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T Sam Dillon currently works as a national education correspondent for theNew York Times, writing often on issues relating to education in the UnitedStates. Earlier in his career,he reported from various Latin American coun-tries. His journalistic writing has garnered several prestigious awards,including two Pulitzer Prizes. The New York Times broke this story about theDelta Zeta sorority at DePauw University in its February 25, 2007, edition,setting off a widely discussed controversy that eventually led to the closure ofthe sorority on the university's campus. As you read this article, consider theways in which stereotyping might have played a role in what happened-andwhat didn't.

Evictions at Sorority Raise Issue of BiasSAM DILLON

GREENCASTLE, Ind.-When apsychology professor at DePauwUniversity here surveyed students,they described one sorority as a groupof "daddy's little princesses" andanother as "offbeat hippies." Thesisters of Delta Zeta were seen as"socially awkward:'

Worried that a negative stereotypeof the sorority was contributing to adecline in membership that had leftits Greek-columned house here halfempty, Delta Zeta's national officersinterviewed 35 DePauw members inNovember, quizzing them about theirdedication to recruitment. Theyjudged 23 of the women insufficientlycommitted and later told them tovacate the sorority house.

The 23 members included everywoman who was overweight. Theyalso included the only Korean andVietnamese members. The dozenstudents allowed to stay were slenderand popular with fraternity men-

Women at DePauw University who either were asked to leave theDelta Zeta house or resigned in protest hold a sorority photo.

515

II

516 CHAPTER 22 HOW DOES POPULAR CULTURE STEREOTYPE YOU?

conventionally pretty women thesorority hoped could attract newrecruits. Six of the 12 were so infuri-ated they quit.

"Virtually everyone who didn't fita certain sorority member archetype-was told to leave:' said Kate Holloway,a senior who withdrew from the chap-ter during its reorganization.

"I sensed the disrespect with which 5this was to be carried out and got fedup:' Ms. Holloway added. "I didn't haveroom in my life for these women tocome in and tell my sisters of threeyears that they weren't needed:'

Ms. Holloway is not the only angryone. The reorganization has left amessy aftermath of recrimination andtears on this rural campus of 2,400students, 50 miles southwest ofIndianapolis.

The mass eviction battered theself-esteem of many of the formersorority members, and some with-drew from classes in depression.There have been student protests, out-

raged letters from alumni= and par-ents, and a faculty petition calling thesorority's action unethical.

DePauw's president, Robert G.Bottoms, issued a two-page letter ofreprimand to the sorority. In an inter-view in his office, Dr. Bottoms said hehad been stunned by the sorority'sinsensitivity.

"I had no hint they were going todisrupt the chapter with a member-ship reduction of this proportion inthe middle of the year:' he said. "It'sbeen very upsetting:'

The president of Delta Zeta, which 10has its headquarters in Oxford, Ohio,and its other national officers declinedto be interviewed. Responding bye-mail to questions, Cynthia WinslowMenges, the executive director, saidthe sorority had not evicted the 23women, even though the nationalofficers sent those women form let-ters that said: "The membership re-view team has recommended you foralumna status. Chapter members

receiving alumnae status should planto relocate from the chapter house nolater than Jan. 29, 2007:'

Ms. Menges asserted that thewomen themselves had, in effect,made their own decisions to leave bydemonstrating a lack of commitmentto meet recruitment goals. The soror-ity paid each woman who left $300 tocover the difference between sororityand campus housing.

The sorority "is saddened that theisolated incident at DePauw has beenmischaracterized," Ms. Menges wrote.Asked for clarification, the sorority'spublic relations representativee-mailed a statement saying its actionswere aimed at the "enrichment of stu-dent life at Del'auw"

This is not the first time thatthe DePauw chapter of Delta Zetahas stirred controversy. In 1982, itattracted national attention when ablack student was not allowed tojoin, provoking accusations of racialdiscrimination.

alumni: the masculine plu-

ral form of alumnus, a

(male) graduate. The femi-

nine singular form is

alumna, and the feminine

plural is alumnae. These

plural forms are retained

from Latin, their language

of origin. As sometimes

continues to be the case in

English, a masculine

form-here, alumni-isused to refer to both

females and males.

archetype: here, a model

or perfect example.

