From the NPC Chairman: Reflecting on the end of the academic year

Dear friends,

As the school year winds down and many of our students prepare for graduation, it is a time to reflect on the past year and look forward to what is next. As a matter of fact, I plan to attend my niece's graduation at Colorado State University—she just happens to be a sorority woman too! 

As we look back on this past year, we began with a great deal of promise that the pandemic was waning and things were getting back to normal, yet the pandemic did continue, perhaps to a different degree depending on where you lived. For many, it was finally time to be gathering together in person and cultivating more friendships within their chapters and sorority communities. The year has been one that has many of us seeing challenging times in our community growth, housing concerns and issues, and the mental health of our students. Yet, I see a resilient base of sorority women who have stepped up in their philanthropic and service efforts to help others and demonstrated excellent care in taking care of each other. 

Personally, as I reflect, I am proud and humbled to be a member of the National Panhellenic Conference (NPC) Board of Directors and serve as its chair. I see the thousands of sorority women graduating this month from around the country looking forward to their post-college life, and I know that through their sorority experience, they are ready to head out into the world and make a difference.

The NPC board is also looking forward to making a difference. Our College Panhellenic communities need focused marketing efforts to help them experience growth in recruitment and thrive. A major action the board has taken is to approve a concentrated marketing plan throughout this summer aimed at helping many of our campuses that recently have seen noticeable declines in sorority membership to grow.

Our sorority experience is incredibly valuable for so many women that all of us must promote and advance our Panhellenic communities so more women want to join our organizations. We want potential new members to know that the sorority experience can help them establish leadership skills, build their confidence, create lifelong friendships, and establish the importance of service to others.

As each of you reflects on the end of the school year, remember how much the Panhellenic experience has meant to you and determine ways that you can promote and advocate to others the power of sorority.

Interfraternally,

Cheri M. De Jong
2021-23 NPC Chairman

From the NPC Chairman: Our Shared Responsibility for the Well-Being of the Sorority Community

Dear friends,

As the Labor Day holiday weekend draws near, summer is coming to a close and autumn is almost here. With the fall 2021 semester upon us, many expect to be back to ​​​​​​in-person learning on our college/university campuses and ready to start the new academic year. I think we all get excited just thinking about seeing our sisters, friends, professors and administrators and can’t wait for our first football game of the fall! Unfortunately, while many of us want everything to be back to normal, COVID-19 continues to be a threat to our members, families and friends. As conditions looked pretty good several months ago, state and local governments began opening up, businesses opened their doors and many of us considered the pandemic close to an end. However, the Delta variant has proven to be our newest problem – just when we head back to school. 

The National Panhellenic Conference (NPC) is committed to the health and well-being of our members as they return to campus. Our commitment is to assist our College Panhellenic women in making sure we lead the way in helping to reduce the spread of COVID-19 and set the example of positive, healthy behavior. 

Stop the Drops - Reduce the Spread of COVID-19

We realize this is also the time when many of our chapters will be engaging in primary recruitment. But, again, NPC’s goal is to assist our Panhellenic leaders in engaging in responsible behavior and making safe choices for the sorority community. Please see our previous communications regarding recruitment contingency planning and the potential flexibility that may be needed. View the communications: Fall 2021 Recruitment Contingency Planning Recommendations (Feb. 25) | IMPORTANT: Prioritizing Health & Safety in Recruitment (July 30).

We also continue to recommend that our members follow campus, state and local guidelines as well as the most current CDC guidelines on how to keep yourself and others safe from the virus, including getting vaccinated, wearing a mask, social distancing, cleaning and disinfecting and taking other health precautions. 

As our community begins the semester in a safe and protected way through this ongoing pandemic, we can also share with new members, parents and administrators the positive and valuable experience of sorority membership. Recent research from a nationwide survey conducted in collaboration with Gallup on life outcomes of fraternity and sorority membership shows a correlation with strong undergraduate experiences, career skills development and post-graduate well-being for our members as compared to nonmembers. So, as recruitment begins, it is exciting to see the positive influences of fraternity and sorority membership and the opportunity to share these outcomes with potential new members and our communities. View the report: Fraternities & Sororities: Experiences and Outcomes in College, Work and Life.

