Do you know other GLOs' secret info?

[MaggieXi]

Prior to our campus getting greek housing for all the sororities, a couple organization did their membership selection all in one building on campus. One year, one of the groups who was situated on the first floor, right next to the entrance to the building did not put down the blinds and anyone walking by could see what they were doing.

[ForeverRoses]

Wow- I never considered initiation anywhere other than where my campus would hold it. We have a non-sectarian chapel (Galbreath Chapel) on campus that holds around 200 people. It even has a basement lounge area where people could wait or change clothes if needed. I'm pretty sure all the orgs on campus used it for initiation since it was so pretty and set up perfectly. The chapel had a sign that you would put on the door that it was in use, and I don't ever remember someone trying to get in.

Even the honor society I was in used it for initiation.

[KSUViolet06]

We have always conducted ritual in our house. We shut the blinds and put a sign on the door and were never bothered.

Recruitment is held in the student center for the first 2 days. So of course the first few MS sessions were held in our room. I think a few other chapters did the same. We just made sure to keep the door shut, speak quietly, and remove any materials afterward.

[naraht]

For myself, the ritual was in the Army ROTC lounge in the basement of one of our buildings, they've complete redone the rooms in that area and that room doesn't exist anymore.

For some the rituals during my time as an undergraduate, we used one of the older lecture halls on campus.

I've heard of chapters doing rituals in odder places. When the chapter at George Washington University rechartered, the building they were supposed to hold chartering in caught fire. They ended up doing the chartering in the back room of a restaurant nearby. The chapter joke is that they had to initiate one of the waiters who walked in.

My wife's chapter chartered in the basement of a nearby church and has held rituals outside at scout camps among other places.

[AOII Angel]

We always held monthly rituals in our dorm chapter room, but for initiation, we used a church on campus that incidentally had a completely red chapel....it made initiation very memorable!

[thetygerlily]

We were lucky enough to have a Panhellenic wing within a dorm, which consisted of the 3 chapter rooms and a kitchen. AFAIK, all 3 held rituals in their respective rooms- but getting there was another story! We had a basement storage area accessible only by the Panhellenic wing, where we kept our archives. It also had a lounge where we "staged". On occassion we had a janitor pass us on the stairs going to/from the basement and we got the funniest looks!

Initiation & chapter meetings were always held in our chapter room (blinds closed!), but we did hold a couple of others elsewhere. We held the return-the-pledge-pin ceremony in the campus cafeteria, but in a beautiful private room called the Teakwood Room. The walls, ceiling, and furniture were all intricate hand-carved teak, it was just beautiful. We held our Fireside in a dorm lounge, down the hall from the Panhellenic Wing. And then we had a sleepover in the lounge I know people popped their heads into the lounge on occasion (it was also the location of the dorm's piano, which was a hot comodity on a music campus), but usually that happened during the sleepover portion and not the ceremony. Most people realize that a closed door means keep out.

[Sister Havana]

My APO chapter did most rituals in rooms in the union. The IMU has plenty of rooms that student groups used all the time. We closed the door and never had a problem with people barging in.

[LXA SE285]

The founders of most general GLOs, who were basically kids themselves, seemed so much more educated relative to college students of today. In the 19th and early 20th centuries, if you were a college student or even a high school student, you were going to get classics and mythology in your curriculum. (As recently as the '50s at my mom's boarding school back, you could take Greek if you did well enough in Latin. My mom, unfortunately, did not like to study and got a 4 in Latin one grading period. A 4.)

Back in the day, putting together a ritual must've been not only fun but relatively effortless because you had this basic shared well of info from which to draw and adapt.

Without trying to be nosy or imply any superiority of old vs. new, I wonder what cultural allusions have inspired the founders of GLOs from the past decade or two.

[LucyKKG]

I heard that one of the recent installations (well, not THAT recent) was taking place at a hotel and the fire alarm went off. Ummm, awkward! I won't get into any of the other details I heard, and I can take this down if someone wants me to.

[Gusteau]

ForeverRoses inspired me to look for pictures of the courthouse we use.

The courthouse (exterior photo) was built in 1800 and is a National Historic Landmark. The courthouse grounds were also the site of a civil war battle where the first officer casualty of the war took place. There are some cannons, not pictured, right outside as well - facing North, of course, lest we should have to resume the war with the yankees

I can't find any good interior shots - all the ones I have are group shots so most of the courtroom is obstructed by people.

