NPC appoints Community College Task Force

[ASTalumna06]

Originally Posted by Cookiez17

Tri Delta said in their latest issue of the trident that they may extend into community colleges in the future. I am curious to see how this process would work not only for my own sorority but if others decide to follow suit.

This issue? https://issuu.com/tridelta/docs/fall21_01_68-2

Can you point out where? I skimmed the issue but must have missed it. It's also pretty late, so I'm not sure I'm seeing straight right now!

[AZTheta]

Originally Posted by ASTalumna06

This issue? https://issuu.com/tridelta/docs/fall21_01_68-2

Can you point out where? I skimmed the issue but must have missed it. It's also pretty late, so I'm not sure I'm seeing straight right now!

Did a search of the publication (neat feature of ISSUU online) and found this on page 10, under "BRAVE: IDENTIFY AND DISMANTLE RACISM: subtext heading In Progress"
"Continue work on expanding pathways to membership including alumnae initiation and the possibility of extension at community colleges"

Nowhere does it say what Cookiez17 wrote, that they may extend membership into CCs. Merely that they are looking at the possibility. What we have is yet another example of misquoting and getting exercise jumping to conclusions. Sigh.

[Cheerio]

I've read in solid newspapers, and heard on decent radio programs, that community college enrollments have gone down. Considering covid and the lowered number of HS grads available to move-on to college, not surprising.

[Cookiez17]

When I say "may" this was meant to say potentially as per the Trident issue. They will certainly have to research first, along with looking at the state of college due to Covid.

[FSUZeta]

One interesting aspect of CC expansion would be transfers to a 4 year institution. Currently some sororities have a policy that assures initiated members in good standing can transfer their membership to any chapter. Other groups allow the chapters to meet the potential transfer and then vote whether or not to allow the member to join their chapter.

Remember the stories we have read here about PNMs aspiring to join ONLY their perceived top chapter transferring to a college with a less competitive chapter of the same sorority when their hopes and dreams are dashed on the rocks during rush, THEN transferring back to original college after initiation hoping to transfer smoothly into their dream chapter, only to be voted down by that chapter? Unless policies of some sororities are changed if expansion to CCs happens, some CC chapters members will be sorely disappointed.

Another interesting facet is that currently transfers can be accepted even if the chapter is above total. What happens when a 100 member pledge class graduates with their AA degree from Alpha CC and they all transfer to Beta University and seek admission to their sorority's chapter there?

[Sciencewoman]

Go Blue?

Or Hail no?

[Kevin]

Can I buy a vowel?

[Cheerio]

Did the NPC Task Force charged with looking into the possibility of allowing groups to establish chapters at Community Colleges set a time limit for their task?

[Titchou]

I don't believe so.

[BlueBayou]

I find this discussion interesting. At it's core:
1 - What does sisterhood mean and who should be allowed to participate
2 - Will the national NPC orgs continue to grow/exist if change does not occur
3 - Are we okay with sororities continuing to be mainly for a socioeconomically advantaged population
4 - Do we care about diversity

The vast majority of members of my sorority in the 1980s did not have to work while in college. I would venture to say it was less than 10% of our membership. I can only recall three people. Some girls worked summer camps - but very few had any sort of employment during the school year. This prevented access to sorority membership for a large portion of our school's student population. The cost of college has way outpaced income in my state. While enrollment at my college is about the same - sorority membership has decreased. More people are having to work to earn money for the same education. There are now 5 sororities instead of 6 and the chapter totals are lower.

Interestingly my college has not increased its enrollment in 30 years. But the state has really grown. My college competes for students with a couple of the Junior Colleges/Community Colleges mentioned previously by @swtxbelle.

Originally Posted by SWTXBelle

- Blinn College in Brenham
- Kilgore College
- Tyler Junior College
- Navarro College

[Cheerio]

Originally Posted by BlueBayou

I find this discussion interesting. At it's core:
1 - What does sisterhood mean and who should be allowed to participate
2 - Will the national NPC orgs continue to grow/exist if change does not occur
3 - Are we okay with sororities continuing to be mainly for a socioeconomically advantaged population
4 - Do we care about diversity

To your first point: It's not just about who should be allowed to participate as a sorority member. A college student has to earn the right to join, and then participate in, a sorority by performing and maintaining simple standards of education and conduct.

To answer your second point: The answer remains to be seen. Any changes that have been made/not made must be given time to take root, and results collected and examined. As the Magic 8 Ball might state, ask again later.

