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Frankly, if the scandal happened last year and they were still allowed to go through recruitment/you haven't been told "Oh, btw, we're not allowed to participate in ___ because of this thing from last year," and if nobody you know actually mentioned it to you but you found it by going on the internet, it sort of seems like it's a moot point. Obviously not everyone hates them because you and the other girls in your pledge class liked them enough to join. And obviously it's not as widespread or commonplace as you think because you didn't hear anything about it on campus, or anything about it at all, until Googling it.
I'm just going to go on record here saying that when things do get serious and scandalous and such, people do not stop talking about it. Particularly in recruitment. I know everyone would have told you not to pay attention to rumors or tent talk, but girls will still talk and I find it a little hard to believe that you wouldn't have heard anything about this scandal until after pledging if it was really bad enough that your chapter could lose its charter over it. That's just my two cents - and I could be completely wrong, maybe at your school people don't gossip. But even at my school, I hear rumors about things that are going on all the time and I'm far from the most social of people. I heard rumors about struggling chapters and whatnot before I even started recruitment.
Respect should be earned, not freely given - so if you want to be part of an organization that people respect, do something about it. Wear your script/letters/symbols/whatever you have with pride and show members of your campus that your sorority =/= the scandal. The entire dynamic of a chapter can change after adding a pledge class and after seniors graduate, so the things that could have affected your group's reputation could already be changing without you doing much. That said, you yourself will be representative of your group, so if you behave in a good manner, stay positive and upbeat, and present yourself in such a way that people don't even associate you with the scandal, your group's reputation will also begin to change. It could be slowly, since one member rarely can just turn anything around, but reputations are mostly born from peoples' perceptions - and those change extremely quickly. Especially if your sisters are presenting themselves in good ways too.
...and okay, now I'm probably going to sound a little mean, but here goes: Shyness is not an excuse for not getting to know your sisters or for not trusting your sisters. They're your sisters. Conceivably, you signed your bid with them because you wanted them in your life. And they offered you a bid because they wanted you in their lives. And after reading something on the internet, you're worrying about whether or not you should give them a chance and "Wah wah, what if people don't respect me for joining this group?" Because I'm sorry, that's what it sounds like.
If you joined because you honestly wanted to be a part of their sisterhood and not because you wanted letters to wear across your chest, don't let things that happened in the past keep you from getting to know your sisters. Spend time with them. Even if it's just going to study hours along with other girls, helping to set up or clean up after an event, or just hanging out, it's completely unfair of you to start deciding that you're not sure about your sisters just because of something you found out after pledging. You liked them enough to pledge before Googling them, didn't you? So stop whining and act like it.
That said, if they, for example, murdered someone, that's a different story entirely. But something that big probably would have resulted in them having their charter revoked already, before they were allowed to take on your new member class. Especially if it happened last year.
I guess what I'm trying to say here is, chin up and stop hiding behind "rumors on the internet" as an excuse to stay in your shell, chrissy92. If you're actually shy, I get that it's much easier to stay in and talk to people behind the "anonymity" of a computer screen, but nothing can compare to what you'll experience with your sisters if you actually give them a chance.
Come out of your shell, experience things for yourself instead of letting what other people have said about your group influence you, and live your life. Preferably without finding something to dramatize all the time. It's worth it.
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