ADPi History and You!
 

Since we started to hijack the ebay thread, I thought we best start a new thread, respectfully discussing the history of Alpha Delta Pi, how long you were an Alpha, or Pledge, etc.

Chat away!

As I've said before, I picked up a 1947 Pledge Book on ebay. It's wonderful! There are photos of every house owned by ADPi at the time, the newest chapter being Gamma Theta at Mt. Union. It shows the pins & pledge pins of twenty NPC Sororities:


ACW
ASP
AGD
AOP
AF
AXD
BSO
CW
DDD
DG
DZ
GFB
KAQ
KD
KKG
FM
PBF
SK
QU
ZTA

There are 12 Pledge Class lessons, and I guarantee that there's more info, which includes the memorization of EVERY chapter in EVERY Province (that's Districts now). There is a list of what pledge are are expected to know, and what every pledge is supposed to participate in, and much, much more. I thought my pledging was hard!!

[I]Respectful [/I] discussion...
 

I was also a "holdover" for grades!! ;) I pledged Sept or Oct, was initiated the next Sept. Rest of my pledge class (minus handful of other holdovers!) were initiated in Spring (after Spring Break). Happened after a call put a halt to "Friendship Days (nudge nudge, wink wink) after the first night. I will be eternally grateful it ended. ;) Anywho, in the Fall, Sister Pres announced we had a new Alpha Ed Program. My holdover-sisters & I were initiated first week back in the Fall as "Alphas". Was weird being the first Deltas - and in a no hazing environment, too! But TME is a great program. Now, it's even better with the New Delta programming! :D

if you ever see a pledge book like that again honey, let me know. I want one soooooooooooo bad and I never can get one.

'89 pledged one semester got initiated the beginning of the second semester (actually I didn't make my grades so I didn't get initiated until Spring 90 with the new "alphas") So I waited a year and got initiated with girls who only took 9 weeks I think it was at that time. Now its what 6 weeks. ( I personally don't think that is long enough but that is my own opinion)

I know I know long live TME.

Copied from "ebay" thread but I wanted to be represented in the old fogies section.

I was just wondering about my pledge sisters, if any of them have their Pledge Books. Maybe one of them might give hers up? Mine was an old one (they didn't expect to have the largest upper class pledge class, then the largest freshman pledge class, one month apart!) until I got a newer one. It was the infamous, "An Alpha Delta Pi doesn't engaged in heavy petting at the Chapter House door, nor does she indulge in pawing in the backseats of cars" Pledge Book. We called that one, "The Paws Book"! Do I have to tell you that we teased for the longest time that "Gee, pawing in the front seat must be okay, then!"?

You are TOO FUNNY! I toyed with calling it The Old Fogey Thread or Former Pledges, Represent! but thought better of it!

I just love when I'm at the Chapter, and I'm used as example of someone who was severely hazed, as I had a blast as a pledge!

You know I didn't feel at the time that I was being HAZED. I enjoyed "earning" my spot in the sisterhood. I mean I know that some of the things they did at that time would be considered Hazing now but I was never beat or forced to drink or do anything immoral or illegal.

When I was a pledge we were expected to stand when a sister walked in the room, also, sisters and pledges were expected to stand when an alumnae walked in the room.

That was stopped abruptly with the-no hazing-stuff but again I didn't feel that it was hazing. (just respect)

But, we gotta keep up with the times. I didnt think that the TME thing was going to bread respect with the alphas, but since I have met the chapter I work with, all of the girls seem very respectful and appreciative to the ADPi sisterhood. So, I guess it is a good thing and as I get more involved as Recruitment Advisor I am sure I will get to know each class and grow to "respect" the TME system.

(I hope I didn't say to much with the hazing thing if I did tell me and I will edit quickly)

I didn't think I was hazed at the time, either. We did have to do horrible things like:

-Answer ALL of the phones, "Hello, my name is (name) and I'm answering (names)'s telephone. May I take a message?"
-Have a pledge book, which each sister had to sign, some giving assignments (which were usually so we would meet prominant members of the school's student hierarchy: Panhel President, IFC President, etc).
-Have our own meetings, mixers, and Junior Panhel.
-Wear our Pledge pins at ALL times, and ribbons, too, on specific days.

and probably more that I can't think of. We were never forced to drink, or do anything that we deemed "demeaning".

Yet, times DO change, and since enough GLOs/chapters were out of control, TME is the better way to go. Besides, all the sisters have answering machines now! ;)

I knew it was hazing as I went thru it. I went to college after trying out working after HS. I was 21 when I pledged. Maybe that increased my awareness...

We had to answer the hall phones (2 per floor, 2 floors) if we were in that part of the house. I was once. Sitting in a room, the phone rings, all the "sisters" looked at me until I got up to get the phone.

Sisters would do the "pin-drop" - taking a pledge's pin off and dropping it into a full beer, which the pledge had to then drink to recover her pin. I mentioned I was 21, right? I could outdrink ANY sister and when I got the "pin drop", the sister doing so was disappointed at the non-effect it had on me.

