Column: Sorority Voting Procedures Should Change

By Lindsey Ingram

IMC Student

Imagine being in charge of an organization of nearly 500 young women, most crowded into the dining and living rooms of one house every day of the week.

Each woman has different ideas on how the organization should be run and opinions on various topics. No meeting of a group like this seems to have a unanimous agreement on anything. 

The job can seem daunting, but it’s a reality for several women across multiple Chapter Management Teams in sororities on campus. These teams are made up of active college-age members of the chapter, and the young women are given the task of managing an entire chapter of people considered their equals. 

Considering the difficulty of the task, the placement of these women into power needs to be done in a less biased process. 

Currently, within the chapters, other active members pick a girl from each class to be on the nominating committee, and this group of girls works with people such as the president to choose who becomes the new CMT. 

Most of the time, members who want to be chosen for a higher position have their friends go out for the nominating committee in order to ensure they will have a spot on the team. By doing the voting in this way, it allows for an entire group of friends to be in charge of a massive organization just for the fun of it. 

To fix the issue, I believe more women from outside of the Ole Miss-specific chapter should be involved in the process. Advisors should be the ones to choose who they believe is most qualified for the nominating committee, and the chapter would vote to approve their decision. 

An advisor would also need to be present for the interviews and decision-making in the actual process for CMT. These women would be able to bring an unbiased opinion from outside of the chapter on campus to be certain the right women are put into power. 

Having someone who isn’t an active member of the chapter to give their opinions and stop girls from just deciding on their friends having a position would allow for a better run chapter overall. 

The young women with positions in a sorority need to be the most qualified and neutral people running, so no person in the chapter has advantages over the others when it comes to discipline or events. 

Advisors and women outside of the chapter have different perspectives and more experience in situations involving chapter voting, so having increased involvement from them would allow for a better experience in the voting process as well as the management stemming from it for the year following.