SAN GABRIEL VALLEYWIDE NEWS
By Jacqueline Tsai

New college students often join fraternities and sororities to meet people and make new friends. Others join for the eternal bonds of sisterhood or brotherhood, ones that not only exist within your own house on campus, but also extend to the same houses on campuses all over the United States. If you are a Kappa Alpha Theta, you will have sisters not only at your own school, but also at USC, the University of Richmond and at the University of Pennsylvania just to name a few.
According to an article posted on Encyclopedia Britannica, studies estimate that more that 10 percent of all college students are involved in Greek life. Public universities have 35,000 undergraduates alone, and there are at least 40 public universities in the U.S. So, if you really think about it, 10 percent is a lot if you consider how many college students there are. Furthermore, the numbers in fraternities and sororities continue to increase. Though these bonds of sisterhood or brotherhood often last forever as people have told me that they never knew such relationships would come in handy after graduating from college and into life after marriage and children, are these bonds worth lowering your self-esteem or enduring public humiliation?
From my own personal experience and from listening to others’ stories, I have discovered that becoming the newest sister or brother often requires sacrificing your own pride or self-esteem. Though all sorority and fraternity houses are open to students of all race, color and creed, I – being Taiwanese – decided to pledge a sorority that caters to Asian students when I enrolled at a local university as a freshman last fall. At first, it was a great outlet to make new friends. Being only one in a mass of 16,000 students, there are people I may never meet. Thus, joining an extracurricular club was crucial to meeting people outside of my classes and my dorm living arrangement.
The recruiting process intrigued me because it demanded a lot less time than rushing for a Panhellenic Greek House – sororities or fraternities that are on the majority of campuses all over the U.S. Their rushes consisted of attending houses and meeting people five hours a day for five straight days. Little did I know that those twenty-five hours spent at “The Row” – the streets where all the sorority and fraternity houses are – guaranteed the girls one hundred percent satisfaction with the house each was accepted. I only had to attend one of the three rush events to be considered a “rushee” for the sorority I eventually joined. I attended two of the three as I felt I needed to know my potential sisters as well as I could before pledging. On the surface, they all appeared to be great people, and I happily accepted three new Greek letters to add to my identity. Yet, once I started attending meetings and began to learn what was required of me as a pledge, things started to go downhill. From herein, to uphold the pledge of secrecy I took upon accepting my bid, I will speak of my experience in general terms.
My pledge process was extremely different from my hallmates’ experience. At bid night – the culmination of the two-week pledge process when the rushees find out which house they have been accepted into – each was handed a large basket full of gifts and lettered attire from their sorority house. This showering of booty and constant display of affection and attention for their newest members, something I could not help but notice, continued throughout their two-month pledge process. The older members made congratulatory signs for their new pledges, which were plastered on my hallmates’ doors, and their houses had sisterhood events where they given even more loot. It seemed like an early Christmas with all the wrapping paper, ribbon, and decorations strewn all over the hallway and trashcans. I was not showered with as many presents or given as much attention as my hallmates – I received some candy, snacks and a clipboard – so I began to wonder why my pledge process was different.
When I started out as a new member, everything was fine. Yet upon looking inward two weeks into my pledging, I began to resent the activities required of me as a new recruit. For example, on the day of my pinning ceremony – the moment when new members officially become a pledge of the sorority with the donning of the pin, my pledge sisters and I had to engage in what I later discovered was a sorority tradition that involved standing and waiting for almost four hours. Three of my pledge sisters were repulsed by this: two of them so much that they immediately left the area we had been told to stay put and turned their back on the sorority system all together. I did not find the event to be as humiliating, but I began to question why I had to participate in an event that resulted in laughter and taunting from bystanders. This introspection eventually turned into anger: everything I had to do as a pledge made me feel inferior to the actives, members who have already been initiated into the sorority. Some of the older girls took the requirements of the pledge process more seriously than others and attempted to humiliate me when I made a mistake. The farther I got into the process, the more I felt like a servant to the actives due to the chores I had to perform as a pledge. I won’t reveal exactly what I had to do, but the word “servant” presents a pretty accurate picture. Though my school officially claims to have a zero tolerance policy against hazing, which has been taken more seriously by the other sororities, many organizations to do not pay attention to the rule and are able to get away with violations.
