[KappaKittyCat]

At my school we have 1300 students, 10% Greek participation (that's IFC/Panhel, those who are registered with the Greek Advisor), 5 IFC fraternities, and 3 NPC sororities, as well as chapters of SAI and Sinfonia. It's not the IFC/Panhel Greeks who exclude SAI and Sinfonia. It's they who alienate themselves from us. SAI's really much worse about it than Sinfonia.

It's common knowledge on our campus about the SAI/Sinfonia single sex Title IX social thingie... common knowledge amongst IFC/Panhel, that is. SAI/Sinfonia deny it. They insist that they're "professional" and therefore are far superior to us social groups.

For choir concerts, where we are to wear black with "tasteful" jewelry, most GLO members wear their badges. I was asked to take mine off. I said that I would only if the SAI members had to as well, and this caused a big row. (I won when a Delta Gamma who's also an SAI said that she thought it ridiculous that she had to take off her anchor but could leave her SAI badge, and that she wouldn't wear one without the other.) The prejudice against members of sororities in particular at the Conservatory of Music is extreme and unreasonable. The only way a member of an NPC group can redeem herself is to also join SAI.

SAI schedules its recruitment meetings during our Formal Recruitment parties. Their "dirty rushing" is far worse than any NPC group on campus. SAI's go around trashing NPC groups, telling freshmen before our deferred FR that they shouldn't join a social sorority, but a Professional Fraternity. They rip our signs down or put theirs up over ours. They schedule events on top of ours. We've invited them to do mixers with us, which they decline because they're not social. This year IFC/Panhel asked SAI and Sinfonia to join in Greek Week (which, btw, is a free event at our school). Delta Gamma invited them to have teams for Anchor Splash (on our campus, everyone from GLO's to athletic teams to dorms have Anchor Splash teams). Each declined, turned up their collective noses, and said, "We're not Greek. We're not social." We've extended the olive branch to them many times and they've declined.

The funny thing is... I went to SAI/Sinfonia formal with a Sinfonian this winter. Whereas our formals are either dry or the alcohol consumption is closely monitored, theirs was sodden with liquor. Everyone was drunk, including many underage people. I was ignored by most SAI's all night. Another Kappa sister with a Sinfonian date had the same problem. I've never felt so uncomfortable in a group in my life. To top that, SAI has 5 times the membership of Kappa and at least double the membership of other NPC chapters on campus [see my other postings for more about my chapter's membership struggles]. However, we get 5 times as much stuff done as they do. We contribute more dollars and hours to philanthropy and have an overall higher GPA.

The sad thing is that many of our newest members have friends who went SAI and they would make fabulous Kappas. Ditto for the other groups on campus. We could do much better for both groups, NPC's and SAI, if we'd join forces and not wage war on each other all the time. I guess the most we can do is keep trying. A lot of the SAI's who are the "worst" in this regard have graduated or will be this year, so perhaps we'll be able to change attitudes.