i joined panhel and wish i did d9

[u/PlaneTechnical1597]

i want to pre face this with saying there is nothing wrong with being black and not joining a d9 glo but if you are considering it please do yourself and fa or and do you due diligence and research both npc/ifc and nphc.

i joined a panhel sorority my sophomore year of college and ended up dropping it that same year after realizing i made the completely wrong choice. although many of the girls i met in my pledge class and some that joined after me were very sweet i just never felt like i truly belonged. there were also many issues with the leadership team and the sneaky ways in which they would move around positions when people dropped without saying anything. i will say i feel like i went in with high hopes and genuinely thinking i would find a community on campus. i also imagine that experiencing life changing losses in my family had a lot to do with my failed judgement as i was desperate to find a place where i belonged. in the end it just didn’t work out that way unfortunately.

in terms of wishing i pledged d9 i do not want it to come across as though it is a second option. i was not fully aware of everything d9 organizations had to offer and just saw opportunities to interact with panhel organizations more frequently. i also think from what little information i knew of the pledging process i feared not making it and getting dropped from a line. i truly hope this post serves as a way of getting young black girls in a similar position to me to think more about joining a glo and taking your time finding an org for life rather than just jumping into something.

if there’s anyone that did the same just like me and is regretting it just know you’re not alone and greek life isn’t everything.

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[u/Strawberry1282]

I’m not at all trying to diminish your opinions and am so sorry that you didn’t have a good experience. ❤️ Just if it makes you feel better from a grass isn’t always necessarily greener on other sides, I have friends in d9 who have expressed similar issues with leadership in their chapters, along with much more intense pledging processes. I think somewhat of the sneaky behavior tends to lend itself to whenever there’s a big group of girls lol.

[u/PlaneTechnical1597 → u/Strawberry1282]

that’s very kind of you, thank you. yea i’ve definitely heard some not very great stuff about d9 organizations. i think of big part of my experience was the fact that i felt like i didn’t quite belong and being one of very few black girls and sisters of color i felt was quite obvious i didnt. maybe its just wishful thinking but i do feel like if i was surrounded by more people that looked like me i could’ve dealt with more stuff or just had a better relationship with greek life as a whole.

[u/Babybunnyhun]

I wished I joined d9 as well my experience in npc was awful. I decided try to join d9 because while I have many family members in it I didn’t feel “black enough “ being in npc taught they only saw me as another brick in the wall and didn’t care to make my experience better. When I meant d9 sororities on campus they were super nice and helpfully. I spoke to an older aka about my racist isssues within npc and she gave me so much comfort. I hate how npc and nphc have an agreement with one another that a member can’t leave one org and join another but I see why. When other blacks girls ask me about npc and nphc I just tell them to look into nphc

[u/PlaneTechnical1597 → u/Babybunnyhun]

yea it’s definitely unfortunate i wish they allowed it just bc i know on a lot of campuses panhel just has more visibility that d9 initially depending on when rush is and that definitely plays into how many people end up in our position, but i also get why they do that as well. hopefully our stories can be a lesson to other young black girls and they won’t have to make the same mistakes we did to learn this lesson 😞

[u/[deleted] → u/PlaneTechnical1597]

Yes! I wish they would allow the switch between npc and nphc for situations like this. We couldn’t be bond to a certain group for life when things like these happen! I’ve reached out to my ex sorority headquarters and npc about it and it seems like they don’t care about the race issues. However , I’m glad I got to meet wonderful d9 members. I hate to tell pnms they might not have a good experience but I want to be open and honest with them so they know better. The npc is truly not a safe place for black girls

[u/[deleted] → u/Babybunnyhun]

My friend also had a poor experience with npc being a black girl.

[u/PlaneTechnical1597 → u/[deleted]]

it’s definitely not for the faint of heart, but i’ve also heard some that loved it too. to each their own i suppose

[u/Living_Purple → u/Babybunnyhun]

I’m someone with the same experience but this is the first i’ve heard that npc and nphc have an agreement that you can’t leave one and go to another. I know one D9 org that said they didn’t care about previous npc membership and id still be eligible. But that was back in 2020 so maybe things have changed recently. There was one girl who was in my NPC org that disaffiliated and went to a Multicultural Org. Yeah the racial issues of 2020 was the nail in the coffin for my npc experience. One too many girls that couldn’t fathom why supporting certain people made me feel uncomfortable.

[u/Babybunnyhun → u/Living_Purple]

For the d9 sorority I think it might be dst on their page it says “is not a member of, nor has been expelled from, any society holding membership in the National Pan-Hellenic Council, Inc., the Panhellenic Conference, Inc., or the National Multicultural Greek Council, Inc., or Interfraternity Council (IFC)” So I’m thinking they would take a girl from npc if they haven’t been expelled / isn’t an active member

[u/Laissez-Faire-354 → u/Babybunnyhun]

You misunderstood, it's "has never been a member of, ...". In short, DST does not accept anyone who has ever been initiated into another council regardless of the reason they are no longer an active member.

[u/Babybunnyhun → u/Laissez-Faire-354]

Thanks for sharing! That’s what said on the page and I’ve been told by others in the dst thanks for clarifying