IFC going too far?

BrianMUDU · #1 10-20-2001, 01:54 AM

I'm a little frustrated with stuff going on here, so I thought I'd get some opinions. I'm not sure how other schools do things for recruitment, but our formal rush is in January. But in October we have a weekend called Open House. All freshman registered for rush go through every house on campus with a greek as their guide to each one. He is responsible for being the link between them and the greek system. Open House consists of a slide show, a short speech from a brother, and then we all break out and have short conversations with the freshman who came through. They come in groups for a half hour each time. Here is where I am getting angry....

IFC has a rule now that you cannot have any pictures of women or alcohol in your slide show. In the past some chapters took it too far and someone put porn in their slide show, so now IFC is saying no women at all. We had to get all pictures approved. One, for example, was of our volleyball team. A brother of ours was in the air blocking, it was a cool picture, but far in the distance way off in the corner was a girl just standing there. They didn't let us use the picture! Is this absurd?? Also in the constitution it says any brochures or booklets that we hand out cannot degrade women. In our booklet we had a picture of brothers and their dates at formal, and a picture of brothers and their dates in a hot tub at one of our theme parties. I'll admit that last one is getting a little risque, but that does not degrade women. Because of that action is being taken against us. Is it just me, or is this a little extreme?? Especially the slide show thing.

Brian

James · #2 10-20-2001, 02:05 AM

Its your IFc Brian, if you don't like it then make them change it. Unless there is morre to it?

BrianMUDU · #3 10-20-2001, 02:38 AM

Can't really "make them change it". It is more or less the result of one person in the office of greek affairs. I just think it is turning into something it shouldn't be. The social aspect of fraternities is a big thing and to try and make us hide it like that isn't right. It just seems like it is going too far to not let us have pictures of the opposite sex in a slide show, one of those "give me a break" things.

DeltaBetaBaby · #4 10-20-2001, 10:30 AM

Our recruitment also has the "no alcohol in pictures" rule, and I entirely support it. Of course, they never said anything about a fat bong...

Seriously, though, our boy rule is that there can not be more men than women in a picture. So, two couples at formal is okay. A girl being serenaded by a fraternity is not. This is frustrating when you have a huge group picuture, and someone stops to count, but we deal.

We also can't show fraternity letters. Often, formal pics are stamped "XYZ formal" at the bottom, but we have to cut that off.

Maybe you could suggest those rules as an alternative instead of just protesting that the rule isn't fair.

AlphaChiS2K · #5 10-20-2001, 10:52 AM

Panhellenic has been upholding the No-Boys-or-Alcohol in pictures rule forever... even MENTIONING boys, parties, alcohol, sex, or drugs in a conversation with a rushee is a rush infraction! SO I know where you are coming from, dealing with the pictures thing. My advice is this: get creative. I KNOW how hard it is to find pictures of brothers/sisters having good clean fun. There are usually machines in Targets and Walmarts near the photo section that lets you make prints of other photos, but also have editing tools, so if it's a great picture but one guy is holding a beer, you can erase the beer. You can also crop pictures, so if one girl is in the photo, you can cut her out and make a new print that you can now use. Also, start asking your female friends- girls are usually WAYYY more camera-happy than guys are, and it's likely that they will have some random pictures of your brothers that you can use.

I know that these are somewhat labor-intensive, but it's what needs to be done... these regs have been in place for sororities for years, and it could be that IFC is trying to move in this direction permanantly. Abide by it for this year, and make sure that you get plenty of "clean" pictures for use next year. I'm sure other chapters are having just as much trouble as you are with this, and if they put up enough of a stink, IFC may relax the rules. But if not, now you're covered, look good to your advisors and your school's Greek Life advisors, and it's alllll good.

Hope it works out.

aephi alum · #6 10-20-2001, 11:56 AM

This sounds a bit over the top - banning a photo because there's a girl way off in the background not even interacting with the fraternity members??? Geez.

The fraternities at my school had no such rule. When I was rushing, fraternities could have all the women and alcohol they wanted at their parties, including photos of same on display. (Rushees, of course, were not allowed to drink, and brothers generally drank little if anything; but it did show you which were the "party" houses where a teetotaler wouldn't be comfortable.)

