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.
