MTV Sorority Show

[SATX*APhi]

Even though I did like the first show, it is the first show of many. We can only watch to see what's to come. We can only hope that they portray the girls in a not-so-positive light just to create drama that wasn't even present.

[phisigduchesscv]

Well the first show wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. For the most part I enjoyed it.

Coming from a commuter campus that has a lot of transfers it is hard for me to understand why they were so upset that 3rd years were trying to pledge. We have a lot of 3rd year and even grad students in my chapter (I'm a grad student). I feel they may be missing out on some wonderful potential sisters by possibly excluding them.

If you get a chance read the mtv website about sorority life and read the profiles of each of the pledges they are following. I do think the sisters who were concerned about people pledging just to be on mtv may have been correct in their worries. As much as it irks me to say that. The only one I think that has grown to truly understand the bond that develops among sisters is Jessica. I may be wrong but I am curious what anyone else thinks once you read the 2nd pages of each profile. I almost get the feeling that many of the pledges may not initiate once this is all over and had no intention of going through with it.

I was wondering about the pledge house. From what I can gather reading between the lines is that it is an mtv house. That to me changes the pledge process completely. It's adding a dimension that isn't normally in the process so I don't think they are getting as much a greek experience as they may have wanted to show. what about the women who weren't profiled. they pledged 13 women - how were these 6 chosen to move into the house.

[Starlet]

Originally posted by ivysis:
The argument on how to give bids/who to give them to seemed silly. First they want to make it extremely exclusive, then they gave bids to everyone? Not sure.

I agree with you on that one. I did not expect them to give out as many bids as they had done since most of the scenes showed the sisters saying they did not feel comfortable with many of the rushees.

Also, I was a bit surprised by the selection process as well. I was thinking, "Where's their advisor?" But then again, Sigma is a local sorority, so it doesn't have to deal with any rules set by Nationals regarding member selection, and rush for that matter--since there were guys at a rush party, which would certainly be prohibited at any of my chapter's rush parties.

In terms of having the pledges stay in that house, I'm guessing that was MTV's brilliant idea. I have never heard of that one before so I'm assuming they were behind that.

Other than those points, I thought the show was OK. I liked Leslie, the Vice President, for holding her ground and staying true to her feelings even when everyone else disagreed with her.

[phisigduchesscv]

my other post was getting long so here's another post.

From reading the mtv profiles about the pledges I think that the active sisters didn't spend much time with the pledges. I don't know how it is with other Sororities but with Phi Sigma Sigma this just doesn't happen. With each new member that comes in the whole chapter is responsible for their new member orientation. We study right along with the new members and don't separate them out. The Membership Orientation Chair does work with them as a group but usually there are a lot of actives right there in the group helping the new members learn about Phi Sig and what sisterhood means. SAEPi seemed to keep them separated out, from what the pledges are saying in their profiles. No wonder they don't seem to be feeling the bond that I felt from the beginning with all the sisters who helped found my chapter.

How is it with other sororities regarding academics. I'm assuming most of your organizations are like Phi Sig and academics are priority. That is what we're in college for right? All the women except Dede state in their profile that they aren't doing as well as they could in class because of all the pledge activities they have to do. If we know a new member has class we encourage her to go to class. School is always our first priority and is emphasized from the very beginning.

As for the pledges being upset about house rules. Why wasn't that explained before they moved in? We don't have a house but it was explained from the very beginning no alcohol when wearing letters or any Phi Sig paraphenalia or at any Phi Sig events. It's disrespectful to Phi Sig and the sisters. We were told from the beginning that what we do reflects back on the sorority not just on us personally, whatever I do isn't seen as look at what Carolyn is doing but look at what that Phi Sig is doing. None of my sisters would even think of disrespecting the letters we wear proudly. I don't get that feeling from the pledges being shown on mtv. Guess only time will tell as the show goes on.

[LilAGDSweetie]

I'm agreeing with pretty much everyone that it wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be. When I saw the commercials for it I really thought that it was going to bring a very negative light to the greek community. But I do have a few thoughts on it.

