Who Has Removed Preferential Treatment for Legacies?

[ASTalumna06]

Originally Posted by bevinpiphi

We still got positive recs for terrible women from members. The person writing the rec only knew what the woman presented, and didn't know that underneath she was a verbally abusive, manipulative narcissist. Or didn't know that the woman did a pretty good job of hiding her cocaine habit...until she didn't. Or that another was dealing ecstasy under the table. On the surface, especially to alums, these women would look great...but not once you dug deeper. Some of them we may not have offered bids to without the positive recs, but all of them became standards nightmares.

Recommendation letters are a sticky thing, with no right answer, and not universally helpful (or unhelpful - I no rec'd my brother's cheating, controlling ex with zero regrets over it - and then she ended up expelled from the university in her 2nd semester)

Exactly. It could go either way. Because many of these women are getting recs to simply check a checkbox. We actually encourage it, telling them to tap into their local panhellenic group or to ask anyone and everyone they've ever known in their entire lives if they are a sorority member or know a sorority member who can get them a rec. So perhaps they got their seventh grade English teacher who's an ABC to write them a rec, but hey, that PNM has changed quite a bit since seventh grade. And when considering some young women aim to have two recs to every sorority at schools with 15+ chapters, it stands to reason that some of those are of the "I got my friend's stepsister's aunt to write this" variety.

[carnation]

Oh, I realize that. Where they're valuable is if we're trying to find out about unknown girls, like those from small schools, or if we're trying to find out about girls who would rip up a chapter.

[DaffyKD]

Originally Posted by bevinpiphi

We still got positive recs for terrible women from members. The person writing the rec only knew what the woman presented, and didn't know that underneath she was a verbally abusive, manipulative narcissist. Or didn't know that the woman did a pretty good job of hiding her cocaine habit...until she didn't. Or that another was dealing ecstasy under the table. On the surface, especially to alums, these women would look great...but not once you dug deeper. Some of them we may not have offered bids to without the positive recs, but all of them became standards nightmares.

Recommendation letters are a sticky thing, with no right answer, and not universally helpful (or unhelpful - I no rec'd my brother's cheating, controlling ex with zero regrets over it - and then she ended up expelled from the university in her 2nd semester)

I was asked to write several recs who needed them at the last minute for an SEC school. National would send me their contact into since I was the President of our local AC. I met each of the women at a Starbucks and talked to them, asked questions based of their rsume. When I wrote the final copy of the rec, I made sure that the chapter knew that I was basing my remarks on a 10 minute conversation and would not guarantee the veracity of what they had to say. One girl joined a chapter that was not from my sorority and the others never let me know where or if they ended up somewhere. Recs are useless in my opinion when they are written by some random someone who has no real information on the PNM.

DaffyKD

[wildcatfan]

Depending on your point of view, Kappa Kappa Gamma just caved to pressure or caught up with the group. https://www.kappakappagamma.org/kapp...ypolicychange/

According to the FAQs that follow the announcement, the answer to the question "Does the legacy definition still exist?" is No.

As someone astutely and ruefully noted in the (many) comments on the KKG Facebook page, the highest giving level to the KKG Foundation is still called the Legacy Club at a $1,000,000 level.

[carnation]

I bet they'll lose a buttload of donors like Pi Phi did.

[SWTXBelle]

Gamma Phi Beta is no longer giving preferential treatment to legacies, but has formed a committee to look into other ways to acknowledge and celebrate legacies and "legacy makers" (I hate that term - open to suggestions for a better one). I'm on the committee.
https://www.gammaphibeta.org/gpb/00c...tions-Answered

[carnation]

You know, I don't think there's any other way they can "celebrate" legacies if they're going to toss out legacy policies.

[ForeverRoses]

Originally Posted by SWTXBelle

Gamma Phi Beta is no longer giving preferential treatment to legacies, but has formed a committee to look into other ways to acknowledge and celebrate legacies and "legacy makers" (I hate that term - open to suggestions for a better one). I'm on the committee.
https://www.gammaphibeta.org/gpb/00c...tions-Answered

"Legacy Maker" sounds a little cringy. Plus a quick google search and the first result for that term is a meat company.

It would be nice to celebrate legacies after recruitment- maybe tied to founders day somehow? Any maybe not even celebrate the colligate but the "legacy maker". maybe a special pin or necklace or something. In my experience it's the Moms that care more than the college student anyway.

[Sciencewoman]

I love Pi Phi's legacy badge. I hope they continue it.

[carnation]

I feel like a lot of us don't ever want to hear from Pi Phi again, much less about any weak attempts they're making to get us to think that they value legacies.

[bevinpiphi]

Originally Posted by Sciencewoman

I love Pi Phi's legacy badge. I hope they continue it.

I had quite a few sisters who have that badge in my pledge class - and their sisters or mothers were able to come to initiation. The extra bond of sorority sisterhood was beautiful to see. Removing preferential treatment in recruitment doesn't remove that entirely.

[carnation]

I expect that even in the groups whose HQs removed legacy preference, the members will still pledge who they want. The HQs are only doing this to look good (in their opinions).

[33girl]

Originally Posted by carnation

I expect that even in the groups whose HQs removed legacy preference, the members will still pledge who they want. The HQs are only doing this to look good (in their opinions).

Yep.

And if there is no policy won’t that just make things like alumnae sending cookies etc go through the stratosphere? Ie like how Congress denying the existence of the mafia makes it impossible to fight the mafia.

[AGDee]

I didn't see a post about our announcement, but Alpha Gamma Delta did announce a couple months ago (I think- time flies, etc.) that we've dropped legacy preference policies.

[Cookiez17]

https://www.tridelta.org/the-trident...Gdnb9kk305G1TU

Tri Delta has officially eliminated their legacy policy. Before this, it was up to the individual chapter to have it or not, but now nobody can have it.