To the Editor:
As a Delta Gamma alumna ('94, Bucknell University) and adviser for the Delta Gamma chapter at Dartmouth, I feel a strong need to respond to the Nov. 4 article "Sororities witness five-year low in fall pledge numbers." It said, " ... one house did not fill to quota -- DG." According to the bar graph, however, there are four houses that do not have a pledge class equal to the size of quota. The story fails to say whether these four houses extended bids to women who declined them or whether the women accepted the bids initially but later de-pledged.
Marcie Handler is correct in saying that "there were many misconceptions circling the entire rush process." Most people on this campus, including sorority women, are completely ignorant about the rush process.
On that note, I would like to clarify a few things about formal rush.
The Panhellenic Council follows rush guidelines set by the National Panhellenic Conference, the governing body of the 26 national sororities. This means all sororities on this campus, local or national, have agreed to abide by these guidelines and rules. Both quota and chapter total are explained in these guidelines and quota is dependent only on the number of rushees who are involved in rush at the time it is set -- not on whether or not the campus feels the chapters are too big.
The bid-matching process is also well-defined in the NPC guidelines, and it is the sorority advisers who are present at bid-matching, along with the panhellenic adviser and the panhellenic vice president (or an appropriate officer in her absence). Bid-matching is a mutual selection process designed to match the rushee with her first choice whenever possible. If women feel "screwed" as a result of the bid they did or did not receive this year, then it is time to reevaluate all aspects of this year's formal rush.
In addition to the women who received bids from DG as a direct result of bid-matching, the sorority also offered bids to about 20 women who came to the party on Preference Night and had not received bids from any other houses. The sisters sincerely wanted each of these women to join DG even though they did not indicate it as one of their choices for a bid. Why didn't they make DG an option?
Apparently people on this campus think a small chapter is a weak chapter.
Well, they're all wrong.
Only a strong chapter could win the O'Connor Cup -- the highest award a CFS organization can receive for scholarship, leadership, and programming. Only a strong chapter could receive pass with distinction from the minimum standards review (the highest category on the review) for the past four years in a row. DG has done both of these things with a chapter membership ranging from 29-60. Contrary to popular belief, DG is in no danger of "going under" at Dartmouth. The sisterhood has been here for ten years and will be here for many more. The sisters and I challenge and welcome women to find out what we have to offer both as a national sorority and as a close-knit sisterhood of accepting, diverse, and independent women at Dartmouth. We are extremely proud of our current pledge class and, though we would like to see more women on this campus reap the benefits of our sisterhood, we are, by no means, ashamed of our size.
If everyone is so concerned with the rest of the sororities being too big, why is everyone so busy criticizing DG for being a small chapter?
