Women in Greek Life were asked to deactivate their Facebook accounts during rush to keep the silence rule golden.
The period of silence goes into effect a week before formal recruitment.”Deactivation of Facebook is not a Panhellenic Council rule – it is an individual chapter decision,” said Angela Guillory, director of Greek Life. “It is really in the spirit of silence.”
Sorority members are not allowed to communicate with potential members. This rule allows potential members to make decisions without anyone “manipulating” their thoughts, Guillory said.
“Basically, the sororities say ‘you better not converse, not even on Facebook,'” Guillory said. “Having these conversations may lead [potential members] to believe they have better connections, and we want to protect that potential member from having additional contacts from other chapters.”
Guillory said the problems Facebook caused climaxed about two years ago.”Facebook was at the peak of its popularity, and it was so easy to prove contact because all we had to do was print the page,” Guillory said. “That is when members said, ‘Let’s deactivate Facebook.'”
If any form of contact is made with a potential member, the Panhellenic Council is informed and an infraction is filed. The judicial process starts with mediation, Guillory said.
Members may loose certain privileges within their sorority if caught violating the silent rule.
“Our Panhellenic president and our vice president of recruiting sit with the organization that has the violation filed against them, and it depends on what those two entities decide,” Guillory said. “That is why it is called a mediation and not a hearing.”
The last infraction because of violation of the silence rule was three years ago, Guillory said.
No one was caught using Facebook this year, but the Panhellenic Council is aware of members using non-Greek friends and family to log on to Facebook.
“We are aware of that, and we just have to tell them, ‘This is not there to keep you from getting on Facebook for social reasons, it is there to help benefit our process,'” said Khaki Jardine, vice president of recruitment.With so many members involved in Greek Life, it is hard to keep track of everyone, Jardine said.
“Chapter members can assign someone in their chapter to check if everyone deactivated Facebook,” Jardine said. “After that, they are really on the honor system.”
For some members of Greek Life, this is a difficult process.
“Sometimes I do feel tempted to just log on very quickly, but then get off again before anyone notices,” said one sorority member. “I have to remember it is just for a short period of time that can seem like forever.”
But not all members have a hard time staying away from Facebook.
“There would literally be no time for a Facebook sneak,” said a sorority member. “It’s a good thing because we have so much to get done in so little time, and Facebook would be a distraction. Everyone I know on Sorority Row deactivated their Facebook accounts.”
—-Contact Aimee Effler at [email protected]