Wait, what?

[telerib]

DePauw University to close Delta Zeta chapter.

You may have heard of the Delta Zeta case; the national sorority showed up at the DePauw chapter and de-sororified twenty-three sisters. Delta Zeta says it's because they "weren't committed to recruitment;" the women say it's because they were overweight, ethnic, or otherwise not fitting into the mold. Six other women left the sorority to support their sisters, leaving just five remaining. (At issue was recruitment - DePauw students weren't eager to rush Delta Zeta and national wanted to fix that.)

The chapter, it seems, was known for its academic focus and, yes, for its sisters not being smokin' hot co-eds. So... yeah, a house of women supporting each other, often in demanding technical majors, without regard to appearance. Sounds... sounds like what the Greek community claims that it is, at its best.

The national group, maybe not so much.

So... so the university is going to close the chapter that was actually demonstrating good values. Because of the national organization.

I guess that's the danger of being a franchise, but... that really seems backwards.

Comments

[edg.livejournal.com]

Honestly, I think the Associated Press article that WaPo is running doesn't really do the situation or the university justice. Here's the Indianapolis Star's take on it, which goes into a lot more detail about what the DePauw administration said and did and about how the students feel about the situation.

In short: it's not that the university is going to close the chapter that was demonstrating good values - it's that DZ had already taken steps to remove the students who were demonstrating the good values (read also: not recruiting the students that DZ National wanted to attract), and DePauw is evicting the chapter (which no longer contains those students) because of that removal.

[telerib.livejournal.com]

No, I understand that.

I probably don't understand the extent to which the national organization can influence the local chapter. My thinking was that the chapter's institutional inertia would reassert itself, given the opportunity. So, if DePauw left it alone, it would go back to being the house it was before.

That assumes that DZ National goes home and leaves the chapter alone to regrow. I don't know how the national Greek system works at all, and how likely that scenario is. Maybe not at all, in which case I guess it's not backwards, just sad.