AnnCatherine Heigl attends George Mason University and is a part of its Mason LIFE program. AnnCatherine is 19 years old and recently went through sorority recruitment. She also has Down Syndrome, and for that, her family believes, she was released from every sorority on campus.
This may seem trivial to some, but the entire Heigl family has been involved in Greek life and used it to find a home away from home in their college times. In a Twitter post on September 16th, Lillie Heigl, AnnCatherine's old sister, asks GMU Panhellenic to do better.
The post consists of Lillie Heigl stating that she believes, along with many of AnnCatherine's friends and family, that AnnCatherine was rejected by the sororities purely because she has Down Syndrome. Later in the post, Heigl mentions that she believes any other D1 cheerleader that had gone through rush would have been selected. AnnCatherine's sister says that she is the nationally the first D1 cheerleader with an intellectual disability. Lillie Heigl lists many other reasons that she believes AnnCatherine would fit into at least one of the sororities on the GMU campus.
University of Tennessee students involved in Greek life heard about this and were less than pleased by the idea that sororities would dismiss a potential sister on the basis of disability. One young woman says that it can be hard to hear about these kinds of things happening at other universities because she believes UT does an amazing job making sure girls with disabilities are not discounted based on their disability. Another young woman was able to serve UT Panhellenic and help with the recruitment process this semester and she had a lot to say about this situation.
"I love my chapter, I love Greek life as a whole because it has given me so so much in terms of opportunities and friendships. However, recruitment is a horrible process. I don't know how to make it better. It makes me horribly sad that this sweet woman, who I am sure is amazing and incredibly deserving, slipped through the cracks. If it is true that she was discriminated against due to her disability, these chapters and the women in them should be ashamed of themselves."
In a later conversation with the student, she said, "I hope Greek life can change how recruitment is done so that it will empower young women and help them empower others since that is what sororities were made to be."
Overall it seems there is a theme here: Do better. From a personal perspective, this breaks my heart if it was truly disability discrimination. While I am in a non-Panhellenic sorority and cannot speak to Panhellenic recruitment, I have heard it is awful and to go through that entire process and not receive a bid has to be devastating.
So I challenge you to do better. GMU Panhellenic, do better. We all need to do better supporting each other, not discriminating, and standing up for students when they are discriminated against.
