Over the last few years, #BamaRush has been a phenomenon that has captured so many people’s attention through social media and beyond.  It highlights the University of Alabama sorority recruitment process.  It started with some young ladies highlighting their experiences at UA on TikTok, and others followed.  With it came many parodies also, and generally very positive perceptions.  Long story short, it has added to the appeal of the institution for many prospective students, not to mention individuals who desire to be a part of the sorority recruitment process.

However, I read with great interest an article that brought up a consistent concern for me regarding how many evaluate the process.  Some state that it is a segregated/racist process, and it limits students of color from participating.  That was the argument that I noted as the significant theme of this article that I read earlier this week.  It is one of many that I have read this year and in years past.  In some ways, I have my biases, which I will explain, and I understand the argument.  However, I also have another perspective that challenges this bias.  Please allow me to explain.

In the late 1980s to the early 1990s, I personally had my experience with the University of Alabama white fraternity and sorority system.  As a black student during that time, I witnessed many misguided actions of the white fraternity and sorority system. I was privy to the actions of the member organizations of the Interfraternity Council (IFC) and the Panhellenic Council in intentionally limiting access to membership for black students to these organizations, and I spoke with members of these organizations who were classmates, who very blatantly tried to provide a rationale for not allowing people of color to join their organizations.  I witnessed events like Old South Day, where one organization led an annual tribute to the Confederacy with a focus on dressing in Confederate military uniforms and having their female dates dress in antebellum dresses while on occasion bringing in poor, young black children from the Tuscaloosa community to dress as slave children and participate in the Old South parade.  I recall the “Who Rides the Bus?” swap party (in this case a sorority party with a fraternity) in which the sorority dressed in black faced and placed basketballs under their dresses to emulate poor pregnant black women on welfare.  I was on the football field when Kimberly Ashley, a black student, was crowned as homecoming queen, and the section of the stadium where the IFC and Panhellenic organizations sat embarrassed themselves and the university with their response to the outcomes of the student body vote.  I was a redshirt freshman of the football team, so I was not dressed and remained on the sidelines at the half with other redshirt teammates when the jeers, throwing of objects toward the field, and turning their backs to the field occurred.  These are just a few of the many experiences that I witnessed as an undergraduate student.  For that reason, I had a very cynical view of the system and its legacy.  These experiences were not a part of my undergraduate education that I held dear to my heart for sure.  I perceived the organizations under the umbrella of IFC and Panhellenic to be racist and unaccepting of black people and other people of color.  That was so ingrained in my mindset that when I arrived at the University of Oklahoma in 2000, and I witnessed a young black man wearing a t-shirt with the letters of an IFC organization, I was confused and concerned for his safety because that was just not something that I had witnessed in Alabama.  Obviously, there was a much bigger world outside of Alabama, and somehow others had figured it out already. 

Through the years, I continued to hear of such negative situations related to the white fraternity and sorority system after my matriculation and work at UA to include the continued failed efforts of the university to try to integrate the system in the early 2000s.  However, as I returned in 2020 as the Vice President of Student Affairs (VPSA) with responsibility for supervising the overall fraternity and sorority community – the Office of Fraternity and Sorority Life (OFSL), I set aside my views based upon my past experiences.  It was my hope to start anew in terms of my work, and I had met with some students and alumni of these organizations prior to and during my interview who were trying hard to change the perceptions of many who had had experiences like me.  I witnessed some significant efforts by the white fraternity and sorority community to move past the disturbing past that had been painted by alums of their organizations.  For that reason and due to my personal experience, I want to share a different perspective regarding these organizations. 

The article that I mentioned earlier that prompted my thoughts on this matter made some very negative comments about the lack of diversity in the white fraternity and sorority system after this year’s “#BamaRush”.  (Note:  #BamaRush is about sorority recruitment, but the author carried the theme across white fraternities and sororities at Alabama.).  The article noted that the faces of those involved in the process continued to be predominantly white, and with that, the article insinuated that the system continued to perpetuate a racist mindset.  The author had an agenda, and the author did not hesitate to continue to say that nothing had changed, and that the institution (UA and the OFSL) had not done anything to change the “appearance” of racism through the years.  Having only been a few months removed from this experience, I found the article greatly distorted and lacking in truth about what really happens in the process.  It diminishes the hard work that the university continues to engage in through the leadership of those in OFSL (to include advisors of these organizations who I worked with in the past) to make a change in this area.  However, there are many realities that exist that make this a difficult challenge for the institution and for the organizations.

As the VPSA, I spoke to many young ladies who were students of color who participated in white sororities at Alabama.  They talked about their experiences in generally very positive terms.  They were engaged.  They were serving in leadership roles.  They were accepted as members of these organizations.  Were there some snafus here and there based upon some individual member of their organization or other white organizations that were racist/problematic?  Yes.  We still have those folks in society unfortunately. That does not realistically define the culture and ethos of the entire organization.  However, in hearing the good and the bad and due to my natural curiosity, I engaged in my unscientific research study to better understand the culture and understand the state of things at the university.  I endeavored to figure out ways to make the process better, and I wanted to hear the voices of all involved, to include of course students of color who experienced the process firsthand.    What I discovered was that those who I spoke to enjoyed/loved their experience and didn’t regret it.

