Harding University
 

On my hunt to rename Greek orgs in my books to ones that don't exist, I stumbled across Harding University (my book's main sorority shared a name with one of their groups).


I am kind of baffled by Harding. They don't permit Greek life, but they have "social groups" that are ... exactly like Greek life. Probably less regulated than NPC/NIC/NPHC as well.



I am wondering about the history of these groups. Did the campus ever have Greek organizations? I wondered because so many of the groups have similar names to actual groups - like they tagged on an additional Greek letter or changed one to differentiate (Delta Gamma Rho, Chi Omega Pi, Alpha Tau Epsilon, Lambda Chi Theta, Sigma Nu Epsilon etc). Did these groups exist there and then split away into a social club? It's interesting because there are some very non-Greek names as well.


I'm just interested in how this campus came to have this strange parallel dimension Greek life.

Harding is affiliated with Churches of Christ. If you look at other colleges in the US affiliated with the church, their student life has similar characteristics: social clubs that are local organizations and a big musical competition in the spring for the clubs, usually called something like Spring Sing. Some campuses have the same club (GATA, Ko Jo Kai, Sub T-16, etc) but there is no central organization or link between them.

These organizations have existed at Harding since 1925, some of long standing & others short lived. I counted close to 100 which have at one time or another existed. I suspect that the similarity to national groups came because the founder of the local group might have known something about it through friend or family and incorporated it into their own. No nationals have ever existed there.

I am very surprised that Harding allows social clubs of any kind. My parents met when they were both students there, and it was very strict. They actually had to withdraw from school when they became engaged because it was against the rules!

My grandparents are from Chicago, but they retired to Searcy, AR in the late 70's or early '80s. As it were, I have been to the Harding University campus many times. My grandma (who was Catholic!) would take us for lunch in the cafeteria and we'd walk around the campus grounds. Searcy is a small town - not a lot to do there. As Xidelt and tcsparky mentioned, the school is operated by the Church of Christ and it is very conservative.

I always thought it a little odd that Harding wouldn't allow national GLOs, but would allow these social clubs which operate almost identically to GLOs. If I had to guess, I imagine that the church wouldn't be comfortable with the concepts of membership selection and not having knowledge, or control of, the GLO rituals. If I recall correctly, Harding's "recruitment" procedures include an "everyone gets a bid" type of format.

Edited to add a link from a previous discussion on Harding: http://www.greekchat.com/gcforums/sh...ad.php?t=72480

Just wanted to make a comment on the portion that I underlined and bolded. Being a member of a church of Christ (and it is "lower-case c"), I wanted to point out that it should be "the school/college wouldn't be comfortable...". Churches of Christ are non-denominational; there is no governing body, and each church is run by its own group of elders and deacons. Harding is supported by individual churches of Christ, but only answers to its own board of governors or what ever they call the group that ultimately sets the rules. I had friends from my home church who went there and to other colleges associated with church of Christ. I chose not to go because of the multitude of rules that I felt were ridiculous and unnecessary.

The organizations are quite competitive with each other and not everyone gets a bid to join. A girl I dated did not receive a bid to the social club that her two sisters were active members of.

With the exception of Pepperdine University, all universities and colleges affiliated with churches of Christ only have local social clubs. Most are single-sex, with one that I can think of having co-ed groups. Unfortunately, open hazing also occurs in the majority of the organizations at the majority of the schools.

Sidenote: After Sandra did not receive a bid, both of her sisters and several of their friends resigned in protest.

I have at least one friend I grew up with who went to the school with co-ed social clubs, and she was in one of them. Also, I didn't realize that Pepperdine was CoC affiliated.

Oh ok, thank you for explaining that. I was under the impression that the campus was under the umbrella of the wider ("national") church of Christ.


Interesting! Back in 2005 when the previous Harding University thread came up, I specifically recall reading their social clubs "recruitment" procedure on their website. I am almost certain I read a clause in there that all participating students were going to be placed. That stood out to me because, as you mention, the clubs are a bit competitive. I tried to see if I could pull-up an archived copy of the website somewhere (I can still picture it in my mind!), but I wasn't successful. The current handbook doesn't specify, but it implies that bids are not guaranteed. I wonder if Harding tried out a new policy for a year or two and then switched back? Oh well..it's not really important now anyway!

Any other Georgia Southern University fans out here laughing at the idea of that college having a club called GATA? :D:D:D

I just looked this up, and I definitely see your point 😄

Oh, yes. I was like...wut???

YES! (My husband is a Georgia Southern alum)

My son cheers there and has been walking around in GATA shirts all summer and then I saw the club name....:eek:

I feel like one of the social clubs at Abilene Christian (it may have been GATA) posted a thread here a few years ago about how they turned around membership decline by working hard and having a successful recruitment. It was a great story and the girls did a great job. Totally applicable to GLOs!

https://www.harding.edu/assets/www/s...b_handbook.pdf

I think my most headshaking parts are
"Jumping Clubs"
and the fact that any club formed must be formed from a core group of 10 that have already been members of other clubs for at least three years and go inactive in them.