Sororities-past & now

[DebW]

I was a member of a fraternity in college in the 70s. It was a coed frat, about 1/3 women and 2/3 men. We lived in a big old house about 2 miles from campus. We had a hired cook and revolving chores. Roommates were swapped every semester, but we all slept in one big room on the 3rd floor of the house with the windows open all year long (actually, there was a partition between the men's and women's sides). Periodically we opened the basement bike shop (we had 2-3 mechanics). This was MIT, so we mostly studied hard, acted nerdy together, and enjoyed our college years. It wasn't a random mix of people, but people who selected each other, so more like a family by choice. I don't think I could have lived in an all-women's house, and there weren't enough women at MIT for that anyway. In fact, the ratios were so skewed that if more than 2 women ever found themselves in a room without men, we freaked out and drug a man into the room.

[Possegal]

I was in a sorority. Northeastern college in the 80s. No house, sororities didn't have houses. I loved it. I didn't pledge until a couple years in, so I already had a great group of friends, then I had another group. Glad I did it and glad I did it when I did. My senior year I did live off campus with 7 other sisters. There were a lot of rental houses like that, with 6 or more sisters in each house. We then had sorority rooms in the basement of one set of dorms where we held meetings and such.

[Mr. Bloom]

At Alabama, I was in a Fraternity, Silver was in a Sorority. I was the "Theta Throb" one year for her sorority. All the Greek organizations were big and had huge houses, socially entwined in southern culture, and represented about 25% of the student population. This was the early to mid 80's. The fraternities were roudy and the sororities were very traditional.

What struck me as odd was the number of families that made HUGE financial sacrifices for their daughters to be in sororities...sacrifices they couldn't afford - presumeably to facilitate better career opportunities or better marriage chances.

SilverDaughter will be staying at one of her cousins sorority houses this week on a visit to Tuscaloosa. We are neither encouraging or discouraging her...has to be her choice