See-http://www.today.com/news/university-alabama-alpha-phi-sorority-criticized-recruitment-video-t39016
Nay or Yah or who cares?
Who cares.
They are showing the recruits who they are. Since they recruited the maximum allowed, I think it was successful in attracting like-minded sisters to join.
Is it really a secret that the sororities at Alabama (not just this one) are full of cute, skinny, blonde girls who like the Alabama football team? The facts are wrong too (at least in the reporting of the reporting). There are many more than 72 members of that sorority - more like 350.
I have minimal feelings on the matterâthat said, I have not seen that much skin since I got a free subscription to Cinemax in the 80sâŠ
This is why my D has a hard time taking Alabama seriously. D knows two people who were at rush this year, one who is an entering freshman, and one who is a sophomore who is already in a sorority. I would not be surprised if the sorority in the video is the one the sophomore belongs to. Last week D was showing me their postings about getting drunk, passing out in the street etc. She is having a hard time believing that this is a school for serious students and videos like this donât help.
The video isnât the problem.
I am glad I am not female. The instinct to eat your own apparently is overwhelming.
Is it really any different than the sorority recruitment videos at other big greek schools? A friend sent me a link to her daughters sorority video at University of Florida and although the greek letters were different the video was remarkably similar. Iâm not a huge fan but unsure why this particular group was singled out when most other chapters do the same?
I really have mixed feelings about the video, and it probably stems from a few oddities about my upbringing. On the one hand, I was raised in New England, but Iâve lived in Atlanta for decades and my kids are native Georgians (to the horror of my Yankee relatives). Iâm also tall, blonde, and pretty, but I donât emotionally connect with the girls in the video because I loathe sports and Iâm a super nerd.
So, having said that, I think those girls are happy with, and feel comfortable with other girls that are like them in that sorority. Theyâre not out sacrificing babies on the front lawn or contributing to climate change any more than any other social group, as far as I can tell. Would I want to hang out with them (assuming I was back in time and their age), no, but just because our Venn Diagrams donât overlap doesnât mean thereâs anything wrong with them or with me.
Also, itâs not that these girls are spectacularly naturally beautiful; in the South, itâs much more typical to really put a lot of effort into your physical appearance-these girls have all had braces and teeth whitening, contacts, probably never sleep in their makeup, know how to put their makeup on perfectly, spend hours on their hair, and have a very carefully curated wardrobe, and hit the gym every morning no matter what.
There is nothing wrong with this if it makes you happy, in my opinion. Itâs whatâs important to them, and god knows there are certainly much worse things to take seriously. If they want to clump together and enjoy each other, more power to them! You know theyâd probably be really miserable at a robotics competition or Dragon-Con, or turning their hair a shade never seen in nature, so let them be what their authentic self is.
The downside to the video is it made it a lot harder to convince my older daughter to even consider Alabama (the honors college)-sheâs afraid sheâll be held down and flatironed and spray tanned into submission. But Iâm fairly sure (at least I hope) that overall 'Bama is more heterogeneous than the video suggests.
Sorority girls on probably every campus tend to be attractive, so what.
Over the years, Iâve written many, many letters of recommendations for girls who are going thru Rush. I see their resumes. They are typically high GPA good to high test score students.
@me29034 Your DD may be surprised to find out that virtually all univs (except for maybe BYU and bible colleges) will have kids posting about outrageous parties, etc. That said, many kids donât party at all.
I will say the lack of diversity is what is most breathtakingâŠ
Rush is open to all. The sororities canât make minorities participate, and in fact are competing with the traditionally black and Hispanic sororities for these new members. Over 2250 girls joined one of 17 PanHel sororities (the traditionally social ones), only 214 self identified minorities in that group. I donât fault the minority students who want to join houses where maybe their mothers are members, or where their friends from high school are members, and so join one of the historically black group, or a music house, or a local house. I also think of the 17 social sororities, those 214 didnât divide equally.
Look at any of the California big schools and you are going to see a lot of skinny blondes. Look at the chapters of the same national groups at MIT or Case and youâll find much more diversity. The Greek groups tend to reflect the make up of the school. Maybe Alabama needs more minorities?
I didnât think the bathing suit parts of the video really reflected what the sorority does. Do we really think they all go down to the dock and hang with âjust the girlsâ? No. Of course, if I buy a car it doesnât come with girl in a bikini in it either, and all the servers at Red Lobster arenât perky and nice, and pumping gas isnât nearly as much fun at they make it seem on TV. Itâs advertising. If it doesnât appeal to you, donât buy the product.
My point, is that any entity, whether societal or institutional, all play a dynamic part in the composition of their respective body. They do this by reinforcing their own value system, whether that is a passive or benign neglect is not the questionâas the history of the south and its own universities, describe in fairly graphic detail that over racism was not just a practice but the status quo norm.
So, as a person of color, I do take exceptionâŠand my exception is based on real and recent events. By way of recent example, in August 2012, Chrystal Stallworth, of Lawton, Oklahoma, packed her bags and set off for sorority rush at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa. She was the total package: 4.3 grade point average, premed, student body president of her high school, a cheerleader, and a volunteer for an organization that raises money to fight cancer. âI tried to make myself the all-around college candidate,â she says. During the first round, Stallworth, now 20, visited the 16 Panhellenic sororities that participate in formal rush and loved every minute of touring the multimillion-dollar mansions and meeting the women who could be her sisters.
