Who Has Removed Preferential Treatment for Legacies?

[Cheerio]

Originally Posted by NYCMS

I don't disagree that there's much more to be done to foster a diverse membership, but I still think legacy preferential treatment is unfair.

In the very early 1990s NPC groups were also grappling with the issue of diversity, although not to the intense extent of today's concerns and demands. Recent readings of online-archived NPC magazines from that era confirmed what I remember of that era, when I served several area collegiate chapters.

Personally, I think many sorority chapters have long given healthy promotion to being as diverse as possible given the choice of some WOC preferring not to become members of an NPC group [as carnation and others here on GC describe].

[ASTalumna06]

Originally Posted by Cheerio

In the very early 1990s NPC groups were also grappling with the issue of diversity, although not to the intense extent of today's concerns and demands. Recent readings of online-archived NPC magazines from that era confirmed what I remember of that era, when I served several area collegiate chapters.

You think what the NPCs are facing right now is "intense"? I beg to differ.

I would be curious to know what those NPC magazines of the 90s are confirming for you, though. Care to share?

Personally, I think many sorority chapters have long given healthy promotion to being as diverse as possible given the choice of some WOC preferring not to become members of an NPC group [as carnation and others here on GC describe].

Can you clarify this statement?

Do some chapters promote diversity and inclusion? Sure. But to pretend like most of them do is laughable, and I don't just mean in terms of welcoming different races.

Do a Google image search on "Panhellenic bid day". Scroll for a bit. How many WOC do you see? How many young women are in a wheelchair? How many young women are curvier or have a little more weight on them? How many young women aren't picture-perfect (straight) white girls?

Seriously. Look at the photos and tell me what you see. And then we're going to claim that we're welcoming to everyone, and "if those 'other' girls aren't joining, it's because they choose not to!"? Even if they're choosing not to, do you think it might have something to do with the system? With how we recruit? With some of our practices and procedures? With how we present ourselves? With who we choose to exclude?

Either way, let's not act like ALL WOC are turning away from NPCs simply because they want to join a BGLO. Let's also not pretend that WOC who join NPCs aren't experiencing microaggressions from their own sisters. It happens. I've seen it happen and I've heard people say that it's happened to them.

We could all be doing sooo much better. Acting like we don't need to is the real issue here.

[carnation]

I don't think you can speak for any chapter except your own.

[SweetHomeStL]

Replying to Cheerio’s comment about the 1990’s & not quoting because my browser stinks......

Agree 100%! Funny (or horrifying) story: I was a traveling consultant for my national organization in the the early 1990’s. We had a beautiful, amazing, super-awesome WOC on the front page of our national magazine that year. (I LOVE this woman & am SSSOOO glad she is my sister!) We met earlier in our active collegiate years at convention, and this is important to note for the story.

One of my first trips as a consultant was to a mid size southern school for rush. (Yes rush, it wasn’t recruitment yet). These very white, very sheltered girls were having a bit of a breakdown because the first WOC was registered for NPC rush on their campus, and they legitimately did not know what to do about it. Talk about a long weekend of inclusion training......When I brought up the fact that my African-American friend was on the cover of our magazine, they really and honestly thought that she was a planted model and not really my sister. I had to politely tell them that no, she is real and is YOUR sister too, not just mine.

I am proud of all of our GLO’s for continuing to evolve over the last 30 years. Do we have a long way to go? YES! But we are moving forward.

[ASTalumna06]

Originally Posted by carnation

I don't think you can speak for any chapter except your own.

That's what you got out of my post? Oh, OK.

[Sororitysock]

The whole defense of "we can't give them bids because they don't go through our recruitment" is bull excrement. Let's look at the most egregious offenders in modern times, Alabama. In all the 110 years prior to 2014, only one black woman was given a bid to an NPC sorority, and that sorority was degraded and ostracized for it all the way up to the time the sororities were forced to desegregate. When asked why there were no women of color in their chapters, the go-to response was the tired "we can't bid them because they don't rush."

But what happened after they received national attention? The university extended recruitment and quota. Then 21 black women were extended bids. That to me says it all. There were many black women have wanted to join NPC chapters there but knew they had no chance. Now black women in recruitment and sororities are a regular occurrence.

I cobbled together the approximate number of black undergrads there who could potentially become one of our sisters.

Total undergraduate students 33028
Total males 44%
Total females 56%
Total black enrollment 10.4%
10.4 x 33,028 = 3435 total black students
3435 x .56 = 1935 estimated Black females

That 1935 total also includes women who want to go NPHC, those without financial means, those who adamantly want to remain independent for any reason. We should be approaching, supporting and encouraging the women who want to join our sororities.

[carnation]

Been doing it over here for over 20 years!

[ASTalumna06]

Originally Posted by carnation

Been doing it over here for over 20 years!

Good for you. That doesn't mean that everyone is. And the evidence overwhelmingly shows that they aren't.

But truly, the legacy policy isn't our only issue. And the policy doesn't only hold us back in terms of diversity. If we truly analyze the way we recruit, it's no surprise to me that we can't get women to join our organizations and commit to them for life.

