Quote:
Originally Posted by gee_ess
I guess the lesson is that reputation IS important and it is crucial that actives conduct themselves appropiately, as well as pledge girls, who can carry on and maintain the high standards set forth by their founders. Because once you have tipped the scales the wrong way, it is very difficult to straighten them up - not impossible, just difficult.
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I agree with your post, except for the implication that the cause of the Unpopular Sorority syndrome is that there were girls acting inappropriately with less than high standards. I think it is important to do this anyway, but it isn't necessarily the source or even the most common source of starting the cycle. The time I witnessed a group dive in popularity (from #2 on campus with the highest sorority GPA to nearly dying) wasn't due to any conduct of the members themselves but because of inter-greek politics among the fraternities, not sororities. I've tried to type a more detailed description a couple times in composing this post, but I think that any more than this would be TMI for a public forum. The bottom line was that a majority of men from one fraternity consciously did some things to hurt the soon-to-be-unpopular sorority because they were trying to buddy up to a different sorority that their leadership had connections with.
So... I don't think it is ever safe to assume that a group became unpopular because of admitting certain members that had lesser standards. I would doubt that this is true even a majority of the time.