Letters on Bid Day???

[FSUZeta]

it may be a tradition of your chapter that new members wait to wear letters, but zta does not have a national policy that prohibits new members from wearing them. one of my proudest moments was being given my big sisters zta jersey to wear until the ones my pledge sisters and i ordered came in. back in my day, if you could not wear letters, you had nothing to wear until after initiation-this was way before the t shirt phenom. happening nowadays.

you are correct that uninitiated members cannot possess the zta crest.

[Cane94G8r97]

Originally Posted by FSUZeta

it may be a tradition of your chapter that new members wait to wear letters, but zta does not have a national policy that prohibits new members from wearing them. one of my proudest moments was being given my big sisters zta jersey to wear until the ones my pledge sisters and i ordered came in. back in my day, if you could not wear letters, you had nothing to wear until after initiation-this was way before the t shirt phenom. happening nowadays.

you are correct that uninitiated members cannot possess the zta crest.

My sister was so excited that I pledged ZTA she gave me a lavalier on bid day! So, while other ladies were waiting for t-shirts, I wore my letters every day! In fact, I still have my same lavalier 15 years later.

And... the day after initiation I went out and bought something with the crest on it!

[APhi Sailorgirl]

Originally Posted by FSUZeta

it may be a tradition of your chapter that new members wait to wear letters, but zta does not have a national policy that prohibits new members from wearing them. one of my proudest moments was being given my big sisters zta jersey to wear until the ones my pledge sisters and i ordered came in. back in my day, if you could not wear letters, you had nothing to wear until after initiation-this was way before the t shirt phenom. happening nowadays.

you are correct that uninitiated members cannot possess the zta crest.

FSUZeta, please correct me if I am wrong and my memory may not serve correctly, but I am assuming you are referring to sewn letters? When I was in my senior year of college the ZTA colony gave all of the new members white t-shirts with teal letters. I cannot remember if the crest was also on there on not. These were screen printed shirts with letters not sewn.

This was of course much before they were chartered b/c they received the shirts in the fall and were not chartered until the end of the spring semester.

[33girl]

A lot of times too, it's a campus thing. No one knows how or where it started, just that State U has a tradition of Greek pledges not wearing letters. In this case, I don't think pledges should be forced to wear letters - they'll be set apart from their peers on the rest of the campus and that, too, can be construed as hazing. This is why new chapters often adopt the "tradition."

It's like frilly rush - if everyone stopped at the same time, maybe that would work, but no one wants to be the first.

[lilzetakitten]

Originally Posted by APhi Sailorgirl

FSUZeta, please correct me if I am wrong and my memory may not serve correctly, but I am assuming you are referring to sewn letters? When I was in my senior year of college the ZTA colony gave all of the new members white t-shirts with teal letters. I cannot remember if the crest was also on there on not. These were screen printed shirts with letters not sewn.

This was of course much before they were chartered b/c they received the shirts in the fall and were not chartered until the end of the spring semester.

APhi Sailorgirl, I think we go (went?) to the same school

So if you did go where I think you went, then crest was not on the Bid Day shirts. It was the letters, with a crown over the Zeta, which we received at our Bid Day party.

[PiPhiERDoc]

It is actually NOT an international rule that Pi Phi's cannot wear letters until initiation. This was a tradition at many chapters for years, including my own - we could not wear letters or Beta (so just shirts that said Pi Phi spelled out). But that practice is discouraged now by our internationals.

[Scandia]

I was wondering about Pi Beta Phi's policy. The girl who used to live in my house before my family moved there pledged Pi Phi during her sophomore year (my junior). I saw her with a totebag that had the Greek letters "Pi Beta Phi" on it. I do not remember if I saw her wearing a t-shirt with the Greek letters- but the handbag certainly had them. So the UF chapter (Florida Delta) may not have been one who enforced this tradition.

Alpha Epsilon Phi and Kappa Alpha Theta were the two that I noticed that would not allow the Greek letters till initiation.

