A Series On NPCs: Part IV: Inclusivity

The views expressed in this article reflect those of the writer(s) and do not necessarily represent the position of Her Campus Davidson. If you have any questions please feel free to contact the authors. 

Over the past week, Leah and I have been listening to a lot of concerns, questions, and general complaints about NPC Sororities, what they would be at Davidson, and the types of women that join such organizations.  We’ve heard the good, the bad, the harsh, the misinformed, and the reasonable.  We anticipated this and wanted to compile the questions and concerns people had in one place so that the general campus could have access to what we’re saying instead of trying to do it piecemeal on Yik Yak.

The way this is organized is by a general, oft-repeated-in-different-ways statements and questions we got.  So read them all, find the ones you’re most worried about, or just skim.  All we are asking for right now is that PCC allow the general campus to continue having this discussion. 

And just to clear it up, we are not mysoginist, hateful people, we just want a space on campus that we couldn’t find and that we think would augment our and others’ experiences at Davidson in addition to increasing national appeal for the school itself.  Yes, there are others who would take on the charge after we leave, whether the conversation goes well enough that they want to stick their necks out is an entirely different question.

THE CLAIM: “Sororities are definitely more expensive than Eating Houses and people will feel left out because of the cost. Sorority dues are not feasible for many women.”

Eating Houses are not inexpensive. NPC sororities are also not inexpensive. The difference between the two is likely a lot less than you think. Being in an Eating House from freshmen spring to senior spring costs around $4000. That’s if you go abroad for a semester junior year.   At this point in the process, we can’t tell you what the dues would be here because they vary so much between campuses and organizations. Later in the process, Davidson would be able to determine which NPCs fit on campus and this could (and should and would) include examining inclusivity efforts in each organization.

Eating Houses and PCC sometimes offer some financial aid and scholarships to women who need it. NPC sororities also have a precedent for giving aid and scholarships to members to help pay dues. Additionally, it is important to note that we are not trying to create additional female organizations so that a bunch of women can be a part of two organizations. While some desire it, others do not. If the options were comparable in price and you were joining one organization then there would not be an increased financial burden.

THE CLAIM: “Social life at Davidson is already divided by gender and this would make that worse while symbolzing Davidson stands behind such a gender divide.

We’ve heard this argument phrased two ways: that it will further the gender gap and it will further the gender divide.  Bringing NPCs would actually decrease the gender gap since we would be evening out PCC options for women on campus (currently there are 8 male orgs and 6 female orgs). 

Furthering the gender divide is definitely more of a possible issue (although I shudder to think of a campus that focuses solely on bringing genders together to the detriment of creating spaces for women and men to create relationships amongst themselves).  The gender division socially could be considered an issue, but only to those who want more gender-integrated spaces.  It’s important to remember that that looks primarily at social spaces and we’ve discussed why NPCs will not be primarily social organizations. 

NPCs are a gendered space that provides leadership, service, and sisterhood to women on campus and (this is Madi) speaking as a woman on campus, I know that my experience at Davidson would have been greatly augmented by having a community of women on campus that I could fall back on for support.  And yes, specifically women, because people identifying as women have shared experiences and having a place to share those experiences, and grow in ways that stem from a woman-centered paradigm.  (Sidenote: There’s a good number of stories of trans people transitioning to both female and male and maintaining their membership status speaking to the efforts to expand the definition of the Woman’s Experience NPCs strive to augment).

Because NPCs would not be the primary identifier of someone on campus because Davidson students do a lot more than one thing, women involved in NPCs would have a space dedicated to their experiences and to their learning and development.

Is it the role of the Greek system to provide mixed gender spaces when they were created to help foster growth based on gendered experiences.  Significantly, the organizations have adjusted to changing norms surrounding gender, keeping the lessons and the gendered spaces they provide significant for their members.

THE CONCERNS ABOUT WHO’S ALLOWED IN

The stereotypes surrounding NPCs are varied and extensive.  To those who imagine vapid, Barbie-like women shrieking “I can’t even!” and circling body fat on their initiates, I have one question: Do you go to Davidson?

Davidson’s women, and the women that would populate NPCs are the women you go to class with, live next to, date or hook up with, ask for help on homework etc.  You know Davidson women and we’re ashamed to have to address this question at all.  Bringing an NPC to campus would not automatically turn the women into the stereotypes. Joining an NPC does not change someone into an unrecognizably shallow woman… in fact, in the majority of chapters, it does the opposite.