I found myself feeling jealous of my hallmates who had been showered with gifts, had actives who bent over backwards to do everything possible to make sure they were happy with the sorority and wanted to stay, and experienced none of the dehumanizing activities to which I had been exposed. For example, one of my friends told me her sorority sisters would call her before each event and even asked if she and her date needed a ride. Mine often told me I needed to find my own ride. Another told me that her sorority allowed all new members to vote for or against the rule requiring all pledges to wear white to the house’s weekly dinner because that was considered hazing. That came as a shock because this act of “hazing” seemed so insignificant compared what I had to do or what fraternity pledges have to do.
I did not care that some people thought the continuous gift-giving was superficial; I felt it made the pledges feel special, and who among us doesn’t like feeling special? Many of the activities I had to do for my sorority were not at all out of line, but I did not want to continue with the chores that constantly made me feel inferior to the actives for six months, which was how long my pledge process was scheduled to last before formal induction. Thus, after only thirty days, I removed my pin – I had to wear this whenever I left my room, even to the gym, to show that I was a pledge – and left it at home, never to be seen again. I’m not kidding; I lost it.
This apparent need for a pledge to perform menial tasks, though not present in all sororities, is a characteristic closely associated with fraternities. I heard from my roommate that our mutual friend “John” had to stay and clean-up his fraternity house every time there was a party, and this, as you may guess, was quite often. This college freshman was mopping floors and throwing out hundreds of beer cups until three or four in the morning instead of concentrating on his math, English, and economics homework. As a result, John was failing three of his four classes.
One of my good friends from high school “Mike” also pledged a fraternity, and he also had to do a lot of tasks for his active brothers. For example, one time when I called him, he answered his phone with “Holy (expletive) Jackie, I thought an active was calling me when my phone rang.” I found out later that Mike had been “on call” – meaning that if one of his brothers called demanding him to fetch them food or beer, to turn in their homework for them, or to pick up laundry, he had to do it or risk losing the favor of his brothers and possibly his title as a pledge. Because of this consequence, Mike was extremely antsy one day when we were driving on the 405 freeway during afternoon rush hour to an athletic event. If one of his brothers had called, he would not have been able to fulfill his task as a pledge, thus jeopardizing his position in the fraternity.
Sororities, on the other hand, seem to make girls feel inferior through their selection process, which is often interpreted as superficial. We all know that first impressions can be deal breakers; that’s why we present ourselves nicely at interviews or special events.
Thus, judging based on looks is inevitable. However, judging solely on looks is unfair as it prevents people from presenting a complete picture of themselves.
Many of the sororities have superficial titles such as “the girls you want to marry” or “the prettiest girls on campus.” These monikers vary from school to school, and although they do not apply to everyone in the house most of the time, they sometimes determine who is accepted as a new member. There are sororities that only accept blondes as members and others where all the girls are gorgeous. They have every right to choose their members in this fashion, but such a selection process produces a negative consequence: the inevitable production of a “weird” house. This unfortunate label exists on many campuses, and this house usually consists of the girls who did not fit the other sororities’ profile. They may eventually come to believe “if only I had been blonde or gorgeous like those other girls, I might not be a weirdo.” What self-eroding and unnecessary comments!
Girls only become even more insecure about their image and more prone to abandoning their own individual identities. For example, many dye their hair yellow based on the assumptions that blondes have more fun or that they will garner more attention by being blonde. Being one of the yellow-haired girls does not guarantee happiness; it only promises a group of people who look like you and may become your friend.
Worse yet is the idea of publicly humiliating someone during the pledge process. I was listening to a popular morning radio show and the topic of conversation, triggered by the DePauw University scandal, was sororities.
At DePauw, the Delta Zeta sorority was nicknamed the “dog house.” Some of the girls were asked to spruce up their image or else forego sorority events. The sorority is currently shut down and not accepting new members. The DJ’s discussion of this resulted in numerous ridiculous stories about fraternity and sorority recruiting. The one I remember most was a woman who called and reported that at her school on the East Coast, one sorority ordered their new members to line up outside in front of the house with only their bikinis between them and a group of fraternity boys who had been recruited to mark the “problem” areas on these girls’ bodies with a magic marker. Like the talk show hosts, I was appalled by this, and can only imagine the humiliation those girls suffered. As if being a young woman isn’t difficult enough with the current image of women thrust upon us by Hollywood, such activities only do more harm.
