for financial reasons, disciplinary reasons, or scholarship reasons (without giving any specifics), as well as members who voluntarily resigned. The members have the right to know and it has really put a stop to the former member(s) wearing their letters, trash talking, etc.

Not sure why the former members want stuff from an organization that they apparently hate so much.

Same people will have excuses for their ex-BFFs, ex-spouses, ex-employers .... Both groups may have dodged a bullet with this "gem".

Exactly, AZTheta!

I don't think that everyone who gets terminated hates the organization. Maybe is indifferent, maybe is irresponsible, but hatred is a strong word.

And I know what Titchou was talking about but her post just gave me a vision of a big ship's anchor in someone's yard. Lol

I'm a *little* surprised that there's not some kind of database for NPC orgs to cross-check names with other NPC orgs before initiation.

Several years ago when I was still a recruitment advisor at UCLA, we heard about a transfer student going through spring recruitment who allegedly had either been a pledge or a member of Gamma Phi at another school (at the time, Panhellenic held a semi-structured formalized recruitment for any of the chapters who had space in the spring, even if it was only for a few members - I actually thought it was very helpful, but that's another discussion.)

Turns out she had been an initiated member, but thought she had to go through recruitment again in order to re-affiliate, maybe confusing the part where chapters need to confirm and vote on affiliate members or something. I don't think she genuinely wanted to try to pledge another organization, because she happily affiliated and became an active member once the issue was cleared up.

We had no reason to check our database until we were tipped off that she might be a member, which apparently she herself disclosed during recruitment. At the time, she was half way through recruitment and could have easily been pledged by another organization. Unless the international orgs cross-check with other organizations, no one would have found out.

We had a transfer who had been an initiated member of XYZ on her former campus. XYZ was also on our campus, but she did not want to affiliate with them. She signed up for recruitment and was told that she couldn't rush because she was a member of XYZ. So she terminated her membership and started the recruitment process. Finally one of the XYZ's had to advise all the other chapter's of the woman's status and that she could not pledge or intiate into any of the other orgs per the NPC rules. The transfer was less than happy and less than gracious when she found out she was screwed.

^^^ I'm not surprised by either of those stories. I find that undergraduate members are not aware of less common procedures, or they have misconceptions. That's why we need advisors!

I think a database would be helpful, but it would be a huge undertaking, and there would be issues with privacy, security, etc. Every group would have to be on board with it.

Here's a sad story...when I was an undergraduate, we had a member who was recommended for termination after a standards/exec hearing. Afterward, she was seen crying in her room while cutting the stitched letters off of her sweatshirts with a pair of cuticle scissors. That still haunts me.

Just an idea, how would we even compile a database? Simply names wouldn't work. Social Security numbers? What happens with international students?