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No, I was not at Alabama nor do I know M. Twilley, so she could, in fact, be a girl with a bad rep. However, I would challenge anyone, especially you, bama_alumna, to say that that same description could not apply to even one girl in your own chapter.
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The bad rep wasn't the only reason she wasn't given a bid. In fact, it was the third strike against her. (Please note that, as an alumna, I did not vote during 2001 recruitment. What I report here is only what I observed.)
The first and foremost reason that she was cut my my house is that she was a junior. We don't, as a general rule, take juniors. We usually don't take many sophomores, either. Sometimes there will be 2-3 sophs in a pledge class. Is this a fair practice? Probably not, but rush at Alabama is extremely competitive and we can make quota and house total without taking older rushees. I don't think there are
any houses at UA that will take juniors during formal recruitment, unless the girl is outstanding (has a 4.0 or better GPA and/or is Miss Alabama or something). There are probably 3 or 4 houses that will consider juniors during COB. The reason for this is that it's better for the longevity & continuity of our chapter to take girls who will be there for 4 years. I know that there are threads here at GC that encourage juniors/seniors to go through rush. I think that is fine and that they could probably make outstanding members. Many schools' greek systems aren't as competitive as Alabama's, and a junior may have no trouble getting a bid at a different school. I would not encourage a junior to go through rush at UA unless she has nerves of steel and doesn't mind being cut very heavily. I would tell her that she should find out which houses COB and focus her concentration on those houses.
The second strike against M.T. is that she was rude. She basically told my sister which house she wanted to belong to. While my sister was talking to her, she looked at the floor. She was extremely uninterested in our house. That would have gotten any other rushee cut as well. In fact, we did cut other women who were disinterested. We can only invite back so many people and if we invite back a woman who has blatantly indicated that she wants to join another house, that closes the spot for someone else who might be really interested in joining us. Melody also made some other rude comments, which I will not get into here. I'm not sure that I can disclose *specifics* about rush conversation.
I would also like to add here that most of the women in our house had met Melody prior to her going through NPC recruitment. She does not give the impression of being a nice person. This, also, would have caused anyone to be cut.
The bad reputation is the third strike. It also ties in with the other women having already met Melody through classes, etc. But not only did they have a bad impression of her, the entire NPC/IFC system had a bad impression of her. Why? Because she went to the press the summer before going through recruitment and called us all racists. All of those stories that got picked up by the AP wire... just imagine if someone went to the press, gave an interview, and said that everyone in your house was a jerk or a bitch or (insert your own insult here), and made you all look bad on a national level. It's very insulting and it doesn't make you want to like that person. Also, it was widely rumored that a particularly anti-greek professor had put Melody up to rushing to prove a point. I don't know if that is true, but when he was asked about this, he would not deny the rumor.
Many hundreds of women go through rush at UA every fall and some of those women don't get bids. Some don't get bids because of their appearance. Some don't get bids because of their age. Some of them don't get bids because they have a bad reputation. Some don't get bids because they come into the houses and announce that they can't afford the dues and they are only going through rush to meet people. Some don't get bids because they fall through the cracks during bid matching. There are a lot of reasons that people get dropped, and the vast majority of them aren't fair. Many of these women can pursue COB or spring rush and will eventually get into a house. Some of them won't.
And yes, I'm sure that there are girls in our house who have not-so-nice reputations. Every house seems to have a few... the difference here is that they didn't have these bad reps going into rush. If they have done something to gain a bad rep on campus after being initiated, they are pulled up to a standards committee and can have their membership terminated.
I also want to clarify that the situation with the IFC fraternity men wearing shirts from an NPHC fraternity took place at Auburn U, not UA. Big difference there, as any football fan can tell you.
And, again to clarify, I was TOLD that men from the NPHC fraternity had given their shirts to the IFC men. I don't know if that is true, but it is what I was told by people who were there. I am not condoning what they did, I was just reporting what I was told. Furthermore, to the person who said that NPHC members don't give their letters away, you should walk through a thrift store here.... you can get block letters, T-shirts, embroidered polos, etc. with just about any letters you like. I'm not saying that you should buy them or wear them if you aren't a member, but it does happen. I saw a homeless guy wearing a Theta bid day shirt a couple of years ago.
To everyone: I am very interested to hear your throughts on exactly how the University of Alabama can integrate its greek system. If black students aren't interested in going through rush, how do we give them a bid? How do we make black women go through NPC recruitment? How is it wrong that we didn't pledge Melody when we cut her for the same reasons we cut dozens of white women? I agree that it's sad that the University can count its minority members of NPC/IFC groups, but until there are black students attempting to gain entry, I don't see how we can force them to join! If you can explain these things to me and formulate a reasonable solution to the problem, I'd be happy to take your suggestions to the greek life office at UA. I'm sure they'd be glad to hear that forced integration among social groups is that easy. Heck, they'd probably put you on the payroll.