Reversing an old ban on sororities at Swarthmore

The late Molly Yard made a name for herself as a prominent feminist and civil rights leader, who for a time led the National Organization for Women.

But her activism started much earlier as a student at Swarthmore College in the 1930s, when she successfully led a move to ban sororities on campus - well, at that time, they were called fraternities, even the ones for women.

The groups enrolled more than three-quarters of Swarthmore females at the time but discriminated against Jews, argued Yard and her cohorts.

So for the last 79 years, Swarthmore - generally regarded as one of the nation's most progressive campuses - has been without one.

Four students want to change that, and Swarthmore's administration, although initially cautious, has endorsed their quest.

"This is something we all really would have benefited from in terms of mentorship, in terms of networking, and even in terms of social life on this campus," said Olivia Ensign, 21, a senior from Woodland, Calif.

It's also an issue of equality, said Julia Melin, 21, a junior from Abington. Swarthmore has two fraternities.

"We'd like to be on equal footing," she said.

The idea, first floated in the fall, met with some resistance from students who envisioned the stereotype of the superficial sorority girl who majors in partying and shuns those who are different.

The Phoenix, one of two student newspapers, ran a cartoon this year depicting women who spouted: "Pledging! Parties! Power!"

"Historically, sororities have predominantly been racially and religiously exclusive, and many continue to police women's gender and sexual expression through the idiom of sisterhood," two female Swarthmore students wrote to the Daily Gazette, the other student newspaper. "In a twisted way, many have worked against feminism and women's empowerment even as they seek to create community for (white) (straight) (thin) women." Parentheses are the writers'.

But Ensign and her partners, who have formed the official campus group Not Yet Sisters, say that's not what they have in mind at all.

They envision an inclusive group that bonds socially and for community service, emphasizes leadership, and develops strong ties that will span their lives - leading to job-networking opportunities.

"It's going to be a Swarthmore sorority first and foremost, in line with the culture at Swarthmore," Ensign said. "We want to bring women from all groups together, creating sisterhood and combating that fragmentation that happens at any college with social groups and cliques."

The founding group is anything but bubbly airhead types featured in the movie Legally Blonde.

"We kind of speak to the fact that this is going to be different," said Ensign, an honors political science major, who is involved with the black cultural center and recently finished a term as student council copresident.

Melin is an honors comparative-religion and gender-and-sexuality studies double major, a member of the deans' advisory council, and a career peer adviser.

Christina Obiajulu, 22, a senior linguistics major from Westfield, N.J., used to be vice president of students of Caribbean ancestry and worked in an endangered-language lab on campus.

And Callie Feingold, a native of London and now of Nebraska, is a senior political science major with a Jewish dad and Presbyterian mom.

Ensign and Obiajulu aspire to be lawyers, focusing on international human rights. Feingold hopes to get a graduate degree in clinical psychology, while Melin envisions an M.B.A. or doctorate and working on increasing the number of women and minorities on corporate boards.

But some are concerned that, despite the group's intentions, the sorority still may be exclusionary, even if just by charging for membership, though the fraternities help those who can't afford the fee - and so would a sorority.

Emma Waitzman, 20, a sophomore sociology/anthropology major from Salt Lake City, said that Swarthmore needed a space for women, but that she'd rather see "something more creative and open to more women on campus" first.

"Something more inclusive would be more valuable," said Waitzman, author of the Phoenix cartoon.

Not Yet Sisters says that anyone with interest and commitment will be welcome.

"In some ways," Ensign said, "it will be a self-selecting process."

The first Greek organization for women on Swarthmore's campus, Alpha Beta, was established in 1891. Several others followed. Yard, a 1933 graduate, recalled their discrimination against Jews in a 2000 interview with Swarthmore's alumni magazine.

"We carried the matter all the way to the national office," she said. When that effort failed, "we organized a campaign."

The groups were abolished by a vote of the Women's Student Government Association. But alumni protested, and the Swarthmore president at the time put off the decision for a year.

"I remember how furious I was at him," Yard told the magazine. The organizations were voted down again the next year, by an even larger margin.

When presented with the idea of restarting sororities, Swarthmore officials at first paused. It's a lengthy approval process to bring a national sorority on campus, and they weren't sure there was enough interest. They also had to research the 1933 ban and whether it was instituted by a vote of the Swarthmore board. It was not, so there didn't need to be a new vote.

The decision rested with the administration, which gave the green light.

"When you talk to these students, they're so thoughtful in why this is important to them," said Liz Braun, dean of students. "A lot of this is really focused on leadership development."

Satya Nelms, Swarthmore's wellness coordinator, who serves as adviser for the group, added: "They're doing it for all the right reasons - sisterhood, sense of community, service projects."

Braun sent a letter of support to forward to the National Panhellenic Council, which requires buy-in by a school administration before participating. The sororities under the council are represented on 655 four-year campuses nationwide, including Temple, University of Pennsylvania, St. Joseph's, Villanova, the University of Delaware, and West Chester.

Several sororities have expressed interest in a chapter at Swarthmore, Nelms said. They'll visit this spring.

Then Swarthmore will invite back those that meet its criteria, for formal presentations in the fall. Students hope to have a sorority by the end of fall semester.

While three of the students will have graduated, underclassmen are prepared to step in, they said.

"We want to leave this as a legacy," Ensign said.

More than 30 women have expressed interest in joining, the group said. They include freshmen to seniors and a variety of ethnicities, sexual orientations, majors, and interest backgrounds, from athletes to orchestra members.

That's on a campus of about 1,500 students, about half of whom are female. The group will abide by national sorority guidelines when hosting parties, the women said.

Zach Weiner, 21, president of Swarthmore's 45-member Delta Upsilon fraternity, supports additional Greek organizations on campus.

While the fraternities host parties with alcohol, that's not the primary purpose, said Weiner, an honors economics major from Baltimore.

"We're more about the brotherhood, playing a part in the campus community," he said, "as opposed to the Animal House stereotype you get at some schools."