As Panhellenic women, we share responsibility for the well-being of our sorority community. I wish everyone a happy and healthy start to the 2021-22 academic year.

Panhellenically,

Cheri M. De Jong
NPC chairman

From the NPC Chairman: Many Initiatives, One Goal of Advancing Sorority

Dear friends,

In the November Chairman’s Message, I reflected on the year and the things I am most grateful for as we continue to advance the sorority experience together. This December message finds me reflecting on the work of the NPC Board of Directors during the last 18 months, the initiatives we’re working on and how all of those efforts fit together to set the strategic direction for the Conference and create our vision for the future of Panhellenic sorority life.

Collectively, all of us – NPC staff and volunteers, member organization staff and volunteers, and College and Alumnae Panhellenic Associations – have worked tirelessly to meet the challenges of 2020 and to help prepare for the future of our organizations.

About Project 2029

In fall 2019, the board, in setting our goals for our term as directors, stated that our most important future-looking work was Project 2029, a focused effort to imagine the sorority experience in the year 2029. This project reflected our strategic goals and we began digging into the following questions:

• How do we best protect the sorority experience in environments that can be skeptical of our mission and sometimes hostile to our existence?
• How do we protect student rights and the right of free association?
• ​​How do we evolve and embrace questions of diversity, inclusion and gender identity that reflect our values and respond to the expectations from new members and prospective members?
• How do we continue confronting challenges such as hazing, sexual assault and high-risk drinking?
• How do we define feminism and women’s empowerment for our organization and our women at a time when equality and gender equity is front and center in our national and international debate?

From fall 2019 until early 2020, the board engaged in strategic conversations, gathered feedback from our constituents and participated in educational webinars regarding trending topics – all with the aim of answering the questions raised by our work on Project 2029.

The Pandemic Changes – and Accelerates – Our Work 

When the pandemic hit in early 2020, the board’s focus had to quickly shift away from conversations about the future of sorority and Project 2029 to how to protect sorority members and the sorority experience in the moment of a very real (and ongoing) crisis. 

As we live through this pandemic, I believe there is a silver lining as it has helped us make change faster than anyone ever expected. The NPC Disruption to Panhellenic Operations Task Force and subsequently the Recruitment Contingencies Task Force led the way in ensuring Panhellenics could operate during the pandemic and prepare to welcome new members this fall.

If anything, the pandemic offered us an opportunity to test changes to the ways in which we recruit and to begin eliminating barriers to membership, including some financial barriers. Panhellenics successfully shifted to hybrid or fully virtual recruitments and began eliminating barriers to the recruitment process. Now, as Panhellenics prepare to welcome new members this spring, the NPC Recruitment Committee is gathering the lessons learned from the fall so they can make further recommendations regarding the future of Panhellenic recruitment.

Conversations Regarding Racism and Injustice 

It is not only the pandemic that has influenced the board’s work and the work of the Conference and its organizations. While the board had strategic discussions regarding racism and inequity within Panhellenic organizations prior to the pandemic, the national conversation regarding racism and injustice – a conversation that is now ongoing and multinational – has helped bring greater clarity to these topics and set us on a path to create a more diverse, inclusive, equitable and accessible Panhellenic sorority experience.

To that end, in June 2020, the board outlined three frameworks we were committed to as our contribution to the discussion about race and racial injustice:

• Our organizations don’t reflect the diversity that our Panhellenic communities hope to achieve. As a community, we don’t make ourselves broadly attractive to women of color and we have too often fallen short in supporting our Black and Brown sisters.
• We believe that we must consider – and change – the systems and norms within the Panhellenic community that have historically benefited and centered the experiences of white women and women of privilege, more generally.
• As a Panhellenic community, we have an obligation and responsibility to empower our members and volunteers and to openly discuss race and racial injustice.

The board then appointed the NPC Access and Equity Advisory Committee to provide recommendations and guidance to us on increasing access to the sorority experience and equity across NPC policies and procedures. The Access and Equity Advisory Committee’s work will continue for several months, and it is a critical component of helping us answer questions related Project 2029.  

