[ASTalumna06]

I looked briefly, and I am not able to find anything written as of now that says “new members can wear letters”. But why does something have to be written to be understood? Do you need someone to write down that you should take a shower in the morning? No. You just do it, because that’s what should be done.

So… while there is no clear definition concerning this, I will try and explain my take on this.

First of all, our hazing policy mentions 3 categories of hazing. The second 2 discuss harassment and emotional and physical harm. But the first one reads:

• Subtle/evasive – actions which violate the values, purposes, and ideals of Alpha Sigma Tau.

It goes on to read:

The senseless act of hazing not only creates liability risk for the chapter and the entire sorority, but also hinders the development of friendships that are the basis of sisterhood.

How do you help your new members develop friendships with the group if they are not allowed to be visibly associated with it?

As breathesgelatin said, who wears the crest on their t-shirts? Nobody, really. But the crest is a special symbol that represents the ideals of your organization in a way that only initiated members can fully understand. Same with the initiated member badge. These are things that are acquired with the completion of a new member program. But your letters define you as a member of the organization, whether you’re a brother/sister or a new member who just went through their first ceremony. The actual letters on a page mean very little. If you were to see the letter “alpha” or “A”, it would be very insignificant. Even a few of them together… AST. In theory, these letters mean something to me. But to other people, they may be just 3 random letters together. Essentially, your letters simply identify you as part of one organization as opposed to another. They "name" your organization. But look at your crest. Anyone can see that there are symbols and words that most likely have meaning, but obviously only to those to whom they have been explained.

I mean, how do you create a new Greek organization? What is the first thing people do? Or at least the easiest thing they do? They chose letters. There is no process to it, except figuring out which sets of letters have already been taken. And then you put those letters on a t-shirt. It’s not hard. It means very little if you have nothing to back it up.

As 33girl said, like ASA (and many other Greek organizations), AST has an open motto. "Active, Self-Reliant, Trustworthy". And I hope our new members would know and understand this and display these personality traits. (I mean, this is the first thing we teach them!) This motto is the meaning of our letters, and anyone, including non-Greeks, can know that. And if they didn’t display these characteristics, they wouldn’t have become new members in the first place.

The point of being in a brotherhood/sisterhood is to welcome new members, to make new friends, and to form life-long connections. It’s not to make people feel like outsiders by denying them something as basic as wearing the letters that associate them with that organization.