Bashed by the school newspaper

[agzg]

Wow there's been some pretty active moderating here... I was very confused for a moment.

Stupid work getting in the way of GC.

[33girl]

Originally Posted by D_Mom

My point is that many schools have an institutional problem where only 2-4 sororities are considered "desirable" There's a huge discrepancy between the two tiers, leading many girls to withdraw from Rush rather than pledge one of the others.

Fixed that for you.

It's NOT a Dartmouth problem in the least. It happens at tons and tons of schools across the country. It is more disturbing that it happens at Dartmouth because you'd think the girls are a little smarter than to buy into that crap - especially when you read why some of the sororities are formed &/or why they went local. Feminism in the best sense of the word, IMO.

It is NOT worse than anything else on the planet because it is happening to your daughter.

Also, if Dartmouth took any institutional responsibility for the varying reps of the sororities, it would more likely take the form of randomly assigning women to chapters, or getting rid of the system altogether. A Greek system eating itself alive would probably give them a giant boner.

[Low C Sharp]

If most of Dartmouth's female students fear being socially stigmatized if they join the wrong group, then I'm not impressed with the supposedly successful community-building efforts there.
________

[Munchkin03]

Originally Posted by VandalSquirrel

For a student body made of the best and the brightest you think they'd have the ability to think for themselves and make an educated decision about a group instead of listening to gossip.

They're still, for the most part, teenagers. Tent talk and gossip happens at every sorority rush.

[homeward*bound]

Originally Posted by agzg

Wow there's been some pretty active moderating here... I was very confused for a moment.

Yet his latest ID is allowed to live on and continue posting. Sad.

[ThetaDancer]

Originally Posted by homeward*bound

Yet his latest ID is allowed to live on and continue posting. Sad.

Seriously. There's something wrong with this picture...

[exlurker]

Hey folks, the October 19 '09 online issure of The Dartmouth has several comments, an opinion piece, and so on, dealing with sorority recruitment. One item gives more data and certainly supports what DartmouthPanhel has said here on GC. In addition it mentions some changes that Panhellenic may be considering for future recruitments:

http://thedartmouth.com/2009/10/19/opinion/cartagena/

[Jill1228]

Originally Posted by ISUKappa

REP!

(Another message board I frequent also uses vBulletin and they have the option of repping a post you like. Sometimes I think we need that here.)

Yup, I am on a board that has rep too. And this post would sure as hell get MAD rep from me!

[Benzgirl]

Originally Posted by knight_shadow

Minus the smilies.

Oh him. When someone first quoted Choppers, I thought BA was back with Judo Chop.

[DartmouthPanhel]

Hey all.

I've mentioned this before, but I'm actually an Dartmouth alum now, but I used to be involved in the CPH.

I understand what D Mom is saying, but a strongly tiered sorority system is not unique to Dartmouth. Our Panhellenic does work with those chapters that are weaker at recruitment, but the fact is, someone always has to be last.

I would feel better about the tier system if it were based on something worthwhile like GPA, service hours, happiness of the sisters... Instead, the tiers are mostly based off of the opinion of fraternity men and trashy publications like IvyGate (I know it's hard to ignore, but it makes me sad when women make life decisions based on a repulsive internet blog that recently posted a humorous article about a student death).

Part of the reason Dartmouth women have the luxury to find chapter reputations beneath them is because Panhellenic works so hard to get all women a bid. At many campus, the majority of women who go through recruitment end up bidless, so even getting a bid to the "worst" sorority is considered an achievement. If we chose to take that path, we could artificially make our system significantly more competitive, so that many women wound up bidless. This would likely make all bid recipients more likely to be satisfied with their bid. BUT, our number one priority is providing the opportunity of sisterhood to every interested woman, so this is not a route Panhellenic will be taking.

Panhellenic can not hold rush any earlier than it does per College regulations.

Informal, 'get to know the sorority' events are held for freshmen women during the spring. All of our chapters take advantage of this opportunity to meet women, and our 'less desirable' chapters are no exception. There are also events that are Panhellenic in nature, providing women a chance to see sorority life in general. We chose not to control these "pre-recruitment" events, because each chapter chooses to organize them differently.

