DePauw: Housing Found for Students Displaced by Sorority Membership Review
 

DePauw was able to arrange housing for the women who needed to move due to a sorority's membership review. See the news release with the headline beginning "President Bottoms' to the campus community regarding . . . ":

http://www.depauw.edu/univ/greekfacts/

Would be great if they put on their site words that do not need a magnifing glass to read!:eek:

At least, it seems that they are working together and work things out.

While many schools look down their noses at Greeks, we do try to build houses for our members as again, the cost of housing goes up and there is a lack of it.

They seem to want to let the apartment owners make more money.

Tom,

Hold down on your ctrl key (lower right and left corners of keyboard), then while holding that down, scroll up and down with your mouse wheel until you don't need a magnifying glass.

Thanks Kev!:D

They are so damn smart then why cannot they print it bigger for people with eye afflictions?:)


Heck, they are younger and more adept than some are!

Oh, I am sure this will show up in someones Signature in the future!

Don't flatter yourself.

I don't really understand this at all. What is a membership review?

They kicked out the girls that didn't fit the image they wanted to project and kept the ones that did so they didn't lose their spot in Panhel by closing the chapter entirely.

http://www.greekchat.com/gcforums/sh...ad.php?t=82969

At least that's what "membership review" means in this case.

Thanks, Boo. ;)

I have read numerous articles about this situation, including all of the newspaper articles in the DePauw paper. I have 2 close family members who are DZ Alumnae from DePauw. I am also a DZ alumnae, although at a different school. What happened to my chapter a few years ago is similar to what is happening at DePauw now, so I have some experience with this type of situation. First, I would like to clarify what the "membership review" actually was. It was not where the sorority "kicked out" the girls that didn't fit their image. It is where the sorority comes in and reviews its members to determine which members posess the qualities and desire to get the chapter where it needs to be. This is different on every single campus and for every single chapter. They evaluated the situation at DePauw and based on the other soroities, determined what needed to be in place to get Delta Zeta to be a strong presence on the campus again. They then met with the membership and evaluated who was best suited and motivated enough to accomplish this task. It is never a popular step to reorganize a chapter because inevitably sisters end up getting hurt in the process. If Delta Zeta didn't value what the current chapter members had contributed to the soroity, they would not have offered alumnae status to those women. Those women chose not to be in the sorotiy anymore. Everyone seems so quick to blame DZ, because that seems to be the easy way out. While the situation was handled very poorly, DZ is not the only one responsible. When my chapter reoeganized, there were some very hurt young women, but our campus panhellic system knew for years there were problems and did nothing. Delta Zeta HQ handled the situation in the best possible way they believed they could given the set of circumstances they were presented with at the time. Everyone has a little part of the blame in this situation, from the chapter membership, to the campus leaders, to DZ HQ. Just remember that there is always more than one side to the story.

I just felt that I needed to say something regarding the situation at DePauw as I was getting tired of hearing all the DZ bashing.

DZRose

It is not my belief, as a non-NPC member, that picking and choosing which members get to "stay" as the face of the chapter, is a good practice. I was able to read the threads and various articles objectively. I do not have a bad opinion of your sorority because of this, but I do believe that everyone makes mistakes.

I would agree to an extent. Every year in rush, that's exactly what you are doing, picking and choosing who is the face of your chapter. The problem arises when you select members and then someone esle comes in and says "oh, those girls aren't good enough" or "these sisters aren't what the chapter truly needs". In this instance I'm sure we'll never really know all the details of the situation surrounding why some individual were asked to stay and others to leave. All I have heard is the displaced women's opinion, that it is because of appearance alone that they were asked to become alumnae. I doubt very much that that was the only cirteria for who they requested to remain an active member. DZ has a very diverse membership, as you can see at any convention. Unfortunately, for whatever reason, the representatives found that those women were just not what the chapter needed to continue and to grow and be successful. Timing was poor, and it seems it was not handled with much delicacy. A significant amount of the DZ sisterhood everywhere is aware of what has transpired and discussion is quite divided on it. It's really an awful situation, and it just doesn't reflect well on the sorority as a whole, and even extends beyond Delta Zeta and makes the entire greek system appear very superficial because of the press it is getting. It is even gained some amount of national attention by the New York Times.

I'm thankful that it has not effected your opinion of Delta Zeta, I only wish everyone was as understanding as yourself.

DZRose

According to a New York Times article, the girls evicted included all who were overweight and the few minority members.

That Times article is pretty thorough.

I don't believe for a minute that those women didn't show dedication to recruitment. Perhaps DZ imposed standards on them that the org. felt would help with recruitment...such as losing weight, dressing better, nice hair cuts and makeup, etc. We all know that looking one's best helps chapter image, but I do feel it's unreasonable and very classless to tell your own sisters (lets remember the sorority's leadership are also sisters of the women in the DePauw chapter) "Lose weight or you're out"...if that's what was done. The sorority keeps saying these women were not committed to doing what HQ wanted in order to boost recruitment, and after reading all the stories and examples that have come out of it, it certainly seems that this is what was done. If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it's a duck.

I don't believe it's OK to do WHATEVER is judged as necessary in order to save a chapter. If the sorority wanted to reorganize the chapter, it should have just judged the chapter in its entirety and made them all alumnae, then recruited a whole new chapter. They wouldn't have had to close the chapter, and they would have avoided this whole mess. I feel sorry for the sisters from this chapter who will probably live with this pain and have a tainted view of their college experience for the rest of their lives.

Love it!

I find this hard to believe, especially when this member's account of what happened is totally different from what you described as "membership review".


Are you talking about the women who got kicked out? If you get kicked out, how is it possible that they didn't want to be in the sorority anymore? Please clarify.

And I'm sorry...if an HQ chooses to reorganize a chapter, you give alumnae status to all women. You don't pick and choose based on who looks best.

This post is in no way bashing DZ at all. The situation was handled the worst way possible, and unfortunately now your officials responsible for this has to deal with all the negative press and opinions.

I can only hope that no other organization will do this to its members. :mad: