How is deactivating viewed on your campus?

33girl · #1 11-06-2007, 11:20 AM

When I was in school, it was a fairly big deal - unless the self-termination/deactivation was for something really benign and enforced by a national rather than chapter policy. One of the sororities had a really anal payment system, the girls couldn't have payment plans or something (plus their national dues were the highest on campus) and because of this some of them had to deactivate. A lot of them stayed close with the sisters even after they left.

Now if you quit because you just weren't feeling it, or if the sorority/fraternity terminated you for behavior or just being a general jagoff reasons, that was a huge thing. Sometimes you were almost afraid to terminate someone who came across as a nice person even if she was a shitty sister because it would make the sorority look bad.

Oh, and the entire time I was in college, we had a 100% initiation rate of women who pledged. I never knew this was so rare until I heard of sororities giving awards for it. We had a couple girls who signed open bids and then didn't pledge, but that was a different matter. I think most of the other sororities were similar. I attribute this to the fact that we had deferred rush and by the time girls started pledging they knew what being in a sorority was all about and that they were where they wanted to be.

honeychile · #2 11-06-2007, 11:29 AM

I don't know how it is now, but it was a HUGE deal when I was in school - especially if the chapter terminates the New Membership or a Sister.

I once heard a Exec. Officer say that anyone can sign a bid - but can the chapter retain the sister? That's the true test of a chapter! (Yours must have been awesome, 33!)

33girl · #3 11-06-2007, 12:47 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by honeychile

I once heard a Exec. Officer say that anyone can sign a bid - but can the chapter retain the sister? That's the true test of a chapter! (Yours must have been awesome, 33!)

I'm not saying we never had anyone terminate (we did) or that there weren't people that we didn't say a year or so later "what in the world were we thinking?" but we got them through pledging. Again, though, I think most of the campus was like that.

ForeverRoses · #4 11-06-2007, 11:34 AM

It wasn't that big of a deal when I was in school. I remember taking an arobics class when I was a pledge and one of the other girls in class started telling me how she had just deactivated that year. Turns out she was my grand-big! She had financial reasons for deactivating and she still lived with three active members of our chapter.

We had a few other people go inactive for other reasons, and they stayed friends with whomever they were closest to-- since I never knew the whole story I continued to say hello to them and didn't shun them when I saw them.

I think the only time we were upset over someone going inactive is when they continued to wear letters or represent themselves as part of our sorority after they were inactive.

** for some reason I don't think inactive or deactive are the correct terms when a collegiate AOII stops being active, however I can't remember the proper term since we always called it "deactivating"