A very well done piece on this topic and I expected to be a hit piece, or very negative on Alabama, or sororities in general, but did not find it that way at all. It did expose some things about the selection process about how good looks and racial preferences were taken into account, but I think one look at some of the sorority group photos at any major university over the years and they will all look the same (pretty, thin and mostly blond and white). Thankfully that is changing and maybe a piece like this will help move that along.
At the end of the day, the thing that struck me the most was not about the sorority's themselves, but rather the students going through Rush, and that they all had one thing in common, and that is a desire to belong to a group of fellow sisters that made them feel like they were understood and would have their back. The importance that these young woman placed on the "complicated" process of Rush was just startling and maybe the same that a young man feels about getting invited to the Alabama football team. The fact of the matter, we all basically want much the same thing, but we usually have different processes to get there. By the way, Alabama's reputation was not hurt a bit by this at all and I hope they embrace this and perhaps learn from it, whatever goodness there is to be learned, like maybe changing a rule that doesn't allow you to wear wet hair on the first floor!
At the end of the day, the thing that struck me the most was not about the sorority's themselves, but rather the students going through Rush, and that they all had one thing in common, and that is a desire to belong to a group of fellow sisters that made them feel like they were understood and would have their back. The importance that these young woman placed on the "complicated" process of Rush was just startling and maybe the same that a young man feels about getting invited to the Alabama football team. The fact of the matter, we all basically want much the same thing, but we usually have different processes to get there. By the way, Alabama's reputation was not hurt a bit by this at all and I hope they embrace this and perhaps learn from it, whatever goodness there is to be learned, like maybe changing a rule that doesn't allow you to wear wet hair on the first floor!