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| Frequently Asked Questions |
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When was your sorority founded and what do you stand for?
Why do you call yourselves multicultural and what does that stand for? What is your pledge process like? Why is your chapter size so small? What are your standards ? How does your National Organization operate? If multicultural education is your goal, why have you chosen to be a greek organization? How can I show my interest in joining Theta Nu Xi? When was your sorority founded and what do you stand for? Theta Nu Xi Multicultural Sorority, Inc. was founded in 1997 on the campus of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill by seven undergraduate women. Its mission is to promote leadership, multiculturalism, and self-improvement through academic excellence, involvement in and service to the campus and community, as well as being living examples of sisterhood across different races, cultures, religions, backgrounds, and lifestyles. Our five tenets are Scholarship, Leadership, Service, Multiculturalism, and Sisterhood. Every member pledges to uphold these tenets and all our activities revolve around these ideals. Since being founded in 1997, our phenomenal growth rate has been doubling our membership every year (see expansion history and vision). In August of 1999, we founded our National Organization, ratified our National Constitution, and elected our first National Officers. We are currently engaged in several expansion projects. Back to Top Why do you call yourselves multicultural and what does that stand for? The seven original founders saw a need for a sorority that crossed the societal boundaries of race, religion, culture, and class. Although part of their vision included creating a sisterhood that physically exemplified the transcendence of those boundaries, their primary goal was to bring women together who believe in the ideal of multiculturalism and want to promote multiculturalism in their everyday lives. While other Greek organizations are and continue to grow more diverse, our organization explicitly seeks members with multicultural ideals and interests; we seek to use our sorority as a vehicle to educate the surrounding campus and community on issues of diversity. We recognize that diversity is not limited to race, and we are proud to say we have achieved a sisterhood which is quite diverse with respect to not only race, but religious heritage, geographic origin, socio-economic class, nationality, political ideology, and even choice of major and career. Ultimately, however, we call ourselves multicultural because the one belief we share is that there is inherent value in discovering, understanding, and appreciating all the ways in which people are different from each other. It is for this reason that we differentiate ourselves, in name and in purpose, from other greek organizations with the word "Multicultural." Back to Top What is your pledge process like? Similar to other greek organizations, we keep our pledge and initiation rituals private. However, the Sorority has a standard intake procedure which includes informal rush events, general interest meetings, formal interest meetings, a rigorous application, an in-depth personal interview, and a period of intake during which the aspirants learn the key information about the organization and participate in activities designed to cultivate the lasting bonds of sisterhood. The process is designed to be flexible yet provide the women with the knowledge, skills, and support they will need to both contribute to the Sorority and cultivate themselves as leaders. Back to Top Why is your chapter size so small? Although our membership is growing steadily, we do not expect any college chapter to ever have more than thirty members, the approximate/average size currently being ten members. Our reason for maintaining a small membership is to preserve and enhance the experience of sisterhood we offer to each of our members. It is our belief that if the chapter grows too large, we will lose the overall closeness that each sister feels with every other sister, and the close personal friendships we currently have are integral to maintaining the quality and success of a diverse sisterhood. The Beta chapter is looking for "quality not quantity". Back to Top What are your standards ? Our National Organization requires that the members of each chapter: (a) maintain a semesterly and cumulative GPA of at least 2.5; (b) perform at least 24 hours of voluntary service per semester; (c) adhere to the Sorority's and host university's policies on hazing and the use of controlled substances; (d) pay semesterly dues; and (e) have a faculty or staff advisor. Standards are described in more detail in our National Constitution. Back to Top How does your National Organization operate? Every chapter and colony, on the undergraduate level and on the graduate/professional/alumnae level, reports to the National Organization twice a year. The National Organization has an annual convention, to which each chapter sends a proportionate number of delegates and at which the National Board of Officers is elected. The National Board is composed of a President, Vice-President (overseeing Expansion), Executive Director, and Treasurer. Together, they coordinate the operations of the Sorority and carry out other duties enumerated in the National Constitution. Back to Top If multicultural education is your goal, why have you chosen to be a greek organization? There are two reasons we have chosen to be a multicultural sorority instead of a multicultural student organization. The first is that we have a yearning to be in a sisterly relationship with people who significantly differ from us. The reason greek organizations have selective membership is because through their rituals and values they share something special with their brothers and sisters. We desire not only to experience this special relationship first-hand through sharing a sisterhood with diverse women, but also to show others that the ideal of sisterhood is truly ideal in this sense - that it can transcend the barriers which have historically kept women (and men) apart. The second reason is more practical and relates to the impact we desire to have on college campuses. Although much progress towards racial integration and cross-cultural interaction has been made on college campuses, for the most part the social aspect of college life has remain segregated, largely by choice. We believe that greeks play a central role in collegiate social life, and we think that one antidote to voluntary segregation is voluntary integration. We do not want to be misinterpreted as passing judgment on other groups, for we recognize that the natural gravitation towards those of one's kind has a value for some people. However, we would like to use our greek organization as a vehicle to encourage cross-cultural interaction on a social and voluntary level, and we believe that by doing so we will be contributing to the overall quality of campus life. We are very proud of the difference we have made so far on college campuses regarding cross-cultural social and educational interaction, and being a Greek organization has been crucial to our success. Back to Top How can I show my interest in joining Theta Nu Xi? We encourage any women who are interested in our organization and tenets to contact the closest chapter directly so that we may speak to you personally and answer any additional questions you may have. Please see the Contact page. The next step would be to meet the sisters and other aspirants at our upcoming events and interest meetings. These meetings are an excellent way to learn more about Theta Nu Xi and will help you determine your level of interest. Please see the Events page for more information. Back to Top |
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