school threatening to get rid of serenades.

[sigkap52]

hey yall im a sigma kappa at the university of illinois and the panhellenic board has decided to get rid of the way in which we conduct serenades at our school. since we have the largest greek system in the country, each sorority is given 10 minutes at whichever frat house they choose to go to, (approx 10-15) and do a dance and skit. usually bar clothes are worn and people traditionally drink. it's a chance to have fun and how off how hot the greek community is to each other. after two weeks of this the frats serenade us in the same style and then we all vote for the next social calender.

well they are wanting to get rid of it and so my question to all you greeks out there is how do you all do serenades or pick out the new social calender.

they are looking for alternative ways to plan the social calender for all greeks. any feedback would be great appreciated!!!! thanks yall.

[33girl]

Is this for all social functions like mixers or just big things like Homecoming? Sorry, I am serenade illiterate!

[sigkap52]

serenades includes barcrawls, exchanges, happy hours, and football block. they do not include homecoming or anything like that tho.

[KellyB369]

I am serenade illiterate too. Are you saying that you "try-out" to mix, hang-out with fraternities?

[WCUgirl]

Ummm....when I was in college the fraternity's social chair would contact our social chair and ask if we wanted to have a mixer. Sometimes our social chair would contact their social chair, but it's usually the guys doing the asking.

Are you saying that XYZ sorority could show up at ABC fraternity's house, "serenade" them, then if ABC didn't like the skit they don't ask them to get together for any functions during the year? That's just shady.....

Also, if people are drinking at these things, perhaps that's why Panhel. wants to stop this.

[lyrica9]

@NT for mixers and homecoming the fraternity men come to our meetings and formally invite us to do those events with them. our greek week stuff is on a rotation set up by the greek councils.

I too am serenade illiterate.
and what are barcrawls, exchanges and football blocks?
(i'm such a loser!)

[AchtungBaby80]

Originally posted by AXiD670
Ummm....when I was in college the fraternity's social chair would contact our social chair and ask if we wanted to have a mixer. Sometimes our social chair would contact their social chair, but it's usually the guys doing the asking.

Yep...that's how it worked for us, too. Occasionally a fraternity would come to our house on chapter meeting night and serenade us as a thank-you for something we helped them with, or maybe to invite us in person to a party they were having, but we never serenaded a fraternity.

[James]

Don't let your panhell stop it. Its probably motivated by advisors in the administration . . if not . . some whacked out girl on an anal power trip.

I have been an Exec on Greek Council before and see the influence that the advisors have over GC, IFC, and NPC.

Anyway, you might want to start a lobby and contact people in the other sororities. Your delegates really aren't supposed to create policy without a lot of input from their chapters, although in practce they often do.

But you have to start quickly.

When I was chapter president I would have threatened to recall our delegate if he voted for anything like that, and I would have called the presidents from the other Chapters on campus.

Originally posted by sigkap52
hey yall im a sigma kappa at the university of illinois and the panhellenic board has decided to get rid of the way in which we conduct serenades at our school. since we have the largest greek system in the country, each sorority is given 10 minutes at whichever frat house they choose to go to, (approx 10-15) and do a dance and skit. usually bar clothes are worn and people traditionally drink. it's a chance to have fun and how off how hot the greek community is to each other. after two weeks of this the frats serenade us in the same style and then we all vote for the next social calender.

well they are wanting to get rid of it and so my question to all you greeks out there is how do you all do serenades or pick out the new social calender.

they are looking for alternative ways to plan the social calender for all greeks. any feedback would be great appreciated!!!! thanks yall.

[adpiucf]

Our social calendar planning consisted of the social directors of each GLO calling each other up and planning a social. Then the social had to be approved by Exec Board. And then it went on our calendar.

However, throughout the year, fraternities and sororities would serenade each other 1) when promoting an event. 2) when giving out invites for a date funcion, 3) for a lavaliereing/engagement, 4) for fun

For homecoming pairings, fraternities select the sororities they would like to invite, and then they write a short serenade and skit, which usually includes giving roses to the sorority members. The serenades are scheduled for the same night, the sororities vote on who they would like for their partners, and then homecoming partners are announced. For Greek Week, partners are drawn at random and assigned.

