Alabama recruitment fall-out

[SoCalGirl]

I read the buzzfeed article a few days ago. I thought it seemed fair. I felt like it didn't blame the sororities specifically because it acknowledged that they're not in a bubble. Race issues are still alive throughout the school, state, region, etc.

I appreciated that so many of the groups and members followed HQ rules and deferred to HQ PR teams, including those that could come out looking better than worse.

I don't get why people can't believe that sororities don't track race. I've never indicated my race on any form for my sorority. Honestly, if they did, the less diverse chapters probably would have had some heat a long time ago.

Alabama is making progress. Iceberg slow but still.

The chapter members need to be open and there needs to be a pool of PNMs that can help improve the diversity. If formal rush continues to have few to no non-whites and chapters max out quota/total during formal, they'll continue to be white. More chapters need to actively seek out diversity during COB and Panhel needs to actively attract diversity to the formal rush PNM pool.

[ASTalumna06]

Originally Posted by SoCalGirl

The chapter members need to be open and there needs to be a pool of PNMs that can help improve the diversity. If formal rush continues to have few to no non-whites and chapters max out quota/total during formal, they'll continue to be white. More chapters need to actively seek out diversity during COB and Panhel needs to actively attract diversity to the formal rush PNM pool.

Why?

The campus Panhellenic (at any school) should aim to attract intelligent and involved students. If they're white, black, purple, or yellow, it shouldn't matter.

If the problem was getting AA students interested in NPC sororities, then there would be a whole lot of schools splashed on the front page of the newspaper. That's not the issue here. The issue is that there are AA students who are intelligent and involved, and they were turned down simply because of the color of their skin.

This doesn't mean that Panhellenic has to change how they attract people to participate in recruitment; it means they need to not blatantly discriminate against the people who were interested in the first place.

[LAblondeGPhi]

Originally Posted by SoCalGirl

The chapter members need to be open and there needs to be a pool of PNMs that can help improve the diversity. If formal rush continues to have few to no non-whites and chapters max out quota/total during formal, they'll continue to be white. More chapters need to actively seek out diversity during COB and Panhel needs to actively attract diversity to the formal rush PNM pool.

Originally Posted by ASTalumna06

Why?

The campus Panhellenic (at any school) should aim to attract intelligent and involved students. If they're white, black, purple, or yellow, it shouldn't matter.

If the problem was getting AA students interested in NPC sororities, then there would be a whole lot of schools splashed on the front page of the newspaper. That's not the issue here. The issue is that there are AA students who are intelligent and involved, and they were turned down simply because of the color of their skin.

This doesn't mean that Panhellenic has to change how they attract people to participate in recruitment; it means they need to not blatantly discriminate against the people who were interested in the first place.

I don't think it's so cut and dry as "attract the best people and don't discriminate against them". If you're committed to building diversity in your organization (company, board, whatever), then you often have to go out of your way to seek out those individuals, because they're not in your traditional pipeline. Even with the women in this pipeline, the system seems to be lacking any kind of critical mass to support and advocate for those women. You also may have to provide some additional support mechanisms for them because your attrition rates are going to be sky-high if they're not as prepared for the culture, environment or other kinds of commitments.

The way I see it, one of the first steps to stop discriminatory practices is to actually be proactive to attract diversity - otherwise you're probably not going to sufficiently turn around a toxic culture. You're probably also not going to understand the diverse needs of your membership, and then you'll be faced with discrimination by apathy.

I've seen these "diversity best practices" at business school with companies going out of their way to attract and retain women to demanding careers. I saw it in Los Angeles when we were looking to fill City board seats and all the obvious candidates were white males - we had to go find candidates in non-traditional places in order to get that diversity of voices.

Seriously - if you're committed to diversity, it's not nearly enough to just open the doors and say "we don't discriminate".

ETA: OK, I think what I'm trying to say is that if you don't go out of your way to make minority PNMs welcome to the process - and that includes support practices like help with letters of recommendation and special workshops - then those minority PNMs will always be marginalized. Many of the best minority candidates won't even consider NPC recruitment, and current sorority women will think the whole thing is just lip-service anyway.

[DeltaBetaBaby]

Originally Posted by LAblondeGPhi

I don't think it's so cut and dry as "attract the best people and don't discriminate against them". If you're committed to building diversity in your organization (company, board, whatever), then you often have to go out of your way to seek out those individuals, because they're not in your traditional pipeline. Even with the women in this pipeline, the system seems to be lacking any kind of critical mass to support and advocate for those women. You also may have to provide some additional support mechanisms for them because your attrition rates are going to be sky-high if they're not as prepared for the culture, environment or other kinds of commitments.

The way I see it, one of the first steps to stop discriminatory practices is to actually be proactive to attract diversity - otherwise you're probably not going to sufficiently turn around a toxic culture. You're probably also not going to understand the diverse needs of your membership, and then you'll be faced with discrimination by apathy.

I've seen these "diversity best practices" at business school with companies going out of their way to attract and retain women to demanding careers. I saw it in Los Angeles when we were looking to fill City board seats and all the obvious candidates were white males - we had to go find candidates in non-traditional places in order to get that diversity of voices.

Seriously - if you're committed to diversity, it's not nearly enough to just open the doors and say "we don't discriminate".

ETA: OK, I think what I'm trying to say is that if you don't go out of your way to make minority PNMs welcome to the process - and that includes support practices like help with letters of recommendation and special workshops - then those minority PNMs will always be marginalized. Many of the best minority candidates won't even consider NPC recruitment, and current sorority women will think the whole thing is just lip-service anyway.

Yes. All of this.

[33girl]

But all of that also applies to first generation college students and students whose parents are unfamiliar with a super competitive rush like Alabama's. You can't tell me that the black woman whose grandfather was a trustee was clueless regarding recommendations and/or unable to secure them for every group.

[DeltaBetaBaby]

Originally Posted by 33girl

But all of that also applies to first generation college students and students whose parents are unfamiliar with a super competitive rush like Alabama's.

No. Not in the same way. The first generation college student from a predominantly white community will have teachers, community leaders, etc. who were in NPC groups. A woman from a predominantly AA community will not.

[LAblondeGPhi]

Originally Posted by DeltaBetaBaby

Yes. All of this.

Thank ye!

Originally Posted by 33girl

But all of that also applies to first generation college students and students whose parents are unfamiliar with a super competitive rush like Alabama's. You can't tell me that the black woman whose grandfather was a trustee was clueless regarding recommendations and/or unable to secure them for every group.

I agree that first generation college students - regardless of race or socio-economic background - face many of the same challenges. I am perfectly fine with classically under-represented groups of all kinds having access to the resources I described.

Many (most?) colleges have specific programming to support first-generation college students as well as minority groups, as well as many other affinity groups that they especially want to attract and retain (honors students, legacies, athletes, etc.)

And I didn't mean to imply that the young woman who's grandfather was a trustee would necessarily be in need of these resources - not all minority or first generation women would, either. But in aggregate, you'd have to expect that the PNMs from upper-middle class backgrounds in nearby communities would need less guidance than minority PNMs from out of state.