My campus had Hell Week and everyone knew when a house was going thru it. My chapter was no different. Won't post any more details here. We were "known" as the house who had their pledges line up in bra/panties and the sisters would circle their 'fat' in black magic marker. When it was our pledge class's time for "Friendship Days", on our list of required items to pack (for the week we'd spend in the House, sleeping on the formal room floor) was "black magic marker"! (The first thing the sisters told us when we arrived at the house for friendship days - "trust a sister - we'd NEVER do that to you!" )

I went through formal recruitment my freshman year because I didn't know anyone at school. It was the best decision of my life.

Since I went through in the fall of 1997, the Alpha Education period was six weeks. So, I was initiated and became a Delta member in October 1997. I personally liked becoming "a full fledged member" that quickly. I think it helped me to adjust to school and become more involved. BTW, not much hazing was involved. I say not much, because there were only a few small trivial things that we had to do that would be considered hazing now, but definitely was not thought of by the alphas.

Aside from taking one semester off of school, I was very active in the chapter my entire academic career (1997-2001). In the fall of 2001, I was an Alumna and enjoyed interacting with the collegians. I moved across the country that December and became involved with the Denver Alumnae Association as soon as I could (April 2002). Even though we don't have a collegiate chapter in the state, we are still very involved with other sisters and do our part where we can with collegians and the Denver Area Panhellenic.

I rushed in fall of 1971, back when college had quarters for three months, not semesters. We had about 25 in our pledge class, and didn't get initiated until Jan. or Feb. of '72, because they had to check for grades. Our pledging was fairly simple, but time consuming. We had to get THREE signatures from each of the 40 or so sisters. If they lived off campus, we had to go there. Lots of times we'd make the trek to wherever they lived, dorm, etc, and they wouldn't be there, so we'd have to go back again...and again....etc. After talking w/ them for awhile they'd OFFER to sign our books-you could never ASK. It was a real pain to do this three times during the quarter for that many sisters. We also had pledge meetings where we learned the history of the sorority. And, we were expected to do all of the things the sisters did; sports, parties, etc. Oh, I almost forgot!! The book that we used to get the sisters signatures had to be carried AT ALL TIMES! We could never be without it-though, if we were caught, I forgot what would happen. I guess I was too scared to try. The book was blue, with an ADPi sticker on the front. Each sister's name was on a page, along w/ things she wanted you to know or remember about her. THAT was a definite pain from September (that's when we started school back then) through December. And, I think we also had to stand up whenver a sister or alum entered the room, but I also felt it was more out of respect, and it didn't bother me. Someone mentioned TME. What's that?

I have to say that I too did things that would be considered Hazing, but I never felt that way. I saw it as a bonding experience with my sisters (plus I was never 'FORCED' to do anything I always had the option of backing out).

1. I had to "know" my entire Alpha class (there was only 10 of us)
2. I had to "know" my pride group
3. Alpha lock-in we did a scavenger hunt (now forbidden due to "hazing", although it was a choice, in fact two girls didn't go on it because they had late classes and were exhausted).

(I should mention that I do get why the above things would be considered hazing, even though I never considered it hazing. If that makes sense at all)

Honestly I don't remember anymore than that ;)

I was initiated in the spring 98. I was an alpha for actually 7 or 8 weeks although we only spent I think 6 weeks learning the stuff. We just did initiation after spring break, so that week "counted".

Our pledging was fairly simple, but The book that we used to get the sisters signatures had to be carried AT ALL TIMES! We could never be without it-though, if we were caught, I forgot what would happen. I guess I was too scared to try. The book was blue, with an ADPi sticker on the front. Each sister's name was on a page, along w/ things she wanted you to know or remember about her. THAT was a definite pain from September (that's when we started school back then) through December. And, I think we also had to stand up whenver a sister or alum entered the room, but I also felt it was more out of respect, and it didn't bother me. Someone mentioned TME. What's that? [/B][/QUOTE]

Sounds exactly like what all of the fraternity guys did when I was in school. I remember them complaining about it. Good thing we didn't have to do it when I was an Alpha!

Total Membership Education

You can read more about it on Pride Online, so I'll summarize it here, publicly. With this TME program, ADPi stressed equality by making pre-initiated members actually members - required to attend Chapter meetings, but not exposed to Ritual things; replaced the Pledge Program with the Alpha Education Progam, eliminating "Pledges", "sisters"or "actives", replacing them with "alpha" and "delta" members. Alumnae are now "Pi" members. (Alpha = the begining; Delta = meaning change; Pi = pi goes on forever) The Alpha period lasts 4-6 weeks; the program is available online (PO). I'm sure ADPi never expressly allowed hazing, but the above-mentioned changes were institiuted with a heavy empasis on No Hazing in ADPi!

There is now a New Delta program which continues to educate members. The Well Balanced Person concept, again you can read all about it on PO.