[dakareng]

Reading between the lines in the first post, I would lay odds that the reason the panhellenic board is trying to eliminate this "tradition" is the drinking. If you are going to fraternity houses, the fact that people are drinking goes against the AFH resolutions. It isn't the fact that you're going over and doing a skit/ song and having fun... it's that underage drinking is part of the actvity (and whether or not you agree with the drinking age being 21, it IS the law and this is not the place to debate that fact). Panhellenic cannot ignore or condone activities that violate state law or they are also liable for any unforeseen tragic events.

Negotiate with Panhellenic to continue the serenades sans the drinking and you might get further than a protest or kicking your Panhellenic delegate out of office. Yes, this probably came from Administration but there had to be a reason for it to become an issue now. Were there any incidents last fall that got out of hand?

[ISUKappa]

It's up to each individual chapter to coordinate their social events (mixers, dinner exchanges, etc...). They are usually just set up by a phone call between social chairs. They have to be scheduled at least a month in advance for many chapters (sororities especially) who have to turn paperwork into their Headquarters.

Elaborate skit serenades are used for the main 3 things: Homecoming, Greek Week and Varieties. These are pretty in-depth with costumes, props, and the whole chapter (or a good number) participating. Return skits are usually done by the chapter being serenaded after they have formally accepted.

Simple serenades are done for invite-only social events (formal and house party) and sometimes other special events (if a chapter is having an anniversary or something). Fraternities will often serenade sororities on Bid Day, sometimes on Founder's Day, sometimes when a woman is lavaliered and sometimes for their initiation or Inspiration weeks.

[DeltaBetaBaby]

Ah, serenades...the age old question...

It still disgusts me that chapters can't police themselves, and it disgusts me even more that PHC gives them a slap on the wrist when they break rules. Amazing how it is the SAME chapters over and over again.

[TSteven]

Originally posted by AchtungBaby80
Yep...that's how it worked for us, too. Occasionally a fraternity would come to our house on chapter meeting night and serenade us as a thank-you for something we helped them with, or maybe to invite us in person to a party they were having, but we never serenaded a fraternity.

Glad to hear that some things haven't changed at UK and that serenading is still the same.

And by serenade I mean showing up at the sorority house and just singing. No Hoochie Coochie Chippendale dancing is involved.

[sigkap52]

panhell are at a select few fraternaties while the sororities come around to serenadea nd make sure that there is nothing shady going on such as extreme sexual behavior or something against panhell rules. when there is no panhell, then pretty much anyhing goes and that doesnt mean that ridiculous sexual things happen but we do allow ourselves to dance with each other a bit more sexually than if panhell were there. but every house does this and because it can be nervewrecking, people do predrink to calm their nerves. panhell of course has banned drinking for serenades but you cant stop people from predrinking.

so on desighnated sundays, for two sundays, the sororities go and serenade the frats and then the tuesdays for two tuesdays, the frats serenade the sororities.

after this we all vote on who we want events with and then the social chairs go and do the call.

exchanges are just where a frat and a sorority go to a bar and rent it out and have a good time. usually they have themes.

barcrawls are ones where we begin at 9 or 10 and for 1 hour we stay at an assigned bar. there are a string of bars in the heart of campus. so we travel to the different bars as a huge group.

football block is the pairing of a frat and a sorority and they drink and have bbqs before the football game and sit in a block section.

[chideltjen]

this is news to me.

Seranades at our school was alway something super classy. And it took place during fraternity recruitment week. It was a way for the sororities to show off their new members (since formal rush is the weekend before the fraternities) and it was a way show the new fraternities members who the sororities were. Each group got to sing like 2 songs, dressed in all black... some carried candles, others got flowers, etc.

Sigma Chi used to have seranades for derby days and all the participating houses would sing to their coaches.

But not during pub crawls... although i have never seen a sac state pub crawl either.