stereotyping
 

Hi all. So I belong to a traditionally "Jewish" sorority. Five years ago, my chapter was 50% non-jewish. Currently, my chapter is only 5% non-jewish. I am the recruitment chair and I want to address this issue somehow during recruitment because I feel like in a year or two our chapter will be completely non-jewish, which would be unfortunate. My sorority was founded on the basis of non-discrimination, and my chapter supports this value. (We don't wear any religious jewelry in our recruitment room). Our freshman told us that when they were going through recruitment, immediately after tours, they heard many girls saying that they weren't going to bother coming back to visit us due to the jewish issue. (tours is when they meet us for ten minutes-and they really couldn't even know how many of us are actually jewish) In the past, if girls ask us about the Jewish issue, anbd many do, we have been telling them that altough the chapter is predominately jewish, that our chapter is not exclusive, that we are not 100% jewish, that our non-jewish members are very involved and valuable members, and that we are founded on non-discriminetion. But that question usually comes up later during recruitment. Do you think that when the potentials come in for the first time, we should address this issue immediately, or do you think that would scare them away even more? Any thoughts?

I think it would be a good idea to address that topic right off the bat. It sounds like your house has a reputation on campus (as all houses do) and I'm sure that lots of rushees could be aprehensive about how well they would fit in. But also, any girl worth being in your house shouldn't be concerned too much with anything like that.

Whatever you say, phrase it positively, highlighting your history and the strides you've made to be the 'original' multi-cultural sorority. Highlight the fact that your membership comes from many faiths and that diversity is both the basis and future of your sorority.

Barbara

The chapter of AEPi at my school (which is also predominantly Jewish) tackles the issue right away. Even in the rush booklet sent to all freshmen during the summer, it says that they were founded on Jewish values, they do not discriminate and that men from all denominations may join. THis way, even before fraternity rush starts the issue has been dealt with.

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