Plegdes wearing letters???

[33girl]

In A Phi O and in my sorority, pledges could wear any kind of letters but not the crest. The stitched letters thing wasn't an issue because waaaaaaaaaaaay back when I pledged on the prairie we couldn't get the stitched letters.

AOX81, a local sorority on my campus had the same rule that they could only wear the words, not the Greek letters. I lived w/ one of their pledges and on one of her colors days, she borrowed my Derby Daze shirt because it was the same color. Ooops, it's got her sorority letters on it...

[This message has been edited by 33girl (edited April 25, 2001).]

[Miami1839]

DZRose93, thats exactly how we did it with my chapter. Pledges couldnt wear letters or event tshirts. But they could wear shirts with BETA spelled out. Pledges couldnt wear hats either.

Kevin
Beta Theta Pi Alum
Epsilon Mu

[This message has been edited by Miami1839 (edited April 25, 2001).]

[naraht]

Originally posted by pirate00:

Yeah, you've got a point there. I can only speak for my chapter. Once initiated, we do something called a paddle-letter exchange where the a little brother gives his big the paddle in exchange for their letters and other gifts. It's a tradition we've had since our chapter was founded in 1953.

Sounds like a very cool tradition! My chapter didn't do paddles, but did do gifts to littles at inititation.



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Naraht
Alpha Phi Omega Alumni Volunteer

[USCourtney]

as for kappa alpha theta, as pledges we are not allowed to wear anything that has our letters... on lavaliers, shirts, sweatshirts, backpacks... nothing. the only thing that national lets us have is the word THETA along with our pledge pins.

[KSig RC]

To go along w/ what James has said, our chapter does not allow pledges to wear letters (under the reasoning that they don't know what they mean in any respect [words or feeling], so it's sort of a moot point). Some others around here do, though - a few allow only the words spelled out, and two allow anything but the badge/crest. Interesting how differences work, especially b/w chapters even in the same district.

To add on to my AGD sister's post above,

As new members, they are encouraged to wear the letters! Again, the only things they are prohibited from wearing are the crest and badge...simply because they haven't yet learned the entire meaning and sacredness of those two symbols.

As a sister-daughter one of the first gifts I received from my sister-mom was my very first AGD sweatshirt. For 8 weeks I wore those letters proudly, and I was even prouder when I was initiated!

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"Talk doesn't cook rice."--Someone smart

Visit Alpha Gamma Delta-Delta Sigma chapter and help some sisters out!

[pikeks109]

Wow thats really interesting, I didn't know that other organizations allowed their new memembers to wear letters (iron-on or stitched) The way it is on my campus, is that pledges aren't allowed to wear the letters because out of respect and because they did not know what they symbolized.

[Harmony]

In my chapter, new members are not generally "supposed to" wear full frontals. Bigs often hand them down during big/little week, but the tradition seems to be that "pledges" are asked not to wear them around until they get initiated. Of course, noone informed my pledge class, but oh well!

[James]

Originally posted by Billy Optimist:
James, were you initiated when you joined the colony, or did you have to wait untill you were chartered.
At my school, most fraternities have pledge shirts with the fraternity letters on the upper left of the chest, over the heart, or there abouts. These letters are like maybe, an inch high. Little ones. And sometimes the pledge letters or chapter letters are on the sleves.

Colony status was synonomous with being a pledge. Getting chartered happened after Ritual initiation . . . and the check clearing . . . not sure which was more important

[UNFSigmaChi]

Pledges aren't allowed to wear letters just anything that has Sigma Chi written out. The only fraternity that does that here at my school is Pi Kappa Phi and they blanket bid so they don't really have much of a brotherhood. You can tell they don't appreciate their letters cause they've been able to wear them since day one. The sororities here are allowed to wear their letters though when they are new members.

[zete_boy]

Hey,
here i think excpet for Alpha gam on my campus (dalhousie university) pledges are not allowed to wear letters in no way shape or form, they can wear pledge pins, that's it, until they are initiated they havn't proven themselves worthy

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Edgar A. Hartling
Zulu and Constitution Contact
Zeta Psi Fraternity of North America - Alpha Mu Chapter
Dalhousie University
Halifax, Nova Scotia

[PinkStar17]

At my school in Miami, our "Phi's" aren't allowed to wear stiched on letters until they are innitiated. We were allowed to wear any kind of iron on letters of any colors and any patterns as long as they were ironed on.. my pledge class got creative with cute fabrics and iron on stuff from a craft store, they were unique and alot of fun to make..
But the honor of being innitiated and "earning" the letters you wear was so much fun. I love my stich ons now
Most chapters on my campus have the same kind of rule. Iron ons can be taken off.. stich ons are stuck for life
thats just how it is here..


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Love, Honor, Truth

[KSigkid]

The Kappa Sigma national standard is that pledges can wear letters, but they can't wear the crest or the letters AEKDB (our secret motto) My chapter doesn't allow pledges to wear letters or Kappa Sigma at all.

[LexiKD]

We allow are New Members to wear letters and use stickers and such, but they cannot use the crest/badge, mostly because they have no idea what they mean. But I think allowing New Members to wear letters shows that they are part of the group and just working towards the good stuff!
Can anyone explian why New Members shouldn't wear letters or the reason behind your policies/chapter tadition?

[zete_boy]

ecukd,

It's not the fact that we don't want our pledges to feel a part of us, it's that the letters mean something to us and stand for something. Pledges don't know what they mean, so it's not fair for them to wear them. Also, not letting them wear letters till they are brothers, gives them more pride the first time they are allowed to wear them, gives them a sense of acomplishment and that they truly earned to be here and wear them.

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Edgar A. Hartling
Zulu and Constitution Contact
Zeta Psi Fraternity of North America - Alpha Mu Chapter
Dalhousie University
Halifax, Nova Scotia