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not so nice article about sisterhood

don't believe people think this about greeks.

http://oracle.newpaltz.edu/article.cfm?a_id=1195

you can contact jill nolan @ Jillian_is@mostlysunny.com
the or the Oracle at oracle@newpaltz.edu

Quote:

You Can't Always Get What You Want
Column By Jillian Nolan, Arts and Entertainment Editor

A Different Kind of Sisterhood

It’s that time of year again: sororities have begun searching for the few they feel deserve the honor of becoming a sister or for those who are willing to have flour and mustard dumped on them or swallow a goldfish to feel included.

As we walk around campus, the Greek-lettered shirts stare back at us making us wonder, “Why haven’t I joined a sorority? I want sisters.” But is sisterhood really what girls are signing up for?

Growing up with two brothers, I never thought I would feel the bond only two sisters can share. I came to college unaware of what was ahead of me. Did I need to join a sorority to fit in? Would more people want to be my friend if I was part of a Greek organization?

It didn’t take me long to realize that I was able to make friends without humiliating myself by chanting outside of Humanities. I was close with my old roommate Evelyn, and found I had a lot in common with Jen, my current roommate. I had many other friends, none of which I had to do push-ups to prove my loyalty to.

This year through working at The Oracle, I became close with Sam, the Editor-in-Chief, as well as other members of the editorial board. I realized that these girls were more than friends. These were the sisters that I’d found on my own. I know our friendships are based on something more than Greek letters.

It seems unlikely to me that someone who treated you like the dirt on the bottom of their shoe while you were pledging, making you embarrass and humiliate yourself, could really be a genuinely nice person in the end. Why is it that they can’t become sisters in the way that most people become friends: by finding a common interest.

While studying in the library last year I saw girls working hard until a sister clapped her hands. All the pledges scurried to fall in line as other students watched with smirks. Anxiously one girl said, “I’m so nervous! I wonder what they’re going to make us do tonight.”

I will admit, it’s a positive idea to make the girls study for a certain amount of time, but then to force them to stay up till all hours of the night making fools of themselves? Surely the whole concept of good study skills is being negated.

Two of my friends have had needless confrontations about petty drama started by sorority girls trying to protect their “sisters’” honor. What’s the point of that? Go back to high school. It sometimes seems hard to believe that they all know each other well enough to call themselves “sisters.” They may say that they are sisters because they’d always be there for the other members of the sorority, but why can’t they be there for girls who don’t pay dues?

If you are weak enough that you feel you need to belong to a Greek organization to have an identity, clearly you need to work on self-esteem and self-image. Insecurity and desperation are a poor basis for friendship.

There are clearly exceptions to everything mentioned above. There are nice, hardworking and friendly girls in sororities, but they appear to be few and far between. There are positive aspects to being in a sorority, community service being one of them. But perhaps a re-examination of why girls really join a sorority is in order. More often than not, girls are joining for the parties and the “security” that comes with letters they flaunt every day. You don’t really hear many girls saying, “Gee I’m gonna join a sorority because I want to help this town out.” If girls really want community service, there are other organizations on campus such as NYPIRG and Circle K that do community service. Unlike sororities, NYPIRG won’t ask you to pay them to get to do service, nor do they do hazing to get you to join.

We are here for four years to learn, not to prance around in letters pretending it makes you something better than you were before. And we are surrounded by people who are willing to be our friends without us whipping out our checkbooks to pay dues. It would appear that joining a sorority teaches you one thing: money and humiliation can buy you friends. But what happens when you get out into the real world? Will these sisters have the ability to make friends in a conventional way?

I realize it's a column so you're supposed to put forth your opinion, but seriously. There was obviously no research done whatsoever, and even in a column there should be some modicum of reality. And even a point to the column. :rolleyes:

I know I'm not God's gift to Journalism, but if the people who are writing these articles had gone to my school, they would have been thrashed by my professors. And then they wonder why they can only find jobs at dinky little weeklies in the middle of BFE after they graduate.

There are articles written like this everyday. We here the same old things. "sorority women and fraternity men are buying there friends." "They must lack the self-esteem to make their own friends." "They're all a bunch of rich, stuck up snobs" "They beat their pledges and humiliate them", blah, blah, blah, and so on and so forth. And when we hear these things are first response is, "oh, she must have been cut from every group. She's just bitter".
These things still happen. That's why all these negative articles are still be written. I'm sure most of us can say. Well that never happened to me, and my chapter doesn't do that. Good. I'm glad to ehar that. But some groups still do those things.
We has greeks have to be the ones to put a stop to this behaviour. Until we can show the non-greek community that we are more than meets the eye, these articles will not stop. We as greeks, must eforce the rules and have "punishments" that fit the "crimes". We have to take responsibilty for the actions of our groups, even if they are not are chapters or organizations. We can't stand up and praise our organization on a whole and say. "Those are my sisters...look how great we are" and then distance ourselves when one chpater does something wrong. "Oh well that's not my chapter, I don't have to worry about that...we don't do that stuff." We cant push this under the rug any longer. We all represent our organizations, no matter what chapter we are in. That means through the good and the bad. So until we start behaving like we would like to be seen by those outside the greek world. We will continue to read articles like this.

What a bitch. I actually think this would make people more inclined to join as she is not only contemptous of sisters but rushees as well.

And I've read some not so nice things about the various PIRG groups and how they operate, but that's another story.

Not only that, why isn't she concentrating on the ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT section if she is editor of it? I don't think Barbara Cloud (Pgh social editor) ever felt the need to spout off on her opinion of Bush's administration or the like.

Arts and entertainment because if I were the editor, I wouldn't be trusting this lady with any actual "news".