[Drolefille]

Originally Posted by PiPhiERDoc

It is actually NOT an international rule that Pi Phi's cannot wear letters until initiation. This was a tradition at many chapters for years, including my own - we could not wear letters or Beta (so just shirts that said Pi Phi spelled out). But that practice is discouraged now by our internationals.

Interesting, that rule is still enforced on my sister's campus as they had issues with a Greek Week shirt.

[AOII Angel]

In AOII we give new members letters immediately. There is no prohibition. They may not know the meaning of AOII yet, but by our selection process, we choose girls who unknowingly live it anyway! (I'm sure every other group does the same!!) We were not allowed to have lavaliers or roses until initiation, but I think that was a local tradition. I have not seen the new member manual in years, so I don't know what it says about this issue. Since we don't have a crest and our rose is usually substituted, my chapter reserved red roses for intiated sisters. I've seen other chapters do the same...giving PNMs pink roses at recruitment instead of red and wishing with them that the rose will turn red.

[angelove]

At least in the mid-80's when I was an active, it WAS Pi Phi's international policy not to allow pledges to wear letters, it said so in the pledge manual. I guess changed internationally a few years later. We also weren't allowed to wear the arrow (not just the badge, but any arrow) but I don't remember if that was just our chapter or an international thing. Time to get the old pledge manual out of the attic.

[carnation]

Originally Posted by PiPhiERDoc

It is actually NOT an international rule that Pi Phi's cannot wear letters until initiation. This was a tradition at many chapters for years, including my own - we could not wear letters or Beta (so just shirts that said Pi Phi spelled out). But that practice is discouraged now by our internationals.

We were told there were 2 rules when we pledged: don't wear letters or the crest before initiation and don't come onto a sister's boyfriend. A lot of people on GC have asked me about the "don't wear Beta" rule and I never heard of that rule until I came to GC. I can't even figure out why we would have it.

[texas*princess]

At my alma mater, new Pi Phis could have the greek PI PHI letters on their shirts, but not the Beta.

[TSteven]

Originally Posted by texas*princess

At my alma mater, new Pi Phis could have the greek PI PHI letters on their shirts, but not the Beta.

When a friend of mine was a Pi Beta Phi pledge (yes, this was back when sorority women were pledges) at Kentucky, they too were suppose to only wear either the words spelled out (Pi Phi) or the greek letters (P F). One time, on a lark (ok, I may have suggested it), she put her pledge pin in the middle of her letters.

It looked something like this but with the letters being much larger than the pin.

P F

As I recall, she got a talking to from an active (though it seemed to me that the the active was suppressing a smile) about the proper way to wear her pledge pin.

[adpiucf]

Originally Posted by PiPhiERDoc

It is actually NOT an international rule that Pi Phi's cannot wear letters until initiation. This was a tradition at many chapters for years, including my own - we could not wear letters or Beta (so just shirts that said Pi Phi spelled out). But that practice is discouraged now by our internationals.

Wow! I thought this was a national policy! Thanks for the clarification. The Pi Phi Angels at my school weren't allowed to wear letters or the Beta until initiation, either.

[adpiucf]

ADPi new members are allowed to wear letters on Bid Day. They may not wear or own the crest until initiation.

ADPi new members are also allowed to attend regular chapter meetings (they are excused during any ritual that involves a requirement to be an initiated member), they vote and can hold chapter offices that don't require knowledge of ritual that would learned at initiation.

I think wearing letters, Greek or Roman characters, is a wonderful way to get excited about your chapter, promote your chapter and aid in new member retention.

It does depend on how the campus does things, but some traditions that were considered kosher 10 years ago might now be viewed as walking a fine line or hazing today. It isn't that the acts are dangerous or unwanted in many cases; it is more that some unreasonable person ruined things for everyone.

I give a big thumbs up to letters of any kind: it shows the whole world that you are proud to represent your organization.