University Cheerleader With Down Syndrome Denied From Every Sorority on Campus

[SigmaCat]

Seems like the bachelors program issue was the dealbreaker, to be honest. People in graduate and certificate programs are excluded from membership under most circumstances, too, because they're not in a traditional undergrad/bachelors program. If there is another girl at the school with the same disability who is both in a sorority and a fulltime student in a regular degree program, then it's not too hard to figure out what likely went wrong.


Even putting the bachelors program requirements and GPA aside, if you're not enrolled in what your college would consider a regular full load of units, that could be a bar, too. The school in question is nontraditional in a lot of ways - the LIFE program, night school, part-time, etc. - so I can see why people would be shocked when sorority groups might appear to be unfairly "singling out" someone who is otherwise a normal part of their college life, but hundreds of women across the continent get cut - or outright excluded from rush in general - because they don't meet basic, objective membership requirements, either.



I'm frustrated with the girl's sister because she's painting with a hugely broad brush, which effectively a. slams organizations which may have actually wanted her sister, and b. gives the PNM the impression that *nobody* wanted her. Some of the chapters may have excluded this PNM out of hand when they realized she had Downs Syndrome. But others may have genuinely wanted to keep her on, and couldn't because she didn't meet minimum requirements.



I don't know anything about this girl that hasn't come from her sister, but if she is as active in school activities, as nice, and as eager to participate as she seems, I'd guess that my chapter, at the time I was a collegiate member, would have been happy to have her as a sister. But if she didn't meet basic GPA/matriculation requirements for my org and my university, the choice would have been out of our hands.