Is this legal? Deactivated one NPC, now part of a new NPC.

[Jeau7]

Hey Everyone,
After going through recruitment on the other side finally, I was talking with a couple of my friends who transfered from State University to my Private University. There were telling me that one of their friends had gone through recruitment the semester before and had pledged and initiated XYZ sorority. That did not bother me, it was the fact that the girl was part of XYP sorority at State. Why didn't Panhel detect this? How can you find if a girl coming through was part of another NPC GLO without explicitly asking her or being told? I am confused and a bit let down by the system. I am wondering if any girls in my house have done that.

[cuteASAbug]

I doubt the law has any laws regarding sorority membership status. With that said, it is against NPC bylaws to join any NPC sorority after having been initiated into one. No ifs ands or buts. How many girls went through recruitment at your school? My guess is that panhel just 1) assumes that anyone who has been initiated into an NPC sorority would know the rules well enough to know that she can't join another and 2) doesn't have time or the resources to check the status of every single girl going through recruitment with 26 sororities to make sure that she wasn't initiated someplace else.

[honeychile]

I think it would suffice to say that someone who would break her oath in this way shouldn't be trusted with cleaning the sterling!

The fact that you've already heard about it makes me think that it's only a matter of time before everyone else finds out. Once her XYZ sisters at Private U find out about her XYP affiliation, they'll probably have no choice but to nullify XYZ membership because of the NPC unanimous agreement forbidding dual NPC memberships.

Not only that, but she'll most likely catch a lot of crap from XYZ for even being dishonest with them.

As cuteASAbug said, there's no real method in catching girls who do this, but people do find out.

[Mward2002]

Only thing is, now that girl knows two rituals. Deactivated or not, she's not gonna forget what she's learned. I thought a sorority's nationals really checked up on that stuff though?

[susan314]

Originally Posted by ???Squirrel10

I haven't been a part of greek life for very long, but I understand that you are not allowed to initiate into one sorority, deactivate, then initiate into another sorority. This greatly confuses me as well as to how Panhellenic missed that.

Originally Posted by Mward2002

Only thing is, now that girl knows two rituals. Deactivated or not, she's not gonna forget what she's learned. I thought a sorority's nationals really checked up on that stuff though?

Panhellenic and/or the sorority's nationals wouldn't really have any way to check, other than to rely on the word of the PNM.

Each individual NPC group has some type of database of individual members, but we don't have access to each other's database - its members only stuff. NPC doesn't keep lists of members across all groups and campuses either. In absence of rumors or gossip indicating that there is reason to suspect the girl of attempting "dual membership", the only way for Panhel or an individual sorority to "catch" something like that would be to run a check on every PNM. Can you imagine the administrative hassle that would be?

What this girl did was dishonest, and I am fairly certain that her new group will terminate her membership immediately as soon as they are made aware. (And likely her old group will terminate her too.)

[33girl]

Originally Posted by Mward2002

Only thing is, now that girl knows two rituals. Deactivated or not, she's not gonna forget what she's learned.

If she's only been through them once or twice, unless she has a crazy photographic memory, a lot of it she will forget.

[ΑΓΔSquirrel10]

I haven't been a part of greek life for very long, but I understand that you are not allowed to initiate into one sorority, deactivate, then initiate into another sorority. This greatly confuses me as well as to how Panhellenic missed that.

[susan314]

Originally Posted by Jeau7

I am wondering if any girls in my house have done that.

If a woman has never attended any university but yours, then you're probably safe. (If she had pledged and initiated in another NPC group on your campus, Panhel and the other groups would be able to detect that.)

If its a case of someone who transferred from another university, the only way you could tell is by doing some investigating yourself. (Following whatever procedures your national endorses.) If you have a PNM who transferred from XYZ University and you have suspicions about whether or not she was in an NPC group there, you could always call that university's Greek Life/Panhellenic office - they may be able to assist you.

[honeychile]

Maybe it would be wise for College Panhellenic Councils to check out EVERY transfer student prior to Recruitment. I don't know how many that would entail on most campuses, but it can't be more than a fourth of those registering - and I for one would like to be sure that people are who they say they are.

It could be just one more step, as registrations come in. Transfer students put in one pile, and alumnae or whomever could spend the time checking out their status. They could then check them off and put them back in with the rest of the applications.

[susan314]

Originally Posted by honeychile

Maybe it would be wise for College Panhellenic Councils to check out EVERY transfer student prior to Recruitment. I don't know how many that would entail on most campuses, but it can't be more than a fourth of those registering - and I for one would like to be sure that people are who they say they are.

It could be just one more step, as registrations come in. Transfer students put in one pile, and alumnae or whomever could spend the time checking out their status. They could then check them off and put them back in with the rest of the applications.

