Greek Life as Senior

[Wonderlust]

So I joined my sorority and have always been in good standing with my chapter. However I am a senior and will be furthering my education after graduation. I feel it would be better not to remain active so I can use that money towards graduate school and spend more time hitting the books. However my chapter does not do early alum and only have an inactive option which I would still have to pay for or dropping completely. I don't want to drop because I love to say I'm part of the sorority and have spent money and time during my years in it. Does anyone have advice or have been in the same predicament? Please help

[Titchou]

You only have the rest of this year. It's not that long. Will one semester's $ make that much difference? Surely not. You might also look for any grants your group has nationally if $ is really that tight. I know my group has $1000 grants for members in need.

[ASTalumna06]

Originally Posted by Wonderlust

So I joined my sorority and have always been in good standing with my chapter. However I am a senior and will be furthering my education after graduation. I feel it would be better not to remain active so I can use that money towards graduate school and spend more time hitting the books. However my chapter does not do early alum and only have an inactive option which I would still have to pay for or dropping completely. I don't want to drop because I love to say I'm part of the sorority and have spent money and time during my years in it. Does anyone have advice or have been in the same predicament? Please help

Go inactive, pay the money, and graduate. This will allow you to focus more on school. As for your dues, you knew the financial commitment when you joined. If you are truly struggling, take Titchou's advice.

[thetalady]

Virtually EVERY woman finds that during their senior year, as they are facing graduation and the future, we had hard decisions to make. I bet precious few seniors really want to go to obligatory parties, participate in philanthropy activities or required functions. We all have similar rules. I hope you see more value in your sorority membership than just saying you are a member. Think of future daughters or grand daughters that you might like to pass your legacy on to. Stick it out. You can do it. We all did and it is worth it!

[fraternitynik]

I think there are two challenges for senior members that you probably face:

1) Expectations we have of fraternity/sorority chapters rarely take new or senior members into account. So your school or national has certain requirements (attend this # of programs or do this session as a chapter). When senior members de-prioritize their chapter, this causes friction.

2) Senior members sometimes see the experience as a college experience, and aren't as pro-active about something they're stepping out of.

I think you can do a couple things to re-invent what it means to be a senior:

- Come up with some standards you and some other senior friends will live up to outside of what's already expected (maybe you meet once a week as a group to talk about job/grad applications, etc.)

- Talk about committing to something once you graduate (return for certain alumni weekend anniversaries, contribute back to the chapter or visit 1x per year, etc.)

If what's going on doesn't interest you, try and find a way to make something that interests you. Otherwise you just let every freshman, sophomore & junior know that it's cool to fall off as a senior (and most of us remember that the seniors were the ones we wanted to know most when we joined).

Those thoughts were all over the place haha.

[AnchorAlumna]

Talk with your officers. Often chapters give second semester seniors a greater latitude to miss meetings or be excused from some required events (like recruitment prep).
It couldn't hurt to ask. You're probably not the only senior member looking at this.

[Sciencewoman]

My daughter's chapter excused seniors from a couple meetings each semester so the seniors could all go out to dinner together during that time. I thought that was a neat idea. They'd pick a different restaurant each time, and there was moderate adult beverage consumption (or not -- your choice). It seemed to me like a great transitional activity and they felt like they were getting a senior perk and socializing with like-aged sisters.

[shadokat]

I don't understand why someone needs a special senior status. If you're a fifth year senior, maybe, but you knew joining that this was four years as an active, and a lifetime as an alumnae. This is like saying, "I'm 64.5 years old, and I'm retiring at 65. Can I not come to work for the next 6 months and get paid?"

[33girl]

Originally Posted by shadokat

I don't understand why someone needs a special senior status. If you're a fifth year senior, maybe, but you knew joining that this was four years as an active, and a lifetime as an alumnae. This is like saying, "I'm 64.5 years old, and I'm retiring at 65. Can I not come to work for the next 6 months and get paid?"

I agree and have always disliked the idea of senior status. For one thing, it assumes that everyone joined as a first semester freshman and is sick of the sorority by then. It also feels to me like pushing people out the door whether they want to go or not. We had several women who joined as juniors and even a few seniors. I can't imagine our chapter without them or their contributions their senior year.

If you're student teaching - yes. If you have an internship - yes. But if you just don't feel like it? Perhaps a reevaluation of the chapter's calendar is in order, to see if overprogramming is happening. Your schedule shouldn't be so overstuffed with sorority that you want to quit your senior year just so you can breathe.

And it should go without saying that seniors don't need to attend rehearsals or planning meetings for a formal recruitment they aren't going to be part of.

[jolene]

Originally Posted by 33girl

I agree and have always disliked the idea of senior status. For one thing, it assumes that everyone joined as a first semester freshman and is sick of the sorority by then. It also feels to me like pushing people out the door whether they want to go or not. We had several women who joined as juniors and even a few seniors. I can't imagine our chapter without them or their contributions their senior year.

If you're student teaching - yes. If you have an internship - yes. But if you just don't feel like it? Perhaps a reevaluation of the chapter's calendar is in order, to see if overprogramming is happening. Your schedule shouldn't be so overstuffed with sorority that you want to quit your senior year just so you can breathe.

And it should go without saying that seniors don't need to attend rehearsals or planning meetings for a formal recruitment they aren't going to be part of.

Agree. The only thing I can imagine a senior helping with the next rush is for helping practice conversation by playing rushees.

[33girl]

And playacting the worst rushee ever can be quite fun!!

[AGDee]

Originally Posted by 33girl

And playacting the worst rushee ever can be quite fun!!

I love doing that even now. One time I was a PNM with a squirrel phobia...lol.

I agree with your other comments. We have some special programming for seniors and have a program for them to work on a legacy project. They can be excused from some chapter meetings to attend alumnae meetings to start to see what those are like.

[AGDee]

Also going to say- almost every member, about 7 months after she graduates, misses her sorority big time and wishes she could roll back the clock. You don't have that much time in college.

[ASTalumna06]

Originally Posted by AGDee

I love doing that even now. One time I was a PNM with a squirrel phobia...lol.

I agree with your other comments. We have some special programming for seniors and have a program for them to work on a legacy project. They can be excused from some chapter meetings to attend alumnae meetings to start to see what those are like.

This is actually great.. And smart!

[aephi alum]

Originally Posted by AGDee

I agree with your other comments. We have some special programming for seniors and have a program for them to work on a legacy project. They can be excused from some chapter meetings to attend alumnae meetings to start to see what those are like.

That is an awesome idea. It could potentially lead to more seniors choosing to become active on the alumna level, and it would reinforce the idea that membership doesn't end when you graduate.