Cliques

[DamieQue™]

One of the major complaints I hear about undergrad chapters from aspirants are the cliques.

Question 1: Of those of you in a graduate chapter have you found them to be any LESS cliquish?

Question 2: Aren't most of us cliquish in life in general (regardless if we hold some Greek affiliation or not)?

Question 3: Are cliques more detrimental or beneficial to a community?

[LejaOMG]

what is the nature of these aspirants' complaints? If a clique is an exclusive group of people who have an affinity for each other...and you are a GDI on the outside trying to get in...how could it be any other way?

[DamieQue™]

Oct 29, 2010 9:53:25 GMT -5 LejaOMG said:

what is the nature of these aspirants' complaints? If a clique is an exclusive group of people who have an affinity for each other...and you are a GDI on the outside trying to get in...how could it be any other way?

I guess it depends on how exclusive is exclusive and for what reason that exclusivitiy exists.

[LejaOMG]

If exclusive means "limited to members" and the reason is "because we're sisters and we care more for each other than we care for you," then I think that's healthy and appropriate. A GDI is wrong if they expect to be treated the same way as members of the group. They aren't. In fact, I look funny at a chapter who has GDIs (especially interests) all up and through their ish.

[DamieQue™]

What if by cliquish they mean

They only socialize amongst themselves... exclusively. Is that too much?

[LejaOMG]

hmmm...is it too much? I guess that depends on the mission and framework of your organization. It might be inappropriate for a chapter of Zeta to only socialize amongst themselves because of our commitment to "walk among men of allsorts." But then again, as long as you're doing your community service, outreach, philanthropy and educational programs, maybe that's enough. For us, we have our youth and adult auxiliaries, so we work and fellowship with non-members. But socializing...isn't that optional? Is something wrong with me because I'm selective about who I invite to my house for game night? I'm thinking probably not.

[DamieQue™]

So do you feel cliques are detrimental or beneficial (or neutral)?

[happy1]

I feel they are simply natural.

[DamieQue™]

Natural... but what is their resultant effect... positive or negative?

[Southie]

I hang with a very "select" group of people

<<<waititing on comment from Happy ;D

[All Pledging Is Legal]

Aspirants are supposed to be used by Greeks to help with service and clean up after parties. I figure if a dude doesn't want to help out the chapter, he does not want to become a member.

[peppermint]

I've observed an ugrad chapter that was "cliquish"... IMO it went beyond socializing with just themselves. It was almost like they joined the chapter, lived for the chapter and would die for the chapter. Other members of the organization couldn't really penetrate them so there was little chance an aspirant would. The results were negative because it was such a turn off.

In general, I think it's natural BUT if your purpose is outreach you need to spread out a bit. Within grad chapters, there are cliques but (hopefully) people are mature enough to come together or the sake of the organization then break off into cliques for socialization purposes.

[Comedy]

Cliques do exist in graduate chapters and I believe they are worst because people have more resources.

People are cliquish...we like others who remind us of "self."

I believe you can't have one without the other.

[Southie]

Oct 29, 2010 9:25:36 GMT -5 DamieQue™ said:

One of the major complaints I hear about undergrad chapters from aspirants are the cliques.

Question 1: Of those of you in a graduate chapter have you found them to be any LESS cliquish?
You have people in Grad chapters that will hang out with folks that: their line sisters/ships, folks they new from undergrad, or from a previous chapter. Then you have folks that tend to hang together that came in that particular chapter...so it is what it is.



Question 2: Aren't most of us cliquish in life in general (regardless if we hold some Greek affiliation or not)?
I hang with a select group of people.


Question 3: Are cliques more detrimental or beneficial to a community?

[T-Rex91]

Oct 29, 2010 9:25:36 GMT -5 DamieQue™ said:

One of the major complaints I hear about undergrad chapters from aspirants are the cliques.

Question 1: Of those of you in a graduate chapter have you found them to be any LESS cliquish?

Question 2: Aren't most of us cliquish in life in general (regardless if we hold some Greek affiliation or not)?

Question 3: Are cliques more detrimental or beneficial to a community?

My UG chapter had 15 people max in it at any given time so there weren't enough of us to have cliques but my 600 member grad chapter, absolutely.

Yes, certain people gravitate to each other based on a shared dimension and that's just a part of life. If you come in fresh to any situation, it's ofte difficult to "break in".

I see beneficial attributes of cliques. That's the team that typically works together, the members can count on each other to support each other, and true bonds form. It's only bad when you're standing on the outside looking in.

[viciousq]

People in general, greek or not tend to group with people that they have the most in common with, it is human nature. There is however a huge difference between cliques and elitists. The elitist is just down right rude...

[LejaOMG]

lol @ viciousq being a newbie and [most likely] unwittingly commenting right after own resident elitist!

[Chal™]

lol

[huey]

Nov 4, 2010 7:16:49 GMT -5 T-Rex91 said:

Oct 29, 2010 9:25:36 GMT -5 DamieQue™ said:

One of the major complaints I hear about undergrad chapters from aspirants are the cliques.

Question 1: Of those of you in a graduate chapter have you found them to be any LESS cliquish?

Question 2: Aren't most of us cliquish in life in general (regardless if we hold some Greek affiliation or not)?

Question 3: Are cliques more detrimental or beneficial to a community?

My UG chapter had 15 people max in it at any given time so there weren't enough of us to have cliques but my 600 member grad chapter, absolutely.

Yes, certain people gravitate to each other based on a shared dimension and that's just a part of life. If you come in fresh to any situation, it's ofte difficult to "break in".

I see beneficial attributes of cliques. That's the team that typically works together, the members can count on each other to support each other, and true bonds form. It's only bad when you're standing on the outside looking in.

But what about your UG chapter cliqueing up with other chapters?

[T-Rex91]

Yep, there were def some chapters we rolled with and some we didn't. There was one chapter in my UG college city that were straight drunken sluts. The whole frigging chapter. Another chapter was party central (the tabletop variety). Neither conformed to what my chapter considered ideal Delta behavior so if it was cliquish to steer clear of them, then I guess that's what we were.

Again, there's like 300K Deltas. I don't have any unrealistic expectation that I'm going to vibe with all of us.

[T-Rex91]

Nov 24, 2010 13:10:25 GMT -5 LejaOMG said:

lol @ viciousq being a newbie and [most likely] unwittingly commenting right after own resident elitist!

[Rare_Commodity]

It depends if the cliques are doing positive efforts then yea I guess they would be beneficial but if they are causing or stirring up drama then no.

[oeslady]

On the grad level, I have found that there are cliques that exist among interests. I think it is detrimental. It brings undue stress and strain trying to carry folks through a process that none of you are even sure you will be a part of.