Sororities and fraternities–what do you think when you hear those names? Probably that they're full of rude, entitled, and snobby rich kids or kids who don't care about doing well in school and just want to party all the time, they have crazy hazing rituals for the freshman, and that you pay for people to be friends with you instead of forming actual bonds. The list goes on and on of all the negative things that are said about sororities and fraternities, mainly perpetuated by movies, TV shows, and the media.
UWEC has three sororities and three fraternities; the sororities are Alpha Xi Delta, Delta Zeta, and Sigma Sigma Sigma, the fraternities are Delta Sigma Phi, Delta Tau Delta, and Phi Gamma Delta. There are other fraternities that accept male and female members but those are geared towards people of a specific major, such as psychology majors or business majors, and are not recognized by the university as officially part of Greek life.
When I came to UWEC I wanted to get involved and started to get curious about joining a sorority but ultimately was too scared to actually join given all of the things I had heard about them. But my curiosity continued to grow, especially since so many of my friends from high school seemed to be finding their place in ones at their own schools and it looked to me like they were having a blast. It wasn't just partying, but finding a place where you belonged, and a group of people who love you just for being you, they were finding their families. Those families when on outings together to apple orchards and got ice cream, participated in school spirit competitions and volunteered for their charity organizations, and it sure didn't look anything like what I had seen and believed them to be about.
As it turns out, one of my best friends at school is part of one of the sororities, and during our time together as roommates, she told me what they were really about (at least this is true for UWEC).
The sororities and fraternities on campus have a strict no-hazing policy and every chapter has different rules regarding alcohol. The sororities have a no alcohol policy for their houses while the fraternities have varying rules depending on the house, but no sororities or fraternities force you to partake in activities that include alcohol if you don't want to. In addition, depending on the rules of the chapter, each sorority and fraternity are required to put in a request each year to have alcohol be allowed at their events, as well as complete alcohol education and awareness training.
In addition, they place a huge importance on academics and leadership as you must maintain a certain GPA to be an active member of a sorority or fraternity, every member is expected to complete a certain number of volunteer hours each year in addition to volunteer for fundraising events for their philanthropy, and they can take roles of leadership within their sorority or fraternity, but also have access to places of leadership that are outside their organization. They also want to make sure that families are involved in their students' life as part of a sorority or fraternity and each hosts specific events that allow parents to see what the organizations are about and why they are beneficial for them to be a part of.
Maranda is a part of Sigma Sigma Sigma (better known as Tri-Sigma) and she loves it. I was her date to her spring formal during our freshman year and she encouraged me to rush if I thought it might be something I wanted to get involved in.
So I did, but it was a terrible decision for me, personally.
When I started talking to Maranda about rushing she warned me that fall rush was really in your face, so to speak, and that maybe doing a spring rush would be better for me seeing as I get overwhelmed in social situations easily due to anxiety. The difference between fall and spring rush is that fall is focused on all of the sororities equally, and the spring rush focuses more on recruiting for each sorority individually.
Fall rush is run by a Panhellenic council that takes girls from each sorority and pulls them out to help with recruitment, the saying is "we lose our letters to help you find yours" for a reason. During that period the girls are not allowed to tell you which sorority they are a part of, as well as not associate with their sisters as they normally would. Even so, my roommate had to remove me as a friend on facebook because the girls in the sororities are not supposed to try to sway recruits to join theirs or join another sorority in general.
The way that it works is that you try to rate the sororities in order of which you would most likely like to be a part of, and in turn each sorority chooses which girls they think would be best suited for them and then all the information is computed by an algorithm of sorts until you find your home. However, this process was kind of unclear to me personally and even as it was explained it still didn't make sense, and with my anxiety, things like that being unclear are a big no-no. It makes me feel like crap especially as the sorority that I had ranked lower was the only one that I was invited over to see their house. Later on, Maranda told me this wasn't necessarily because the other houses didn't want me but could possibly have been due to that one sorority ranking me higher in their interest group that any of the others. Either way, it just didn't seem like that sorority was meant to be my home.
And you know what? That's okay. I still went out and attempted to get out of my comfort zone to try something new. I embraced a situation that scared me and I came out okay (despite a few tears being shed). So maybe being part of a sorority isn't written in my story that God has planned out for me, but I'll still go to events and support the different chapters here in Eau Claire, and I'll still be Maranda's dance partner to her formals so that we can drop it low together. I'm happy to support them from an outside standpoint.
And to everyone on the Panhallenic council during fall rush 2016 I want to say thank you. You all did so much for us and even though rushing wasn't quite for me I'll never forget all the kind and encouraging words you gave us during that time. Even if I ended up too overwhelmed to make a descision I had to live with, you will remain in my hearts forever.
