2007 UGA Sorority Rec. Article

[Football Fan]

The placement of this article is interesting. It is a huge article which takes up nearly half of the front page of the AJC and includes photos.

The writer used the term "all white" sororities in the article. From seeing bid day photos of chapters across the country I know that NPC groups are diverse. Is this a true statement concerning the NPC GLOs at UGA?

[UGAalum94]

Originally Posted by Football Fan

The placement of this article is interesting. It is a huge article which takes up nearly half of the front page of the AJC and includes photos.

The writer used the term "all white" sororities in the article. From seeing bid day photos of chapters across the country I know that NPC groups are diverse. Is this a true statement concerning the NPC GLOs at UGA?

Well, although the NPC groups at UGA are diverse in term of ethnicity, they don't tend to have Black members. I suspect had there been one Black PNM the reporter would have interviewed her, so part of the problem is the lack of racial diversity in the PNM pool.

(Only a few of the groups COB/COR in the average year; the groups who are above total and recruit to quota in formal can essentially only recruit from the PNMs in formal in the fall. If African-American young women don't set themselves up for the joy that is SEC recruitment, the system is in a perpetual demographic loop.)

[UGAalum94]

Sorry for the double post, but I re-read the article, and I have to say, it's pretty poorly done throughout. There's not that much factual information that you have to get right, and yet the article misses the council names, the idea of campus panhellenic, the decade of DPhiE's founding at UGA.

It's like they just trotted out the usual junk but couldn't even get the details right. Here's an idea, AJC, why not let someone familiar with the NPC at UGA cover NPC recruitment?

[GeorgiaGirl]

Originally Posted by AlphaGamUGAAlum

Here's an idea, AJC, why not let someone familiar with the NPC at UGA cover NPC recruitment?

Actually the woman who wrote this article is an alumnae of a UGA sorority. Who would have guessed?

[UGAalum94]

Originally Posted by GeorgiaGirl

Actually the woman who wrote this article is an alumnae of a UGA sorority. Who would have guessed?

an NPC sorority? That blows my mind. How could she get the Pan-Hellenic and Inter-fraternity Council stuff wrong then? Or not check her D Phi E dates?

ETA: I'm not saying that a member of another type of sorority would be more careless, but I might not expect them to know the info. the same way I'd expect an NPCer from UGA to know about the process.

[ShadeTree]

If you go the front page of ajc.com there is a link to about a dozen photos with the article.

Since so many posters were curious about 'what to wear' - you can see what the PNMs are wearing in the heat of Georgia!

[SoCalGirl]

The writer could have had it correct only to have her editor "fix" the names.

[AChiOhSnap]

Originally Posted by ShadeTree

Since so many posters were curious about 'what to wear' - you can see what the PNMs are wearing in the heat of Georgia!

I'm seeing flip-flops like whoa.... hmmm.....

Here's the gallery.

[Sistermadly]

Originally Posted by AlphaGamUGAAlum

an NPC sorority? That blows my mind. How could she get the Pan-Hellenic and Inter-fraternity Council stuff wrong then? Or not check her D Phi E dates?

Because in a lot of instances, reporters aren't the ones responsible for checking facts and editing their articles. I don't know if that's the case in this article, but it may be.

[UGATammy]

I was a DPhiE at UGA (2001-2005) and I can't tell you how sad I am to see that my chapter closed. It was the only remaining single letter chapter left that hadn't closed. To clear up everything, DPhiE is historically not Jewish. The founders were indeed Jewish and the membership during that time was Jewish but that is because at the time of our society, Jewish people were being discriminated against. Thus, these women decided to form their own sorority that was non-sectarian. When it was founded at UGA (1935), Jewish women on campus were being discriminated and they treasured what DPhiE nationally had promoted and thus brought DPhiE here. DPhiE at UGA couldn’t help that it attracted Jewish members, but one goes where one feels comfortable and where their friends are. Basically the same reason why we all find our own niche in our respective sorority. There’s something in a sorority that appeals to us because of what they have to offer. In this case, DPhiE offered this chance to Jewish women. Not all chapters of DPhiE were founded by Jewish women. Each of our chapters is different.

I came into DPhiE when it was reorganizing. There are a lot of opinions that state that DPhiE was stronger when it was Jewish (meaning before they “open” its doors to others), but I say that it may have been bigger and stronger during that time period of our society, but things have changed and a different society has emerged. Chapters that used to be smaller back in the day are strong and big today and vice versa. I’m half Pakistani and half Korean and I joined what most people on UGA campus and probably over the nation claim to be historically Jewish. There’s nothing historically Jewish about DPhiE other than it was founded by women who happened to be Jewish because they were being discriminated against. How can one assume that UGA DPhiE was Jewish when they can clearly see that I am not Jewish as well as see that other members in the chapter were clearly not Jewish. I have nothing against the Jewish population. Some of my closest friends are Jewish. I love DPhiE and joined it because of its non-sectarian beliefs. Yes, we can’t be discriminative to our membership these days, but DPhiE really promoted the non-sectarian principles. When I was an active sister, we had 3 sisters (including myself who were half Korean), one Polynesian, one Lebanonese, 3 or 4 Jewish sisters and the rest were Caucasian. Now how can you label us as being totally Jewish?

What is going to happen when a lot of Jewish women start going to other houses? Are those houses going to be called Jewish then and then will they start facing problems like we did?

I think that everyone tends to forget that this sort of thing “labeling” happens to all sororities and affects sororities differently across campus. It is really devastating to see that we tried so hard to keep our chapter running, but it was constant rumors and labeling that pushed us against from moving forward. There have been numerous chapters on UGA that had to go through a reorganization and now they are very strong on campus as well as nationally. I just don’t understand why it couldn’t happen to DPhiE. People tend to underestimate the power of words when it comes to labeling because it can definitely do damage.

[GPhiBLtColonel]

Originally Posted by GeorgiaGirl

Actually the woman who wrote this article is an alumnae of a UGA sorority. Who would have guessed?

Do you know which sorority? Is it an NPHC GLO? I tried to locate AJC staff reporter bios and could not....

[UGAalum94]

Originally Posted by GPhiBLtColonel

Do you know which sorority? Is it an NPHC GLO? I tried to locate AJC staff reporter bios and could not....

I've been wondering the same thing.

The second article hints at insider information about how the groups handle recruitment, but none of it seems particularly well informed.