FYI: info on sororities established at Yale. Theta is one of the 3 NPC groups on campus. Just in case you missed this posted in the Greek Life section.
http://www.yaleherald.com/article.php?Article=2936
February 13, 2004
Sororities play quiet role in Greek Renaissance
Despite success of new fraternities, sororities struggle to increase membership.
BY CHRISTINE KIM
What happens when you mix sororities and the Ivy League? You get Legally Blonde, some might say. Although thoughts of a "typical" Yale sorority member would probably not conjure images of Elle Woods, negative stereotypes of sororities at large still exist. While fraternities enjoy unprecedented popularity here at Yale, sorority memberships remain stagnant.
These Kappa women find lasting female friendship in sororities, while others choose other outlets like sports teams for similar relationships.
The recent additions of Sigma Phi Epsilon (Sig Ep) and Alpha Epsilon Pi (AEPi) have brought Yale's fraternity count to 10, still not a large number in comparision to many state schools, but far more than Yale's three sororities, Kappa Alpha Theta (Theta), Kappa Kappa Gamma (Kappa), and Pi Beta Phi (Pi Phi), the newest of which was charted in 1989.
Each fraternity seems to have a distinct personality and unique appeal. AEPi is a national Jewish fraterity, Sig Ep embraces a "national balanced man program," and other fraternities cater more to the stereotypical frat ideals of booze, babes, and brotherhood.
None of Yale's three sororities have specific and widely-known reputations, however, and natural pools of prospective pledges do not exist. While Theta may have a reputation for being the most prestigious sorority or Kappa for being the most diverse, no more cohesive classification system guarantees or foresees membership. As a result, even from within, sororities can sometimes take second priority to other activities and fade into the backdrop of Yale's social scene.
"There are so many other sorority and frat-type things at Yale," Janet Yang, TC '07, said. "Everyone in Pi Phi is really involved with a million other things, so it takes time out of concentrating to publicize Pi Phi."
Because Yale has so many more dominant outlets for girl bonding, sororities lose some of their appeal. According to lacrosse Captain Jennifer Kessel, DC '04, 11 upperclassmen members of the team have formed their own "sorority, just for fun." This group of teammates jokingly calls themselves ABK and create themes for their activities as a sorority would. They went on "ABKation" to Myrtle Beach in the summer and were responsible for "Jersey Night," where the girls all wore basketball jersies to a DKE party.
"Being on a sports team, you're around girls all the time so it's easy to meet people," Kessel said. "You don't need to join a sorority to do so. In our particular situation, we were friends before we made the group. It's not like we were chosen or picked people. I think that's how it's supposed to be."
However, many who aren't athletes or singers, and even some who are, chose to join a sorority because they "craved a nurturing girl environment," according to Theta Vice President of Finance Leila Rastegar, BR '05. "At Yale, everyone is a perfectionist and everyone comes from an environment where they were the stars. But this is a safe medium for hanging out with girls [who will] band together to form a support crew to help anyone who is hurt," she said.
Because of a lack of publicity, many freshmen do not know about rush and like Rastegar, choose to join sophomore year. In fact, about half the people in each pledge class are sophomores.
"Sororities are not very visible on campus," Kessel said. "I only knew two of the three sororities even existed up until this year. You see the fraternity events, but not sorority events. And as far as meetings, I have no idea what sorority meetings would be all about. I don't know much about frats either, but I assume that at their meetings, they plan their parties."
In actuality, one of the main reasons for the dearth of rushes is that all three sororities must follow the national guidelines of their respective sororities. A sense of private insider strictness seems to be built into the system.
New fraternities at Yale such as AEPi promote male bonding activities.
Many Yalies assume that city brothel laws preclude sororities on campus from having houses to throw their parties in. Contrary to popular belief, however, such laws do not seem to exist. "I'm not sure that the city of New Haven has used the brothel laws. I doubt it," Karyn Gilvarg, ARC '75, executive director of New Haven's city plan department, said. "We work closely with city enforcement a lot. If there are any such laws, they are probably just old ordinances." Thus, Kappa and Theta have houses on High Street, and Pi Phi has an apartment above Café Adulis with limited occupancies in each.
