participation here hurts greek life and chapters

Panhellenic Recruitment registration just opened today, and there are probably some PNMs coming here looking for info and advice. It was said in a previous post that this site is at best not useful and at worst harmful to PNMs. There are better places than this for PNMs to seek guidance. This post is directed, however, at the active chapter members and alums who believe posting on here improves the image and recruiting strength for their chapters by hyping themselves up and throwing shade at other chapters.

There already have been some posts from PNMs asking if it is social suicide if they do or don't get bids from certain groups or wondering if recruitment is really cutthroat at Clemson based on the fighting and ranking on here. The reality is that there are attractive, smart, talented, and accomplished women in all groups on campus and that women from different groups are friends with one another. There are so many groups because people in general have different personalities. Your chances for getting a bid are high if you remain open minded and stick with the process to the very end. If you become active early on in your new group, you will likely make friendships and become happy with your membership. All sororities here offer opportunities for sisterhood, philanthropy, scholarship, socializing, and networking after college.

The concern is that women will buy into the posts here that certain groups are worse than others and then drop out without giving everyone a fair shot. Or worse yet, be turned off from sororities and recruitment all together by reading all the TOXICITY in the posts here and NOT wanting to be part of that. Many accomplished young women will end up not wanting to participate in Greek life because they will believe that pettiness and stereotypes are all that sororities here are about.

It hurts all of us when great women decide not to participate in Greek life. When we promote ranks, we aren't promoting all the good things sororities have to offer. When we put down other groups thinking it improves our chances at recruitment, it turns off some potential members and causes other groups to do the same thing to us. In the end, we end up sabotaging ourselves by encouraging others to say bad things about our chapters. That includes anti-Greeks who see all the negativity here and have their preconceptions and prejudices about sororities reinforced.

We just had a chapter close, and it is foolish to think that it can't or won't happen to someone else here. "Ranks" can and have changed here over time -- don't believe the myth that they haven't -- and interest in Greek life is cyclical. College enrollment numbers are actually starting to go down again, which in turn affects the number of women going through recruitment. With negative press about Greek life in general today, it doesn't make sense for us to being tearing each other down. Instead we should be supporting each other and promoting involvement in Greek life, even if it is not our own chapter. People are different, so differences between groups should be accepted and not used to attack one another.

Don't be foolish and short-sighted into thinking that promoting ranks and tearing down others helps you. It actually hurts you and all of Greek life. Your putting down your "competition" may actually encourage them to put you down twice as much.