The Vanderbilt Greek community is beginning to respond to an incident at DePauw University, where Delta Zeta's national officers evicted already-initiated members.

National officers came to DePauw's chapter of Delta Zeta in hopes of boosting numbers by eliminating members deemed "socially awkward." These women were the only overweight and ethnic women in the sorority.

Liz Rinck, the director of communications for Kappa Alpha Theta at DePauw University, said her sorority and all other sororities at DePauw cannot respond to any questions from the media because university officials do not want students to make statements that reflect poorly on DePauw.

Some Greek students have expressed concern that the incidents at DePauw reinforce a negative stereotype that sororities are superficial.

Sophomore Allison Erwin said she finds it "ridiculous" that "national directors would come in and tell 19-year-old girls that they should be placed on alumna status."

"Sororities have the potential to do a lot in this world, and it is disheartening that a few Greek women's behavior will make us all look bad because what Delta Zeta did is a shameful representation of Panhellenic spirit," Erwin said.

Sophomore Jacquie Kumar, a member of Alpha Chi Omega, said she can see why Delta Zeta's national organization made the decision to showcase only the sorority members whom they felt were the "best representatives" of the chapter recruitment.

"It's unfortunate that much of recruitment has to be based on appearances; it's inevitable to some degree in recruitment," Kumar said. "It's not all superficially based, but some of it has to be because sororities don't have any other way to get to know some of the girls."

Sophomore Maggie Fesmire, the rising Kappa Alpha Theta recruitment chair, said Greek recruitment at Vanderbilt is much more "real" than at other schools where Greek life is also dominant, such as the University of Mississippi.
Fesmire said she has heard from friends at Ole Miss that certain sororities put their "less attractive" women "in the basement to count votes" during recruitment rounds.

But at Vanderbilt, Fesmire said, her sorority and others would never do this.

"Our sorority makes everyone participate during rush," she said. "The girls who don't participate get fined."

Fesmire said she likes that Vanderbilt has deferred recruitment, in which freshman women participate in spring recruitment, because this enables sorority women to develop relationships during first semester.

By the time spring recruitment comes, she said sorority members will have gotten to know potential new members based on their personalities, their involvement on campus and their backgrounds.

Senior Kate Swensson, the Alpha Chi Omega recruitment chair, said she is "confident that it's not an issue with Vanderbilt's recruitment process."

"The people in charge of sorority recruitment, both in-house and within Greek Life, know how to conduct a successful recruitment without resorting to such superficial tactics," she said.

In response to the events at DePauw, Swensson said she was "shocked that this was supported, and even carried out, by the national representatives of their sorority.

"Assuming you can only increase your numbers by screening members based on looks or sociable personality is a very immature way of approaching recruitment," she said.

Swensson said Greek Life holds weekly meetings and workshops meant to tackle different issues, but "right now, we interact only when Greek Life tells us to.

"We need to be able to talk on a more personal level in order to increase respect and accountability between chapters," she said.