Earlier this month, an Alabamalawyer and several other DePauwalumni who graduated in 1970described in a letter to The Del'auw, thestudent newspaper, how Delta Zeta'snational leadership had tried unsuc-cessfully to block a young woman witha black father and a white mother fromjoining its DePauw chapter in 1967.

Despite those incidents, the chap- 15ter appears to have been home to adiverse community over the years,partly because it has attracted brainywomen, including many science andmath majors, as well as talented dis-abled women, without focusing asexclusively as some sororities onpotential recruits' sex appeal, formersorority members said.

"I had a sister I could go to a barwith ifI had boy problems;' said ErinSwisshelm, a junior biochemistry majorwho withdrew from the sorority inOctober. "I had a sister I could talknbout religion with. I had a sister I couldIll' nerdy about science with. That's whyI Iiked Delta Zeta, because I had all11\.se amazing women around me:'

l3ut over the years DePauw stu-1I\'11lshad attached a negative stereo-Iype to the chapter, as evidenced by111' survey that Pam Propsom, a psy-I hology professor, conducts each yearIII her class. That image had hurt11'1ruitment, and the national officers11i\\Irepeatedly warned the chapter11111unless its membership increased,IIII'chapter could close.

A I the start of the fall term the11111onal office was especially deter-rulucd to raise recruitment because11101)is the 100th anniversary of the111'PlIlIW chapter's founding. In1jlkmber, Ms. Menges and Kathi

DILLON / Evictions at Sorority Raise Issue of Bias 517

Elizabeth Haneline, who was among those evicted, said, "The Greek system hasn't changed atall, but instead of racism, it's image now."

Heatherly, a national vice president ofthe sorority, visited the chapter toannounce a reorganization plan theysaid would include an interview witheach woman about her commitment.The women were urged to look theirbest for the interviews.

The tone left four women sounsettled that they withdrew from thechapter almost immediately.

Robin Lamkin, a junior who is an 20editor at The DePauw and was one ofthe 23 women evicted, said many ofher sisters bought new outfits andmodeled them for each other beforethe interviews. Many women declaredtheir willingness to recruit diligently,Ms. Lamkin said.

A few days after the interviews,national representatives took over thehouse to hold a recruiting event. Theyasked most members to stay upstairs in

their rooms. To welcome freshmendownstairs, they assembled a team thatincluded several of the women eventu-ally asked to stay in the sorority, alongwith some slender women invitedfrom the sorority's chapter at IndianaUniversity, Ms. Holloway said.

"They had these unassumingfreshman girls downstairs with theseplastic women from IndianaUniversity, and 25 of my sisters hidingupstairs;' she said. "It was so fake, socompletely dehumanized. I said, 'Thiscalls for a little joke:"

Ms. Holloway put on a wig andsome John Lennon rose-coloredglasses, burst through the front doorand skipped around singing, "OooohlDelta Zeta!" and other chants.

The face of one of the national rep-resentatives, she recalled, "was like I'drun over her puppy with my car:'

518 C HAPTE R 22 HOW DOES POPULAR CULTURE STEREOTYPE YOU?

The national representatives 25announced their decisions in the formletters, delivered on Dec. 2, which saidthat Delta Zeta intended to increasemembership to 95 by the 2009 anni-versary, and that it would recruitusing a "core group of women:'

Elizabeth Haneline, a senior com-puter science major who was amongthose evicted, returned to the housethat afternoon and found somewomen in tears. Even the chapter'spresident had been kicked out, Ms.Haneline said, while "other womenwho had done almost nothing for thechapter were asked to stay:'

At least part of the disagreement

behind this conflict lies in different

criteria for evaluating who makes a

good member of a sorority. See

Chapter 10 for more on how to

develop criteria for evaluation

arguments.

