The Sorority Community:

Looking past preconceptions.

by

Mike Bogar

An essay prepared for CIS 110

Prof. William Cooper

University of Kentucky

Fall, 2011

What makes this world so dynamic and diverse is amount of different

communities that occupy it. A community is a social group of any size in which members

live in a specific location and share a common belief or way of life. As life continues on

we find ourselves joining new communities and leaving old ones behind. What draws

each of us to a certain community depends on where we are in this life and where we plan

on going in the future. As time goes on each community that we become apart of slowly

shapes bits and pieces of who we are today and helps tell a story about what each of us is

all about. The most recent community I found myself becoming apart of is the Phi Delta

Theta fraternity. Although I have recently became apart of this community, I can already

start and see what an impact it has on my life here at the University of Kentucky.

Realizing how much change has occurred for me since becoming a member of this

community; I decided to research other members in a similar but at the same time

completely different community. I wanted to see what similarities and difference

members of a different Greek community could actually have. The community I decided

to immerse myself with over these last couple weeks is that of a sorority. What is also

known as a “sisterhood”, sororities influence multiple aspects of daily life here at

Kentucky along with multiple universities across America. Although a Greek member

myself, I had little knowledge about what actually goes on with sororities and how this

community has effected other students at this school. It was at that moment where I

began my journey to understanding my fellow sisters and realizing how not so different

our communities actually are.

As in life, perceptions regarding anything that you are not personally familiar

with or unknown are as vast as the communities that occupy this very planet. Our

judgments towards new things are supported only by what we have already seen, heard,

or believed. I can agree with this completely due to my own perceptions I had already

toward the sorority community. Before my research I firmly believed that all sororities

were the same and were only a friend factory to those who joined. I believed that

sororities as a community only offered attractive girls and a number of people to whom

you can send invites to for the parties on the weekends. These negative beliefs I had

toward sororities came from both the media and from what others have told me. While I

was pledging for a fraternity my thoughts toward sororities were nothing but negative

ones. Being constantly surrounded by fraternity men and repeatedly hearing negative

beliefs; I myself began to despise sororities and began to ask myself questions. Why was

it that sororities got to initiate as full active members for their Greek society so easily and

quickly? Do sororities even benefit a university or are they only there to bring in students

who are interested in Greek life? As quickly as my life has changed while being here at

UK, so did my interests and beliefs toward sororities. I wanted to challenge my beliefs

and further explore this different community. I became more curious about what

sororities truly are and what impact they actually have

toward the people who are currently involved in its

community. In order to understand sororities as a

community, I needed to first let my old perceptions

disappear and open myself up to new ones that

members of this community could offer me.

In order to fully understand the community of a sorority as a whole I needed to

first discover all I could about the community and members of one specific sorority. I

The three triangles symbolize Tri Delt

decided to target my efforts toward the sorority known as Delta Delta Delta, which is also

known around campus as Tri Delts. Delta Delta Delta was founded on November 27,

1888 by two women who wanted to create a society based solely on the inner character of

women rather then just their appearance. The inspiration behind the creation of the name

Delta Delta Delta came from various influences such as Egyptian lore, Hindu mysticism,

Greek influence, and astronomy. Fortunately enough I was already familiar with a

member of this long lasting community and immediately went to Emma Courtney for an

interview. In order to understand why this community exists I realized I first had to start

to understand why its members choose to even become a member. To begin my interview

I wanted to understand why she even joined the sorority community in the first place.

Surprisingly, she replied with “Kentucky is known for its big Greek life and I wanted to

meet a lot of people who were interested in the same path as myself.” This response is

also the same reason why I decided to join the Greek community in the first place and

made me question if this is also why other ladies decided to join as well. I found a similar

answer in the Fraternal Sisterhood: Sororities as Gender Strategy journal, which states

Delta Delta Delta recruitment class of 2011

that many women decided to join in order to receive a degree of loyalty and care from

their fellow woman. Since sorority membership in one class can sometimes exceed thirty

women, it is easy to see why any girl would turn to a sorority for friendship. I then asked

Emma what do you believe is the biggest misconception sororities have to those who

aren’t members, in which she replied, “Although a large population of students are apart

of some type of sorority they still had to be individually chosen. The work we have to do

after we become a member of Delta Delta Delta is what not many people know about or

see. Its not just girls partying but its actually a lot of hard work.” This response took me

back little and made me interested in finding out what more about Tri Delts and what

they had to say about their community. In order to remain unbiased to only listening to

one person of the community I decided to create a survey. I then instituted a five question

survey to ten other Tri Delts in order see if more people in this community thought the

same thing. All ten members answered “no” to the question regarding if any of them

regretted joining this community now that they have become apart of it. Studying the rest

of my survey result brought me to the realization that members of a similar community,

including sororities, often share similar thoughts and beliefs. I believe that this is the

reason why communities develop and survive is because the amount of similarities the

members share overwhelms the differences. Although there were evident similarities, not

everything on the survey was in complete agreement by all ten members. The one

question that had the most diverse answers was, “What do you hope on gaining through

the sorority system here at the University of Kentucky?” The answers to this question

came to having the majority of 70% saying because it will help boost my resume, 20%

because of the friendships, and 10% just to experience Greek life. At the end of the

survey I was surprised to see the reaction the ten participants had when seeing what they

answered compared to the what results showed. Many of the girls didn’t even realize how

similar they truly are to each other. Through personal testimony and textual support I am

able to conclude that members of a sorority share similar beliefs and perceptions on why

they decided to join and why they remained apart of this community.

