Holy crap, I cannot believe that this is being dragged up again. And, of course, the misinformation is running wild!
AGAIN, let me reiterate, I WAS THERE, ALL OF YOU WERE NOT. I lived in the house for a couple years and was very active (not going to identify what offices because the last thing I need is some overzealous idiot from Nationals tracking me down). Those of you who were in Gainesville at the time and read something in the Alligator (not exactly the bastion of accurate journalism) or heard some salicious rumor flying around campus, need to realize that there is a possibility that you don't know the true story!
We didn't have a "bad reputation." We weren't "risk management problems." We NEVER had a disciplinary/risk mgmt. problem with either UF or our Nationals the entire time I was an active undergraduate. What we did have is about 5 years of not being able to control our own rush process.
My freshman year, we were just under chapter total, with about 100 sisters. That was a stable number for UF, in no danger of closing. "Top-tier" chapters had closer to 150, but we liked our size. Our numbers were stable and we were financially secure. To me, the sisterhood was one of the few I saw during rush that actually exemplified the words in the songs and creeds that everyone recites.
Then, Someone-Who-Shall-Remain-Unnamed decided that our little chapter wasn't good enough, or more like it, not big enough. Our rush chair had lots of great plans, as usually we were planning a rush that showed the individual personality of our chapter, our wacky sense of humor, going for personal connections rather than superficial things.
I left the state for the summer and when I came back, the rush chair had been chased off - S.W.S.R.U. had spent the entire summer harassing her and undoing all her decisions, threatened to pull her pin and finally the poor girl just quit. And she took with her several people. So S.W.S.R.U. hand-picks a sophomore (i.e., has never been through rush on the sorority side before) as the new rush chair. Everything we had planned before the summer was upside down. S.W.S.R.U. was unpleasant as always, and needless to say, morale in the house suffered. Add to that the fabulous rumors that flew around campus, thanks a lot to all the backstabbers in Panhellenic, and it was really fun.
Real conversation I had during rush that year:
"I heard your rush chair and half the chapter quit, and your chapter's getting closed."
"That's not true, only 3 people left, and we're definitely not getting closed. Where did you hear that?!"
"My Rho Chi told us this morning."
Then, we fell below that magic 100-sisters mark and suddenly had a "numbers problem." I don't know how your chapters handle rush, but from what I've heard, most sororities have some kind of vote or at least input from the sisters on the rushees. For the last 4 years that our chapter was at UF, we had no voice at all.
A small sampling of things that actually happened:
S.W.S.R.U. and her cronies forced the rush chairs to fill out invite lists asking back virtually everyone. Their theory was that we should invite lots of rushees to have more to pick from. This is the WORST thing you can do at UF - looks really desperate. So then rushees that might have liked us got scared because we were inviting back everyone - fueling the whole "chapter closing" rumors.
Rushees that sisters desperately tried to keep out of the chapter were invited back. One freshman who had physically attacked one of our sisters when they were in high school - S.W.S.R.U. said "we shouldn't judge people from their high school reputations - she may have changed." Over the summer?
One sophomore had an extremely sleazy reputation around some of the fraternities. Also a little psycho. Even some of the exec council members were trying to block her. S.W.S.R.U. said we were judging on looks and we should judge the inner woman. O.K., the girl was a little pudgy but not bad. If she was as big as a whale but a good, fun person then I would like her. This girl was scary scary scary. So she gets a bid and she spent the next year playing Debbie Does Fraternity Row and causing so much nasty drama in the house.
The best part was the people we dropped during rush: one year S.W.S.R.U. and her appointed Village Idiot decided that maybe we were right, it does look bad to invite back everyone. They decide this at the last minute and just cross off a couple dozen names at the end of the list to turn into Panhellenic. No analysis, just the end of the list. One of them was my good friend, who rushed only to join our house. She was of course crushed, she knew many of the sisters and expected to join and we wanted her. She assumed that some sister must not have liked her and even though we finally convinced her of the truth, she was so turned off by the experience that she didn't even want the snap bid we offered.
Then, when we finally decide ENOUGH IS ENOUGH and vote to close our chapter my senior year, one of our #1 concerns was the freshmen and sophomores who had just joined. We didn't think it was fair to have them locked in and lose the whole sorority experience. We didn't even want to initiate them so they could rush again but weren't allowed to tell them anything. Nationals reassures us that they will be taken care of and will be able to rejoin once the initial colony is formed.
When they were trying to recolonize in Fall 2000, they asked us to help out - come to rush events, etc. Then suddenly they changed their minds about everything. Anyone who showed up was asked to leave. We were told to stay away from the chapter house and not wear letters. Most upsetting, regarding the younger sisters, they said that they woud "reevaluate their status later" but weren't going to let them participate at all for "an indefinite period."
As we all know know, their recolonization efforts failed miserably. They blamed the competitive atmosphere at UF but it's their own fault. DZ colonized recently and they've been a huge success.
Sorry for the long post, but I was shocked to see this up again and just needed to vent. I will always treasure the sisters in my individual chapter, but I have no loyalty at all to the larger organization. I am too classy a person to ever do anything like reveal my rituals (when I make a vow, I keep it), but Alpha Xi Delta darn well better not expect any donations from me EVER. If I have a daughter who rushes at a school with an Alpha Xi chapter, I'm not going to pay for it unless I am reassured that the management of the sorority is better people than during my time.
Ah, catharsis!