Disaffiliation

[ComradesTrue]

You aren't imagining things. I was the last pledge class of my chapter to do the full semester, so I was there for the before and after. There was definitely a different mindset of my class and those who were older versus the 3 classes that followed me.

I have data for one chapter of one organization, so obviously nothing that can be extrapolated or be deemed statistically significant. However, there has been a sharp increase in resignations over the past 20 years. It's gone from <1 year to some years with as many as 15-20. Average each year maybe in the 8-10 range. What could account for this? Personally, I think it is multi-factorial.

1. I agree that a shortened new member period is fully in play. You don't give up on something that you waited much longer and worked harder to get.

2. The culture and attitudes have changed. Women of my generation wouldn't think of resigning- it was so rare. Those who did resign just disappeared and we truly never heard from them again. Present day? As number of resignations have increased, the stigma of dropping out has decreased. Members now can resign yet still socially be in the mix. No one thinks twice about it. It's just not perceived as negative by those in the chapter.

3. Larger pledge classes. There are many advantages to our growing member rolls, but maintaining the close knit fiber of a pledge class is lost. Not only do we see less loyalty to an organization, but it next to impossible to feel loyalty to a class of 80 instead of 20. And I don't mean loyalty in the "duty" sense, I mean a close, personal relationship type of loyalty to each individual member. It's easier to fall to the background, and then fully fall out of sight when you are 1/80 instead of 1/20.

4.Purpose in joining. 30 years ago I think women joined for the sisterhood. Yes, there was what today would be called hazing, but most of those activities focused on get to know you tasks. Today, I think the motivations for joining has broadened. There are still those who seek sisterhood. Others join for philanthropy. Some because all their friends from high school are doing it, and a few simply because they view it as a t-shirt club. There are also the kids for which their entire lives/means of meeting people have been structured and it's the only way they know to make friends. The problem with all these new reasons: they can be fleeting: there are other ways to be involved with charities, and if one gets too busy for volunteer work then the sorority has lost its shine. The t-shirt crowd was never there for the right reasons. The structured kids finally make friends and don't need the outlet anymore. And as referenced above, there is no negative social consequence for quitting.

5. Time commitment. These kids have had to overachieve from a young age. I see it in my elementary kids lives. The pressure is there to not just take dance, but be on the dance team that goes to competitions. Not just play baseball, but be an 8 year old who travels. What it took in my day to get into college vs the activities required now is out of control and they have all been doing it for 10+ years. Now the competition is to get in to grad school/law school/med school is off the charts. Something has to give, and for some it becomes sorority membership. I disagree with their decision, but do acknowledge the broad range of activities, leadership, research, etc., happening in these young women's lives, and also that at some point they reach burnout state where enough is enough.

Personally, I think the shorter NM class is the original root of the increase, but as society has changed over the past 20 years the other factors have played a role too. Who knows what membership would look like if it were still a semester? perhaps we would still have these newer factors contributing to a small uptick, but count me firmly among those who believe those who wait an entire semester are going to think much longer about quitting.

I know we have said this over and over- would be interesting to see Chi Omega's stats compared to everyone else. Doubt that will ever happen but wouldn't it be fascinating?

[ASTalumna06]

I was going to mention ComradesTrue's #5. Many of these students may initially feel a need to be involved in everything. And then perhaps they realize they don't need to be. Or maybe the time commitment for the sorority is so large, that they could instead spread their time and effort over different organizations and stack their resume. Let's face it - the job market right out of college for those entry level positions nowadays is extremely competitive.

Also, with the larger pools of PNMs comes less room for legacies. It's more difficult to get your legacy chapter now, then say, compared to 20-30+ years ago. I think this would be another interesting item to research - how many of those dropping are doing so because they didn't get their legacy chapter?

Also consider the "ease" of joining now. Back in the day, PNMs needed recs, they had to dress appropriately, they had to have great conversations. That hasn't really changed. However, getting recs (and finding an alumnae panhellenic) sometimes requires no more than a few clicks of a mouse. YouTube videos are teaching PNMs how to dress and what to say. Heck, we've even seen the posting of questions drastically drop here on GC. And when something is that easy to sign up for, it can be just as easy to drop.

[honeychile]

Originally Posted by ASTalumna06

I was going to mention ComradesTrue's #5. Many of these students may feel a need to be involved in everything. And then perhaps they realize they don't need to be. Or maybe the time commitment for the sorority is so large, that they could instead spread their time and effort over different organizations and stack their resume. Let's face it - the job market right out of college for those entry level positions nowadays is extremely competitive.

Also, with the larger pools of PNMs comes less room for legacies. It's more difficult to get your legacy chapter now, then say, compared to 20-30+ years ago. I think this would be another interesting item to research - how many of those dropping are doing so because they didn't get their legacy chapter?

Also consider the "ease" of joining now. Back in the day, PNMs needed recs, they had to dress appropriately, they had to have great conversations. That hasn't really changed. However, getting recs (and finding an alumnae panhellenic) sometimes requires no more than a few clicks of a mouse. YouTube videos are teaching PNMs how to dress and what to say. Heck, we've even seen the posting of questions drastically drop here on GC. And when something is that easy to sign up for, it can be just as easy to drop.

I think I've said this before, but when I went to school, I honestly thought that anyone who wasn't in a sorority or fraternity had tried to join, but didn't get a bid! It was special, without being elitist, and I'd like to see that aura return.