Yet, we know “The road to diversity, equity and inclusion is a journey not a destination.” I used this quote from Syreeta Greene, MSW, Ed.D., director of the Office of Equity, Inclusion and Multicultural Affairs, Midwestern State University, in my August Chairman’s Message. I am still feeling the impact of her statement as we work to make our Panhellenic communities more broadly attractive to women of marginalized identities and create lasting change in the way we operate, recruit and support collegiate sorority women. (For more on NPC's commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion, please visit our website here.)

Relevancy Research 

Also prior to the pandemic, NPC staff and volunteers had been working on projects in the 2019-22 NPC Strategic Plan, including updating the message framework regarding how we communicate to our publics and constituencies about the sorority experience. That work led to the summer’s relevancy research, managed by VOX Global, regarding the relevancy of women’s-only organizations and sororities in the eyes of rising undergraduate women and their caregivers. While the NPC marketing team is using the research results to inform their near-term work, the board also has outlined three loud messages from that research of which we believe NPC can play a role in changing perceptions about and removing barriers to the sorority experience:

1. Recruitment and perception of the sorority experience: The need to make aggressive and significant changes to the way we offer membership. Noted as the most immediate critical goal. 
2. Cost: The cost of membership has risen greatly during the past few years and has created a number of barriers to entry into our sisterhoods.
3. Safety: The perception of PNMs and caregivers is that ours is not a safe community. Whether thinking of activities within a chapter such as possible “mean girls” behavior or mental health challenges, or the larger community’s challenges with social risk, we need to change perceptions. 

All of these loud messages tie back to the questions we must answer to advance Project 2029, and they give us concrete focus areas for future messaging and initiatives.

Tying It Together

While sometimes it is difficult to see how all of these seemingly independent projects go together, these initiatives all fit into the larger whole of visioning the sorority experience in 2029. In totality, these projects work to address the questions, frameworks and loud messages outlined above and crucial to our long-term success. The work the board, our volunteers, staff and member organizations are undertaking will ensure our organizations are places where women from all walks of life feel they are welcomed, understood and heard now, in the year 2029 and beyond.

Panhellenically,

Carole J. Jones
NPC Chairman  

From the NPC Chairman: Importance of Modeling the Way to Prevent COVID-19 Transmission

As colleges/universities unveiled a myriad of re-opening plans for the fall academic term, students were caught between a desire to return to campus or to continue remote learning amid coronavirus fears. These re-opening plans ranged from in-person learning, remote classes and a hybrid model. But, as students began to return to campus, COVID-19 hotspots began to emerge resulting is some institutions moving to fully virtual classes.

#StopTheDrops that transmit COVID-19

The National Panhellenic Conference (NPC) is committed to assisting our College Panhellenic women to be leaders in helping to reduce the likelihood of COVID-19 outbreaks and help shape the behaviors of the broader campus community. As leaders on campus, we are encouraging sorority women to educate themselves by reviewing the COVID-19 information provided in NPC's #StopTheDrops health promotion campaign. Information can be found at npcwomen.org/stopthedrops and includes fast facts, resources on virus transmission, the #StopTheDrops video and other resources. It’s also important to review current college/university policies and guidelines from state and local agencies in order to be knowledgeable about local restrictions and guidance. What are the requirements for wearing masks, distancing, in-person gatherings, visitors, traveling and returning to campus?

Collaboration with other student leaders is another important element in leading the way in modeling safe behavior. How are other student leaders talking about the pandemic within their organizations? Being proactive and working together to #StopTheDrops will help stop the transmission of COVID-19 on your campus.

NPC was also proactive when it shifted its procedural guidance for campuses to transition to a fully virtual recruitment experience. As health concerns continued to rise, we then extended this guidance to all fall and spring recruitment campuses. Panhellenic recruitment hosted through the remainder of the 2020-21 academic year should be hosted as a fully virtual experience (recruitment events through electronic bid distribution.)

Most recently, the 26 member organizations that comprise NPC agreed to direct all collegiate chapters to ​​transition all chapter-sponsored Bid Day activities (i.e., gatherings and celebrations following bid distribution) to a fully virtual experience for the next 30 days (through Oct. 9, 2020).

