Greek Letters at a Price

Imagine finding a bill for $200 in your mailbox because your daughter was late to a couple of sorority events. Imagine, too, that those who snitched were her new best friends. This is one of the unwelcome surprises of sorority membership.

Depending on the generosity of the vice president of standards, a fine can be reversed with proof of a qualifying reason, such as a funeral, doctor’s appointment or medical emergency, so long as a doctor’s note is forthcoming. A paper due or a test the next day? No excuse. (Fraternities, by the way, rarely impose even nominal fines to enforce punctuality.)

Now imagine attending mandatory weekend retreats, throwing yourself into charitable work, making gifts for your sisters and, at tradition-thick schools like the University of Alabama and University of Missouri, investing 30 to 40 hours pomping — threading tissue paper through chicken wire to create elaborate homecoming decorations or parade floats that outdo rivals’.

During fall or winter rush, sororities court starry-eyed freshmen. They showcase their joyful conviviality with skits and serenades. They stress the benefits of joining, and brag about attracting the prettiest, smartest or most athletic. At many traditional sororities, however, not much energy is spent explaining what is expected, leaving many pledges unaware of the considerable time commitment and costs.

Do the math: Official charges include Panhellenic dues, chapter fees, administrative fees, nonresident house/parlor fees, a onetime pledging and initiation fee and contribution toward a house bond. Members must also buy a pin (consider the diamond-encrusted one) and a letter jersey. Without housing, basic costs for the first semester (the most expensive) average $1,570 at University of Georgia sororities, $1,130 at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, and $1,580 at Syracuse University.

But such fees are only a portion of the real cost. Add in fines, philanthropy and the incidentals that are essential to participate in sorority life and the total spirals upward, especially when a closetful of designer party dresses is part of the mix.

“You think it is just a school club,” said Jessica Rodgers, a Georgia State junior and Alpha Xi Delta pledge in 2012. “I wasn’t expecting such a burden every month.” The first year, she said, she paid about $1,100 in basic fees and $100 to $200 a month over that on sorority-related incidentals. “For someone who pays for all their own expenses, it’s alarming,” she said. “I was 17 and not thinking about billing and the huge time commitment of joining. It was like signing up for a loan — they said the debt could go to a collections agency if you failed to pay.”

Georgia State, American University and Syracuse are among campuses that publish a range of fees covering all their chapters, but information on specific sororities is often hard to come by before the midst of rush.

Syracuse’s Alpha Phi chapter distributes a sheet with financials on the second day of recruitment and then promptly collects it, according to Cameron Boardman, Alpha Phi’s 2014 president. She wishes she could email financial information earlier so students could “have an open and frank conversation with their parents about it,” but she says she does not have approval from the campus Panhellenic Council to do so.

At the same time, she voices concern that members might be scared off by the cost (which she doesn’t want made public) without understanding the benefits and realizing that other Syracuse sororities that seem cheaper impose hefty fines.

Costs mushroom with incidentals, which neither sororities nor offices of Greek life enumerate.

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