Sororities and Clique Problems
 

I am a member of a local sorority with about 50 members and recently we have been struggling with cliques within our sorority. There seem to be two major cliques, as well as a few smaller ones. These two cliques are split mostly between older and newer pledge classes. Some people are feeling left out because they are not in any clique and prefer to try to stay out of the cliquiness, and one clique in particular is being blamed for creating the clique problem. This is mostly because a good portion of the officer positions are filled by members of this clique, and other members feel that their voice is not being heard. The clique officers say that they are trying their best to accommodate all opinions, and it appears that they are, but the "clique problem" continues to be a complaint.

Have other sororities encountered similar problems, and if so, what have they done to resolve them?

Oh heavens no, you are the first!! (sarcasm) ;)

You would think at that size you could prevent it, but it's still going to happen.

As far as the officers - did they become officers because they were the best suited for the position, because they got voted in by their clique, or because they were the only people who ran? #3 happens a LOT - no one wants to step up, so the same people do it all the time, and then the "clique" accusations start - even though everyone else had the same chance and just was too lazy to do anything.

Try forming committees (i.e. a social committee instead of just a social chair) if you haven't so it's not just one person doing the work.

Have a retreat and gavel pass so everyone can get their feelings out - and they can't just say "a, b, and c are a clique" - they need to say exactly what a, b & c did. A lot of times it's just the vague feeling of left-out-ness that upsets people, not what is actually happening.

We had a similar problem, and as cheesy as it sounds, retreats really did help. I got to know other sisters who I later became pretty tight with so I was glad our EC decided to organize it :) You're never going to completely cure the problem, however, but it can be eased quite a bit. Good luck!

There are cliques in all groups because naturally people want to engage the most with others that they "clique" with or have the most in common with and as you know, not everyone is going to be the best of friends. Cliques don't have to be negative although they often are because people choose to deliberately alienate others and that's where the problem comes in. As members of exclusive organizations, people also see us as "cliques" but this can be negative or positive depending on how the members act toward others. If a clique doesn't speak to others, gossips about others, and at no time, wants to socialize with others, this is a problem and there are some non-greeks that would say this is true of the greeks on their campuses.

So I suggest, like someone else said, to have a retreat or workshop to discuss the issues. Let everyone know that it's okay to have close friends in the chapter but it's not okay to act the way I mentioned above, which would be unsisterly.