censoring shirts
 

hey everyone,
Hope you all are having a WONDERFUL summer, anyhow this thread is in concern with censoring shirts for sorority/fraternity members. Our panhellenic council has proposed this agreement for all sororities to censor their shirts. the agreement goes something like this: (before you read, this agreement has yet to be passed and voted on, but it's in the workings):

In an effort to protect the public image of the Panhellenic Council, the member chapters at USF hereby agree to adhere to a high standard of professionalism through selecting and producing tasteful slogans and graphics on all event themed shirts and publicity, examples of inappropriate content include, but are not limited to, use of foul language, derogatory vocabulary, or references to alcohol, drugs, or sex.

allegations of an infraction would be reported to the panhellenic council EVP who would follow up with the accused chapter with mediation. Please feel free to contact the EVP in advance for an official opinion of anything questionable.

Anyhow i was wondering what all of you thought about this? do you think it violates our right to free speech? does changing a shirt really change the image of a sorority/fraternity? or should there be a better member education that can teach chapters the importance of image? PLEASE LET US KNOW...this is great thing to voice out your opinion to!! thanks bunches

in Greek unity,

silverlee hernandez


__________________
silverlee

If you are using slogans that relate to drugs, sex, or other negative things - then I am glad there is someone trying to change it.

I'm suprised it is only for Panhellenic and not the IFC too. To me, they are more likely to have offensive shirts.

Can I get advance approval?
 

Can I get advance approval for one of my favorites:

"TKE: rushing men and pleasing women since 1899"

If its true, don't hide it.

If its false, don't lie about it.



Other than that you don't have to explain shit to anyone.

At my school I know you had to run rush T-shirt designs by the Greek Advisor, especially if your shirt mentioned the school name on the shirt.

I think there are some boundaries not to cross - but I also think that no shirts should be censored too too much. It's gotta be taken on a case by case basis.

Well hopefully your GA wasn't a tool.

We were 1/2 in GA's when I was there - one was good, one was, well, you said it.

at our school all shirts for both fraternities and sororities must be "tasteful" and not derogatory...the SAEs brought out a shirt that was slightly offensive and were asked immediately to discontinue wearing them...it kind of sucks i'll admit but at the same time, its really not that big of a deal :shrug: i think it helps with the image of the community in a positive way :)

Can a school or panhellenic do that? Censor shirts? Isn't that in violation of the freedom of speech clause in the first amendment?

Your free speech can be restrained as a condition to belong to a private organization (which panhellenic is).

i do not think that this is a bad idea at all for NPC to have the right approve teeshirts and what they say. this issue goes hand in hand with our image as a greek community.

yesterday we were complaining about how non-greeks view us as students who "only wanna party, get drunk, and have random sex. we pay for our friends and greek life isnt worth it. why would you ever wanna be a part of that?!?"

today we are complaining about not being allowed to put our negative slogans on teeshirts that depict greek life in negative way

tomorrow we will being complaining about how non-greeks view us...do you see the cycle here?

BUT i know that not one single member posting on this board would trade their membership for the world....i wouldnt at least! each one of us knows what our sisterhood/brotherhood means to us. why would we ever want to create a negative image of what we hold so dear with a simple teeshirt?

i hope that i understood the question in the right way and i hope i provided some senseable response of my opinion.

any questions? lemme know! :D

I think it should be up to individual chapters on the campus, not coming down from Panhellenic. If a sorority wants to have shirts that say "We're alcoholics, yay!" then let them - to some degree I guess it looks bad for the Greek system, but I think it really just makes that one house look bad.

I know my chapter has had some shirts that are based on alcohol bottle designs that came out really cute - they weren't really inappropriate, but I don't know if they would be approved by an Advisor...