What Can Sorority Life Offer During This Pandemic???

This season of COVID-19 has been so challenging for so many, myself included. We have seen the ups and downs of the pandemic on our campuses and within our fraternity and sorority communities. When all of this started, I shared some of my thoughts in a Facebook Live about how we can help to keep our graduating members engaged throughout the remainder of their college career. My thoughts have now shifted to how we can continue to recruit new members into our organizations knowing full well that their experiences are going to be drastically different from what has been considered a “normal” new member sorority experience.

First, let us remember the idea of sorority is one that socially brings together a group of like-minded women to feel connected to, and supported and encouraged by. This is challenging when they physically cannot be in the same space together. Even weekly chapter meetings, where they are usually given the time to catch up, are called into question during this season of COVID-19. How, then, do we advocate for women to join a sisterhood that is in question and help to create a strong sense of community when the very idea of bringing people together does not exist???

I don’t claim to have all of the answers, but here are some of my thoughts…

• Create deep connections: That will take work! Our older/more senior women in the chapter MUST help to form and continue these connections even when they may not feel like they have the time or the energy to get onto another virtual meeting. We need to be explaining that this is their responsibility to carry on the legacy of our Founders - they didn’t have the technology we have today and they made it work. Here we are, hundreds of years later, so they must have done something right in creating their deeper connections among women.

• Sense of belonging: We know women want to feel that they belong to something and that they often look to the idea of sorority to provide that feeling. We have a responsibility to those women to help connect them to the larger picture of sorority life. No one is alone in this, but its hard! We never heard that it would be easy, nor am I saying that now, but we have a real opportunity to utilize technology to help ease back into a potential virtual semester where women are developing their sense of belonging to an organization that has seen something in them that will help to create an even stronger sisterhood. This is an opportunity for our leaders to showcase what they have to offer in our organizations and get our newest women to feel like they belong to something bigger than themselves.

• Loneliness: I have struggled with this myself during this season. Its a big one! As social communities we have a responsibility to create a social environment where women know they can go to one another when they are feeling lonely or sad. They need to know that their sisters are a phone call or Zoom call away. We need to reiterate this with one another and with our chapters. It may be the only thing that helps to get some women through this challenging time!

• Get alumnae involved: We want to be able to help when we can. Provide different opportunities for us to connect with collegians and new members throughout the semester so we can also continue to feel connected to our sisterhood. We may be older, maybe wiser, but we all value the same things and we may be able to offer our own experiences to younger members that will assist during this pandemic.

• Peer to Peer Connections: Every organization has them! USE THEM!!!! Do not be hesitant to reach out to your sisters to just say hello or tell them that you miss them. The connections formed through sorority life can be life-long if we work at them. We have an opportunity to grow up and grow old together during a really hard time - let’s take advantage of it!

These are just a few of my original thoughts on how to work through this difficult season together. I’m sure there are many more. Here are some additional resources to potential utilize to help bring your chapter together for some fun…

• Netflix Watch Parties

• Electronic Bingo

• HouseParty app

• Snap Games

• Watson Adventures’ Virtual Hunts

• Jackbox.tv

• Remote Insensitivity (Cards Against Humanity)

• Pictionary Word Generator

• Psych! app

• UNO app

• Mario Kart Tour app

• Monopoly app

Sorority life offers a lot of opportunities - a sense of belonging, a sisterhood, a social outlet, academic excellence, leadership opportunities, networking skills, career readiness, wellness, and social justice. This is the perfect time to truly consider how we can all offer these opportunities in a different way. Think outside of the box - you are going to have to do that anyway! BE CREATIVE!!!! Don’t be afraid to spend some money on technology that may have been originally allocated for sisterhood events in order to help bring women together. Be courageous in your approach and think differently. Don’t be afraid to offer new thoughts and ideas to the leadership of your chapter. If you see something that has worked with a different group of people, bring that idea forward. Don’t hesitate to be different. We were all founded on different values and ideals - maybe this is the perfect time to highlight why being different can be so powerful….and think about our Founders! How they were forced to think of ways to be different on their campuses and how successful we are today because of their leap of faith!

Efficacy in Sorority Recruitment

As I began to look more into the growth and development of efficacy, I was also throwing around the idea of how formal sorority recruitment may impact one’s self and collective efficacy as a member of any sorority chapter. It was clear that no research had been conducted on this topic and I found my gap in the research. Each time I read something else on the development of self-efficacy, I found myself thinking how relevant this was to participation in sorority recruitment, both as a potential new member or an initiated member.

Sororities were originally founded as a way to connect women to other women in order to support and care for one another during a time when they were not welcome on many college campuses. Men were the majority and women were a distant second in all opportunities available at colleges and universities. Women found comfort in coming together and creating a home away from home for one another within their individual sororities. Each respective sorority developed a common purpose for which they would strive for, while the universal concepts of friendship, care, and support continued to be at the core of what participation in sorority life promised.

What I had repeatedly heard from sorority women is that the system selected their members for them and oftentimes they felt as though they had no actual choice. The “system” they were referring to is the Release Figure Method. Individual sorority women shared with me that whatever is planned for a recruitment event does not matter because every potential new member will be invited back regardless of how the women may feel about a particular potential new member. Sorority women explained that the chapter loses momentum and tends to feel discouraged when they are told to meet a certain number of potential new members, instead of recruiting women whose experience and values align with the mission of the organization and will do well in the chapter. The women in the chapter are well aware of how well or poorly they are performing throughout a formalized recruitment process by the number of potential new members they are told to invite back to each round of recruitment. Their sense of confidence may be diminished and level of mastery questioned, which might lower the overall self and collective efficacy for individual women in the chapter, as well as the chapter as a whole. Sorority women have explained the loss of positive feelings regarding how the chapter is progressing throughout the recruitment process and perceive the chapter will never be successful in the recruitment process.

This was it! I had dated my topic long enough to know marrying it was the right way to go. My research questions that guided my study were:

• How may participation in formal sorority recruitment impact feelings of self and collective efficacy?

• How may formal sorority recruitment efficacy expectancy influence the development of self and collective efficacy?

The possibility that participation in formal sorority recruitment may have an impact on efficacy levels could have significant influence on how organizations educate and train their women on recruitment practices, but also could provide sorority chapters a way to work towards a more balanced idea of what sisterhood could really mean to them. I considered my research to be the starting point for future studies to be conducted to assist in creating a base of scholarly literature on the concept of efficacy within the sorority experience…and I was off and running (or writing…depending on how you look at it!).