Your third point is your opinion. Each NPC sorority handles membership affordability in their own manner. Based upon my own sorority experience I cannot say as easily as you do that only socioeconomically advantaged women are able to start and maintain a lifelong sorority membership.

And as to your fourth point: Yes.The NPC, and her many millions of members, care about diversity/having a diverse membership. We as sorority women have, can, and are continuing to strengthen our lives, hearts and minds thru enhanced diversity discussions and practices.

[ASTalumna06]

Originally Posted by Cheerio

To your first point: It's not just about who should be allowed to participate as a sorority member. A college student has to earn the right to join, and then participate in, a sorority by performing and maintaining simple standards of education and conduct.

Honest question: are you serious?

How many members do you think we have join our organizations after a few surface-level conversations, followed by weeks of showering them with love and gifts? What did they "earn" in that regard? Why couldn't a community college student "earn" membership in the same way? Are you suggesting community college students can't maintain education and conduct standards?

Also, sorority membership isn't a "right," and if it was, you wouldn't need to earn it at all.

And as to your fourth point: Yes.The NPC, and her many millions of members, care about diversity/having a diverse membership. We as sorority women have, can, and are continuing to strengthen our lives, hearts and minds thru enhanced diversity discussions and practices.

Another honest question: how many of those "diversity" discussions are about non-traditional students or people who aren't pursuing four-year degrees?

[Cheerio]

Originally Posted by Cheerio

To your first point: It's not just about who should be allowed to participate as a sorority member. A college student has to earn the right to join, and then participate in, a sorority by performing and maintaining simple standards of education and conduct.

Originally Posted by ASTalumna06

Honest question: are you serious?

How many members do you think we have join our organizations after a few surface-level conversations, followed by weeks of showering them with love and gifts? What did they "earn" in that regard? Why couldn't a community college student "earn" membership in the same way? Are you suggesting community college students can't maintain education and conduct standards?

Also, sorority membership isn't a "right," and if it was, you wouldn't need to earn it at all.

Fair enough. Use the word 'privilege' instead of the word 'right'. A student earns the privilege of joining, and participating in, a sorority by meeting her chapter's specific membership selection criteria.

Nowhere do I state CC students can't maintain education and conduct standards.

But in deciding whether to allow the privilege of membership to CC students via CC chapters, are we looking for sisters to whom we can give quality experiences?

Or do we tip the scales toward quantity in number of chapters, quantity in number of sisters, and quantity of dues fees paid?

Say the NPC allows its groups to form chapters at CCs. It's been previously mentioned by others on greekchat that if an NPC sorority wants to initiate women attending a CC they'd best be prepared for the inevitablities of:

women choosing to attend a 4 year school, after their CC, that doesn't have their NPC group on campus and thus they decide to drop from the sorority;

women whose 4 year college HAS their NPC chapter, but said chapter has the right to refuse any transferring sister (from either a CC or a 4 year school) from full membership participation.

Somehow those inevitabilities, and others unmentioned, don't add up to a quality sorority experience most women want and deserve.

Additionally, some NPC groups may prefer maintaining a quality of membership that, even if they are allowed, will never include having chapters at a CC. What impression of NPC sororities does that give to a CC student desiring NPC sorority membership?

[NoID]

My $0.02.

"Diversity" in NPC organizations is purely racial.

I see no great effort to seek out those who are physically disabled in some way - deaf, blind, mobility-challenged, etc. Nor to seek out those from other religious cultures, unless they can be differentiated by skin color as well.

[carnation]

I loathe the words diversity and inclusion because they are so vague.

No one I know really cares if their NPC group admits a non-white woman. You know what? I went to an SEC school in the seventies and no one in my group would have cared then.

But NPC seems on a mission to destroy their groups. They don't want us to use recs. They seem to want us to just give up and pledge anyone who walks in the door. Recs introduce us to women we don't know and they also warn us about women we reaaaally shouldn't pledge. Let's say we pledge a couple of people we like during recruitment (no background information on them bc no recs) and it turns out that they pull trains. In their letters. Or they make racist or hazing videos. In their letters. Women like this have cost chapters their charters, and the forementioned examples have actually happened several times.

Should we be forced to take anyone? Do football teams have to let anyone walk on and play? Must Phi Beta Kappa have minimum GPAs for induction? Should dues for all organizations be outlawed, or should current members be made to pay dues for people who can't?

Think of what you really want when you're discussing diversity and inclusion.