Alpha Phi will give no preferential treatment to legacies
 

Alpha Phi has just sent out a letter stating that legacies will no longer be given special treatment during recruitment.

"Previously, a legacy had to receive an invitation to the first invitational round of recruitment and if they accepted an invitation to preference, they must be placed at the top of the bid list.

Legacies will still be defined as any daughter, granddaughter, great-granddaughter, stepdaughter, sister or stepsister of an initiated member of Alpha Phi, but chapters will now treat them equally to every other potential new member during the recruitment process."

They also said that Alpha Phi has no rec requirement/policy and encouraged chapters to assess their practices to ensure that recs are not required or cause preferential treatment.

Definitely a step in the right direction. Let's hope there's more to come.

I don't understand why they still have a definition of a legacy if it doesn't matter if they're a legacy anymore. There are no benefits. :confused::confused:

That's convenient! Now they can cut all the unattractive legacies after first round. No more wasting invites on those women who won't meet their standards.

So true. What's the point of even recognizing someone is a legacy if there are no benefits to it?

I just see legacy status as a personal thing anyway - something to share with that family member.



But a chapter could recognize it with something like a legacy tea - any legacy members and their sorority relation have a tea thrown in their honour by the chapter.



But I might be super nerdy and into tea and snacks.

What a nerd.

Seriously, though- If Greek life survives and continues to grow, the sustainability of legacy status would be doubtful, at best. We’ve seen the pain of legacy cuts. Perhaps we should focus on Panhellenic connections with our daughters more, anyway? Mom’s chapter will not be the same as DD’s chapter even if they are the EXACT same chapter. Twenty years (minimum) is a long time.

well, if the scandal of their recruitment practices is true, a legacy policy hardly seems the biggest of their issues.

I don't see legacy status as a benefit, but an honor. Mom might feel it's a benefit, or a right, but collegians choose new members, whether legacies or not.

The honor comes from following footsteps, sharing additional bonds, knowing there's a lineage. It's internal, not a badge in itself.

My chapter invited any ADPi family member of our new members for initiation, whether they were officially legacies by ADPi's definition or not. One woman one year had her grandma, mom, and three aunts come to initiation and it was amazingly special, even though by ADPi nationals' definition only her grandma and mom were her legacy relatives. I'd rather have a new member's close family friend or aunt come to initiation and share that special bond with her than her older sister who joined ADPi to party and doesn't give a shit about it now.

All the snacks have to be desserts that appeared on the Great British Baking Show. For science.

So you're eating a lot of Bakewell tarts, Jaffa cakes, trifle and pavlova? No judgment here. I would eat a bowl of Eaton mess for dinner at least once a week, if I could.

And I think this sums up one of the other issues with legacies.

It's not just a matter of there being "too many of them" going through recruitment to consider other women, but there are too many of them who are looking for a) an easy way in, b) a guarantee, and/or c) letters to wear, parties to attend, and a social life for four years and nothing else.

And I think in general, nowadays, women attending four-year colleges in and of itself isn't seen as special or rare as it was not too long ago. I think of my mother, stepmother, all my aunts, and my two grandmothers - none of them have a four-year degree. But all of their daughters and granddaughters have one. More and more women attending college = more and more legacies = more and more of the women described above who look at sorority membership as simply letters on a sweatshirt for four years.

And when thinking about traditions and passing things down - even physical items - it's just not something that's done as often as maybe it once was. And young women today are very independent, and are encouraged be. Women are attending colleges that aren't in their hometown, but are half a world away. There are study abroad programs and internships. A young woman today might not be looking to follow in her mother's footsteps in the same way a young woman of the 1970s looked to follow her mother's path.

One could even argue that the way NPC sororities recruit new members - and the fact that there is a push to join only when in college, usually within a two-year timeframe - doesn't truly mesh with the "specialness" of legacy status. Neither do our "keep an open mind" and "try to join the chapter that you best connect with" mottos and mantras.

Even if a young woman is a legacy and has known her whole life she wants to be part of ABC sorority, she goes through recruitment and still has to attend parties for DEF, GHI, and JKL. And then, if she gets a bid to none of them, we tell her that her dream of being a sorority woman is essentially over.

How does any of this make sense?

Believe me, a lot of Southern women are still passing down their sorority items that they've held onto for years.

Legacy Tea would be ALL about Bakewell tarts. The non-legacies could form teams and each team bakes their own and the legacy tea participants choose a winner!

I'm not even just talking about sorority items, but sure. Passing down of items still happens. I never claimed that it doesn't.