MetaChat - Sorority Evictions Raise Issue of Looks and Bias

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24 February 2007

Sorority Evictions Raise Issue of Looks and Bias -- "Delta Zeta’s national officers....judged 23 of the [DePauw University] women insufficiently committed and later told them to vacate the sorority house.

The 23 members included every woman who was overweight. They also included the only black, Korean and Vietnamese members. The dozen students allowed to stay were slender and popular with fraternity men — conventionally pretty women the sorority hoped could attract new recruits. Six of the 12 were so infuriated they quit."

post by: ericb at: 17:43 | 26 comments

Delta Zeta National Office website.

posted by ericb 24 February | 17:49

Heck -- I'm going to post this at MetaFilter.

posted by ericb 24 February | 17:54

Eh, it's a fuckin' sorority. Why the hell do people want to join these things so badly? It's college, it's not like it's hard to find people to get drunk and get laid with.

posted by jonmc 24 February | 18:02

That story is pretty exceptional. I wonder if the NYT story will be as big as it gets, or if there will be more of an outcry because of it?

posted by brina 24 February | 18:05

But... isn't this the (rather ugly) point of sororities and fraternities: to include some people and exclude (many) others based on a set of officially determined criteria? Is the uproar because this particular sorority suddenly became so much more obvious about it?

I suppose I'm not being terribly sympathetic...but then again, I'm the type of person who took perverse pleasure in wearing hand-made "Go GEEK!" shirts during my college's annual "Go GREEK!" rush period.

posted by scody 24 February | 18:21

Groucho Marx: "I wouldn't want to belong to any club that would have me as a member."

posted by ericb 24 February | 18:39

"Six of the 12 were so infuriated they quit."

Obviously afraid of the new standard of competition.

posted by mischief 24 February | 19:44

Bitch, Ph.D., makes a good point: "they kicked out a computer science major with the research skills to go track down evidence of past discrimination in the library; a junior with the organizational skills and chutzpah to put together an open meeting at the student union to tell the DePauw student body what had really happened; and the editor of the DePauw student paper (what were they thinking?!?)."

posted by occhiblu 24 February | 19:51

That should read "an" editor, not "the" editor. But then, Bitch Ph.D. is known for its spinning issues into a greater level of controversy.

posted by mischief 24 February | 20:10

I was in a fraternity. It was a great experience. My closest friends today are those I made in the fraternity. My college life would've been a lot lonelier had I not joined a fraternity--I didn't connect with anyone in the honors dorm where I lived as a freshman and I was pretty socially awkward to boot.

We weren't very exclusionary, in fact, we were always struggling to increase our membership.

The leadership and organizational skills I picked up running the fraternity as a junior and senior were probably the most valuable things I learned in college.

So...uh, mefi/mecha has made really defensive of my fraternity experience. These girls were idiots to do this. End rant.

posted by mullacc 24 February | 20:17

What's interesting about this is that it seems like this sorority was one of the good ones -- it had the reputation on campus of being full of bright, interesting, diverse women. Then they kicked them all out!

(I'm not sure "a" vs. "the" changes much of the point, though. They kicked out someone with pull on the campus paper, who apparently had an internship with USA Today, which would seem to be someone who knows how to publicize exactly this sort of event.)

posted by occhiblu 24 February | 20:22

mullacc, FWIW I've known a lot of frat guys who were terrific people. I'm just a little wigged by some of the stuff I hear coming out of some other frats. Plus, I'm not a joiner in general, so I'm kind of skittish about organizations period.

posted by jonmc 24 February | 20:47

This is a surprise? When my mother was at Indiana U. in the 50's, she rushed a sorority and was accepted. During the initiation, they asked her to swear that she was "white, legitimate and Christian." She was offended and declined to take the oath.

Sororities have always been about exclusion, as scody points out. Or "discrimination" - there was a time when being discriminating was seen as a virtue.

posted by ikkyu2 24 February | 21:20

Did she get the internship before or after this incident?

I was an editor for the paper at Penn State. My influence was zilch.

