"Dry" Pledging

[tunatartare]

Do any of your campuses or chapters have dry pledging (where pledges aren't allowed to drink at all for a certain period of time)? How common is this on campuses? At my school it's standard practice that everyone is supposed to do, but only the sororities follow it. Tri- Sigmas pledges are dry for all of pledging, ours and AST's are dry for about 4 weeks, and Kappa's are dry only during I-week.

[AOII*Azra-elle]

Our campus has dry pledging. Under 21 can't drink from the start of school through bid night and then those over 21 can until the night before formal recruitment through bid night.

[SigPhiSunshine]

im not sure about there being a campus wide rule, but our pledges are dry during i-week.

[AXORissa]

All Greek activities on my campus, unless held at a third party vendor, with someone checking IDs, are *supposed* to dry, so obviously our pledging is supposed to be dry. I dont know what the girls do now, but when I was an active (only 2 years ago!) we also said the new members werent allowed to drink in the presence of a sister- this included if we saw them at a mixer, fraternity party, non-sorority event, etc. Since the new members were under 21, we could rationale this as forbidding them to do something thats illegal anyways, although I suppose some new members considered it hazing... the girls complained, but we didn't want our new members embarassing themselves by before they were initiated.

[Rio_Kohitsuji]

All GLO's here are -supposed- to be dry, but of course, that never happens. However, I do know of some groups that are really strict with the no-drinking-no-matter-what-your-age-because-you're-a-pledge policy, but their pledge program is normally the shortest, so the non-drinking isn't really a big deal.

[33girl]

Dry pledging is hazing. It forbids the pledges from doing something the sisters are allowed to do. We outlawed this as hazing back in the 1970's.

Of course if the pledges (or sisters) are underage they should not be drinking anyway. But if we're talking chapters in Canada where the age is lower or pledges who are 21 (they do exist) to tell them they can't drink at a bar or in their house is gross infringement on their rights.

Not to mention, if you say "no drinking while pledging" and all your pledges are underage, it's kinda like you're saying you condone underage drinking which can be a risk management problem. Sort of like Congress saying there is no Mafia and then holding special sessions to discuss the Mafia problem.

Dry RUSH (what AOII Azra-elle is actually talking about) is a whole other matter as the whole sorority ceases drinking.

[TheEpitome1920]

Why is alcohol needed for a pledge process?

[33girl]

It is not needed....it has NOTHING to do with the pledge process and is not permitted during pledge activities, but you should not be doing pledge activities 24/7. If you want to go have a beer when you get home from whatever the pledge activity is and are of age you should not be forbidden to do so.

Does that clarify?

[TheEpitome1920]

Originally posted by 33girl
It is not needed....it has NOTHING to do with the pledge process and is not permitted during pledge activities, but you should not be doing pledge activities 24/7. If you want to go have a beer when you get home from whatever the pledge activity is and are of age you should not be forbidden to do so.

Does that clarify?

Ahhhhh! So in actuality the drinking part is completely seperate from the process. But Sisters and pledges are allowed to go drinking, if they are of age, outside of pledging activities?

[33girl]

Yes. I wouldn't see why not.

[TheEpitome1920]

Originally posted by 33girl
Yes. I wouldn't see why not.

Thanks for the clarification!

[tunatartare]

Originally posted by TheEpitome1920
Why is alcohol needed for a pledge process?

It has nothing to do with the pledge process at all. The dry pledging rule applies to outside of pledge functions. At some schools, this is mandated to make sure that pledges are never put in a situation where they're forced to drink.

[CarolinaCutie]

So... hazing to prevent hazing? I don't see how this can be a school-mandated rule. You shouldn't be telling new members NOT to drink, just like you shouldn't be forcing them TO drink. It goes both ways. Perhaps technically, because it is a school rule, the GLO would not be considered hazing, but either way I agree with 33girl. Telling new members that they cannot drink (while still allowing initiated sisters to do so) is an infringement of their rights.

[mommag2]

My sorority does not allow drinking during the pledge process, which is 10wks, we are also as a whole national sorority not allowed to drink while wearing letters or any and all sorority nalia.

To me I think it is a good idea to have a "dry" pledge process. It's easier, since you don't have that added pressure to drink, plus
the sorority won't have to deal with a situation in which a PNM drinks, gets wasted and then does something that would reflect badly upon the sorority.

Yes, 33girl some would say that it is hazing , but I would rather be hazed in this manner then in the ''regular " sense of the word. I was one of those 21 and over pledges so legally I had every right to drink, but it was only 10wks and I survived .

[CarolinaCutie]

Originally posted by mommag2
My sorority does not allow drinking during the pledge process, which is 10wks, we are also as a whole national sorority not allowed to drink while wearing letters or any and all sorority nalia.

To me I think it is a good idea to have a "dry" pledge process. It's easier, since you don't have that added pressure to drink, plus
the sorority won't have to deal with a situation in which a PNM drinks, gets wasted and then does something that would reflect badly upon the sorority.

Yes, 33girl some would say that it is hazing , but I would rather be hazed in this manner then in the ''regular " sense of the word. I was one of those 21 and over pledges so legally I had every right to drink, but it was only 10wks and I survived .

The majority of sororities do not allow drinking in letters or lettered items. Just to clarify, does the entire sorority abstain from drinking during the pledging period, or just the pledges? During Inspiration Week, my chapter does "No Boys, No Booze", but that's not hazing because we all do it gladly.

Instating a dry pledge period to avoid hazing in the form of drinking just puts the focus back on alcohol or the lack of alcohol. I don't differentiate between "good" hazing and "bad" hazing. Of course, it was only 10 weeks and you survived; that's not the point.