Delta Gamma Eliminates Legacy Policy

[zTaalum]

Most organizations official policy on legacies is that they are invited back after round one and than after that it is up to the chapter. I see that more as a courtesy than as preferential treatment. I know for my particular organization if a legacy makes it to bid day there are protocols to follow but again nothing even close to being preferential treatment.

I definitely don't think this is the way to go and would be disappointed if my organization did the same. I have a daughter going through recruitment who was really interested in the DG chapter at her school and this has kind of changed things for her. Also many girls going through who aren't legacies are actually looking for that for their own future daughters.

There are more girls in chapters that are not legacies than are and if we keep watering everything down there will be no reason for sororities to even exist. Next thing you know it will be unfair to have grade requirements so grade cuts will go away or it won't be fair to give girls a leg up who were super involved in high school . We can all change our profile pictures to Save Harvard but really I don't think we a far from what they are pushing towards.

[FSUZeta]

Originally Posted by zTaalum

We can all change our profile pictures to Save Harvard but really I don't think we a far from what they are pushing towards.

This.

We all say "XY Chapter has enough legacies going through to fill an entire pledge class". As someone stated, that doesn't happen. Not all the legacies rush. Not all the legacies want their legacy sorority. Not all legacies are a good fit. And we all know chapters of our orgs who are particularly unimpressed with legacy status and seem to have it in for legacies (i.e., they are not even extended the courtesy invitation) and cut them right off the bat.

I believe the statement said that this had been under consideration for some time. Well then, the timing of this decision couldn't have been worse. The under-rumblings of NPC is that they are concerned about lower PNM numbers what with COVID-19, especially at schools/CPCs that have not made a final decision about how the fall semester and recruitment will take place. So the prudent thing to do would be to ensure that ALL PNMs feel valued and welcomed, mail out flyers, advertise well, and hold online rush info sessions throughout the summer, so that the underrepresented (minorities, first gen college students) are informed. Be truthful about recommendations and specifically outline (as has been done here) how girls can go about finding recs. Be truthful about appropriate clothes to wear for each round (if there are any in-person rounds) and explain that even if rush is conducted virtually, they will need to be presentable (not look like they just rolled out of bed -looking at you my 6th grade students!) and they need to be able to hold an intelligent and interesting conversation.

I'm waiting for all the other sororities to join DG on the legacy death boat.

[carnation]

Originally Posted by zTaalum

if we keep watering everything down there will be no reason for sororities to even exist. Next thing you know it will be unfair to have grade requirements so grade cuts will go away or it won't be fair to give girls a leg up who were super involved in high school . We can all change our profile pictures to Save Harvard but really I don't think we a far from what they are pushing towards.

Yes. We want the involved, hard-working girls, not the ones who will ghost us after pledging so they can be with their boyfriends 24/7. We want the PNMs with strong recs that assure us that the girls are quality people who won't make hateful racist videos or haze PNMs on their own. We don't want girls like the ones in the "Weird Rush Stories" thread here on Greekchat.

And who are these small committees who are making these recent decisions? I know women from many sororities who are angry that they, as stakeholders, have not even been allowed input. These women are hardworking alums who have put in years of toiling for their sororities and they've never tried to force chapters into pledging anyone. Many sororities are going to lose some major, major donations.

And about the dropping of legacy advantages: we all have legacy songs. Will chapters now be discouraged from singing them? Will the word 'legacy' be dropped from the Greek vocabulary?

[TXDG]

Originally Posted by zTaalum

I definitely don't think this is the way to go and would be disappointed if my organization did the same. I have a daughter going through recruitment who was really interested in the DG chapter at her school and this has kind of changed things for her. Also many girls going through who aren't legacies are actually looking for that for their own future daughters.

There are more girls in chapters that are not legacies than are and if we keep watering everything down there will be no reason for sororities to even exist. Next thing you know it will be unfair to have grade requirements so grade cuts will go away or it won't be fair to give girls a leg up who were super involved in high school . We can all change our profile pictures to Save Harvard but really I don't think we a far from what they are pushing towards.

