PNM Questions regarding sorority life

[Rudey]

Have other sorority members made comments in regards to the SAEPi's without depth or merit?

That is not for us to judge. For you and I to say something bad about another GLO would be frowned upon. You as a PNM have the choice in front of you to not go on the internet and rip another sorority member for something like their "hair". If you choose to exercise your full rights on this forum, I'd advise you to search for all Sorority Life threads to see comments certain members have made and decide for yourself how you feel about them. Perhaps certain members will be proud enough of their own words to not erase or modify them.

Why have they done this?
The SAEPi's are a local sorority and do not have the pull of the larger sororities on this website. If you were to bring up a discussion in regards to racism in a national sorority you would have your discussion limited. However, many discussions occur involving national fraternities and local greeks and are rarely stopped. I myself am in a fraternity and perhaps sorority rush is just a topic I will never understand however so ask them.

Also certain members believe in the "dirty laundry" theory. They have taken it as their right to judge and make comments. Some believe that this show might scare some new members and this is their opinion which they are entitled to have. However, the dirty laundry of some people is just more interesting to talk about.

So what do you recommend I do?
I and many others will recommend that you go through rush (or recruitment) with an open mind. Listen to the members. Get a feel for what the houses put emphasis on. Pick the house you feel like you could wake up in and smile every morning at. Pick the house that will bring you friendships you keep after leaving college. Pick the house that has your values such as community service (if that is something you place emphasis on). And at every stage of pledging/education remember you have a voice which is empowered by the ideals of your founders. All the other small things will fall into place and you can always ask if you have a question.

-Rudey
--Next time bring me an apple before your lessons.

[33girl]

I'm sorry to put this thread off on another tangent, but I thought that pledges moving into the house (usually into the "cold air" dorm) was fairly common at schools with larger houses. Am I wrong?

I think it goes without saying that you should mention to the rushees that MTV edited a quarter's worth of film down to 5 hours and that it is not necessarily representative of everything that happened...

[KappaKittyCat]

If I'm to understand correctly, Rudey, this thread was more for Recruitment FAQs, not another place for Sigma-bashing, anti-Sigma-bashing, Sigma-basher-bashing, or any other sort of bashing. Any PNM on this site will already have gotten her fill of Sorority Life and the GC Backlash on the numerous other threads. This thread is simply a place for us to practice for Recruitment discussions on the differences between MTV's Sorority Life and real life in NPC groups and locals all over the country. Hell, I'm willing to bet that Sigma itself is coming up with a similar list of FAQs for its next round of Recruitment. Lord knows they're going to have a ton of PNMs coming through who want to join Sigma (or avoid it) because of what they've seen on MTV. Maybe it should rightfully be in the Rush forum, but as the Mods have not yet chosen to move it, we'll just deal with it where it is.

That said, I think we've all agreed to cool it a little with the bashing. We all know that SAEP as portrayed on MTV is nothing resembling the sisterhood that Sigmas share at UC-Davis. However, it is to be expected that Sorority Life will continue to be discussed on this board, just as programmes like American Idol and the like have been and will continue to be. Other programmes are discussed on the Chit Chat forum. I suppose the only reason this one is located on Greek Life is that MTV claims to be actually portraying Greek Life with this atrocity.

So, if you can come up with any other ideas of the way sorority life at your school differs from Sorority Life as seen on MTV, feel free to sumbit an FAQ.

Thanks!

KKC

[James]

KappaKittyCat is exactly right on what the intentions of this thread was meant to be.

I have been told that I am a pretty clear communicator . . . I must be slipping.

But just to be certain we are all on the same page:

This thread is designed to anticipate possible questions that PNM's might have because of MTV's sorority life show. ITs purpose is to develop a FAQ that can be used by sisters prior to Rush in order to make answering questions easier and have a uniform position. It is also a place where some of the ladies that were extremely vehement about new PNM's being misinformed can post the questions they believe the PNM's will have.

It also allows them to kind of "put up or shut up" about the topic.

[KappaStargirl]

This is my first post having anything to do with "Sorority Life," because I feel that it's sort of like the books I review: I can't post a well-informed review until I've read the book. I feel sort of strange posting before the end of the series, but after watching Monday's episode there was a potential question I wanted to post to this thread:

Question: If I accept my bid and go through the pledge process, etc., can I still be asked to not initiate? Will other members say they don't want me in the organization? Can they vote me out?

The following response is only appropriate to Kappa Kappa Gamma, because I don't know how other sororities work:

Answer: No. Once you go through the pledging process, the only person who can decide whether or not you're going to initiate or not is you. If you have problems during the pledging process, we have a Standards Committee that will be happy to help you clear up any concerns there may be prior to initiation.

I can't express how deeply I was disturbed by next week's preview, where the pledges are talking about how they don't want other pledges in Sigma, and it looked like they were voting.

[AOIIalum]

I agree it's very disturbing to see such a thing on television! For some reason, I seem to remember either seeing during the recruitment party ep or reading on the sigma site about this. IIRC, Sigma traditionally extends bids to all interested women and lets the new member period determine final membership (I'm sorry, even though Sigma uses the term 'pledge' I just cannot.) Perhaps what we're seeing--which I think should have been called a ritual so it WASN'T filmed, ya know--a new member or standards board meeting creatively edited? Perhaps some of those new members in question have not completed the requirements of the Sigma new member period and other comments are being expressed? I don't know, but it's sure weird to see it on TV.


Christin