As my own perception about sororities changed I realized how easily the

perceptions of others could also change in regards to this community. The easiest way to

shift somebody’s perception about anything is to show him or her a new aspect or side of

that they have never seen before. I believe the overall perception of this community is

that many believe sororities are nothing but a way to have fun and make friends. Through

my research I found both of these common perceived perceptions to be the furthest thing

from the truth. I decided to interview another sorority member to see, even though she

wasn’t a Tri Delt, if this perception of sororities was

noticed amongst the community as a whole. The

question I proceeded to ask was, if you could express

what a sorority is to a non- Greek member in one

sentence; what would you say? The answer I received

from Kelley Marsh (Alpha Phi) didn’t surprise me at

all. She continued to say that, “Sororities are much

more than just social events and meeting new people,

they are a way to give back to your community and

build a lifelong sisterhood.” I then began to discovery

how much this community actually does for people who aren’t involved in any sort

Philanthropy Event to raise money

of Greek life. Sororities, including Tri Delt, give back to other communities through their

philanthropy activities and events. To raise money for places in need such as St.Jude

Children Research Hospital; Tri Delt and other sororities offer a variety of fundraisers

that encourage people to have fun while helping out a greater cause. Events like Dancing

with the Greeks offer a fun twist to doing your part and providing a positive impact to

society. I strongly believe that if everybody was given the chance to witness how much

work sorority women put toward bettering this world that there would be no ill

preconceptions. Many of these people, including myself at one time, are uneducated

toward sororities and what’s important like giving back. I was amazed to find out that

every year Greeks across the nation raise over at least seven million dollars for

organizations and business. In the 2008-2009 school year, collegian members of Delta

Delta Delta at the University of Kentucky contributed, on average, 26 community service

hours. Both of these facts opened my eyes to how much work is truly done by sororities

and other Greek members. If others could realize by constantly putting yourself to work

and committing yourself to a good cause that it will bring nothing but an advantage over

the rest of your peers. Sororities also supply university’s, such as UK, with a positive

image to the rest of the state and even other university who may not have as prevalent of

a Greek life. I believe that many people’s views on the sorority community would

drastically change if they knew how it could benefit you in your future. Being an active

member of a sorority will constantly keep you in communication with many people and

different people at that. The social skills one can learn through this community can only

be beneficial when facing the real world. Also, by holding a position of power within the

sorority could help you discover the stresses and unpredictability that a job and the job

world will throw at you in the future. This could be the one skill that could set you above

the rest of the candidates for a specific job and allow you the chance to do something

great. For example both women elected to the U.S. Supreme Court were sorority

members. That is only one of the few facts about success in the Greek community when

it comes to the job world, it would seem that by now more and more people would utilize

this community. If more and more people could understand what could be gained by

being apart of a sorority, I believe all the misconceptions would be erased. As time rolls

on and Greek communities like sororities become more successful, ignorance amongst

people will change into enlightenment and its popularity will grow. Simply by looking at

what has already been gained and what is on the horizon could change all of these

negative perceptions toward sororities.

Having to have to immerse myself in a community that I once had

negative opinions about completely changed my thought process. It has made me realize

that all because something, like a community, isn’t familiar to me doesn’t give me the

right to judge upon it negatively. Not only did researching about sororities give me new

insight to the life of others, but also a newfound respect for my oldest sister Jill Bogar.

Even though her university and sorority have recognized Jill for her success, I personally

never told her how proud I was. Finally having my eyes opened to this community and

what it truly does for the people apart of it has made me a better brother. The deeper I got

into my research the more I began to realize how truly wrong I was about sororities.

When I discovered the amount of activities organized through the sororities it made me

understand how crucial and important they are to certain organization for donations.

Without sororities helping to raise money for important causes like disease research,

organizations will never be given the chance to help those truly in need. Although

sororities do have numerous amounts of girls that doesn’t automatically mean they are

there just for fun and partying. Being apart of a similar community, it was shocking to see

what exactly we had in common and what defined us as separate communities. When I

found out the amount of community service sororities gave to the surrounding

organizations it took me back a little bit. Even though fraternities are more well known

and distinguished on certain campuses, it should be understood how truly important

sororities are to a university no matter what state it’s in. The positive image that can

come out of just one sorority could drastically alter a universities future. Therefore it is

evident that sororities are too important in this world and I now begin to see what good

can come out of a sorority and how they should be respected amongst us all.

Without different communities influencing some of our everyday choices the

world would be a boring and an uneventful place. It is these “communities” that define

our past and set way for the future. The older we become the more we realize what

communities actually played a part in either our own success or failure. The deeper I dug

into the sororities the more I was able to uncover how important they actually are. Having

once a negative perception of this community has made me wonder just how many others

also are currently sharing this negative perception toward sororities. In order to help

eliminate this generalization about sororities, I plan on organizing more and new events

that can bring fraternities and sororities together. One of these events I would like to

organize is a Greek walk-a-thon that could benefit the charity known as Feed My

Starving Children. The vase quantity of people who would participate between

fraternities and sororities combined could definitely make a noticeable different in the

lives of many unfortunate children. I believe that if instead of separating ourselves into

the categories of fraternities and sororities, we should instead be uniting as Greeks in one

big community. Not only would more and more people be able to see how important

Greek life is as a community, but also it would slowly drop the preconception that

fraternities are greater then sororities. In conclusion, developing a new understanding and

acceptance toward sororities has made me appreciate more of what means to be apart of

the Greek community.

Work Cited

http://www.uktridelta.org/

http://www.csudh.edu/pss/greek_facts.htm

http://www.njit.edu/greeklife/directory/facts.php

Interiviews given by Emma Courtney & Kelley Marsh