[thetygerlily]

Originally Posted by LXA SE285

The founders of most general GLOs, who were basically kids themselves, seemed so much more educated relative to college students of today. In the 19th and early 20th centuries, if you were a college student or even a high school student, you were going to get classics and mythology in your curriculum. (As recently as the '50s at my mom's boarding school back, you could take Greek if you did well enough in Latin. My mom, unfortunately, did not like to study and got a 4 in Latin one grading period. A 4.)

Back in the day, putting together a ritual must've been not only fun but relatively effortless because you had this basic shared well of info from which to draw and adapt.

Without trying to be nosy or imply any superiority of old vs. new, I wonder what cultural allusions have inspired the founders of GLOs from the past decade or two.

I've often thought about this on a grander scale, of how different rituals reflect the times they were created. Even those from the 18th and 19th centuries would vary, I'd think, to reflect the "current" issues (not to mention founder & campus personalities). I've seen some from the early-mid 1800s and others from the mid-late 1800s, and to me they have a slightly different in focus. Most come back to Greek ideals (duh, it's a GLO) and appreciation for learning (also duh, they're in college) in some way- but the approach changes. Admitedly a low sample size and male vs. female, but it's absolutely fascinating.

I did have a class on mythology in high school, called "Humanities" (nice broad term don't you think?). Only 30 of 2500 students took it a year, so I'm pretty sure I was in the minority with that one. We also had a Latin program but it was being phased out to some extent. My college had a strong but small classics program, several of my sisters were involved there and "helped" us on pronunciation and the like

[33girl]

Originally Posted by naraht

When the chapter at George Washington University rechartered, the building they were supposed to hold chartering in caught fire. They ended up doing the chartering in the back room of a restaurant nearby. The chapter joke is that they had to initiate one of the waiters who walked in.

"True to self and to each other, and can I have an order of jalapeno poppers with that?"

[Psi U MC Vito]

Originally Posted by thetygerlily

I've often thought about this on a grander scale, of how different rituals reflect the times they were created. Even those from the 18th and 19th centuries would vary, I'd think, to reflect the "current" issues (not to mention founder & campus personalities). I've seen some from the early-mid 1800s and others from the mid-late 1800s, and to me they have a slightly different in focus. Most come back to Greek ideals (duh, it's a GLO) and appreciation for learning (also duh, they're in college) in some way- but the approach changes. Admitedly a low sample size and male vs. female, but it's absolutely fascinating.

I did have a class on mythology in high school, called "Humanities" (nice broad term don't you think?). Only 30 of 2500 students took it a year, so I'm pretty sure I was in the minority with that one. We also had a Latin program but it was being phased out to some extent. My college had a strong but small classics program, several of my sisters were involved there and "helped" us on pronunciation and the like

I was actually talking to somebody about this the other day. I think the biggest difference is the purpose of education now adays. For the most part if you were in college in the early 1800s, you were preparing for either the ministry or the bar.

[thetygerlily]

Originally Posted by Psi U MC Vito

I was actually talking to somebody about this the other day. I think the biggest difference is the purpose of education now adays. For the most part if you were in college in the early 1800s, you were preparing for either the ministry or the bar.

Great point. For the women, if you were in a co-ed school in the mid-late 1800s, you were a pioneer with an uphill battle. Today it's just expected. Even though I'm the first in my family to go to a 4 year school, I never considered NOT going. It's just what you do after high school, and is a prerequisite for many career paths. Even if you don't know what your career path is going to be, you know a college ed will help. And of course there are more careers to choose from- so in comparison to your early 1800s example, you don't have 2-3 main options that you stick with as a career. You have a zillion options, most of which are unknown until you wind up with an opportunity. Managing Six Sigma projects, running user acceptance testing, or being a technical recruiter were never in my expectations for the first few years out of college. Yes, a very different world indeed.

[pshsx1]

Two of the sororities at my school use the lounge and the conference room in our largest dorm building. I'm amazed they would hold rituals in such a 'public' place.

We use a lot of different places for our rituals... We have one main church that we use for the some rituals and we go out camping for a weekend for others. I love using the church because it's so large and it has a bunch of epic rooms. Doing ones in the woods/in cabins (hah, sounds really shady), though, is awesome as well.