Greek Life is a big part of Augustana College, with almost fifty percent of students being a part of a Greek organization. We’ve all seen the representations of sororities in popular media—the image of the rich blonde girl: hyper-feminine, ditzy, and party-loving. Of course, I knew this stereotype of a sorority was a gross misrepresentation of Greek organizations, but I still chose not join Greek Life at Augustana. Many people I know have joined sororities here and at other colleges, and they really enjoy them. I knew coming in to college that it just wasn’t something for me. After everything I’ve seen and heard about sororities at Augustana, I know that I made the right choice.
I haven’t experienced any of Greek Life first-hand, but I have talked a lot about the subject with people in and out of sororities. I have seen the pledging process in action on campus, and I often do not like what I see. It’s difficult to discuss this without offending the members of Greek groups. I have friends who in are sororities. I would never condemn them just for being members. The pledging process is deeply rooted in tradition, so I understand why individual members do not speak out against the practice. When members are benefiting from other aspects of Greek Life, it seems easy to write off the pledging process as a price to pay. But I think that it’s time for Greek Life at Augustana to change.
Augustana Greek Life prides itself on its policy against hazing, yet many of the Greek-affiliated activities that take place here would never be allowed in a nationally recognized sorority. My best friend is a member of Alpha Delta Pi, the oldest sorority in the United States, and always talks about the positive experiences she has with her sorority. I even attended an event with her last fall and was surprised by the amount of regulation and safeguarding put into each event they host. The policies that they have put in place are extremely different from what I see here at Augustana. Even the rhetoric they use is different—terms like “pledging” and even “rush” would never be said. They promote an idea that ADPi does not want to be associated with.
One thing I find most troubling about sororities here is Culmination Week—or, as we have all heard it called, “Hell Week.” There are many rules, and the pledging experience is intense for at least a few hours every week night. During this time, most pledges aren’t even allowed to talk to boys, unless it is for class related reasons. Banning pledges from talking to members of other genders can be alienating. Many people have good friends of other genders, and those friendships shouldn’t be seen as lesser just because they aren’t “family” like members of a sorority. During Culmination Week especially, this expectation promotes the idea that non-Greek friendships are lesser. It discourages members from forging friendships on their own. This isolation from any outside connection is the definition of hazing, and it can have a deep emotional toll. During pledging last year, I remember seeing girls coming home crying because of the stress of the week. Knowing that, I couldn’t understand why they continued to commit to a group that made them that uncomfortable. I wanted to alert administration to what I was seeing, but I was scared to hurt my friends in the process. Their sororities are such a part of their identity, and I didn’t want anyone to think that I liked them less because of that.
A personal friend and sorority member told me that she hated seeing pledges go through what she went through the prior year. That was a huge red flag for me. Sure, Greek groups on campus are not publicly humiliating pledges or forcing members to drink fatal amounts of alcohol, like the extreme cases seen in the news, but what is happening is hazing nonetheless.
Sororities are supposed to promote female empowerment, friendship, community service, and education. But when I look at the pledging process for Augustana’s groups, I see young women feeling powerless and removed from outside support. I would never want to be part of an organization that promotes the idea that girls need to prove themselves in order to be accepted. No one should ever have to prove their worthiness or loyalty to any community or individual in order to gain acceptance. I know that many people make lifelong friends in their sororities, but I would never want to feel like I had to spend hours of my day memorizing facts and acting exactly like everyone else in the group in order to prove myself to my friends. As a whole, women need to stop tearing each other down, and instead devote that energy to building each other up. The time spent on the pledging process could be much more useful if it were devoted to tutoring, professional connections, and empowering relationships.
Often, active members of sororities justify the pledging process by saying that it creates a stronger bond between members. But I don’t think that being forced to memorize facts about every single member of a group, or jumping into the slough, or walking in a single-file line in the cold is the way that we should want to form bonds. I have friendships that were strengthened by shared negative experiences, but I wouldn’t wish for a negative experience to gain a friend.
There are definitely positives to sorority life, and those should be the main focus. The Greek Life website says that 18,000 hours of volunteer work was done by Greek organizations in 2017. That is something to focus on. Many people I know have made great connections through their sororities. That is something to focus on. When several hours of time each day is devoted to the pledging process, those hours cannot be spent doing something positive. Both pledging members and active members of sororities devote their entire evenings to pledging. It’s the most widely known activity of Greek groups, which causes them to be seen in a negative light by non-Greeks. The good that the organizations do should be the main focus, because from an outsider’s perspective, all I see is the negativity that comes from pledging.