All of this said, it is important that we all–collegians and alumnae–take the lead in modeling safe behavior. The perception that sorority women are responsible for spreading COVID-19 because they are socializing in large groups without masks is prevalent. College Panhellenics and member organizations are successfully planning and implementing safe membership recruitment in a virtual manner, but large in-person Bid Days and off-campus gatherings have affected the well-being of individuals and those which whom they have interacted.

As sorority women, we play an important role in providing opportunities for members to connect and deepen friendships, deepen engagement with the university and engage in lifelong learning. But during this time of uncertainty, great care must be taken to limit and prevent the transmission of COVID-19.

It is my hope that we will all do our part to assist in preventing the spread of this virus so our collegiate members can enjoy the interaction they so deserve and experience what sisterhood is all about in meaningful ways.

Panhellenically,

Carole J. Jones

NPC chairman

#StopTheDrops That Spread COVID-19

Sorority women are making it our mission to stop the respiratory droplets that spread COVID-19. Follow #StopTheDrops on social media for educational resources, and help take action to stop the transmission of COVID-19 on your campus and beyond.

Watch the video to learn about the problem of shared air and how you can prevent the
transmission of the respiratory droplets that spread COVID-19. #StopTheDrops
 

Additional resources for College Panhellenics:

• #StopTheDrops Leadership Discussion Guide.
• #StopTheDrops Gathering Guide.
• #StopTheDrops Infographic.
• Fast facts, articles and more on the #StopTheDrops web page.

NOTE: While the #StopTheDrops content is geared toward sorority women, it applies to a wide audience. Even for campuses that have moved to a fully remote experience, stopping the spread of COVID-19 is still an important topic. Students may still live nearby each other or be traveling to meet in person, raising the risk of getting or spreading COVID-19.

Perspectives: What Sorority Means to Me

Sororities have always been a place for women to gather, build friendships, support academic pursuits, develop leaders and provide a sense of belonging. As the needs of women have changed, sorority has adapted to fit those needs. Today, while class instruction and the sorority experience may look and feel different on many campuses due to COVID-19, sorority is adapting to provide these benefits and the opportunity for real, personal connections through a virtual experience. Through it all, sisterhood and the benefits of the sorority experience remain.

Here are some of those benefits as voiced by collegiate members:

"My sorority helped me turn my college campus into a place that I can call home. These women started as strangers and are now some of my closest friends in the world. And, I know I can look to them to help in every aspect of my life – from academics to life advice." 
-Patricia, Tulane University (in a Her Campus/TheSororityLife.com Instagram story video)

"One of the things that I have loved most about being in my chapter has been the support system. More specifically, my sorority family has been my best support system ... These women are always here for me when I’m feeling down, need advice or just want someone to talk to and have made me feel at home, while being so far from home."
-Bridget, University of Tennessee-Knoxville (full story)

"I was worried about losing that connection with my sisters when we left campus (in spring 2020 due to the pandemic). But, I’ve found a new appreciation for our sisterhood. Sisterhood is in the little things. The texts, the FaceTime calls and the memories we create together make me that much more grateful to have my sisters in my life!"
-Bri, NPC intern for TheSororityLife.com (full story)

From the NPC Chairman: Sororities Are an Essential Part of the College Experience

Dear friends,

As we all adapt to rapid change and prepare for the challenges that are ahead of us due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the National Panhellenic Conference (NPC) is diligently preparing for the fall 2020 academic term and a Panhellenic recruitment that will most likely take place in a much different way, but one in which we will welcome new members into our chapters and Panhellenic community. 

Members of the NPC Recruitment Contingencies Task Force, representing campus-based professionals, member organization staff, volunteers from NPC’s Panhellenic Recruitment and Panhellenic Release Figure (RFM) Committees and other experts from across our industry, have developed alternative recruitment models, which have been shared with College Panhellenics to assist their communities to continue to engage potential new members and share the message that sororities are an essential part of the college experience.

Just as institutions of higher education are scenario planning what the fall semester will look like, it’s our hope that College Panhellenics are scenario planning as well. If their plan of choice changes at the last minute, then they have a back-up plan ready to go. Making choices tied to one decision doesn’t preclude future choices changing as more information comes available in the coming weeks.