One, 18 year olds shouldn’t be rushing for future daughters they may not even have. I wasn’t a legacy and certainly wasn’t thinking about choosing “my legacy” when I went through rush. I didn’t even have children until my late 30’s. My chapter President who became a traveling consultant and has been a chapter advisor to multiple campuses since....has 3 sons.

I hope your daughter will consider DG) for her college experience and our sisterhood rather than what some guy’s sperm might produce for her in the future!

Two, legacies being equal to all other PNM’s isn’t watering everything down. Your stance that it’s the first step to lowering GPA or leadership standards is a straw man argument at best. At worst, it’s elitist bias that non-legacies (or proxy for non-white) PNM’s have lower grades and lower standards. This move by DG - like it or not - is to ensure that we are recruiting the highest quality women and that unconnected PNMs with stellar grades, leadership, friendship, & potential don’t “fall through the cracks” while less qualified legacies are ushered deeper into rush week.

I know we all think our sweet babies are perfect and that our legacies would be lucky to pledge them, but the reality is there are almost always 100 other girls with better grades, more volunteer hours, more honed leadership skills, stronger Recs, better fit for chapter personality, etc. As one of my sisters said yesterday, let our focus be on raising young women and promoting our Greek experiences. I would love for my daughter to become a DG but I would be equally thrilled for her to find HER HOME in any NPC sisterhood!

[ASTalumna06]

Originally Posted by zTaalum

There are more girls in chapters that are not legacies than are and if we keep watering everything down there will be no reason for sororities to even exist. Next thing you know it will be unfair to have grade requirements so grade cuts will go away or it won't be fair to give girls a leg up who were super involved in high school . We can all change our profile pictures to Save Harvard but really I don't think we a far from what they are pushing towards.

No no no no no! Please stop with this nonsense. This is why I hesitated to comment on the NPC Community College Task Force thread... because I was so enraged at the mere suggestion that NPC sororities would be lowering their standards or would become obsolete because they considered a change.

Why would eliminating legacy policies on the national level = eliminating grade requirements? This makes no sense and is comparing apples and oranges. It reminds me of the people who argue, "We shouldn't allow gay marriage! Next thing you know, people will be allowed to marry their dog!"

Just no.

Originally Posted by clemsongirl

I'm torn about this. On one hand, I want sororities to be more inclusive for all women and I think eliminating the legacy preference helps chapters choose women for who they are and not for who their mom/sister/aunt/etc was. It's similar to colleges dropping legacy consideration in my mind, because like sororities college affiliation has historically been used to admit the white, affluent children of white, affluent people (and I've got some fascinating data on Harvard legacy admits if anyone's interested in seeing this in action).

On the other hand, I'm a legacy to ADPi through my mom and I *know* that the only reason I got that courtesy invite to the second round of recruitment was because of my connection. The other chapters that ADPi recruits against all dropped me, I didn't know a single woman in ADPi, and I absolutely did not and still don't fit that chapter's mold. I wasn't dumb when they kept inviting me back for recruitment rounds. My chapter also takes legacies very seriously and we tried our hardest to make as many want to join as we could. I'm eternally grateful to share my ADPi experience with my mom and my sorority journey wouldn't have been half as rich without my mom there for all of it.

I think the middle ground between these two ends is that individual chapters can still give legacies a preference if that's what they choose to do, rather than being mandated to do so by Delta Gamma. Obviously I'm not privy to DG's recruitment system but I'm sure there's a way a chapter could ensure legacies feel extra special and warm and fuzzy if they wanted to.

This! Individual chapters still have a say. They always have, regardless of what any national policy says. Either they like a legacy and want to keep her past second round (if national policy dictates she stay past the first) or they bring her through preference (knowing at that point national policy dictates she's "stuck").

I guess the question I have is this: who feels more hurt by this whole thing? Is it the legacy going through recruitment? Or is it mom who's upset because her daughter won't be her sister and is threatening to pull donations? I don't have the answer, but I'd be curious to know.