One thing's fershur, Delta Zeta will definitely get only the girls they prize most.

posted by mischief 24 February | 21:43

Before, according to the linked story.

The point, however, is that given that someone had enough media savvy and contacts to get this story into the NY Times, it seems the sorority made a poor choice in underestimating at least one of their former sisters. (And it would seem a decent assumption that the woman pursuing the media degree, and with an internship at a national paper, might in fact be the one behind that.)

posted by occhiblu 24 February | 21:48

Worried that a negative stereotype of the sorority was contributing to a decline in membership that had left its Greek-columned house here half empty

The national representatives announced their decisions in the form letters, delivered on Dec. 2, which said that Delta Zeta intended to increase membership to 95 by the 2009 anniversary

During rush activities this month, 11 first-year students accepted invitations to join Delta Zeta, but only three have sought membership.

It seems that, assuming the snippets from the article are accurate, the national leadership of this sorority have assured that this chapter of their esteemed organization will probably either be shuttered or limp along at a membership level far lower than what it was before they stepped in. Good job, headquarters.

posted by deadcowdan 24 February | 21:59

What deadcowdan and occhiblu said: they ensured that their dumb decision would be publicized widely, and that incoming students would probably steer clear of them. Anyone at DZ HQ with a lick of strategic and public relations expertise should have known that this would be disasterous.

Mischief, I don't think this story reflects on the Greek system as a whole. It's something that could have happened with just about any membership organization.

posted by me3dia 24 February | 22:26

This is not a good situation at all. : ( So much for sisterhood...

I'm not pleased that DZs from my alma mater were involved.

I'm a member of Alpha Phi Omega (national coed service fraternity) and am glad we didn't have issues like that.

posted by sisterhavana 24 February | 23:50

Six of the 12 were so infuriated they quit.

The 6 too wussy to quit had the weave pulled off they heads.

posted by ThePinkSuperhero 25 February | 01:16

bitch poured beer in my weave!

posted by scody 25 February | 01:28

Just because this seems interesting here, Lindy Boggs, wife of Sen. Hale Boggs, and the mother of Cokie Roberts, was a Sigma Gamma Rho (at Tulane's Newcomb College) -- a predominantly black sorority. I've always wondered how that came about. Then again, Louisiana has always been more ... flexible.

posted by stilicho 25 February | 02:32

Chupahija didn't get a space in the dorms at Berkeley 46 years ago...if AEPhi hadn't pledged her she would have had to stay in LA and go to junior college--I think the story was her mother and stepfather didn't want her living in non-campus related housing. One of my teachers in high school told me her mother tossed her dorm application because she wanted her daughter to be in a sorority. Emerson had a chapter but I think the Greek system is for shit( as confirmed by this article), so I didn't test my chances as a legacy.

posted by brujita 25 February | 04:05

I have a friend who works as a Sorority 'Mother' for the U of Indiana in Bloomington. It's a very upscale sorority house, and her job is akin to running a hotel with 120 permanent guests.

Before this, she was manager of a women's spa/country club type thing, catering to rich housewives. It was a job she found, er, difficult due to the demanding nature of the clientele.

But she said that the bitchiness and vindictiveness of the sorority girls put the ladies who lunch in the shade.

posted by essexjan 25 February | 05:26

they ensured that their dumb decision would be publicized widely, and that incoming students would probably steer clear of them.

Insert "undesirable" between 'incoming' and 'students'.

Anyone at DZ HQ with a lick of strategic and public relations expertise should have known that this would be disasterous.

Disastrous? I wouldn't be so sure. The case could be well made that this is exactly what the national HQ expected, especially considering the quotes of the executive director in the article. Perhaps in the short term, they have a black eye, but considering that even the chapter president was directly targeted, these evictions were well planned with the intent to alienate undesirables and appeal to the women they do want.

After all, not everyone's values fall under the PC banner.

posted by mischief 25 February | 15:44

¿chupahija? ¿quién es?

posted by Wedge 25 February | 16:00

essexjan: which sorority? I'm curious. (I'm an Indiana University alum!)

posted by sisterhavana 25 February | 23:17

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