Linsey Larson
Assignment #1
4/29/13
When a sorority is showing a decline in memberships, the answer is not to get rid of the members that’s have been loyal to the group. In this article from Sam Dillon on the evictions at the Delta Zeta’s sorority, the sorority turned against its loyal members asking them to vacate the house in order to bring in a more accepted group of women. How do they not see this is everything they should be against for multiple reasons? I think the sorority should be punished beyond the repercussions of the low memberships after this whole ordeal. Sufficient punishment along the lines of withdrawing from the sorority scene at that college for X amount would allow them time to gather themselves and re-evaluate their decision makers.
Delta Zeta was worried that a negative stereotype from other college students was the cause of the decline in memberships. Of the 35 members in this house, the sorority’s national officers chose to have 23 (66%) of the 35 women “vacate” the house as they felt they were insufficiently committed. It just so happens that the 23 members that were to vacate included every “overweight” and/or Korean or Vietnamese member. The 12 women that were encouraged to stay just so happened to be slender, popular and attractive to help get new recruits. When the sorority held their next recruiting event, they assembled a team of women from their houses of other locations who had “better looking” members to welcome possible recruits to the event while the actual members of the house stayed upstairs as they were asked to so.
I understand that sorority’s have quotas of members they are expected to retain and continue to strive towards. Of course certain types of women would attract the desired group of women in the short run, but doesn’t that go against everything a sorority is about? Does this strategy really work when in the process of doing so you crush the feelings of people who look up to this group?
Sororities are centered on an environment in which students are experiencing the academic environment in the house of members in which they build relationships and get the best experience. Without academics, sororities wouldn’t be possible. Shouldn’t the sororities main goal be to provide highest quality environment possible? Dr. Hershberger said, “We were especially troubled that the women they expelled were less about image and more about academic achievement and social service.” which reinforces my feeling that the sorority is off target with what their goal should be.
A large part of being in a sorority is building a relationship with your sisters and forming a bond unlike anything else. When the sorority chose to dismiss 66% of their
