Having attended a PWI and become a Delta through that school, I can speak on this issue due to our school being geographically near 2 HBCUs.
My view is this, most PWIs do indeed have smaller populations of Black students and on most PWI campuses, not all of the Divine Nine is represented. On my campus there were just DELTAS and KAPPAS until I crossed then we got ALPHAS and later IOTAS. So imagine if you will the girls wanting to be GREEK but only having Delta as their choice. A lot of my friends on campus wanted to be AKA and now many of them are becoming AKA through alumnae chapter but there was one girl who went from wanting to be AKA to DST. Was it because we were readily there, sure but it might also be due to the fact that she was able to see sisterhood in action. Whereas at an HBCU whatever you want to be you can ATTEMPT to be it.
I truly believe that the major differences between a PWI versus a HBCU are:
1. PWI's have less Divine Nine representation, especially at a small private college like my alma mater
2. There are larger lines at HBCUs than PWIs
I believe that HBCUs have more leverage in selectivity whereas a small PWI has to work to keep numbers at a level to keep the chapter going. You all can be more selective than us and it not hurt you or your chapter or numbers than we can.
Other "trivial" differences at PWIs versus HBCUs is that HBCUs kick it and have great parties and have YARDS and have those cute plots or trash cans with their names on it and have
WONDERFUL HOMECOMINGS with BATTLE OF THE BANDS and stuff
I believe that it does not matter WHERE you pledge just that you are true to the ideals of your organization. I chose a PWI because I believed it was
BEST FOR ME just like I chose
DELTA BECAUSE IT WAS THE BEST FOR ME AND 200,000 OTHERS AGREE WITH ME
Hope this adds to your understanding,
Carla
[This message has been edited by CrimsonTide4 (edited August 26, 2000).]