Additionally, with social distancing most likely remaining in place this summer and fall, College Panhellenic leaders will need to work with their host institutions on safety protocols that will vary from state to state. Depending upon what those protocols are, the number of people being able to participate in each recruitment round and in the designated recruitment space will most likely be impacted. All of us, collegiate and alumnae members alike, must acknowledge that physical distancing will require us to not only conduct meetings in a new way, but recruit new members differently – quite possibly virtually.

As we prepare our College Panhellenic leaders, chapter members, parents/caregivers and alumnae for new and innovative ways to attract new members, we should all remember the support we give one another as Panhellenic sisters enables us to meet the challenges we face in today’s world. And, it is that support that we wish to extend to other young women as they join our organizations.

This summer, as we prepare to bring new members into our organizations, it will be important to showcase the value of the sorority experience in a proactive way. I call on each of you to reach out to incoming and continuing students to share your sorority experience so the young women planning to, or thinking about, participating in recruitment will have heard about the benefits of being a sorority member before they step on campus or begin the fall term virtually.

Volunteerism, philanthropy, leadership development and friendship are a part of each of our sorority stories. It’s up to each of us to tell those stories and it’s more important than ever to promote the sorority experience!

Panhellenically,

Carole J. Jones
NPC chairman

From the NPC Chairman: An Update on COVID-19 and the Sorority Experience

Dear friends,

This time of year is usually filled with Alumnae Panhellenic scholarship luncheons and end-of-year celebrations for our collegiate chapters as they say goodbye to their senior members. Instead we find ourselves at home striving to keep connections with each other while practicing social distancing. For the first time, many of us are working or attending class remotely and dealing with the challenges of work and family in the same physical space.

The women of the National Panhellenic Conference (NPC), both collegiate and alumnae, know how to manage through difficult times. You already know how to dig deep and you know that the steps we take individually are for the greater good. The COVID-19 pandemic that is causing challenges all over the world is also causing challenges for NPC and its 26 member organizations. But our volunteers and staff have been working diligently to support our College and Alumnae Panhellenics as well as member organizations. For example, the Disruption to Panhellenic Operations Task Force considered potential impacts the pandemic will have on our Panhellenic communities, particularly if disruptions to class schedules or campus operations continue into the fall semester. NPC is now working to act on many of the task force’s recommendations in order to get additional processes in place and tools in the hands of College Panhellenics. That work also includes the formation of the Recruitment Contingencies Task Force to examine a myriad of scenarios that could impact recruitment in fall 2020, and potentially beyond, to help College Panhellenics plan accordingly. (For more information on NPC's COVID-19 response, visit our Coronavirus Resources page.)

We don’t know exactly what the days ahead will look like, but we do know that financial damage inflicted on our organizations could force a change in workforce plans and organizational structure. We also know NPC has met and overcome every challenge we have faced over the years. The Conference spent the better part of 30 years dealing with the upheaval of two world wars and the Great Depression. Financial considerations were of enormous impact, and after the collapse of the American economy in 1929, NPC’s message of belt-tightening took on unprecedented seriousness.

In the mid-1950s, as a result of a wave of traditionalism, female college enrollment dropped to its lowest level since before 1920 and our organizations fought to survive amongst public criticism of Greek-letter organizations. The 1960s and early 70s took a toll on every fraternal group. However, a time of severe pressure – when the sorority world might easily have splintered into self-serving factions – proved to be a time of magnificent solidarity.

This pandemic will be no exception. Without question, we will be living a new reality as students return to campus, and this new reality will affect our organizations’ recruitment and retention of members. The nature of higher education and the environments in which students will be operating most likely will be drastically changed, so how do we preserve valuable sorority experiences while adapting and evolving to meet new needs?
     
NPC’s focus on the future of sorority is now more than ever the organization’s most important role and the most valuable contribution we can make to the sorority community. The NPC Board of Directors is focused on what the sorority landscape will look like this fall and into the year 2021. At this time, there are so many more questions than answers. We are listening to what you are feeling, fearing and experiencing so we can project what the sorority community will look like tomorrow and in the next 12 to 18 months. By drawing on our collective strength and rich history, the Conference and our member organizations can meet this latest challenge together. 

Panhellenically,

Carole J. Jones
NPC chairman