They arrive on campus, go through two weeks of recruitment and a few conversations with members, get a leg up if a certain woman bore them decades prior or someone wrote them a recommendation having never met them before, then are given a bid. And if they don't get a bid in their first year or two of college, we tell them their dream of being in a sorority is dead.

We complain that recruitment is too short and we have to make sharp cuts based on a 30-minute conversation. We complain about angry mothers calling and berating chapters. We complain about our six-week new member period and that these women "don't truly know us" by the end of it. We complain that we have so many members but they all disappear after graduation.

So many of us are missing the big picture. The NPHC figured it out a long time ago. Us NPCs severely limit our recruitment and member-building potential and then wonder why we're not succeeding, which is evident based on hundreds of threads right here on GC.

[PersistentDST]

Originally Posted by Sororitysock

The whole defense of "we can't give them bids because they don't go through our recruitment" is bull excrement. Let's look at the most egregious offenders in modern times, Alabama. In all the 110 years prior to 2014, only one black woman was given a bid to an NPC sorority, and that sorority was degraded and ostracized for it all the way up to the time the sororities were forced to desegregate. When asked why there were no women of color in their chapters, the go-to response was the tired "we can't bid them because they don't rush."

But what happened after they received national attention? The university extended recruitment and quota. Then 21 black women were extended bids. That to me says it all. There were many black women have wanted to join NPC chapters there but knew they had no chance. Now black women in recruitment and sororities are a regular occurrence.

I cobbled together the approximate number of black undergrads there who could potentially become one of our sisters.

Total undergraduate students 33028
Total males 44%
Total females 56%
Total black enrollment 10.4%
10.4 x 33,028 = 3435 total black students
3435 x .56 = 1935 estimated Black females

That 1935 total also includes women who want to go NPHC, those without financial means, those who adamantly want to remain independent for any reason. We should be approaching, supporting and encouraging the women who want to join our sororities.

This is exactly the same point I made in another thread. The numbers will absolutely go up as people realize that can have a positive experience in the NPC. It’s simple causation. And despite that, there are still growing amounts of diverse populations that want to find their home. I’ve seen schools with super diverse biddays.

In my previous posts, I never picked on southern schools specifically. Alabama is obvious because it was well documented and clearly systematic. There are plenty of situations and incidents at schools all over the country (including my alma mater in the Midwest) that have and would deter diverse young people from finding a home in the NPC.

• The “Blackest Chi O Award” given to an active during a ceremony, because she dated a Black student. There were no Black members in the chapter and barely any in the NPC at the time. (At my alma mater)

• “There will never be a ‘blank’ in SAE.” As young men and sorority women sat and laughed on the bus.

• Catching multiple actives across the country in Blackface on Snapchat in the past couple of years.

• Costume parties where the theme is mocking racial/ethnic groups and their cultures.

• The frat guy that sat in front of his house with some actives on Halloween asking Black students (including me and my friends) if we had Ebola. The girls just sat there and looked at us. What if I was a PNM or an active in another chapter?

These experiences (some personal) were very real and hurtful. It’s deeper than simply saying, “WOC don’t want to join,” or “Black girls would rather be in the NPHC.” I’ve said this multiple times, we are not a monolith. There are plenty of women who want the Panhellenic experience and that is something that the NPHC will not offer them. Just like the first Soror that contacted me on social media after I was initiated is White. She chose Delta, because that was the sorority experience she wanted.

There’s thousands of things that the NPC does yearly that are positive and exemplary. There are chapters full of women who would never purposely harm or offend anyone and that’s great if that’s people’s personal experiences. But the discrimination is real and it exists, rather it’s Alabama in the past decade or a micro aggression from a specific chapter member that will hurt a WOC active. The trash stuff is not every chapter, not every school and it’s not every girl. But...one girl or chapter can bring awful attention to an organization. There’s nothing wrong with admitting that in some ways, things can be improved!

I agree that no one is perfect. I just wish that when people post the “I see you. I hear you,” posts that they actually mean it and are really listening to us. There’s been plenty of statements I’ve made in here that appear to go ignored. Some of the Women of Color from the University of Georgia NPC made a video talking about their experiences. Check it out: https://www.instagram.com/tv/CDC0BEz...d=dbi1pc8c217x

[33girl]

ASA is officially on the Legacy Death Boat!!

https://www.alphasigmaalpha.org/news...y-on-legacies/

[carnation]

I get it, I really do. But it's also hurtful for NPC women to constantly hear, "You aren't doing enough. You're racists. Bama pulled some racist stunt, so all Southern schools are like that." and so on and so on. It is NOT true. Who likes being the butt of generalization?

And we do all have different goals. As I mentioned, I have had little luck interesting the black high school seniors I know well in the NPC because they see these powerful black women (a lot are educators) in our community and that's what they strive to be. I teach in a nearby town and have had the same experience there. Obviously, this is not the norm in some areas.

I'll be talking to this year's crop of seniors but this is the truth--many women and I have knocked ourselves out trying to diversify our groups by doing that and contacting sororities about women who might not be on their radar. But when we see all these posts all over the Net about what failures the NPC groups have been at diversity and what racists we probably all are--this is painful, and I know sorority alums who have given up on helping at all.