The above picture was taken of me when I was in college and going through a sorority initiation. I evidently had displeased the members in some way and was punished by wearing pigtails all over my head and going without lipstick for a day. That’s funny because now that’s the way all women dress on campus! Being fresh off the farm, I thought being in a sorority was the “thing” to do in college, but I learned differently. I soon decided the whole sorority idea was not for me and I dropped out. Now I’m adamantly opposed to them – there is too much discrimination and too many hurt feelings among the girls. They should be able to concentrate on their studies, learn social skills and be free to say what they want. They should never be constrained by rules set down years ago when discrimination was in effect against people of different races, religions or appearances.

But how about the CNN report concerning girls from Depauw University who belonged to Delta Zeta Sorority where it was sometimes called “the dog house” which implied the members weren’t pretty. Three of the Delta Zeta members said the sorority’s national office was concerned that the membership at Depauw was too low. So last summer these students said the leaders suggested the way to recruit was to change their appearance with drinking and sex. Wow! What a novel idea. I imagine all the campus guys thought it was a great idea. Now they could find girls who were blotto – and maybe not even the most attractive – but were willing to have sex due to the fact that they were blotto. Guys like to have sex anytime, anywhere and it doesn’t matter what she looks like -- just so long as she’s alive. One of the students quoted the leader this way: “Her whole idea is basically you need to be more sexually appealing, make the guys want you, you need to, I don’t know, get sloshed and have them whatever—just be more attractive, get the men to like you, get the men to want you.”

This whole mess came to light when national leaders held an open house for freshman women and only the more attractive students were asked to be the hosts. The others were asked to stay upstairs and not come down unless they were dressed “really cute.” Then in December the national office sent a letter to 23 members – two thirds of the membership – stating they’d failed to meet recruiting standards and their status was changed from active to alumna, and they had to be gone by the end of January. These 23 were all the overweight students and three of the four minorities at Delta Zeta. One of the students said, ”Image is the new racism of sorts. Image is the be-all and end-all of everything, and sorority life is just where it appears the most.” CNN ends by saying, “University officials sent a letter reprimanding the national sorority for disrupting students’ lives just a week before exams. They say they’re still investigating, but could ask the sorority to leave campus.”

So is the message these Delta Zeta leaders is sending out is that any freshman girl entering college can be popular and join a good sorority by drinking heavily and having a lot of sex? I know the college guys are going to love that! So if you happen to be fat and not at all pretty, concentrate on the drinking and dress “really cute.”