CAMPUS
TO REFORM OR TO ABOLISH EXAMINING THE PLACE OF SORORITIES AT TUFTS
By Raga Chilakamarri
W
ith spring recruitment well underway, two new local sororities have made their debut this semester, distancing themselves from the national Panhellenic organizations amidst conversation surrounding the movement to abolish Greek life. The Ivy, born out of the recent disaffiliation and subsequent dissolution of Alpha Phi, is joined by Thalia, a group of former Chi Omega members, in presenting alternative options to the long-standing Kappa Alpha Theta and Chi Omega sororities. According to The Ivy Co-President Anoushka Kiyawat, who was previously Alpha Phi’s director of diversity and inclusion, the decision to form The Ivy stemmed from mounting frustration with Alpha Phi’s national organization and serious consideration of Greek life’s problematic history. Kiyawat said that the APhi executive board’s key complaints included the lack of transparency over the spending of their dues, restrictions on the choice of philanthropic activities, and limiting rules about their financial scholarships, social media, and recruitment process. “Disaffiliating meant that we could keep what was important to us, which is our amazing community, all of the things that we’re able to do at Tufts, [and] all of the things that we really care about, and then leave behind the parts that we felt were outdated or just didn’t work for us,” Kiyawat said. To some, the “outdated” aspects of Greek organizations include their troubled history of exclusion, in addition to what senior Julia Falkow describes as “the racism, the misogyny, the transphobia, homophobia—all of these horrible ‘-isms’ and phobias that are just ingrained in it as an institution.” Falkow, who transferred to Tufts as a junior, was a member of Alpha Tau Omega (ATO) for a year, serving as their community outreach chair and the chair of diversity and inclusion for the 10 TUFTS OBSERVER MARCH 1, 2021
Inter-Greek Council. Following the Black Lives Matter protests and nationwide dialogue about racial justice that exploded this summer, Falkow decided to drop her fraternity ties, dedicate time towards analyzing Greek life’s enduring role in Tufts’ social scene, and envision an alternative, inclusive space. “As much as I appreciated and valued the friendships that I had formed from Greek life, I was not blind to how institutionally flawed it was,” Falkow said. In response to an email, senior Sana Aladin described Greek life institutions as “inherently classist.” “You have to put in money to join them. There are scholarships available, but I don’t think they’re super easily accessible, and they are definitely limited in terms of what they can provide,” she said. “So I think it’s kind of a space for people of a certain social class to only interact with each other, which I think is obviously never positive.” Aladin was a member of Chi Omega during her sophomore year, before choosing to drop her sorority partly due to personal disinterest. Aladin said she has been “behind” the movement to abolish Greek life because, for her, the negatives of Greek life outweigh the positives. “In retrospect, I think a lot of what also got at me was the privileged, exclusionary, and racist nature of sororities and Panhel[lenic council] at large,” she said. “Even if those weren’t issues that were specifically highlighted to me in my experience in Tufts Chi O[mega], I think they were kind of in the back of my mind, and I didn’t like that I was involved in that system.” Reflecting on her personal motivations for joining a sorority as a sophomore, Aladin described that rushing was almost like a “challenge to [herself]” to prove that she could fit in. “There’s like this connotation that [sororities are] really cool or exclusive spaces, and often associated with whiteness. So for