I am not saying that racism does not still exist in these organizations.  I supervised the adjudication of student misconduct issues by students who were members of those organizations that were deeply racist.  However, the actions of individuals do not illustrate the character of the entire organization because I spoke with members and advisors of these organizations who very quickly tried to do the right thing and deal with those members, not for public relations reasons, but because they knew that it was wrong.  They used the moments as teachable moments for their organizations.  They advocated for education across the system.  They sincerely wanted to do the right thing.  Many of these conversations preceded me, and I personally was engaged with many of them during the tumultuous George Floyd period where some students made some very derogatory statements.

Shifting gears, a primary challenge of the system in recruiting more students of color is the long and disturbing legacy of the organizations at the institution.  There are many who attended the institution like me who experienced these negative episodes.  There are even more who have heard about them.  George Wallace continues to stand in the schoolhouse door for many black people, and even though they will allow their student to attend the institution, they will not allow them to be exposed to a system that they feel is racist.  Participating in sorority recruitment is expensive, and students need financial support from their parents to make it a reality.  If parents are concerned about their student’s wellbeing because of their perceptions and knowledge of the negative aspects of the system’s past, they are not going to support it.  That leaves any level of recruitment to be a futile process for white fraternities and sororities in attracting students of color.

Another reality is that for many middle-class black people, we desire for our children to receive the best education possible, and that means that we move to the suburbs to achieve that goal.  It’s unfortunate, but true.  However, in making that decision, these black families realize that these schools are sometimes not the most diverse.  I recall classes, activities, and events where my children were the only students of color present.  It became our reality.  However, without fail, my children had positive experiences for the most part.  What point am I making here?  It’s two-fold.  First, these students connect with their white peers because those are their classmates.  These are the people that they have grown up with.  They don’t discuss the color of their skin or cultural differences often.  They are just friends.  Consequently, the likelihood of students of color having an interest in joining a white fraternity or sorority are much more likely.  It’s not a guarantee, but it is a high likelihood.  They are going to want to go to college where their friends are going and be affiliated with organizations where they find a fit regardless of the racial makeup.  It is not surprising to find that many of the students who were members of Panhellenic organizations that I spoke to were black students who went to predominantly white suburban schools.  Many white sororities who are committed to doing the right thing realize this, and they actively recruit these students of color from these schools, not only through cold call recruitment, but many of these ladies have friends from high school who are students of color who they recruit.  It is a very organic process, but also very deliberate for some organizations. 

Here is the challenge for these organizations in recruiting students of color particularly black students.  Many of these affluent parents are members of historically black, National Panhellenic Council (NPHC) organizations.  The student may feel compelled to join one of these organizations as a legacy.  Yes, the process is different in terms of recruitment/intake, and they don’t align in terms of timing because NPHC organizations require that students complete one or more semesters before applying for membership, amongst other requirements.  Despite these, many students have been encouraged by their parents to join NPHC organizations versus going the IFC and Panhellenic Association organizations.  No matter how much these organizations attempt to diversify, it is difficult to compete with the legacy reality of some students of color who desire to align more with their parents’ (and other family members and friends) organizations.  I have only seen a couple of articles written in the media that focus on this reality of the challenge of recruiting for white fraternities and sororities in the recruitment process.

My daughter chose to attend Alabama, and members of several white sororities who followed me on social media and saw how engaged she was in high school and in the Edmond, OK community, started reaching out to her directly and recruiting her.  There were several current UA students who were from UA who went above and beyond to meet my daughter during the times that she was visiting here in Alabama, or when they were home for the holidays visiting their families in Oklahoma.  They worked hard to recruit her, but as she is a legacy of a NPHC sorority, she was inclined to consider that more, even though she has not fully committed to doing that even.  Regardless, this demonstrates the organizations’ recruitment efforts firsthand, and it demonstrates the challenges that they face in terms of legacies.

Additionally, for some students of color, IFC and Panhellenic organizations are just not a fit for them culturally.  All students, regardless of their background, will gravitate toward people who have similar interests, cultural backgrounds, and other characteristics.  It is human nature for people to want to be with people that they know and have similar interests, beliefs, and in some cases skin color.  You face an uphill battle as white fraternities and sororities in trying to recruit when cultural barriers are a reality in potential new member (PNM) decision making.

I remember being asked by the president and people at the system office about the diversity numbers.  They were always nervous this time of the year because they knew that the media would be seeking the numbers to “create a narrative” about the white fraternity and sorority organizations not being diverse, which I understood the concern, but… Yes, the fact of the matter is that the numbers are low, and through the sorority recruitment process, the numbers have increased through the years, but they are still low.  During my time there in the VPSA role, I looked at the number of students of color who started the process and ultimately received bids during my brief time at the university, and consistently, there was not a significance difference than white PNM versus students of color PNM.  I was frustrated that the university never shared this kind of information because it missed an opportunity to demonstrate the overall efforts to share the full-hearted efforts of not only the university, but the organizations to welcome students of color to participate in the recruitment process.  These efforts are a huge departure from the “blocking” of students of color efforts that took place in years past at the institution. 

I believe that the narrative of division, racism, and elitism is one that sells, so it is what some authors return to as they continue the same story about the fraternity and sorority system at UA.  The system is not perfect by any means, and I don’t know every aspect of the system. However, I know people, and I know research.  I have done my share, and there have been improvements through the years.  It is important to continue this progress, but it does not happen by continuing to brow beat those who are trying to do the right thing.  After a while, they get tired and just say it is what it is.  They will eventually throw up their hands and embrace the mindset that they can’t win in their efforts to do what is right.  I believe that throughout our society many are trying to do the right thing in correcting past wrongs, but we can’t punish them for the past when they are trying to be a part of the change.  We must band together to remove the wrongs in society.  We can accomplish more together.