But the fact that they have houses does not change the fact that the sororities don't throw open parties. Theta, for example, along with 46 other national fraternities and sororities, follows the strict policies of the Fraternal Information & Programming Group (FIPG) which, according to its website seeks "to promote sound risk management policies [and] to be the leading resource of risk management education, programming, and education to the broad based constituency involved in all aspects of Greek life."
Among other things, the FIPG's brief risk management website states that "open parties, meaning those with unrestricted access by non-members of the fraternity, without specific invitation, where alcohol is present, shall be forbidden."
Although there are loopholes that allow members to get around these strict prohibitions, in general, these rules keep sorority parties fairly tame. According to Katie Allen, TD '07, Theta's risk management chairman, "Before social events, I must send in a pre-event checklist to the advisory board chairman and the college district president in order to get the event approved. The three-page form includes information such as the time and place of event, budget, alcohol served, and security issues. After social events, a two-page post-event checklist must be sent."
In a school where, according to Justin Christofel, SY '05, a brother in Sig Ep, "closed parties are the exception, not the norm," and access is not the central reason for joining fraternities, the strictly regulated parties that sororities throw seem to increase their privacy tenfold.
Even aside from rules governing parties, other policies that the sororities adhere to keep information and membership tightly regulated. A Kappa member declined to interview stating that she had to check with Kappa headquarters before publicly speaking about Kappa business.
Furthermore, on a national level, Theta, Kappa, and Pi Phi, along with 23 other international sororities, all belong to an umbrella organization called the National Panhellenic Conference (NPC), which, according to its website, seeks to support "its women's fraternities by promoting values, education, leadership, friendships, cooperation and citizenship."
Yale's division of the NPC, called the Panhellenic Association, "administers rush as an impartial third party to ensure fairness and is absolutely essential to the process," Teresa Kwon, JE '05, president of Pi Phi, said. "It also provides a framework for all negotiation among the sororities, including, for example, organization of joint social and philanthropy events."
"We really stress the Panhel because everything runs more smoothly with it," Yang said. "It makes sure no sorority goes under because they are interconnected."
But just as the Panhellenic Association ensures that each sorority gets enough members, it also prevents any one sorority from amassing too many members. "Sororities are capped," Kwon said. "Every year, each sorority is entitled to one-third the total number of girls who rush. Spring rush only occurs on a per-sorority basis for sororities that do not fill house total through fall rush. Pi Phi did fill house total in the fall, which is why we are not having a spring rush."
Also, under the Panhellenic Association, according to Rastegar, if a new sorority wants to form under the umbrella organization, all existing sororities must vote it in. Thus, even if a new sorority wanted to form, an existing sorority, which must meet a quota from the rush pool, might feel threatened and vote against it.
Earlier this year, many of Kessel's lacrosse teammates, along with several other female athletes, made an effort to start a new sorority on campus. "While my friends and I were interested in Greek life, we couldn't really see ourselves fitting in with the three sororities currently established," Marly Gillece, DC '06, said.
According to Gillece, however, the Panhellenic Association prevented this new sorority from ever forming. "We spoke with Panhel representatives from two sororities on campus," Gillece said. "Unfortunately, without our knowledge, the third sorority had already voted down our new sorority, without our case having been heard whatsoever. The decision by the sororities to approve our new one was made by the members with limited knowledge of our goals and by alumni, again with limited knowledge of our intentions or our determination."
In a way, both parties are locked into their situations. If new sororities were introduced, the rush pool might possibly grow. But it seems that because of quotas, whether or not new sororities will be voted in is dependent on the rush pool growing first.
As is, the pressures from within prevent sorority growth and both cause and compliment a general lack of desire from without to join sororities. While many males embrace the image of the stereotypical "frat guy," many females do not want to be associated with the stereotypes of the "sorority girl."
Although Yalies generally assume that a sor-ority here is atypical, members cite reasons for joining which many students can understand.
"Double standards may be built into the sorority system, but at Yale, no one plays into it, Rastegar said. "We're very modern and feminist, and that makes a big difference. I look at it as a social club of a huge group of girls supporting you. It sounds super-cheesy, but it's cheesy for a reason because in a place where everyone is so independent and always on their own, a little cheesiness is nice sometimes. When you're in there, you're in there together."
© 2004 The Yale Herald
The Herald is an undergraduate publication at Yale University.
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