LINK TO P.216

Six of the 12 women who wereasked to stay left the sorority, includ-ing Joanna Kieschnick, a sophomoremajoring in English literature. "Theysaid, 'You're not good enough' to somany people who have put their heartand soul into this chapter that I can'tstay,' she said.

In the months since, CynthiaBabington, DePauw's dean of stu-dents, has fielded angry calls fromparents, she said. Robert Hershberger,chairman of the modern languagesdepartment, circulated the facultypetition; 55 professors signed it.

"We were especially troubled thatthe women they expelled were lessabout image and more about academicachievement and social service:' Dr.Hershberger said.

During rush activities this month, 3011first-year students accepted invita-tions to join Delta Zeta, but only threehave sought membership.

On Feb. 2, Rachel Pappas, a juniorwho is the chapter's former secretary,printed 200 posters calling on stu-

dents to gather that afternoon at thestudent union. About 50 studentsshowed up and heard Ms. Pappas saythe sorority's national leaders hadmisrepresented the truth when theyasserted they had evicted women forlack of commitment.

"The injustice of the lies:' she said,"is contemptible:'

CORRECTION: MARCH 2, 2007

An article on Sunday about the evic-tion at DePauw University of mem-bers of the Delta Zeta sorority by thenational organization referred incor-rectly to a woman identified only asa black member of the sorority.Although the woman, Leah Souder,was not in fact one of 35 sororitymembers interviewed by the nationalorganization, nor was she among the23 of those 35 who received evictionletters, she says she has not heardfrom the national office since itsreorganization of the DePauw chap-ter and assumes she is no longer amember.

DILLON / Evictions at Sorority Raise Issue of Bias 519

RESPOND.

1. What examples of stereotyping do you find discussed in this article?Who is being stereotyped? What or who, do you believe, are the sourcesof the stereotypes? What evidence is there in the article of people whoare criticizing or contesting stereotypes? Who are they, and how arethey calling stereotypes into question?

2. Paragraphs 13-14 provide historical background about the Delta Zetasorority on the DePauw campus. Is this information necessary to thearticle? If so, how? If not, why not? What is the relationship betweenparagraphs 13-14 and paragraphs 15-16? What is the role of these twolatter paragraphs in the article?

3. In printed newspapers, corrections appear several days after the origi-nal article is printed, but someone doing research might well notnotice them. In contrast, a correction posted on an electronic sourcewill always be available to future readers. In some cases, the correc-tion is incorporated into the original article rather than being notedseparately at the end of the article. The correction that appears at theend of this article reminds us that even award-winning journalistssometimes make errors. How serious, in your opinion, was the error inDillon's original article? Does this correction influence how you reador evaluate the article? Does it influence how you evaluate the ethosof the writer? (For a discussion of ethos, see Chapter 3.)

4. As the headnote on p. 515 implies, this article set off a national con-troversy. For information about what happened, read the entry enti-tled "DePauw University Delta Zeta Discrimination Controversy" onWikipedia. As is common with Wikipedia entries, especially thoseabout fairly recent events, all the references cited are electronicsources. Thus, you can inspect the sources that were used in writingthe entry. Choose three of the articles used as sources, and write anevaluative argument focusing on the support that they provide for theclaims they make. (For a discussion of evaluative arguments, seeChapter 10.)

5. One way to analyze the situation at DePauw is to consider it as anargument of definition: Did stereotyping occur in the Delta Zeta soror-ity? Write an argument of definition considering the situationdescribed in this article and the Wikipedia entry on the "DePauwUniversity Delta Zeta Discrimination Controversy." You'll need to for-mulate a definition of stereotyping and demonstrate why the eventsat DePauw did or did not constitute stereotyping.