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Old 09-21-2018, 10:54 PM
panhelrose panhelrose is offline
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Join Date: Dec 2016
Posts: 57
Having been involved with GMU greek life personally and a sister of my own about to go to college next year who has an intellectual disability, I have a few thoughts on this (some more pertinent than others).

Clemson has a similar program to this called ClemsonLIFE. There have been women in this program who have gone through recruitment and joined sororities. To what degree they were involved, I cannot say, but this situation is not unprecedented. Additionally, given that a number of chapters at GMU also exist at Clemson, to paint any of the chapters who did not extend this woman a bid as discriminatory is too simplistic.

GMU is one of the fastest growing 4 year universities in the country. It is also primarily a commuter school. I'll echo previous posters that there is a bigger emphasis placed on job preparation than school spirit. Having been an NCAA division 1 athlete at a school that competed against GMU, I personally doubt the chapters would have paid much consideration to a PNM being a cheerleader at the university outside of possible time commitment issues which, since it's mainly a commuter school, would likely be an issue. It's not like Ole Miss where being a Rebelette, while time-consuming, is a place of prominence on campus. (as an aside, I personally found the sister's comment that this PNM was a "division 1 athlete" insulting since cheerleading is not an NCAA sport.)

Finally, as we all know, sororities are selective by design. With the exception of Tufts, a school cannot force a chapter to accept a PNM. If this particular PNM has a challenging intellectual disability, she may not have met the high school or college GPA requirement. No matter how many PNMs whisper about "grade risks" in tents, GPAs matter. And frankly if my own sister were to rush, I doubt her being a legacy would help counteract her GPA that much, and I accept that. Even the least competitive sorority in the country at Random Tiny University still has the right as a private organization to select its members.

Is it disappointing that this PNM was (apparently) dropped by every chapter? Yes. It's heartbreaking for any PNM to get released by any chapter. But it happens every year, regardless of ability, race, wealth, etc. Hopefully she finds another way to stay involved on campus.
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