Sorority Rituals - Reflections On Rites of ... - Mari Ann Callais

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program in 2001 that would teach ritual and its importance to the chapter experience and in their daily lives. They said that the program focused on sophomore members. Some of the participants expressed that ritual was “boring and long”. Several of them indicated it might take all day to initiate some of the large groups of new members. The rituals were written at a time in the history of these organizations when the groups were much smaller in size than some of the chapters have become today. It may be that the National organizations need to evaluate if the rituals written in the early days of the sororities can apply to groups the size of some of the current chapters. The ways in which these ceremonies are taught to the chapters and how they are performed based upon the size of a particular chapter is a crucial aspect of the performance of ritual. Ritual should be explained and taught to the chapters possibly by a national officer or a local alumna. Sororities cannot assume that ritual is understood to be an important part of an undergraduate chapter’s experience. Many of the participants indicated that some members in their chapters do not even understand the ritual, much less apply it to their daily lives. As stated in the Implications for Practice section of this research, advisors, alumnae, national officers, and even university administrators can be involved in the education of the meaning and purpose of the rituals of sororities as well as the importance of the performance. The reason that the students do not understand ritual may be that they have never been taught the ritual’s role in their sorority experience. One of the challenges facing sororities today is that the groups are larger than most would have ever imagined. As few as one or two members or as many as ten to twelve members founded the NPC sororities. Today, most of the national sororities have chapters that are well over one hundred members, some even exceeding two hundred members per chapter. The 128
numbers vary from chapter to chapter and differ among campuses. Some chapters have as few as ten members with many averaging between twenty-five to eighty members. It may be that the structure of sororities has changed so much since their founding that the application and value of the ritual to the current generation needs to be evaluated. Individual sororities need to assess the understanding of the ritual by their undergraduate members. If sororities are indeed the values- based groups that they purport to be, then all aspects of the sorority should exemplify what has been stated in their ritual. Additionally, sororities must evaluate the way that they recruit and educate members. In 1991, NPC began to promote and encourage a “no frills” recruitment process as a way to demonstrate to potential members what sorority life encompassed. The intent was to eliminate what was considered to be more entertainment rather than informative. While many campuses and chapters implemented these changes; others continue to stage elaborate performances and are very “showy” in their recruitment process. Some campuses have implemented philanthropy events and fraternal values events that actually promote not only the social aspect of sororities, but also the community service and values aspect as well. In order for women to really understand that sororities are more than social organizations and focus more on the real meaning of why they were founded, the recruitment and new member education programs need to be evaluated and further developed to incorporate those types of expectations. Summary The National Panhellenic Conference is currently addressing the need for assessment of the sorority experience and, in the near future, will make decisions as to ways that this can be accomplished (M. Williams, personal communication, March 8, 2002). In recent years, colleges and universities have begun implementing internal assessment programs on individual chapters to determine whether or not they are in fact what they promote themselves to be. The National 129
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SORORITY RITUALS: RITES OF PASSAGE
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I am very grateful
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for teaching me that a group of peo
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TABLE OF CONTENTS DEDICATION ......
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CHAPTER V: SUMMARY, DISCUSSION, REC
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CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION Each year th
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The member groups of the National P
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hopes of the founders rather than t
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ceremony is complete, that person i
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80,000 women join sororities. On mo
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issues, and topics …that formerly
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when do we use it? How do we use it
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the sorority experience has on the
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The lack of information concerning
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of the NPC member groups, and to co
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CHAPTER II REVIEW OF LITERATURE Thi
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Ritual Ceremonies and Symbolism in
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Robson writes further: In a world c
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strengthened by encountering differ
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student initiated and created to au
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Gradually, however, they took over
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Following the founding of Kappa Alp
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efer to themselves as "service" org
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Alpha Xi Delta Fraternity Lombard C
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What Is Ritual? In order to explain
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theorist/researcher in the area of
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Ritual as a Rite of Passage Underst
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we are and giving meaning to us wit
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am I? Well, as I see it, I am a per
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Value Congruence Research conducted
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the majority of authors . . . have
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To better understand Gilligan’s F
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only women, all with varying opinio
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member transitions to a leader/role
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development. The isolation period a
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Gilligan’s point that sex differe
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undergraduate members. Understandin
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not an option. Actual observance of
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Role of the NPC Research Committee
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the chapters were part of large nat
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where I was able to travel based up
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a whole. I piloted the interview qu
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These categories were reflective of
Page 87 and 88: participated in my sorority ritual,
Page 89 and 90: sorority women was a cognitive asse
Page 91 and 92: In addition, only one participant w
Page 93 and 94: school. Sixteen (31%) sophomore par
Page 95 and 96: itual among themselves outside of t
Page 97 and 98: was founded in 1978. Their average
Page 99 and 100: chapters ranging in size from 150 t
Page 101 and 102: participants’ feelings about the
Page 103 and 104: A few of the participants expressed
Page 105 and 106: Several of the participants related
Page 107 and 108: One of the participants explained w
Page 109 and 110: During new member education, you le
Page 111 and 112: Women’s Development within the So
Page 113 and 114: Comments from several of the partic
Page 115 and 116: When I first joined my sorority, I
Page 117 and 118: the participants referred to other
Page 119 and 120: I think that ritual has made me a b
Page 121 and 122: The reasons that the participants g
Page 123 and 124: This study included both private an
Page 125 and 126: internal value system or they know
Page 127 and 128: sorority women’s length of member
Page 129 and 130: when an 18-year old woman joins a s
Page 131 and 132: ehavior of sorority women, it must
Page 133 and 134: * The level of responsibility and /
Page 135 and 136: to evaluate sorority women and the
Page 137: they are and what role ritual has i
Page 141 and 142: that those ceremonies can bring to
Page 143 and 144: Butler, E. R. (1990). Initiations r
Page 145 and 146: Kuh, G. D., & Arnold, J. C. (1992).
Page 147 and 148: Pennington, D., Zvonkovic, A. C., W
Page 149 and 150: Taylor, S.E., Peplau, L.A., C Sears
Page 151 and 152: APPENDIX A CONSENT FORM 141
Page 153 and 154: APPENDIX B PROFILE QUESTIONS 143
Page 155 and 156: APPENDIX C INTERVIEW QUESTIONS 145
Page 157 and 158: general? What would you say that th
Page 159 and 160: APPENDIX D (LETTER TO THE GREEK ADV
Page 161 and 162: APPENDIX E NATIONAL PANHELLENIC CON
Page 163 and 164: six months doing literature researc
Page 165 and 166: common knowledge similarities--the
Page 167 and 168: Correspondence II To: Shelia Barnes
Page 169 and 170: I truly appreciate your guidance an
Page 171 and 172: Application for Exemption from IRB
Page 173 and 174: VITA Mari Ann Callais was born in 1
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Sorority Rituals - Reflections On Rites of ... - Mari Ann Callais

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