There are concerns that NPCs perpetuate rape culture.  I don’t have evidence for the veracity of that, but I am confused as to how a close-knit support system of women perpetuates rape culture.  If the claim is that they can’t throw parties so they party with frats and a lot of problematic and dangerous things happen there:

a) NPCs can throw parties, they just throw parties that look a lot different than the ones PCC tends to throw.  “But that’s what I mean,” you say, “then they feel forced to go to frats and drink”… well…

b) we are vigorously addressing that problem as a campus community already (and it’s a problem with fraternities, not with the women attending them or the social opportunities they do or do not have a chance to drink/party/dance/socialize at).  If anything, adding another option for women’s social experiences would alternative (if sporadic, small, and not that intrusive to the current house-based or apartment-based) options for campus social events.

c) But of course, as stated, NPCs won’t be primarily social organizations at Davidson so their party-throwing opportunities would be small, and they wouldn’t alter the current campus social scene in any big ways for a long time.  If they did in the future, Davidson would address the problems as they arose then.

There are concerns about the fact that NPCs promote sexist expectations for women.  Since women are not forced to join NPCs and they choose to commit to the values of the organization, they are making an informed choice about the type of person they see themselves as, and the type of organization that would help them grow.  NPCs promote and expect standards of behavior much like professional organizations do in that they make it clear what they expect their members to avoid doing, and what they encourage their members to do. Those standards, and the ways in which they’re enforced, change by NPC organization.  This again, would be a conversation for Davidson to have with the organizations as we choose which espouse values and standards that Davidson itself encourages. Sure it would be nice to do whatever you want all the time, but right now, we are living under a few different instutions creating standards of behavior for us (i.e. federal and state laws, the honor code, general behavioral norms on campus).  The questions about whether you agree with these standards is valid, but we all have to remember that taking away a woman’s choice to belong to such an organization because you’re worried about her ability to determine what’s misogynist and what’s not is the epitome of internalized oppression and anti-feminist behavior. 

Regarding the questions about racial inclusion.  NPCs are rooted in an exclusionary history like many other parts of the country, and yet many of them are actively working to address these issues, because they realize without directly addressing the racial inclusion/exclusion question, nothing can be solved.  Davidson’s ability to decide which NPC came to campus would also include extensive and necessary conversations about access racially, socioeconomically, sexual orientation, gender-identity etc.  There are also very important social justice efforts that have come from predominately white and/or cis and/or upper middle class etc. organizations who make commitments to advancing different causes.  These specific topics need to be addressed throughout campus (and are in some very important ways), and PCC can be a great way to facilitate that, especially with organizations who must follow standards and values they signed up for who have those stable foundations to base inclusivity efforts on who appeal to women who might not be ready for the commitment level of NPHCs.

The question about access is also extremely important to address because of the ways in which our Eating Houses have failed certain marginalized groups by their very nature of being flexible and having a random selection process: there is no way to make lasting change in the Eating Houses without going using an intentional top-down mechanism.  NPCs would not be held back in such ways as their chapters are able to make it clear what the underlying values are, while adjusting to the needs of their immediate campuses.

As two white girls, we’re going to come off as victimizing ourselves, but the fact that neither of us (nor some other women of various identities) found a community at Davidson speaks to a need for an additional space, focused less on the social, and more on the community building (and one needs the community in all of its manifestations to do that).

There are worries that NPCs would attract a certain demographic of woman that Davidson wouldn’t want.  When I look around and see the vitriol spewed about sororities in all their forms, I wonder exactly what demographic we’re talking about.  Do we not trust in Davidson’s women to responsibly run these organizations?  Do we not trust Davidson’s admissions and vetting process to maintain the type of Davidson woman (for better or worse) that they have been attracting for decades.  Are we really that scared of organizations that very often are not based on looks, but who get a reputation that’s built on the shoulders of irresponsible women at massive who willfully look past problematic behavior?  Do we not believe that we can hold each other to better standards than that?  To me, that speaks for a need for a space where women can come together and discuss such issues and concerns and how to change those perceptions of each other on campus—to me, that speaks for the need for a responsibly run NPC organization

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