[AGDee]

The tradition at EMU back then was that the sororities would break up into groups and go to the women’s dorms to pick them up. There would be 5 or 6 sisters per group and they would be singing their sorority songs at the top of their lungs as they traveled from dorm to dorm. Commuters usually waited at a friend’s dorm room until they got word. Thing was, there were two of us on my floor who had gone through rush! NOW, I was suddenly really, really nervous. I was pacing around my dorm room! There was no way of knowing, when I heard “I Just Wanna Be An Alpha Gamma Delta, I just want to wear fourteen pearls” coming down the hall whether they were coming for me or Renee! It was only 6:30, so it was still possible that I could get “the phone call”. But NO! They stopped at my door and sang until I opened the door. Sherri had my bid in her hand and as she handed it to me said “The sisters of the Zeta Alpha Chapter of Alpha Gamma Delta would like you to join their sisterhood”. She and I hugged and I started to cry (happy tears, of course). They had a big bouquet of red, buff and green balloons for me and they decorated my door while I got my coat and called Rich and Michael really fast and screamed “I’m an Alpha Gam!” (They said “We told you so!”).

I was the first one they picked up and I knew the song already because I had been singing it all week in my head, so I was singing it as loudly as they were as we went to each dorm. I saw the Alpha Xi’s heading up to Renee’s room as I was leaving. She had gotten a bid to Labrador, her favorite.

We picked up LIBBY! I was so excited! Libby was going to be one of my sisters! I think I forgot to mention that she was also dating a TKE. At that time, a lot of Alpha Gams were dating TKEs, but that changed to Lambda Chis the next year. We also picked up Sue, who I had gotten to know a little bit during rush and really liked. It was the perfect night, running through the streets, singing Fourteen Pearls at the top of our lungs and picking up new sisters. We went back to the house where we had cake and punch. We just hung out and socialized all evening. It was our first time at the house because it wasn’t used during rush at all, to keep things fair. They taught us songs, both internet worthy and NOT. I lost my voice the next day from singing so loudly!


The next day, we had Pledge Presentation where all the Panhellenic groups met in the ballroom of the student union and announced their new pledges. This is where the Panhellenic officers and rush counselors also re-affiliated into their groups. I was so happy to see Elisa, the Panhellenic President, join the Alpha Gams. Campus leaders with great grades but who were still down to earth and not at all pretentious surrounded me, and I was very, very happy. We all sang the Greek Alphabet Song and then each chapter sang a couple chapter specific songs for the other groups. It was really nice. They gave us MORE roses too.

In retrospect, I would have been very happy to be a Sigma Kappa (the Russian Tea Terriers) and I should have given them a chance. A lot of the rushees whom I really liked during recruitment chose Sigma Kappa and the chapter grew by a lot. They became very visible and much stronger with that one pledge class. Also, one of my best friends from high school became a Sigma Kappa at the University of Michigan.

Ironically, due to a rift that the newest members weren’t privy to, our chapter was cut in half over the summer. A lot of women quit over something that had happened in the house. I never knew the whole story, but we came back with only 15 members and 9 of them were my pledge class. I instantaneously became the Rush Chair and did ALL that prep, with much help from my sisters. The invitations, the nametags, the favors, the pref pillows, food, wow! It was so much work. AND we did it twice a year, crazy! We more than doubled our chapter size that year though, taking 19 in the fall and another 9 in the winter and still kept the highest GPA on campus!

I wouldn’t have fit in with the Poodles (Tri Sigmas), I still maintain to this day. They just weren’t a good fit for me. Everybody who knew me beforehand thought that I would go Tri Sigma because I was crazy about the color purple. I had purple everything! But now, I bleed red, buff and green. They were a super strong chapter, biggest on campus, always won Greek Week, very popular with the fraternities, but they just weren’t me. I probably would’ve been happy as a Labrador (Alpha Xi Delta) because they were a lot of fun and very nice, I just didn’t get to know them until after rush. I’m sure I just fell through the rotation cracks somehow during that party, but I didn’t even know what rotation was, so I didn’t know what to think at the time.