Quote:
Originally Posted by clemsongirl
I understand the concerns regarding the shortness of the new member period, but I chafe at little at all the war stories told of "the good ole days" where pledge semesters were longer and pledge classes were expected to do more to earn initiation. The implication is that members these days are somehow not as good as they were before
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I agree with
APhi2KD that no-one is saying that members these days aren't as good as those in days gone by. Not so.
Let me explain what I meant when I said we had "earn" membership. We
did have to "earn" initiation because back then you had to make a baseline GPA in order to be initiated. If you didn't make that GPA after 1st semester, you had one more semester to make it. If you didn't make it after two semesters, you were de-pledged.
I do believe a longer pledgeship allows for a deeper experience. Everything from our ribbon pinning, then getting pledge pins, pledge retreats, weekly pledge meetings, weekly formal dinners, etc. - enabled us to get to know our pledge sisters and actives more fully because they took place over many months. That was possible even in a large chapter (mine had 165 girls, big for the late 70's at a Greek-competitive campus) because of the time frame.
On another but related note - is immediate initiation a Panhellenic rule? Or can sororities make their own decisions?
