DePauw Rush Results
 

Rush results from the #1 Greek Scene in the nation, depending on whose ratings you're going by:

Men (Quota = 30, some houses had lower quotas due to violations)
Alpha Tau Omega 16
Beta Theta Pi 21
Delta Chi 5
Delta Tau Delta 25
Delta Upsilon 4
Phi Delta Theta 25
Phi Gamma Delta 27
Phi Kappa Psi 23
Sigma Alpha Epsilon 22
Sigma Chi 23
Sigma Nu 1

This was the first year that guys rush had a quota at DePauw.

Women (Quota = 36)
Alpha Chi Omega 34
Alpha Phi 33
Delta Gamma 34
Delta Zeta 3
Kappa Alpha Theta 35
Kappa Kappa Gamma 33
Pi Beta Phi 34

Some of you may notice that the Delta Zeta number for the women sticks out like a sore thumb. On bid night, Delta Zeta gave out 11 bids but only 6 women chose to accept them. Since then, 3 more ladies have quit Delta Zeta.

The following articles from DePauw's campus newspaper, The DePauw, talk about what's going on with Delta Zeta.


(The articles are in chronological order starting at the earliest)

DZ 'reorganizes', loses 29 women

Silence is deafening (Editorial)

DZ controversy sparks debates

Letter to the Editor: Delta Zeta betrays ideals of sisterhood

So, no sororities made quota? Are you sure it was 36?

That whole DZ situation seems like an unholy mess. I feel so bad for everyone involved.

Some sororities did make quota, the numbers listed just reflect that a few dropped out from one house or the other becaue it wasn't their first choice or something along those lines.

Now, keep in mind what I'm going to say isn't an indictment in any way of DZ - I've heard of practically every NPC group doing similar "membership reviews" and things like what happened at DePauw.

First off, choosing the women who want to "commit to recruitment" often means the women who want to commit to the type of member, and the number of members, the national organization wants. Not necessarily what the chapter wants or even what fits with the school. When someone comes in and basically says they want you to change from (random musical
example) Beyonce to Korn, for lack of a better analogy, you might just decide to run out the door because they have no clue what you are about.

But here's what kind of kills me about the whole deal. It seems like there were a lot of rumors going around the Greek community about the chapter because they were small and that they weren't supported as much as they could have been, but then the campus gets all up in arms that they weren't treated well by their national. Maybe if that support would have been there previously, the chapter wouldn't have gotten to the point that it had. I guess it's a case of I can say someone in my family is an asshat, but if anyone else says they're an asshat, I'll beat them up.

It does seem like a big mess. I hope something good will come out of it.

DePauw is ridiculously Greek, but even at that, it only has 2,350 students. Even if many of them are Greek (typically 80%+ of freshmen women rush, and 65%+ pledge), it is tough to support as many sororities as they have. There is another sorority there besides DZ that is significantly smaller than the others (although apparently had a good rush.) I think it hard to compete at a small school with very large chapters, 4 of them founded before 1900, 2 of them Alphas. I hope DZ works it out - that is an old chapter for them with a beautiful house.

It looks like the "starting fresh" approach DZ nationals took did not help the chapter during recruitment. Why did they decide to kick those women out just before formal recruitment? I assume DZ will be doing a massive interview/membership drive now?

"Image" keeps getting brought up. Were the decisions made on personal, physical image, or the collective image, as in reputation, of the chapter? I do think it's horrible for a GLO to kick members out of a chapter because they decide they aren't pretty enough. That's just mean, and is cruel on a very basic, human level. DZ is a strong organization, but can you really blame women for choosing not to join during rush if this is the new image DZ is presenting?

ETA: for the record, I would feel the same way if it was my org. that did this

Apparently, they were under the impression that even if they closed the chapter, they would automatically regain a spot if Panhellenic opened up again. The school told them this was not the case. I sincerely hope that "Wow, OK. What do we do now?" was not a direct quote from an international sorority's executive director. :eek: They then had to scramble for winter/spring rush.

I believe the Green Book says you have a year to be dormant/reorganize etc, but I'm guessing the time line they laid out to the school was longer than that.

You know what happens when the bottom chapter folds? Someone else becomes the bottom chapter. However, it seems a little strange that on a campus with only 7, there would be two weaklings.

It happened at my undergrad. We had two chapters in the 30-40s, two chapters in the 60s and three at total at 85.

DZ situation
 

It says a great deal about the DePauw Greek system that they are sympathetic and trying to help the displaced DZ girls find options. Not all systems pull together like that. The two editorials indicate that there is a great deal of understanding on that campus--from both fraternity and sorority members. This should be our norm, not the "I got mine" atmosphere that sometimes prevails.

It happened at my campus, too (with 6 sororities). And after the two low chapters folded, the chapter with 50-60, that spent a lot of time bad mouthing the other two for being low, is now the lowest one and struggling to survive.

Only the pretty, perfect girls got to stay.
 

Physical image was one of the main reasons most of the women of Delta Chapter were forced into alumnae status by DZ nationals. They weren't pretty enough to fit into their steriotypical image of what a "sorority girl" should be. They kept the pretty girls and the girls who partied and drank a lot. Suddenly, girls that were right for DZ last year were kicked to the curb.
Unfortunately, DZ at DePauw had the rep of being the "fat house" with the girls that did nothing but study and nobody wanted to join a house with a rep like that. So nationals took it upon themselves to kick out all of the girls who weren't perfect in hopes of reviving the chapter. Well, Nats, you got 3 girls. Seems like that was a stellar decision to make - make DZ the laughingstock of campus where no girl in their right mind would join a house that might kick them out for not being perfect some day instead of gracefuly sliding into the history books. So much for sisterhood being forever.

How big are the houses at DePauw? Were there enough girls in DZ before the membership review to fill the house? Oh, and what's being done w/ it now?