DePauw University senior Elizabeth Haneline remembers working on her senior project when the “letters came.”\nThe letter that Haneline received came from the national greek chapter of Delta Zeta recommending Haneline, along with 22 other sisters in her sorority, for alumnae status, which would force her to move out of the house and restrict her from participating in recruitment.\n“The letters came hours before I had to present my senior project,” Haneline said. “For me it was chaos, having to deal with that, having to deal with the senior project. It was one of those things that you are kind of in denial about and don’t worry about it until after the fact.”\nThe letters recommending 23 women for alumnae status arrived after Delta Zeta’s national officers came in November to interview 35 of the chapter’s members, according to a Feb. 25 New York Times article. The article reported that every woman who was overweight or a minority was asked to go on alumnae status.\nThis week, former members of the chapter appeared on CNN and ABC’s “Good Morning America,” bringing national attention not only to the DePauw chapter, but also to IU.
Struggling with membership\nIn August, the women voted whether to close the chapter, Haneline said. She said that the vote was half-and-half – “a dead tie.” When the national chapter heard about the vote, they spoke with DePauw officials, who said that recolonization could not be guaranteed.\nAfter the vote, the sorority members decided to not to close and to go through recruitment. The 23 girls who received letters were asked to become alumnae because of their “lack of commitment to meet recruitment goals,” said Cynthia Winslow Menges, executive director at the national Delta Zeta headquarters, in the New York Times article.\nHaneline said she feels there were a few “other factors” in the reasoning behind the alumnae status letters, but does not want to make any accusations as she is not entirely certain. \nAfter putting the 23 women on alumnae status, 12 members of the sorority were left. Of those 12, six left out of frustration with the decision, according to the New York Times article.\n“It happened the week before finals,” Haneline said. “I feel the way they handled it was not worth the mess. Even if I had been asked to stay, 23 women is a high percentage, which is why I think six of the 12 withdrew and took alumna status.”\nMembers of IU’s Delta Zeta chapter were asked to assist in recruitment at DePauw’s Delta Zeta chapter, said Jennifer Hanley, IU’s Delta Zeta chapter adviser. When the IU women went to DePauw to assist, they were very clear, honest and up front about the fact they were from another campus, Hanley said. She added that the women wore nametags to identify themselves as members from IU’s campus.\n“It is not an unusual thing for sororities to do,” she said in regards to inviting another chapter to assist in another chapter’s recruitment efforts.\nAccording to the New York Times article, the women who were being placed on alumnae status were asked to hide upstairs while the IU women helped recruit, but Hanley said this was not true.\n“The women who did not want to participate in recruitment, their request was honored, and in doing that it meant help from other chapters would be needed in the process,” Hanley said.
‘Misrepresentations’\nDelta Zeta national president Debbie Raziano issued a statement Monday, saying it is important for people to understand what actually happened in an article she called “unfortunate” and “inaccurate.” \nAccording to Raziano’s statement, the DePauw chapter Delta Zeta members voted in August to close the chapter at the end of this school year. Delta Zeta then planned to reorganize the chapter at a later date, but on Sept. 12, the request for the reorganization was denied by the university. Recolonization was not guaranteed for the chapter, but university officials asked Delta Zeta to undertake a membership review regarding the will to recruit new members, according to the statement.\nThe Delta Zeta members who supported the plan to actively recruit were asked to remain active, while the members who did not want to engage in this recruiting were asked to go on alumnae status, according to the statement.\nBut Haneline said she would have assisted in future recruitment for the house.\n“I really would’ve done anything for the house,” she said.\nHanley said that the situation with DePauw’s Delta Zeta’s members voting on whether to recruit or close the chapter is similar to how any membership office would work. \n“You have to be interested in recruiting new members,” she said.
Midyear reorganization\nIn her statement, Raziano said Delta Zeta national leadership should have returned to campus to explain to the women in person what happened.\n“We misjudged how these communications would be received,” Raziano said in the statement. “On Dec. 2 we informed each woman by mail whether she would be relieved of responsibilities to recruit and become an alumna member or remain on active collegiate status.”\nRaziano said in her statement that “we are offended at suggestions that decisions made at DePauw were related in any way to our members’ races and nationalities,” noting pride in the diversity of the members and alumnae nationwide, reflecting the Constitution that members will be selected “solely on their merits and without regard to their race, color, religion, national origin or handicap.”\nDePauw’s president, Robert G. Bottoms, issued a two-page letter of reprimand to the national Delta Zeta sorority. \n“As you know from your experience with us, a midyear reorganization of such significant magnitude as implemented in Delta Zeta focuses attention on the entire Greek system in a negative way,” Bottoms wrote in the letter.
Addressing stereotypes\nIn her social psychology class, associate professor of psychology at DePauw, Pam Propsom gives real-life examples when discussing the topics relating to stereotypes and image. Propsom asks her students to write down descriptions of what they perceiveas a typical greek house’s image.\n“I read them responses from previous years and they are able to identify pretty quickly which house is being talked about,” Propsom said. “The whole point is to say, ‘Here is an example and this is the stereotype,’ and then to explain how they are formed, how hard it is to change and the generalizations.”\nAs for the IU Delta Zeta members, Hanley said she thinks they are offended that a quote in the New York Times article referred to them as “plastic.”\n“They are frustrated because there have been professors that have said some really inappropriate things to them in classes,” she said. “At DePauw, the sense of being able to support another chapter is standard.”\nHanley also said that the IU Delta Zeta women are offended by insinuations that some of the DePauw women were unattractive and overweight, the reasons some speculate women at the chapter were asked to go on alumnae status.\n“Those women are very attractive, and Delta Zeta has said nothing but that,” Hanley said. “We as a sorority do not make decisions when it comes to physical attractiveness – our definition of beauty is not based on how someone looks on the outside. I find it difficult that that definition would change for DePauw... Physical appearance is not how you decide how someone has value.”\nIndividual members of Delta Zeta at IU referred requests for interviews to the national headquarters, which did not respond to messages by press time.
