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DePauw: Sorority can’t discriminate
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by Cassie Kornblau
Friday, March 16, 2007
After kicking out 23 of its members for being overweight and "socially awkward," the Delta Zeta sorority at DePauw University will be receiving the boot as well, officials announced Tuesday.
Last month, national officers for the Delta Zeta sorority told 23 women at its DePauw chapter to leave the sorority, believing a decline in membership was directly related to the "negative stereotype" the girls had on campus.
The former Delta Zeta members were called overweight and "socially awkward" by the national officers, according to a report issued by Pam Propsom, associate professor of psychology at DePauw, who annually surveys her classes to determine how students perceive various sorority houses.
In response to the sorority's actions, DePauw President Robert Bottoms announced Tuesday that Delta Zeta would no longer be a campus organization and said the university would help the students find alternative housing.
"I have severed future ties with Delta Zeta National," Bottoms said in a letter to the Delta Zeta sorority. "The values of DePauw University and those of the Delta Zeta National Sorority are incompatible."
Bottoms added that the university's problems with Delta Zeta nationals were not reflective of the sorority's local members, or the Delta Zeta alumnae of DePauw, who have expressed their disgust and disbelief with the actions of their national organization. Calling the DePauw situation "unfortunate," Sarah Anderson, president of the University of Wisconsin Panhellenic Association and a member of Kappa Alpha Theta sorority, said a similar incident would not happen at UW. Delta Zeta does not have a chapter in Madison.
Anderson said the DePauw chapter of Delta Zeta recently underwent membership review and the ousted members were told to leave for reasons other than lack of contribution, leadership and scholarship to the chapter.
"Here at UW, we have an anti-discrimination policy," Anderson said. "Anti-discrimination is always upheld, ensuring high membership at UW in quality and quantity."
Currently, Anderson said recruitment is moving further away from "frills" to ensure it is based more on personality, sisterhood and scholarship.
Anderson added UW sororities "have women of every size, shape, race and ethnicity."
"We want women to find a chapter they can contribute to and chapters can contribute to them," Anderson said.
At UW, Anderson said it was "clear" the sorority community — the largest women's organization on campus — does not have similar issues.
If there ever were an illegitimate membership review, Anderson said she could "ensure that we would not allow a chapter review that was not congruent with what Panhel(lenic Association) stands for."
On its website this month, Delta Zeta released a statement apologizing to the women at DePauw.
"It was never our intention to disparage or hurt any of our members during this chapter reorganization process," the organization said in a statement.
As for UW, Anderson said she hopes the incident at DePauw does not reflect negatively on sororities as a whole.
"I just hope this event does not perpetuate negative stereotypes toward sororities," Anderson said.
Anonymous (March 16, 2007 @ 3:33am):
Where is this university? Is it in Wisconsin?...
Anonymous (March 16, 2007 @ 8:42am):
DePauw is in Indiana.
Anonymous (March 16, 2007 @ 9:16am):
Yeah, you're the boss of everyone. We'll take your advice into consideration.
Anonymous (March 16, 2007 @ 12:06pm):
To be fair, the Sorority after the purges was filled with top quality girls...I mean women.
- Germain E. Stemme
Anonymous (March 16, 2007 @ 1:16pm):
"...based more on personality, sisterhood and scholarship."
Yeah, that's what those frat boy hound dogs are looking for, personality. Yeah, THAT"S THE TICKET!!! ROFLMAO
Anonymous (March 16, 2007 @ 3:20pm):
I just feel bad, because I read in the NY Times that the girls they kicked out were the ones who did stuff, and the ones they kept weren't that involved in the chapter. Really am embarrassment for the National Organization.
gina b (March 16, 2007 @ 11:08pm):
it is very unfortunate that this happened. As a member of a panhellenic sorority its an embarrasment to the greek community. Young ladies join great organizations that have been here for over a century to follow what founders believed in...scholarship, leadership, sisterhood and college loyalty. NOT for the frat boys!
Anonymous (March 19, 2007 @ 10:29pm):
I aa in sorority at uw and the whole system is a joke. there is no sisterhood where people only talk to 25% of the other members. the entire point is to drink and make out with as many boys as possible especially those from sig ep or sae. every event is a just another chance to drink and get groped by frat boys and the girls love it.
Anonymous (March 23, 2007 @ 11:08pm):
um, I was in a UW sorority, there is DEFINITELY pressure to be attractive and appeal to fratties. the fratties only pair with a sorority for events if the girls will put out or help them win so they can be with a "hoter" house next year. EVERYONE in the greek system knows we feel pressure to advertise the more attractive members to get better recruitment. There are a few (not many) houses that have the more attractive girls be mroe visual at rush. granted in the end the houses pick the girls that fit the sisterhood, scholarship, community service, etc. roles over the skanks, FRATERNITIES have no direct role in recruitment. I hope the three houses with ethical recruitment don't get discouraged.
Anonymous (March 27, 2007 @ 11:14pm):
PS-she was right on about the frats. They are esp. picky based on putting out, looks, and dumbing down to impress guys. I was happy that after hearing many of the gys in the house decide they needed to have a "get to know you dinner" before making a decision to do a mixer with us. the prettiest girls went, many that were less atractive did not go b/c they wee not encouraged to the way the pretty ones were. we had the mixer and NO ONE in my house showed up becuase we were so disgusted by the guys. I love it!
Anonymous (May 10, 2007 @ 1:47am):
It's obvious who is in it for the right reasons and who is in it for the stupid boys! Those dumb guys think they are some sort of special gift. I hate them, they are so annoying!!
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