I understand the pressure your daughter felt to join a "desireable" house, but I have to tell you that most if not all of the talk of desirability and tiers fades out after rush. All sororities mix with all fraternities, and women truly aren't placed in a box because of their affiliation. Women who end up in houses they didn't expect are often the happiest a few weeks or months down the road because they find their chapter truly values them for who they are. In my anecdotal experience, it almost seems like the system knows where these women fit better than the women themselves.

And a final, small point. The school newspaper made a HUGE deal last year of what they called a totally new computer system/recruitment style. We switched from accept/regret to select&rank. The real difference is just taking out an extra and unnecessary step. It really wasn't a huge change.

[DartmouthPanhel]

RE: Block Rushing

While it wasn't expected, it was exciting to see our newest colony make quota. Block rushing is rather common in our fraternity system, so it seems to have made the jump. While I appreciate the sentiment of some women who essentially said they were ready to drop out of recruitment, but instead decided they could make KD into the kind of sorority they wanted, it's hard to see that many women ISP/suicide rank.

EDIT: By "it wasn't expected" I was referring to block rushing, not making quota or not.

[33girl]

Originally Posted by Low C Sharp

If most of Dartmouth's female students fear being socially stigmatized if they join the wrong group, then I'm not impressed with the supposedly successful community-building efforts there.

That's exactly what I was saying in heli-dad's thread. A school can try to mandate love and community and daisies and puppies all they want, but the reality is that you can't put people together completely at random and expect them to all love each other. Maybe just from the law of averages a few will, but not the majority. People join fraternities and sororities because they like the other members of the group, plain and simple. That's why the bonds extend beyond college.

[DartmouthPanhel]

Something we also deal with a lot is that, for a lot of these women, not getting into their first choice chapter is the first major disappointment in their lives. I know that sounds sad, but many of these women got all the awards and scholarships in their high schools, got into Dartmouth, and pretty much felt unstoppable.

When my head used to ring after dealing with upset PNMs/parents, I would comfort myself by saying that I was preparing these women for the real world, where they wouldn't always get the job/apartment/promotion they wanted.

[KSUViolet06]

Originally Posted by DartmouthPanhel

Something we also deal with a lot is that, for a lot of these women, not getting into their first choice chapter is the first major disappointment in their lives. I know that sounds sad, but many of these women got all the awards and scholarships in their high schools, got into Dartmouth, and pretty much felt unstoppable.

We've talked about this alot on GC in other threads, but this is so true.

[southbymidwest]

I'm going to stick my size 11 feet in here. I don't think D Mom was whining. I think she was trying to paint a picture of how girls at Dartmouth (and oh, so many other universities) feel going through recruitment, how they perceive the chapters, and how others perceive the chapters, and by extension, them. There is so much out there on the internet about sororities at individual schools that is just cruel (even for the "top tier" ones) and mean-spirited. She offered some suggestions for the system instead of just pissing and moaning. If she was a true helicopter mom, she would have called the Greek Office and/or national sorority offices and raised cain. She didn't, or at least didn't mention it.

Munchkin03 and Dartmouth Panhell got it right- these girls are 18. They are still teenagers, and are still heavily influenced by their peers. Simply because they are admitted to a very elite university does not mean that they are more mature than your average 18 year old. I do agree with Dartmouth Panhell in that these girls were part of the elite at their high schools- they are used to being at the top of the food chain-academically/socially/athletically/whatever combination. To go to college and be in the middle of the pack academically/socially/athletically/whatever is probably something that is quite new and unsettling for a lot of the girls. And if some of those girls decide to drop out of recruitment, so what? They put their big girl panties on and made a decision. Of course, they must keep those big girl panties on and not whine and moan and view themselves as victims of the Greek system, either.

I like how Dartmouth Panhell has discussed the situation, her writing shows grace and sensitivity. Dartmouth and the Greek system were lucky to have her as a member of the university.

I will jump off my soapbox now.