Have you ever had a deaf rushee?

[jenmir]

I have an unusual question.

One of my distant cousins was born deaf. She wears a hearing aid and has basic speech ability, but her speech is "different" than a hearing persons. She will be entering high school and I know this is a far-off event, but would she have any realistic chance of getting a bid at any campus in any group? Her mother was a rush chair of a large NPC btw. What do you think?

j.m.

[midwesterngirl]

Realistically,I can't even begin to know how to answer this,as I am sure every chapter is different. I would however,like to think that my sisters would take the high road and at least give her a chance. I know several deaf or hearing impaired people,as the Kansas School for the Deaf is in my town, and they are fully functioning,for lack of a better term. They sign and read lips and are fabulous and funny and intelligent and well educated and are just exactly like you and me. Their impairment doesn't stop them from being good people. Which,from experience,I know you know. I'm trying to make it sound like I am not lecturing.

Also if she should choose to attend Gallaudet University,I believe that they have a chapter of Delta Zeta as well as several locals. DZ and Gallaudet have a long partnership as their philanthropy is hearing impairment

[WhiteDaisy128]

Sorry to crash, but just last year there was a deaf woman going through recruitment at my school. Two chapters, including mine, had a sister who was fluent in sign language who could be paired with her and the other chapters handled it very well with lip reading and by writing to each other on a notepad (usually a cute XYZ notepad, etc.).

She ended up not pledging, but seemed very happy through out the entire process.

Good luck to everyone (even though it's years off!)

[lauralaylin]

I remember hearing a story from another alum about a school in CA. There was a deaf girl going through rush, and *everyone* wanted her. It was like by being deaf she was more desirable. I guess during pref the sister with her helped her through the ceremony, making sure she understood what was going on. I don't know if she joined Alpha Phi though. I think sometimes something like that can hurt you, other times it can help you. Many times it's neutral. I think it depends on the campus.

[carnation]

Remember Heather Whitestone, the deaf Miss America? She pledged AOII at Jacksonville State university.

[sugar and spice]

I think it may depend on how "different" her speech is. If she is pretty functional (and comfortable) in the hearing/speaking world, it probably won't affect her chances of getting a bid too much. However, if she prefers to sign, that may be a problem.

For the record, one of the girls in my dorm my first year in college was mostly deaf and she ended up going through informal rush. Her speech was definitely different from a hearing person's (there were certain letters she missed, et cetera) but she had no trouble communicating with people. While she ended up not joining a group, I know that my chapter would have been happy to have her, and I'm sure some of the other ones would have too.

[Mekka_NUPE]

ISU Kappa get at me

[Maharet]

I would like to think and hope that any greek organization would look beyond the 'deaf' issue and truly recoginize the person. Being deaf shouldn't be the issue, but being a productive member of an organization should be.

Does she understand (like any PNM) and meet the qualifications academically, financially and in the areas of spirit and dedication?

Please remember that being deaf doesn't make anyone less capable, you just have to find the right way to communicate. Maslow calls ' fitting in socailly and being accepted' a basic human need. Would she fit in with the group on a variety of levels - not just due to her challenges? And if she did, then what an incredible experience it would be for all involved! The deaf or other person with physical challenges don't want special treatment. I don't really like this word, but they just want to be considered 'normal'. The only reason I comment is that I have a good friend who is in a wheel chair for the rest of his life and he just wants to be treated like everyone else. He asks for help when he needs it.

Also, on the flip side, does she want to be a part of YOUR organization...

Good luck! And it is wonderful you are thinking of her this far in advance...

[Xylochick216]

We've never had a deaf woman go theough recruitment, but we did have women with some other handicaps go through. The ones who used walkers or crutches were provided with chairs for themselves and their hostess for the day (usually with an extra chair for other sisters to come in and talk). I'm not sure if any of the women ever joined, however. I know one woman joined the Christian sorority on campus.

Originally posted by carnation
Remember Heather Whitestone, the deaf Miss America? She pledged AOII at Jacksonville State university.

An area i can truly answer this one about. I was at U of Arkansas when Heather Whitestone was Miss America. She had a campus speaking engagement on campus at the student union . one of my freinds who is deaf grew up with heather and both attended deaf camps. Paige was a member of Kappa delta, just pledged that fall semester that heather spoke on campus.

Carnation was correct she was an AOII at jacksonville state before depledging. And if you think about it what is delta Zeta's philantropy Galludet univ....a deaf university.

I would think our sisters and sisters in other GLO's would take the "high road" and be accepting of a girl who would want to belong to a sisterhood.

[honeychile]

Having had a hearing cousin who worked at Galludet, I'm not so sure that I would recommend it to someone who plans to live in the hearing world. I would not be able to do justice (or fairly state) their policy, but many people feel that GU discourages learning to speak and such.

I can't imagine that a sorority would hold being hearing impaired against a PNM. The biggest problem would be making sure that the sisters would be sensitive to making sure the PNM could read their lips as they talked, and to understand that singing could be terrible to her!

In my DAR chapter, we have a hearing impaired woman who will be Regent in two years. As I've said, it's all in both parties being understanding to the needs of the other - which we should be doing, no matter what!

The best of luck to your cousin, jenmir!!

[pinkyphimu]

i think most chapters would be receptive to this. if she prefers to use sign language, then the panhel should provide her with a translator at all parties (if the chapters don't have people who speak fluently). there should be something on her application that says, special needs or accommadations, etc. for her to note that a translator is necessary.

[gogoaphi]

This was some time ago. I advised a chapter that had a deaf PNM participate in recruitment. She was actually a legacy of another group. She was really well-liked by the chapter. Panhellenic made arrangements for her to go through recruitment with the help of a signing interpreter. She attended our preference event and the chapter's event for which she which she was a legacy. We paired her with women in our chapter that were fluent in sign language. (There always seems to be a few.) However, the other chapter really went over the top and taught their entire chapter how to sign the words to the songs they were singing during their ceremony. I was really impressed with that because it was the extra mile. Anyway ... it appears that it is possible in this day and age ... of course!

[AUDeltaGam]

There was a deaf PNM who went through recruitment last year at my alma mater (Auburn).

She pledged us

[ZTAngel]

*crashing*

We had a deaf PNM go through a few years ago. She had it on her application so we were able to prepare in advance how we would handle her during the parties. She was paired with a sister that knew sign language. It turned out that the PNM was able to read lips and I think she had a hearing aid so she was able to hear somewhat. She ended up pledging ZTA.