(BTW, this is no longer the case - rush at my school is now dry, but women are still definitely welcome

)

My school's Panhel had a "no men or alcohol at rush parties" rule (which I think is an NPC thing), and AEPhi has a strict no-alcohol policy that extends to pictures of booze - but there were no restrictions on displaying pictures with men in them (i.e. sisters and their dates at formal) or on bringing them up in conversation. How can you explain, for instance, that your sorority has a no-alcohol policy if you can't mention alcohol?? It's like trying to explain the no-talking rule without talking

As for the pix, try scanning them in and using Photoshop to edit out anything that shouldn't be there, then run them off on a color printer. I know my sorority did that for rush - there were a few great pix, but their Rho Chi was in some of them, so they edited her out.

justamom · #7 10-20-2001, 11:57 AM

What about your website? Do you have one? You could use any picture your alum group would find OK. I don't know if guys visit those sites, but I do know girls going through rush do to some extent.

33girl · #8 10-20-2001, 12:22 PM

I don't know how anyone can say a pic of 2 brothers and their dates, dressed nicely and looking happy, is degrading to women! The hot tub maybe - some people freak over hot tubs in any form - but the girl standing to the side watching the volleyball game???

I can just see a rushee coming through and saying "Uh....why are there no women in your pictures?? Are you guys gay or something?"

I would say screw cropping pictures or anything that involves real work - just put big black blobs or the South Park kids' heads over anything "offending" in pictures. That will show how ridiculous this policy is.

p.s. Is the person who enacted this policy male or female?

#9 10-20-2001, 04:35 PM

Michigan has the same type of rules. You are NOT allowed to mention guys or alcohol technically until the new members are actually initiated. But most people start it after they pledge.

I think these rules are in place just to say , hey partying isnt all that greek life is about. And that some people might not be drinkers and might feel like they have to and uncomfortable with it.

While I think its a lil unnecessary speaking from my old systems point of view I can see why we had them.

James · #10 10-20-2001, 09:33 PM

Are you on IFC? How many of your brothers are on it? There are ways of strengthening the IFC, making it more favorable to Greeks, and less the arm of the administration . . . but you will need the support of either IFC members or other Exec officers in other chapters.

The1calledTKE · #11 10-21-2001, 05:25 PM

Yah thats going pretty far but that usually happens with schools that hate greeks or schools that are real big because they don't want any fraternity to have an "edge" over another. There is no rule at my school about any of that. In our scrap book we have pictures of little sisters(a few of some flashing their bras) and pictures of us with alcohol. We do keep out the more graphic photos just as a rule for ourselves. I guess since some of the fraternities there went over board they ruined it for everybody. All I can suggest is build up other fraternities support and get the rule changed. My chapter almost got formal rush eliminated last year because we got support built up for it.

BrianMUDU · #12 10-21-2001, 09:03 PM

33girl,

The person who is behind this policy is female.

As far as other suggestions -- we weren't even supposed to put black boxes or whatever you want to call them over things that were not allowed. Pretty dumb, huh?

None of our brothers are on IFC, which I know if we did have something there it would help. But one of our brothers was on the IFC recruitment team, so that kinda helps a little bit.

James · #13 10-21-2001, 09:29 PM

How can you not have an IFC rep? how are they chosen?>

33girl · #14 10-21-2001, 10:20 PM

I second James, how can you not have an IFC rep?? It would be like if your state didn't have a senator.

One of my good friends went to MU for grad school - and he told me about the **ahem** militant feminist quotient that is in evidence there. If this person hails from that faction - I would kick and scream as much as possible to get her a$$ out of there.

shadokat · #15 10-21-2001, 10:33 PM

This may sound like a stupid question, but do the other fraternities at your school think this is as ridiculous as your fraternity does? I don't know about you all, but any rules like that would have to be passed by the NPC's voting members (one from each chapter).

Also, getting brothers on IFC is one of the only ways to change policy you don't like. Get brothers to get on IFC exec board immediately (or during the next election/slating).