First, I understand it's local, but from what I understand most locals still follow the non hazing rules that everyone else does. I think that AGD might be slightly more strict, making it anything that's not an everyday activity as hazing, but making them live in a pledge house? That doesn't really sit well with me.

Also I'm not to sure if I like all the rush and pledge talk that's going on. But again it's been drilled into me that those are the "wrongs" of recruitment. I didn't like how they had the selection process and voting on there either. We don't talk about the voting with outside parties let alone put it on TV for everyone to see. Anyone else not like that?

I know that many of you have mentioned this too, but the whole party and drinking in the pledge house was getting to me. Especially when Jordan (I think it was her) came right out saying that the house rules were going to be broken. I guess I just feel that more of the rules should have been set down in the beginning and not just thrown at them.

My last thing is the fact that they aren't telling the audience that they sorority local. People who know nothing about Greek Life will be watching this and thinking that all sororities are like this. I know that being a member of a panhellenic sorority and having an international body over us puts a lot of rules and regulations on what can and cannot be done. I just wish that would have been said.

Hopefully the rest of the episodes won't start going in a downward spiral, but then again, looking at the rest of the shows on MTV, I think that they're looking for drama and with what they have right now they're not going to get enough.

[nauadpi]

Seems there seems to be a little controversy over this, MTV bought the pledge house. The pledge house is entirly there doing, my guess being so they can show more of the pledges. Because MTV bought the house, I have the feeling that out of the pledges MTV picked who would live in the house.

Overall I do have to say the show wasnt half bad. There were some things that I didnt think highly of, but they didnt make the sorority itself look like they were partaking in the activities.

I am looking forward to seeing next weeks episode.

Katie

[SIGMA_INSIDER]

I just saw the first episode (West Coast). Very good, just like I hoped.

A few possible questions answered:

How does the quarter system work?

fall quarter = 10 weeks and finals, from September to winter break (fall rush)
winter quarter = 10 weeks and finals, from Jan to Spring Break in late March
spring quarter = 10 weeks and finals, April to June (Spring Rush [Sigma's taped rush quarter])

How did those girls get picked to be in the pledge house?

Well from what I understand, all of the girls weren't exactly jumping to be taped 24/7 and share a bathroom with 5 other girls. Also, no music or TV allowed because of the recording. Sounds more like a fish bowl in a rubber room to me. In addition, all of the girls had a place to stay for the quarter. Coincidentally, the few girls in question were the first to agree to stay in the pledge house. They could only get 5 girls to do it at first. Jessica agreed after the first move-in and she became the 6th member of the "MTV pledge house".

Why didn't they lay down the rules before the girls moved in?

The pledge house was not a typical feature of their sorority, nor had it ever been an occurence to vote on denying someone a bid. It was MTV's addition and the girls layed down the law, I believe, only a few days after they moved in.

• I think Sigma had every right to be suspicious and tentative to let the girls bid. The antics only get worse from here, trust me on that. Sigma faced quite a conundrum. Let in everyone to not be exclusive and save the pledging process to weed out any ringers; or say no to a few and most-likely have a better representation of their values to millions of viewers, but while crossing the line and being exclusive.
• Don't knock Pauli, she's a good girl. She came off kinda negative, but that was mostly MTV spin, except for the "f@#$ them" comment. None of her good, funny side was shown, which, like the Simpsons character would say, "makes my feet sad"
• I really liked Mara, the sister, not the pledge. Watch out for some good speeches from her in upcoming episodes.

[Zuma]

yeah, I really liked Mara the sister too. She rocks! As do all the other girls!

Actually, I was really proud of all of them!

So its not right for me to discuss specifics of the show (1. I wasnt there, 2. I dont think I could do justice to it), I would be more than willing to answer some of the more Jewish oriented questions, like background...

[SIGMA_INSIDER]

oh yeah one more:

Why did the girls only ask about whether they were jewish or not? Are they a Jewish sorority?

I believe there were 5 set questions to ask the rushees and that was only one of them. It was simply a way to get to know the girls and find out their interest in Sigma. They are a "Jewist-interest" sorority that does not discriminate against religions. Some of the members are not at all Jewish, some are Jewish but not practicing, some are practicing but moderates, some are very religious Jews, and many fit inbetween those categories. There is a whole spectrum of diversity.


