<p>So the hierarchy includes looks even beyond race, as in “fat girls and leftovers”. And a concern is that integrating a sorority will make is place for well, ugly girls. Tell me again why ANYONE would want to be a member of such a club?</p>
<p>I have no experience with U of Alabama sorority life. But I have heard enough that when my daughter applied there and then said she wanted to be in a sorority that I cringed inside. My daughter is bright, warm, kind, and yes, stunningly beautiful (looks NOTHING like her mom, lol). But from what I’ve heard, that rush can be absolutely brutal and I had to really think if I was willing to risk her heart in an environment like that. It turned out she made another choice and didn’t even visit the campus in spite of being accepted to the Honors program. I have to admit that I breathed an inner sigh of relief.</p>
<p>Which is not to say I think they need to can the whole system. I think they could all learn a lot more by doing some soul searching and trying to improve it.</p>
<p>Working for change? Really? A few of the women went to the press and the rest have done nothing? And I don’t understand this talk of leaving their friends. Consider an individual in a sorority. If she is ashamed of her sorority’s racist act, either her sisters are also ashamed and she wouldn’t have to leave them because they’d all act together, or her friends are racists who are not ashamed of black balling a woman because of her color in which case she should really think about finding new friends.</p>
<p>I think they would make a far bigger impact if they would take a very bad system and make it a great one rather than just to can it. Just my opinion.</p>
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<p>You betcha. When I left my sorority, it was because my non-sorority-sister roommate – who was, no doubt about it, a fat girl – had been summarily dismissed from consideration, because she was fat.</p>
<p>I truly decided I didn’t want to be a member of that group. I had nothing in common with those girls.</p>
<p>But Nrdsb, how do you do that, as an individual sorority member? Speaking up at rush is great, sure, but if the ultimate decision is not to let the black girl in, whether because of racism among the actives or because of alumni pressure, how are you making a difference from within? It all sounds nice and high-minded to claim you are going to be an agent for change, but at the end of the day, you had your say, you were overruled, and within a week, it is business as usual and there you are reaping the benefits of membership in an organization that has shown a real lack of values. </p>
<p>I’ll grant that the girl (s?) who took this to the paper has found an effective way to make an impact without giving up her membership. But anyone who was part of that process and didn’t either get out or go public is complicit.</p>
<p>Ok…from a different site: U of A has mandated CoB for all the houses to continue for the rest of the year. Women who were cut can sign up for this. Yes, all houses can (must?) participate. This may or may not change this system, but it still is a start.</p>
<p>^^^I think the girl(s) going to the press are making change from within. No one would ever have known about this if she had simply huffed off and left the sorority. I think these young people are far more accepting these days in all manner of subjects.Back in the day, none of the girls would have even considered offering the black girl a bid. So the whole sorority didn’t march out en masse, well sorry that didn’t happen. I’m sure many more girls should have done x or y. They weren’t brave enough. That doesn’t mean there isn’t something to be gained or salvaged here. Trashing the whole thing doesn’t work to change attitudes. </p>
<p>Hey, I wasn’t in a sorority. I don’t really know how things work from the inside. I’m just stating my opinion like anyone else here. But I think these young people want to do the right thing. They have been bullied by the generation before, alums, however you want to define them. Who knows how long this has gone on. Here is the chance for the girls to take over and tell the alums to back off. If you trash the whole system, we don’t get to see what the girls are really made of. Sure, they may disappoint, but you never know.</p>
<p>What is CoB?</p>
<p>Oops, never mind: Continuous Open Bidding</p>
<p>Seems alumna like to meddle in all kinds of nasty ways:</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/25/education/25sorority.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0[/url]”>http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/25/education/25sorority.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0</a></p>
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<p>[UA</a> president: Sorority decisions based on race](<a href=“http://bigstory.ap.org/article/ua-president-sorority-decisions-based-race]UA”>http://bigstory.ap.org/article/ua-president-sorority-decisions-based-race)</p>
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<p>Does anyone know whether this problem exists with the fraternities at Alabama? It seems that all of the attention is focused on the sororities but I would find it strange if the racism were confined to the sororities.</p>
<p>Perhaps another rule that could be worth implementing: no pledging of first semester frosh. First semester frosh have plenty of things on their plate to adjust to college, so adding fraternity or sorority pledging to that can be risky in terms of time management and academic performance. In addition, having a semester waiting period may give them more time to consider the various houses before choosing one to pledge (so if any house has a reputation of racism, hazing, or other undesirable things, it may have a harder time recruiting as the reputation makes its way around potential pledges in their first semester).</p>
<p>Way to go, President Bonner. She found an excellent solution.</p>
<p>Unreal that they rejected the grand daughter of a university trustee, no less!</p>
<p>Amesie, you can do what I did for That Other Thread and google fraternities at U A, look at comments of TFM and Greekrank and other such sites. (Which are illuminating, if nothing else.)</p>
<p>Besides all the negatives that ucb mentioned, first semester recruitment helps perpetuate the alumni machine. In schools like Bama, most of the new pledge class for the most “desireable” sororities is decided before school begins. It’s all based on who’s your Daddy? where do you live? where did you go to camp? ad nauseam. </p>
<p>Early recruitment doesn’t give the members a chance to get to know new or different girls. Sorority girls talk up the people they already know and other interesting girls are cast aside because on one really knows them well enough to "fight’ for them.</p>
<p>It’s a much less crucial matter than the race issue but it does perpetuate the alumni’s influence on the group.</p>
<p>It’s too late to change it to 2nd semester freshmen only. Bids went out almost a month ago, new member classes are very much active members in their new houses by now. I would be incredibly shocked if UA ever moved to a deferred recruitment. And if you think just because they moved recruitment to before 2nd semester they’ed stop using recs and alumni would stop volunteering/being present during recruitment that will never happen.</p>
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Race aside, it’s still sad that it matters so much who one’s ancestors are, rather than what one has achieved.</p>
<p>A trustee’s granddaughter who had a 4.3 GPA and was salutatorian.</p>
<p>And a beauty pageant contestant, according to the press…</p>
<p>FWIW, in my day, you couldn’t “pledge” (it’s not called that anymore) NPHC until spring of second year. I think NPHC does “intake” at a different time at UA as well. </p>
<p>Not that I want to get back to comparing misdeeds. :D</p>