Wednesday, February 28, 2007

What's the point of a sorority if you let in undesirables?

From the NYT:



When a psychology professor at DePauw University (in Greencastle, Ind.) surveyed students, they described one sorority as a group of “daddy’s little princesses” and another as “offbeat hippies.” The sisters of Delta Zeta were seen as “socially awkward.”


Worried that a negative stereotype of the sorority was contributing to a decline in membership that had left its Greek-columned house here half empty, Delta Zeta’s national officers interviewed 35 DePauw members in November, quizzing them about their dedication to recruitment. They judged 23 of the women insufficiently committed and later told them to vacate the sorority house.


The 23 members included every woman who was overweight. They also included the only black, Korean and Vietnamese members. The dozen students allowed to stay were slender and popular with fraternity men -- conventionally pretty women the sorority hoped could attract new recruits. Six of the 12 were so infuriated they quit.


“Virtually everyone who didn’t fit a certain sorority member archetype was told to leave,” said Kate Holloway, a senior who withdrew from the chapter during its reorganization.


Here's hoping the six conventionally pretty white women who stayed will meet like-minded, conventionally handsome fraternity men, and that they  go on to create the foundations of a master race together -- maybe even come up with a final solution for the socially awkward.

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