Sororities find new ways to bond after IU Sing came to ‘natural’ end

Instead of singing and dancing together this February, women in sorority houses across campus are finding other ways to bond.

Last March, IU Student Foundation, together with students, alumni and faculty, decided that it was time for IU Sing to come to an end.

Dana Cummings, director of IUSF, said the decision to end IU Sing — a greek singing and dancing competition— was eight to 10 years in the making, and it had come to a
natural end.

“IU Sing was a wonderful event for all 78 years that involved thousands of students,” Cummings said.

The decision to cancel IU Sing came after a slow decline of the event’s ability to make money, Cummings said. In 2009, IUSF implemented changes to ticket sales in hopes of reviving the event.

With the changes, each act in the show was supposed to sell a certain number of tickets, and only three of the 20 acts made the quota.

The event went on, but after board meetings in the following months, IUSF ultimately decided that it would be the last year for IU Sing.

“It was a difficult decision, but I’m confident that it was the right decision,” Cummings said.
IU Sing was more than just a singing competition for women in sorority houses. It gave their new pledge classes an opportunity to bond.

Sophomore Emily Krauter, a new member educator for Alpha Omicron Pi, said the cancellation of IU Sing has forced them to scramble to find more activities for the women to do.

“There are only so many ‘mani’ and ‘pedi’ and movie nights you can have,” Krauter said.

Krauter said IU Sing was an important part of greek life because the women met for hour-long rehearsals every night in February to learn a dance together and to work as a team.

“IU Sing was just a great way for the pledge class to bond and for them to meet guys on campus too,” Krauter said.

Sophomore Kori Kelly pledged AOPi this January and said she had really looked forward to IU Sing when she joined the house.

“I’m really bummed that they canceled it because I’m a dancer and I love events like that where you can perform and have fun,” Kelly said. “A lot of the girls in the house were saying it was one of the best bonding times and experiences for the new pledge class — that’s how everyone really started to get know each other’s personalities, and now we don’t have that.”

Krauter said in place of IU Sing activities, members of AOPi planned a week of activities for the new pledge class that included ice skating, snow tubing at Paoli Peaks and a themed movie night.

She said they’re also trying to plan a skit and dance night for the girls to perform for each other at the house.

But the main problem, Krauter said, is many of the events they’ve had to plan to
replace IU Sing cost money.

“IU Sing didn’t cost any money for the new girls,” Krauter said. “It’s hard because we want to be able to provide them with events to do, but we don’t want to be like, ‘You have to pay money to hang out with your sisters.’”

Cummings said IUSF hopes to come back with some sort of fall program similar to IU Sing within the next few years.

“Hopefully in a few years we can come up with something that will appeal to students and rally support again,” Cummings said. “For now we’re going to assess and see what we can do in the future.”