Spring Break
Vote for 5th Panhell. sorority overturned
Issue date: 11/20/08
The Panhellenic Council's proposal to invite a fifth sorority to campus was overturned by the existing four sororities on Nov. 4.
Plans for Panhellenic extension were originally supported last April due to the growing sizes of pledge classes. With students' increased interest in Greek life, the pledge classes were becoming unmanageably large.
Alpha Phi, who declined to comment on this issue, called the motion to revote at a Council meeting. Kappa Alpha Theta, Kappa Kappa Gamma (KKG) and Alpha Phi voted against extension, while Phi Mu abstained. Originally, last spring, KKG had the only dissenting vote.
"I think we got caught up in it all . . . I think that maybe the protocol for how to do extension was a little hazy for everyone. I think maybe there was less communication between chapters and their headquarters than was probably desirable for such an important decision." Hopkins Panhellenic President Allie Haeusslein said, when asked why most sororities changed their position.
As both Alpha Phi and Kappa Alpha Theta declined to comment on their reasons for changing their votes, Haeusslein offered her own interpretation.
"A conversation with [Alpha Phi and Theta's] headquarters that should have happened wasn't really happening . . . then they had that conversation with their headquarters and for some reason, I don't really know what each reason was, they just found that [extension] is not something they want right now for Hopkins."
In the future, especially if pledge classes continue to increase dramatically, a fifth sorority will likely be invited to campus. However, it probably will not happen until each sorority can meet their quota. KKG has not yet met their quota of 80 girls.
Robert Turning, coordinator of Greek Life, agreed with Haeusslein. He said that concerns over large pledge classes had certainly provoked the idea of extension in the first place, but that without the support of their national headquarters behind them, Alpha Phi and Kappa Alpha Theta could not proceed with the motion.
Plans for Panhellenic extension were originally supported last April due to the growing sizes of pledge classes. With students' increased interest in Greek life, the pledge classes were becoming unmanageably large.
Alpha Phi, who declined to comment on this issue, called the motion to revote at a Council meeting. Kappa Alpha Theta, Kappa Kappa Gamma (KKG) and Alpha Phi voted against extension, while Phi Mu abstained. Originally, last spring, KKG had the only dissenting vote.
"I think we got caught up in it all . . . I think that maybe the protocol for how to do extension was a little hazy for everyone. I think maybe there was less communication between chapters and their headquarters than was probably desirable for such an important decision." Hopkins Panhellenic President Allie Haeusslein said, when asked why most sororities changed their position.
As both Alpha Phi and Kappa Alpha Theta declined to comment on their reasons for changing their votes, Haeusslein offered her own interpretation.
"A conversation with [Alpha Phi and Theta's] headquarters that should have happened wasn't really happening . . . then they had that conversation with their headquarters and for some reason, I don't really know what each reason was, they just found that [extension] is not something they want right now for Hopkins."
In the future, especially if pledge classes continue to increase dramatically, a fifth sorority will likely be invited to campus. However, it probably will not happen until each sorority can meet their quota. KKG has not yet met their quota of 80 girls.
Robert Turning, coordinator of Greek Life, agreed with Haeusslein. He said that concerns over large pledge classes had certainly provoked the idea of extension in the first place, but that without the support of their national headquarters behind them, Alpha Phi and Kappa Alpha Theta could not proceed with the motion.
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Laura
posted 11/22/08 @ 1:16 PM EST
Quota and total are quite different, and using them interchangeably doesn't make sense.
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