What about “Mallet”??
Mallet would refer to the Mallet Assembly, which is an honors organization founded at UA in 1961 as a way to help integrate the university. It’s a self-governing living-learning community, though not all members live in the building. Now a co-ed organization, it functions very similar to a fraternity, though it is around 95% non-Greek. Malleteers are bright, inquisitive people who enjoy learning about the world.
It’s an honors organization? And I really thought it was NOT established by the university but originally organized by students.
http://www.mallet-assembly.org/index.php?title=Main_Page
https://ua.collegiatelink.net/organization/malletassemblyhonorsresidenceprogram/about
I’ll give you the on-the-streets definitions of these, not the dictionary ones.
Old Row Fraternities- The original more established ones. Bigger and nicer houses in general. A lot of legacies and in state/adjacent state kids. They’re a good group, the guys are laid back and fun.
New Row Fraternities- Newer and more out-of-state with higher GPAs. They seem to have an inferiority complex to Old Row and are a bit more standoffish.
Mallet- Remember the weird band geeks in High School? Non-athletic kids with funny colored hair? This is them.
Seems less like “on-the-streets” and more like Old Row definitions, @Mandalorian … @SEA_tide gave a far less judgmental and usable definition for Mallet.
Thanks for reinforcing that there is at least something to be concerned about- all the previous posts had led me to believe that 'Bama had evolved past the college mentality of the ratly 80’s. Sincerely written from one of those “weird band geeks”.
Well, my “band geek” kid is in an “Old Row” sorority.
Some peoples views or “on the streets definitions” are not entirely accurate.
^
Take it or leave it, that is the summation of my observations.
Naturally, the world is not polar. There is crossing over.
IIRC, there is a small number of fraternities and sororities which could be considered Old Row, but are not because their national organizations prohibit sponsorships from alcoholic beverage manufacturers. Anheuser-Busch sponsors the Old Row and allows the organizations to use versions of their trademarked logos. This is why many of the Old Row t-shirts look like beer labels.
As others have mentioned Old Row fraternities and sororities tend to have been on campus longer and are part of an official Old Row group. Some students will say that Old Row fraternities/sororities are more prestigious than their New Row counterparts, but this is untrue. While some groups did famously restrict membership to those from certain areas, that is hardly the case anymore provided one makes the effort to connect with the current members.
I encourage all students to make their own decisions about which organizations to join. Don’t listen to others who tell you that you can’t join a certain group because you’re a member of another group.
Mallet is the antithesis of what one would think of as The Machine. A group of “independent free-thinkers” don’t vote block.
Except for the candidates that they back! :)) Every year, my sorority daughter would take the Machine’s list of SGA candidates and vote for somebody different, just for spite!