Who knows though? What campus is this? What she saying might actually be what she observed. To be fair to folks like this, there are still chapters of large nationals (yes, even sororities) that haze like crazy. If this is behavior that she's observed, then who could blame her?

But she's not naming names.

Because of that, I tend to think that she's pretty full of hsit on this topic. What it seems here is that this journalism major wrote an entire article that just barfs back up a bunch of negative stereotypes to build a straw man. Then she procedes to beat the hell out of it by comparing her positive personal experience to all of these perceived and imagined negative experiences that would have awaited her had she decided to go Greek.

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I hope her journalism club hazes like hell.

I'm sorry, but this is a ridiculous article. It would be one thing if she had genuine evidence of hazing at her school, or even if she interviewed 'anonymous' greeks to support her claims but I don't see any of that. It sounds to me like she (and her two mysterious friends) has had some sort of bad experience with girls in sororities and needed something to write an article on. What an idea! I would have more respect for this person if she had included some research in her article instead of merely restating practically ancient stereotypes. Unoriginal and unimpressive from my standpoint.

Y'all, there is that much hazing at NY schools. I know a girl in a "regional" or whatever their excuse for statewide locals is in NY, and she made fun of me when I got a bid to Gamma Phi Beta because "it's non-hazing so it's not a real sorority." Maybe Arya or some other SUNY people can back me up on this?

I was a student at SUNY New Paltz and Greek Life at the time was not heavily supported. We had to put up with the stereotypical image all of the time, as well as "harassment" from the town police and other students who had nothing better to do then badger us. Why I must say there are women that fit the mold of "typical sorority girls" in every negative sense of the word, our sorority at the time was one of the most diverse on campus, as well as one of the most respected. I am happy that I joined and continue to meet wonderful women from my organization on a regular basis. New Paltz is an extremely diverse school itself with students fitting every "mold" imaginable. I pledged late, as a junior transfer, but I do not regret it at all. I continue to meet wonderful women on a regular basis through my alumnae organization. I think going greek is like anything else in life, there will be people you get along with and people you don't, people who are wonderful and people who are not so wonderful. It is a learning experience in and of itself. I think overall being Greek is a positive thing. People will always continue to talk about different groups of people and stereotype them, whether they are Greek or whatever other "organization" or "stereotype" they appear to fit into.

Allison Predmore
Proud to be Greek and a D*Phi*E
SUNY New Paltz Class of 1998
President, MetroD*Phi*E Alumnae Association NYC

Quote:

Originally posted by GeekyPenguin
Y'all, there is that much hazing at NY schools. I know a girl in a "regional" or whatever their excuse for statewide locals is in NY, and she made fun of me when I got a bid to Gamma Phi Beta because "it's non-hazing so it's not a real sorority." Maybe Arya or some other SUNY people can back me up on this?

Regardless of whether they haze, the article is poorly written, lacks hard facts to back up its accusations, and shows its writer to be so abrasive and negative that I feel the need to warn Circle K that their involvement may plummet due to her endorsement.

The problem is that it's not really a news article, it's a column, which is pretty much open to anything the writer wants to say. It smacks more of "I have six inches to fill and need something quick so I'll just slap down a bunch of stereotypes and put it to bed" than an actual column. It doesn't matter what it's about as long as it's controversial. Because either way, the column will get readers. It'll get those who agree wholeheartedly with the writer in how much GL sucks at that campus and then they'll get the offended members and alumnae of the Greek Community who will write in letter after letter trying to disprove her column. Writer sits back, satisfied she has done her job as a top-notch journalist. Yech. That's why I never, ever wrote for our college newspaper. Can't stand the press-room politics.

I still think she's a crappy journalist. And a crappy editor. The headline has nothing to do with the column and fails to pull the reader in. I give it a D-. (I was too nice before)

It seems that chapters at SUNY schools tend to haze. One of my sisters goes to a SUNY school, and the things she had to do were crazy! They got reported to their Nationals about their hazing (luckily, they didn't get in a lot of trouble, since they are a good chapter with a lot of positive contributions to the school and their National). I wasn't really hazed (unless you count small-ish things like signing pledge books hazing, which National found out about and repremanded us! It was a way for the new members to meet all the sisters! geez. :rolleyes: ) and my sister at U-Maryland experienced zero hazing.

then again, this is an article from a school paper about Greek life at THAT school, and it is clearly the author's opinion. It doesnt portray Greeks in the best light, but maybe the Greeks at that particular school dont portray themselves in the best light either...

Articles like this are only relevant at this particular school, since obviously different chapters at different schools have different new member programs, even if following National guidelines to a T. I wouldn't get too worked up about it unless you go there, and if you do, the Greek system there needs to work to shed this negative image.

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I don't know how it is now, but I imagine it still the same. Most SUNY school have a lazie faire attitude toward the Greeks. We didn't even have a greek advisor from 1997 till I graduated. Not sure if they got a greek advisor now.

I can't really comment on how the other school function. I know that Oneonta pretty much had a cleaning house of fraternitities in the mid-90s due to prevelant hazings. Fraternities were only allowed back on campus very recently.

As for the PIRG, they do great work. They were in the forefront in fighting the rise of tuition in the late 90s. I am proud to be a member of the PIRG.

ETA: A lot of hazing I've seen around SUNY campuses are out in the public. And many openly boasted about it. This is all of course in the mid to late 90s.

The article is not very good at all. I give it F.

Quote:

Originally posted by moe.ron
IAs for the PIRG, they do great work. They were in the forefront in fighting the rise of tuition in the late 90s. I am proud to be a member of the PIRG.

I will retract my statement :) Apparently PIRGs are like different fraternity chapters, one is not like the other.

It reminds me of the quote from the inside looking out you can never explain it, from the outside looking in . . . .
i think that's how it goes, it seems she doens't know much about Real Greek Life.