You know, to this day I suspect that one of my close friends from freshman year (who initiated my chapter Spring semester, then ended up transfering to a school closer to her home in the Fall) tried to go through rush at her new university.

We stayed in touch over the summer (were supposed to be roommates when she came back in the Fall), and then she told me that she wasn't coming back to school in the Fall. She mentioned to me that the university she was transfering to had a chapter, but she didn't feel like she fit in with the girls there. I think she was trying to hint that she was going to rush again, and I casually tried to make the point that she could always choose to remain alumnae and not affiliate with the undergraduate chapter at her new school. We lost touch shortly after that, and I wonder whether she tried to "sneak" through rush to this day.

In retrospect, I should have contacted the chapter at her new school to give them the opportunity to welcome her to campus ...even if she decided not to affiliate, at least the word would have been out and she would have been busted if she tried to go through rush. (But this all happened the summer between my freshman and sophomore year, so I didn't know how to handle it at the time.)

If any of you were at Towson State University in 1993 and encoutered a PNM who transferred from Michigan State University, PM me and I'll tell you her name. It still bugs me to this day that I never followed up on it.

[texas*princess]

I think what that girl did was very dishonest ... not just to the old group but to new group as well. I'd want her terminated if I was part of the XYP chapter.. but that's just me

[LPIDelta]

I don't know if its my orgs form or a schools form but I remember seeing a statement on a recruitment registration form that says something like... "I affirm that I am not now, nor have I ever been, an initiated member of a National Panhellenic Conference sorority" and they had to intial the statement. And then it said something about "If you have ever accepted an invitiation to join an NPC sorority, please list the sorority here." It had some other things too, about financial responsibility etc. but the point is NPC recruitments should include a form which asks these questions. Sure people can lie still, but if they are caught, they can't say they didn't know the rules.

No there is no NPC database and no people don't check--back in the day you used to be able to trust people and take them at their word. I guess not so anymore. Suffice it to say, when people are found out, they usually lose membership in BOTH organizations.

[puddintane]

Originally Posted by honeychile

Maybe it would be wise for College Panhellenic Councils to check out EVERY transfer student prior to Recruitment. I don't know how many that would entail on most campuses, but it can't be more than a fourth of those registering - and I for one would like to be sure that people are who they say they are.

It could be just one more step, as registrations come in. Transfer students put in one pile, and alumnae or whomever could spend the time checking out their status. They could then check them off and put them back in with the rest of the applications.

I'm the Greek Advisor at my University and we had this happen about eight years ago. When the girl that had initiated two sororities had asked her about it, she did confess, and voluntarily gave up her membership in her new sorority. We never really got to find out what would have happened because it didn't get that far.

After that happened, word got around, and the women were suggesting what you had in your post.

The issue is, anything that is in a student file is subject to privacy issues, so even as the Greek Advisor, and as a member of an NPC Sorority, I can't disclose to students anything that is in their file to Greek Organizations.

We had to do the same thing with GPA. Years ago, we used to give the Greek Organizations a list of grades of grades at the end of every term, we can't do that anymore. If the sorority has a GPA minimum, all we can verify is that they meet their minimum, but can't say an individual student has a 3.4 intead of the 4.0 they put on their application, when their minimum might be a 3.0. I've seen it, and I can't say anything about it. I can, however, say something to the student, but I can't force them to be truthful.

Just keep in mind, that it's not limited to transfer students. Many freshman have flunked out of another college and start again at another school as a "freshman". If they are not receiving financial aid, there is no way to catch it.

[UGAalum94]

Originally Posted by puddintane

I'm the Greek Advisor at my University and we had this happen about eight years ago. When the girl that had initiated two sororities had asked her about it, she did confess, and voluntarily gave up her membership in her new sorority. We never really got to find out what would have happened because it didn't get that far.

After that happened, word got around, and the women were suggesting what you had in your post.

The issue is, anything that is in a student file is subject to privacy issues, so even as the Greek Advisor, and as a member of an NPC Sorority, I can't disclose to students anything that is in their file to Greek Organizations.

We had to do the same thing with GPA. Years ago, we used to give the Greek Organizations a list of grades of grades at the end of every term, we can't do that anymore. If the sorority has a GPA minimum, all we can verify is that they meet their minimum, but can't say an individual student has a 3.4 intead of the 4.0 they put on their application, when their minimum might be a 3.0. I've seen it, and I can't say anything about it. I can, however, say something to the student, but I can't force them to be truthful.

Just keep in mind, that it's not limited to transfer students. Many freshman have flunked out of another college and start again at another school as a "freshman". If they are not receiving financial aid, there is no way to catch it.

Would you be permitted to answer a question like "was so and so ever a member of an NPC group?" Simply a yes or no, not even which one?

Can students sign a waiver for certain items? (I believe this must happen at some colleges because they generate GPAs and comparative lists for NPC groups which are availabe on the Greek Life page.)