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Originally Posted by TriDeltaSallie
So the national organizations of these UT chapters are just ignoring the obvious because... it is Texas? Some other reason?
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When you get the legislature pounding on the regents, alumni suing, and donors responsible for things like the McCombs school of business in your ear so that you'll take more a hands off approach, then that's what you get. The same is true in a lot of other old big greeks systems at tier 1 universities, but UT seems to be more the wild west on some specific ways of doing things. It's not unregulated, and it's not necessarily all that bad a thing. It's just different & to some extent has to be seen to be believed or understood.
Quote:
Originally Posted by LadyLonghorn
So basically you're a long graduated SWT alum who claims his source is a couple of active sorority girls. Awesome that you're able to spout your expertise here based on a bunch of hearsay. Since you insist, I will tell you exactly what items in your post are untruths, but really, Carnation ought to be deleting your posts because once again you are publicly libeling an entire Greek system, but in particular the sororities.
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I am a long graduated SWT alum who served several years on the advisory board for our chapter at UT, and do have quite a bit more experience and connections to base my knowledge on than a couple sorority actives. BUT...
I'm not claiming to be an expert, nor would I expect anyone else to regardless of their experience.
To the extent this thread is about sorority recruitment, I clearly defer to sorority women. I advised two things. I said I would accept a little risk to gain all the advantage I could get. That's my personality. Anyone reading that view can decide for themselves if the risks of showing up to roundup versus not is too big a risk to make them more competitive. The other thing I said was I don't think it important that they go to social events; the daytime philanthropy oriented events by each sorority are a very good compromise to see/be seen without much risk of making a fool of yourself.
In regard to your complaints about what I said, I was just shooting off the cuff. Maybe I wasn't very clear. I'll try to clarify.
VIP: there's normally a blocked off area, upstairs or whatever. I wouldn't send a future PNM there to get recruited, but it is a different aspect of the party then the crowded club scene downstairs or out back.
Small tight knit: UT has a huge greek system. Yes, once into that you know a lot of people and do look out for each other. But, it isn't like a much smaller community where everyone knows everyone. Plenty acts of random kindness happen, but a random girl no one knows passed out at a party isn't necessarily going to be instantly snatched up and cared for by the first greek that sees her. I'm not saying anything bad about UT, it's just the dynamics of big groups. If you try to take care of every single seriously drunk person you see, that's all you'll ever be doing.
Chapter size: Sororities at UT are absolutely in that top tier in size. There's pros & cons to that. One of the cons is you aren't going to know every girl as well as you do in smaller chapters. I have seen dozen of instances where a girl didn't know another girl was in her sorority. I'm not saying every chapter at UT is like that, I wouldn't begin to know, but it does happen. Some people may think that's a bad thing, but the other side of that coin is they're able to accomplish spectacular things and raise huge amounts for their philanthropies because they have that kind of resources to work with. They're still good chapters, it's just different than what a lot of other greeks experience.
West Campus: the vast majority of fraternity houses are in west campus, which is all walking distance. Stuff will happen downtown & elsewhere, but west campus has always been ground zero.
Blackouts: they happen everywhere. Again just the rule of large numbers. One person passed out on the couch in a 15k square foot house that's had several hundred at a party is less surprising than another campus where they had a hundred people there total for the night. It's nothing bad about UT, it just happens.
Pledge Class mixers: Most sororities do pledge class mixers about weekly. I don't know that every sorority does it or tolerates what a lot of them are doing, but a good number of those events are at fraternity houses with a lot of alcohol. It's not necessarily bad, there are chaperons and rides, but it is done pretty openly. The only reason I mentioned it was to point out that Texas plays by a little bit different set of rules than a lot of other places.
Drunker: I've been involved with greek systems and fraternity chapters all over the country. UT is unique. It comes with its own advantages and disadvantages that are different than other places. It is not unregulated, but in some specific respects it is more the wild west than folks from a lot of other places would believe without seeing it. In other ways it's more regulated than other places. It's just different. I think any place you have a very large old greek system (ie money to spend on parties) based in walking distance to a campus (accessibility) where there are wet houses in a moderately regulated system (opportunity) you're going to get a very large party scene that isn't necessarily the norm everywhere else. That isn't bad about UT, but it is different.
Anyway, that is what I was trying to say about UT in general. I'm sure readers would welcome any different views you care to offer, and they can make up their own minds. Again, with regard to sorority recruitment I don't particularly claim any expertise and would defer to others on that aspect. I was just trying to inform outside greeks of my knowledge of the environment so they can form their own advice for the OP & anyone else that may happen along the thread in the future. I'm sorry my swerve touched a nerve. Moving on.
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