First off, thanks for the subsequent posts, they cleared up quite a bit.
Quote:
Originally Posted by wildcat601
This is a good point. The culture of my school is very different from most of the other schools where we have chapters. Size is less of an issue, but we're very studious and involved, and sororities aren't the priority.
I quote from one of our advisors:
"You girls describe yourselves as smart and diverse. The girls at State U describe themselves as hot and sloppy. I'm not saying you should be sloppy, but you should be more like the girls at State U."
She also requested that we send her pictures of the girls we want to give bids, because "you guys did a great job with the freshmen in this year's pledge class, but not so much with the new sophomores." It's just very different from what we want to get out of our experience.
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So I'm going to guess...you are at an Ivy or an Ivyesque for your area sort of school (which the sorority is very proud to have a chapter at because of its stellar academic reputation). Your advisors are from a Big 10/Pac 10/SEC school. They don't understand that students at the school in general, and Greek students in particular, have a different set of priorities and values than they may have had in their undergraduate experience.
The stress caused by the advisors and HQ constantly telling you that the members you're choosing aren't good enough and you aren't bringing in enough philanthropy $$ (while to the world they trumpet the fact that they have a chapter at Ivyesque U) has caused retention problems, in-for-a-buck-in-for-a-quarter risk management issues, and a lack of women who truly represent and are proud of what the chapter is about running for office (hence the suckup mealy-mouthed president). Even though you think the advisors are ridiculous, shallow and full of shit...someone telling you all the time that you're doing everything wrong is mentally and emotionally draining.
I advise you to go to your alumnae (and not the ones that graduated 5 years ago, the ones that graduated 15 years ago) and ask for their assistance and possible inclusion on your advisory board. It also might be a good idea to get in contact with chapters at schools similar to your own. A lot of chapters who have difficulties of this kind think/are made to think they're the only ones...when nothing could be further from the truth.
I don't think your advisors are evil, just clueless and unable to separate their sorority experience from what someone else's might be. If our groups were that homogenous on a national scale, we wouldn't bother having rush, we'd just pick people by their photos and resumes.
Oh, and that photo thing. I think you should tell your advisors that you couldn't take photos of the girls you want for your pledge class as they were all quite insistent that vampires can't be photographed.