Olden days
When I was in college - way back when - many of the fraternities had 'little sisters'. It was a kind of "ladies auxiliary" to the guys. They had their own meetings and officers and one of the brothers was the "Golden Heart Chairman" who coordinated between them and active chapter. The Sweetheart was selected from this group each year. Not all of the girls dated Sig Eps, but many did, and they were often around during the week, not just for parties. The national organization even recognized such groups for a short time, and had a "National Sweetheart".
However, reality and legality eventually came together to do away with the practice. The reality is there was contention when the guys had something planned and the girls had something else in mind. Add to that the 'influence' that the girls who were dating Sig Eps had over them and you can see things could get ugly and quickly. The legality issue come from the equality of treatment - or classes of membership based solely on sex. There was concern that a fraternity's status as a single sex association could be in jeopardy, so Sig Ep, and I believe most other fraternities, simply cut out the practice.
The selection of a Sweetheart has continued at many chapters. Usually it honors a lady everyone knows who is dating a brother, or perhaps is a 'belly button' sister to one, or has been somehow helpful to the chapter as a whole. It is a neat tradition and in many ways is all about the best ideals of a fraternity.
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