In short, she was only invited back to a small handful of the 16 houses she visited. The one barrierâshe is part blackâthis is very well documentedâŠseeâhttp://www.marieclaire.com/culture/news/a10379/revolution-on-sorority-row-september-2014/
Sorority girls on probably every campus tend to be attractive, so what.
Thank goodness being attractive was not a prerequisite for my sorority. 
I am a sorority member (actually, a fraternity member, since my group is a female panhellenic group that considers itself a fraternity). I have been rush advisor, and I have been chapter advisor, both at my alma mater. Not only would my group never see the need to pay a bunch of money to produce a slick recruitment film, but no way in h-e-double-toothpicks would they ever promote themselves in the manner the sorority in question promoted itself.
That said, I think itâs great that the group at 'Bama did what they did ⊠it lets young ladies know exactly what this group is/wants to be ⊠so those who are not interested can just move along.
I loved my time in a sorority, and I learned so much that had a positive impact on my life. I know for a fact that there are many sororities that are absolutely, positively not like the group in the video âŠ
The video is very effective in selling what they are selling.
BTW, the requirement seems to be not blonde hair, but LONG hair.
One thing is certain: I certainly donât fit THAT mold. I was a GDI all the way when I was in college and very glad I was. But to each her own.
According to a U of Alabama press release of the 214 self identified minority students who received bids from Pan Hel sororities, 25 are African-American. So, just over 1% of those who received bids are African-American. That is 19% more than last year.
I donât think you can assume that this low number is because African-Americans wanted to join African-American sororities. Maybe it isâI donât know. The key questions, IMO, are (a)what outreach efforts were made to encourage African-Americans to apply? (I think the video referenced in this thread would actively discourage most African-American students from applying.) (b) how many African-Americans went through rush and how many received bids vs. how many white and other students went through rush and received bids?
I think it is helpful on any college campus to consider the pros and cons of any organization.
Even though Panhellenic/NPHC/UGC/IFC is large at UA, it is 30% of the student body - so the majority (70%) are not Greek. The AL Inter-fraternity Council publishes cumulative statistics that can be found on the UA web site.
The UA report (Grades reported by Office of Univ Registrar 6/2015) breaks out active member GPA, total active members, new member GPA, total new members. They break out Greek Community and Council Statistics. The UA spring 2015 report shows the Greek have higher GPA in comparison to all UG, and the women and men also have higher GPA in Greek. Of course the detail shows some very high stat organizations and some lower stat ones as an aggregate group.
I do believe UA is attracting students that overall as an aggregate are doing well.
Some students can continue to do well at college; some do not make an adjustment to a college for a variety of reasons.
I was glad to hear a neighborâs daughter decided to âwait a yearâ to consider going through Rush at UA - she has a small scholarship but I believe she will do better juggling school and the part time job she will need for incidental expenses and to minimize student loans. Some Greek organizations are costly at a school like UA.
By the way, the aggregate women GPA is higher than the males, Greek or not.
boolaHI, that case was well publicized 3 years ago and Alabama sororities made changes. Each national sorority has a rep on campus for Rush for the last two years (donât know about this year but probably) to make sure discrimination was reduced as much as it could be. Much of the problem was not the current members, but the rules in place that gave preference to legacies which were almost always the white children of previous white members. Not so much the girls as their mothers and grandmothers who were members and wanted things to remain the same. The national organizations would love for there to be minorities in the houses, and would be featuring them in videos if they could. My daughter, a minority, is often featured in photos in brochures for girl scouts, sports teams, schools. For her sorority, itâs not necessary as the group is about 1/3 non-white, and gee, some of the white girls have dark hair so they can be in the pictures too! Nationally, the Panhell sororities are still majority white, but in schools that have better diversity, the sororities do too.
Look at Alabama. Overall, 12% black, 3% Hispanic, 2% Asian attend the school, (17%) so more than 80% white. 2500 girls go through Rush for the 17 panhell houses. About 2260 pledged, and of those 214 are minorities, or `~9%. However, that doesnât include those who pledged other sororities of their choice - locals, traditionally black, traditional Hispanic, a few with specific focus like music or religion. That 9% number goes up if you consider the overall number of freshmen who went though all types of rush and those who chose one of the other groups. Very very few white students in the traditionally black or Hispanic houses.
We all like to pretend that if a school is 20% minority it means that one of every five students sitting at the table is a minority, but usually it means that every 5th table is a group of Asian students or black students, or two students at one table are minority but the next 4 are all white. Sororities are social groups, and in the students want to sit with their friends. They should never be excluded, but donât always choose to be included.
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I don't think you can assume that this low number is because African-Americans wanted to join African-American sororities. Maybe it is--I don't know. Th <<<
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Many AA parents who belonged to network-strong traditionally black Greek houses, still really want their kids to pledge their houses. I rarely see white adults with their Greek letters on their cars or on their clothes. I frequently see AA adults with their Greek letters on their cars and clothes. These folks are very loyal to their Houses.
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We all like to pretend that if a school is 20% minority it means that one of every five students sitting at the table is a minority, but usually it means that every 5th table is a group of Asian students or black students, or two students at one table are minority but the next 4 are all white. Sororities are social groups, and in the students want to sit with their friends. They should never be excluded, but don't always choose to be included.
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Yes, still very true at most/all college campuses.