Retro Recruitment as we wait . . . - Page 4

SweetTeaParty · #1 08-08-2015, 08:57 PM

I will reveal the names of the groups - - you know collegians really get defensive about their GLO, but after reading all the support here on GC, I think no one would mind. (I tried REALLY hard to be fair about everyone)

AND, these each of theses groups were REALLY NICE ladies - - - - we partied and had friends in every group. And we were supported by those other SPICE GIRLS when we fomented the changes.

POSH = TriDelta
SPORTY = ChiO
BABY = Kappa Delta
SCARY = ZTA

And, of course,

GINGER = AOII

If you want to hear another story, my sister, Lisa, has an extraordinary one. It is all about Panhel and Greek Love and the INTEGRATION of the White Sororities at our Practically All-White Campus in the 1970s.

DGTess · #2 08-08-2015, 10:56 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SweetTeaParty

If you want to hear another story, my sister, Lisa, has an extraordinary one. It is all about Panhel and Greek Love and the INTEGRATION of the White Sororities at our Practically All-White Campus in the 1970s.

You write so well, and I'd love to hear this story.

When I pledged a very small chapter (no more than 25 while I was there; got even smaller, maybe as few as 15) on a small campus in '73, we had one black member. My class included an oriental woman and a Wiccan. The following year, we took an American Indian. The school was heavy on the Jewish population, so we never faced an issue with that, but I also never got the feeling our national was comfortable with us. The combination of scary-smart, noncomformist, and diverse membership seemed to fluster them, but the chapter - eventually - flourished and is now the largest on campus.

clemsongirl · #3 08-08-2015, 09:06 PM

What a great story! And I would love to hear more from you!

sigmagirl2000 · #4 08-08-2015, 09:06 PM

More stories, more stories!

SweetTeaParty · #5 08-09-2015, 12:23 AM

Just few years later (when I was Recruitment Chair) we had a PNM roster that included Black, Asian Indians, American Indians, Chinese, Vietnamese and Japanese ladies.

There were no rumbles from the Alums - - and they were offered bids.

1964Alum · #6 08-09-2015, 05:17 PM

What a wonderful story and epilogue! Thanks so much for sharing!

alphagam808 · #7 08-09-2015, 08:14 PM

SweetTea, would you be willing to PM me your school? I'd love to read more about your school and the chapters there!

Benzgirl · #8 08-12-2015, 07:56 AM

Loved this entire story. It was very well written and made me think back to my recruitment.

APhiLife · #9 08-13-2015, 10:30 AM

LOVED reading your recruitment story!

BadSquirrelBeta · #10 08-14-2015, 04:10 AM

Wow...after taking a 2 year hiatus from GC, essentially, this was a great thread to come back to. Congrats to AOPi ... what happened to your Roomie from freshman year? Did she finish college?

SweetTeaParty · #11 08-14-2015, 03:55 PM

Roomie's story got a little darker before she "received the light".

What I didn't tell ya'll is her mother had passed away about 18 months before she started college (long, drawn-out Breast Cancer -

) (remember, in the 70s, there were really no effective treatments, except mastectomy; if the cancer had spread - - not good . . .)

This probably is was lead to her "drop-out". I-don't-care attitude. It certainly lead to her non-conformist tendencies and self-medicating drug use

)

She ended our freshman year with a B- average (Yea for her!!) and she had a different roommate our sophomore year, someone more like her (non-conformist, hippie-type) BUT she also had a VERY controlling boyfriend that year and didn't return for our junior year

It took her a year to completely recover - - but she was back for my senior year (her junior) and DID graduate.

Today, she's a kindergarten teacher and a grandmother!!

I pray she's happy. (& I think she is . . . I heard all this through the grapevine at our last reunion, which she didn't attend.)

( I guess she's no longer a member of "MY" class.)

BadSquirrelBeta · #12 08-16-2015, 02:32 AM

Oh ... that is really sad she was dealing with the death of her mom. I can totally see where all those issues would stem from. Sounds like she's gone on to have a fulfilling life...that's good!!

carnation · #13 07-26-2016, 01:29 PM

TTT!

sissyintexas · #14 07-26-2016, 05:34 PM

Great story!

austingammaphi · #15 07-30-2016, 02:39 PM

I went through recruitment at UT-Austin in 1982. I came from a suburban high school in the Austin area with a reputation for excellent academics. My mom was a Chi Omega at Centenary College in Louisiana, and a lot of my high school friends were going through with me, so even though I was pretty shy, I felt pretty confident about my chances at finding a Greek home.

UT had summer rush at the time. Up to four actives could invite up to four PNMs out for lunch, dinner, pool party, or anything fun that didn't involve alcohol. The two rush dates I remember most vividly were the Chi Os who drove four of us down to San Antonio for dinner on the Riverwalk, and the Gamma Phi Beta ice cream party at an alum's house near the UT campus. One of my high school acquaintances was part of the San Antonio trip, and everything was going well until we got to the restaurant. I was starving and ordered a burger and fries--and everyone else ordered salad. Oops. The ice cream party was actually the first party I went to where I didn't know anyone--and I had a wonderful time. A cute redhead named Julie was my GPB date for the evening, and everyone was down to earth and fun.

So. Back then, each of the twelve houses at UT sent out their individual invitations through the Panhellenic office. (DPhiE, SDT, and AEPhi still had a semi-separate rush for Jewish PNMs.) No open houses. First round consisted of up to eight houses, back-to-back, for two days--you went to each house each day. If you received more than eight invitations, you had to figure out which invitations to decline--without knowing much about the houses beyond any summer rush dates you might have had, or girls you already knew in the houses.

I got ten invitations: AXiD, Alpha Phi, Chi O, TriDelt, Theta, Zeta, Gamma Phi, KD, AChiO, and DG. AXiD was an easy cut--I didn't know anyone in the house, I didn't know any alums, and they hadn't invited me to any rush parties. The second cut was hard. Four of the Big Six (and I'm sorry to say that this mattered to me) invited me, and although I didn't know anyone in some of those houses, either, I wasn't going to cut them. That left Alpha Phi (my best friend's house--and she REALLY wanted me there!), KD (another close friend's house), Gamma Phi (the fun summer rush group, and two awesome family friends who had written me alumna recs), DG (two friends from high school there), and AChiO (where I actually had THREE friends from high school). Based on what and who I knew, I made the difficult decision to cut Gamma Phi--largely because I didn't think that the girls I'd met that summer would be enough support to see me through. I felt really bad about it, though, and it kept nagging at me as I got ready to move into my dorm and start recruitment.

I lived in a private dorm with some very connected girls. My new roommate's mom wasn't very impressed with me--she'd apparently spent years laying the groundwork for her daughter to pledge a Big Six, preferably Pi Phi, which at UT was, and still is, incredibly legacy-heavy. Roomie would be the first sorority woman in the family, and even I knew that the odds were not in her favor--but mom spent a LOT of time in our room during rush making sure that Roomie knew what to wear and who to talk to at each house. One of the girls next door to us was a third-generation Theta legacy, and her roomie was the non-legacy daughter of two doctors who had moved here from Germany when she was a baby. And one of the girls down the hall was a mega-legacy--mom, both grandmothers, all her aunts, and all six of her older sisters were Thetas. She was determined to make her own choice and go a different direction if she felt like it, though.

More to come later--stay tuned!