By: Maddie Sexton
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. (UATV) – Panhellenic recruitment at the University of Arkansas offers the opportunity for young women to meet current sorority/chapter members to learn about Greek life and the campus. This week-long process is for PNMs, or potential new members, to find which chapter they “belong in”.
Sorority recruitment in the SEC tends to be more formal than other schools; meaning there are more rules that PNMs and current members must follow during the process. This can cause high amounts of stress for everyone involved, but some PNMS who participate feel the need to hide who they are in order to impress the active members.
Current member of the Alpha Omega chapter of Delta Gamma, Anna Kate Jordan, is also a member of the LGBTQ+ community. She went through Panhellenic recruitment at the U of A in the fall of 2018.
“I don’t think I felt rejected by Greek life. I think it was definitely a struggle going through recruitment, I felt like I needed to hide who I was.”
Arkansas is the 9th most conservative state in the United States, however 35% of the LGBTQ+ population resides in southern states.
Jordan said that Delta Gamma continues to embrace her and the other members of the LGBTQ+ community by highlighting things such as pride month, national coming-out day, and being able to bring same-sex dates to all functions.
“Fake it ‘til you make it” was the phrase Jordan used to describe how it feels to be surrounded by majority straight, white females when she is participating in Greek life events.
“I think sometimes I definitely feel like I have to fake or hide who I am, but I don’t think its Greek life or Delta Gamma’s fault. I think its just the bias that I have in my head of what I expect a sorority girl to look like and act like.”
The decisions are made by current members of “who to keep” or “who not to keep” during the process. PNMs are judged by first impassions for the most part, which is why girls like Anna Kate feel this pressure to pretend to be someone they aren’t.
When she was going through recruitment, Anna Kate was “in the closet”, which is a term used by the LGBTQ+ community to represent someone who is homosexual but is not open to the public about it. By doing this, she was appearing to be someone she wasn’t by her clothing, makeup, hair style, and she even spoke with a “girly-er” voice to fit in with the other girls.
“I was so scared I was going to have to hide who I was for four years.”
Now, Anna Kate is a senior and she is proud of who she is and what she stands for.
“I think I’ve grown in that, I have just been able to feel more comfortable with who I am.”