Affiliating with Panhellenic Conference on Campus

[33girl]

I'm going to be really blunt and ask what your sorority did to piss the other sororities off. With that many girls going unbid I'd think a new group would be welcomed.

I'm also wondering why there would be such an across the board disconnect between the presidents of the sororities (I assume you mean the presidents of the chapters on campus) and their Panhellenic delegates. I can understand why 1 or 2 groups would have those officers disagree...but 11 out of 12? And for it to be so open that the petitioning group knows about it? The Panhel delegates should be taking these issues back to their chapters for a chapter vote on what they are to do - it's not a "I'm the Panhel delegate so it's all me" type of deal. The chapter presidents do not control the vote, either. The chapter as a whole makes these types of decisions.

Maybe I'm reading your post all wrong but something here is fishy.

Originally Posted by 33girl

I'm going to be really blunt and ask what your sorority did to piss the other sororities off. With that many girls going unbid I'd think a new group would be welcomed.

Maybe I'm reading your post all wrong but something here is fishy.

I'm going to be even more blunt and ask the OP if her group hazes their new members.

I'm not saying this the case here, but my chapter rarely ever associates with the local sororities on campus because it's very obvious the locals haze the crap out of their pledges and we just don't want to be associated with that kind of behavior.

[AlphaSweetheart]

Originally Posted by OTW

I'm going to be even more blunt and ask the OP if her group hazes their new members.

I'm not saying this the case here, but my chapter rarely ever associates with the local sororities on campus because it's very obvious the locals haze the crap out of their pledges and we just don't want to be associated with that kind of behavior.

Agreed. And, no, we do not. One of our ideals is to be welcoming to absolutely everyone, regardless, and to cultivate sisterly love without hazing.

Also, our campus is SUPER strict about hazing. In the past year, three chapters have been suspended for a semester for hazing. Hazing on our campus includes everything from having NMs walk through the front door of your chapter house, not allowing NMs the right to wear letters, making NMs retake quizzes, any sort of physical activity that NMs are "forced" to do, asking NMs to fundraise, etc.

I'm not sure of the past history of locals on our campus, but you're right: we might have that stereotype to fight against.

On a side-note about hazing, this story just makes me laugh:
We were talking to my friend from Uganda about how a chapter at my friend's school got a hazing violation. Ugandan friend asked what it was and we explained they were dumping buckets of human excrement on their NMs heads. He looked at us with a very serious face then and said, "Oh. I was hazed, too!" When we asked where, he explained that "It was at a football game and it was a bucket of water."

Not so much.

[33girl]

OK, I guess I should have asked this stuff last night, but I was tired & forgot.

Are you intending to stay local, or do you eventually want to affiliate with an NPC group? If you want to stay local, I can understand why they might be anti your group...they might be afraid that you won't follow risk management or rush rules and get the benefits of being a Panhel member without the price you have to pay.

Oh and how big are the chapters? If they're huge, I can understand more why the Panhel delegates would not be jazzed....they know more about what it takes to make rush work, whereas the average sorority member (including the president) might not.

[AlphaSweetheart]

Originally Posted by 33girl

OK, I guess I should have asked this stuff last night, but I was tired & forgot.

Are you intending to stay local, or do you eventually want to affiliate with an NPC group? If you want to stay local, I can understand why they might be anti your group...they might be afraid that you won't follow risk management or rush rules and get the benefits of being a Panhel member without the price you have to pay.

Oh and how big are the chapters? If they're huge, I can understand more why the Panhel delegates would not be jazzed....they know more about what it takes to make rush work, whereas the average sorority member (including the president) might not.

We'd like to stay local: it's our goal. However, we're not against affiliation. We've began looking into it, but we were looking at a few non-NPCs to affiliate with and prefer a few of them, if affiliation must happen.

They are huge, chapters. I think we're going to wait a while for formal, because we might even have to triple seat or bring in alums.

[AlphaSweetheart]

Originally Posted by 33girl

I'm going to be really blunt and ask what your sorority did to piss the other sororities off. With that many girls going unbid I'd think a new group would be welcomed.

I'm also wondering why there would be such an across the board disconnect between the presidents of the sororities (I assume you mean the presidents of the chapters on campus) and their Panhellenic delegates. I can understand why 1 or 2 groups would have those officers disagree...but 11 out of 12? And for it to be so open that the petitioning group knows about it? The Panhel delegates should be taking these issues back to their chapters for a chapter vote on what they are to do - it's not a "I'm the Panhel delegate so it's all me" type of deal. The chapter presidents do not control the vote, either. The chapter as a whole makes these types of decisions.

Maybe I'm reading your post all wrong but something here is fishy.

I don't know and I wish I did. (That would be the best way to go about fixing it!).

I do know Chapter #12 is having a lot of issues with both recruitment and money. I don't know the facts behind it, so I can't really say in case I get something wrong. I do know that the last four years they've been really below quota, with every other chapter on our campus being near, above, or beyond quota.

I'm not sure about the disconnect: Two presidents have asked our sorority to come to their house and give a speech about our sorority. We were really well recieved by the majority of the girls. They loved our ideas and what we stand for. We also made up a really nice powerpoint we gave at the PHA meeting that has been forwarded to all the houses.

That's part of the reason we know about the disconnect. Our reception at the houses and at PHA meetings is exceedingly different. (The PHA Exec board has also told us about it.)

I know the main complaint we got at the PHA meeting was change. We would be the first associate group on campus and the first non-NPC sorority in Panhellenic. The 12 NPC chapters in Panhellenic have also been the only 12 for the past 21 years, so we're up against a lot of tradition.

The exclusivity of the Greek System is also really prized by some at my school. We have a small % of Greek students and I think a lot of girls do like this factor. I'm not sure if this contributes at all.

I am hoping that with the new PHA delegates next semester we have a much better chance.