Also, I have been informed that we shouldn't expect to see show-related postings from current Sigma members, due to their contractual obligations.

[AOX81]

I thought the 1st show came off pretty well. I'm sure all the previews were just to get people hyped up so they would watch it. But knowing MTV I'm sure they'll piss us off some where down the line.

[vdalton]

Just for the record...not all locals are like that.

I go to a school where it is all locals, there are no national organizations. My sorority is over 90 years old and we have traditions and rules that we strictly follow. We would never have agreed to be on MTV. They wouldn't have been able to film much of anything. Our bid meetings and pledge process are pretty much confidential.

Also, the pledge house thing is a bad idea. Honestly, if I had lived w/ my pledge sisters, as much as I love them, we would have had some major problems. We spent so much time together while pledging. Sometimes the only time that we were away from each other was while we were sleeping!

[maggieaxid]

It wasn't as bad as the commercials portrayed it to be, however, it's only the first episode.

I watched it last night with 3 of my friends, all of us in different natl. orgs. most of us liked it as a whole, but we had some issues with their rush process, voting, and the new member house. (i still can't call it a "pledge house"). their rush just seemed unorganized to us...if they had some input from other sororities (locals or nationals) they may be able to hold a smoother running rush and get to meet and know the girls earlier on, insted of waiting until the 2nd and 3rd parties.

I understand that it's a Jewish-interest Sorority, but i didn't like how at the first party they said, "no, it's not a big deal if you are Jewish or not" and then they went on to their voting (which i still don't get!) and some of them were like "i don't want them if they aren't Jewish". To me, that seems a bit backwards. It would be easier to tell the rushees upfront, that way, they aren't wasting anyones time...both the sister's and the rushees.

One question, did they give bids to everyone that came to the second party???

And actually, as much as Pauli bitched, i totally understood where she was coming from. I would be the same way.

[LeslieAGD]

Originally posted by vdalton
Just for the record...not all locals are like that.

No, they're not, so let's not turn this into a national vs. local conversation. However, like LilAGDSweetie said, it would have been nice had they mentioned that it was a local sorority. Some of the things they did would be NPC No-Nos (i.e.: boys at recruitment events, use of old terminology like rush and pledge, and required wrist bands for the new member period).

Originally posted by maggieaxid
One question, did they give bids to everyone that came to the second party???

Maggie, I think they gave bids to all the people that went to the third party at the pledge house ("Dressy Desserts").

[33girl]

The pledge house is not a normal thing for any group. It's purely to prevent the logistical nightmare that filming the pledges at their respective apartments/dorms would be. I mean, in my class (which had 5) only 2 of us were in the same dorm. And even if we would have been filmed, there is the issue of blurring everyone around us who doesn't want to be in on it. With the pledge house, they can say "you walk in this house, you are giving consent to be on film."

As far as the bids/selectivity issue, it reminded me of A Phi O - there is no voting on who will pledge, but the pledge process must be completed satisfactorily. I understand the "are you Jewish" and "how did you find out about us" comments - if my chapter had a sudden influx of women showing up at rush parties (and coincidentally when MTV shows up) and they were a lot different than the rushees we usually get, I would be wary too.

[MUPhiMuKHap]

Well last night one of my sisters and I watched this show and I must say I was surprised. It was no where NEAR the disaster I was expecting, so that was nice. Like most of you have already said, the whole talking about the PNM's at the rush party was a bit off color, but I guess we don't REALLY know if it all happened that way, so I technically can't bitch about that. I just thought their selection sessions and rush were kind of different. During rush at my school the PNM's and all sorority members are BANNED from talking to boys, frat boys, any boys, does not matter. If you get caught, PNM's have to drop out of rush and we have to pay a fine and not participate in the rest of rush! So there DEFINATELY would never have been dudes at any of our rush parties, but then again they're local and have no nationals hovering over them. Either way, I'm glad they decided to give bids to everyone who came to their little "dressy dessert" party, seemed like the best idea, for now anyway. Anyway, overall I liked the show a lot! Good job!