Many girls already have enough body image issues, and their self-esteem would only plummet more when a person of the opposite sex points out their supposed “problem” areas.
Furthering the ridiculous nature this conversation reached, a Cal State Long Beach administrator called the show and declared that such hazing does not occur on his campus. Is he sure about that? I know my school, as with many, has a zero tolerance rule against hazing, but it still goes on. Hazing occurs in broad daylight and is witnessed by our Public Safety officers, who are then lied to with phrases such as “Oh no, we’re not part of an organization.”
Hazing even occurs outside of Greek life; many of the freshman athletes were required to streak either on “The Row” or down a major street on campus. I had the privilege, haha, to witness both events. How did I know about these events? From all the promotion provided by the upperclassmen. For example, the older members of the swim team ran down my hall of my dorm and pounded on everyone’s doors announcing where and when the freshman streak was going to take place.
The baseball team grabs everyone’s attention when their new members run bedecked only in jockstrap down “The Row” by screaming and honking the horn of the car which signals their arrival. CSULB really could have no hazing on campus, but it is hard for me to believe that such a condition exists at any school.
So, these questions arise: Why do people endure such humiliation and efforts to dehumanize pledges and how do they put up with it? I do not understand why people would voluntarily choose to remain in an organization where they feel inferior or were publicly humiliated. I sure wouldn’t. I understand the desire to stay for the friendships and doing it for your pledge sisters or brothers no matter how brutal the process may be, but I feel that having high self-esteem is more important. There is nothing wrong with joining a sorority or fraternity, but it takes more confidence to assert your own unique identity and not become one of the masses. It takes guts to voice an idea that no one else agrees with. People with insecurities never want to be the odd man out, thus they often interact with people who have similar interests. I definitely felt left out when all my friends on the floor were attending sorority events, but this just made me go out and find friends from all other part of the campus.
Because of this, I have been blessed with trustworthy companions with whom I share a laugh with in the dinning hall, discuss the inevitable day to day challenges of test, quizzes, papers and midterms, and who sit with me in the bleachers on cold autumn nights as we cheer for our football team until we become hoarse.
After Chinese fiction class on Tuesday and Thursday, Jessie, Katherine and I meet outside of Taper Hall, a building on campus, and leisurely stroll to the building housing all of the well-known food vendors like Wolfgang Puck and Malibu Subs or to one of the two cafeterias to feast for lunch. No matter where we go, we have to wait in line until the three places open. To pass our time, Katherine entertains us with stories about her Catholic priest professor. She calls him “the priest man.” He asks his students to write religious jokes on their exams to earn extra credit. Jessie and Katherine also are my life savors. Journalism class would be unbearable if I did not have the option of tuning out the professor to focus my attention to the Internet games Katherine plays or to the many websites Jessie visits. Being able to find these girls outside of an organization gave me hope that I did not necessarily need to be part of a large group to find friends.
Being a part of the “masses” can result in great relationships, too, but you can make just as good friends when you’re on your own. It might be harder to meet people and make new friends outside of a large organization; you don’t have the leisure of meeting the same people at every social event. Thus, because it might take more effort to develop relationships with new people when you’re alone, the resulting friendships can be just as deep and just as strong. I was able to do this, and I didn’t need to mop floors, deliver food, turn in others’ homework, lose weight, dye my hair, wait anxiously while “on call,” drink alcohol to build my tolerance, get my love handles pinpointed by magic marker, or pretend to be someone I wasn’t. But in the end, regardless of the benefits or consequences, sorority life just isn’t for everyone – and it certainly wasn’t for me. It doesn’t seem to be written in my destiny, and I am not crying over the loss of three Greek letters across the front of my sweatshirt.

Jacqueline Tsai attended Polytechnic School '06 and is currently a freshman studying broadcast journalism at a local university in Southern California.