Sorority recruitment videos show lack of diversity

A recruitment video promoting the Alpha Phi sorority at the University of Alabama has been criticized recently for objectifying women and showcasing a lack of diversity in Greek life.

The "Alabama Alpha Phi 2015" recruitment video shows a group made up almost exclusively of white girls (many of them with long, blonde hair) dressed in clothes like daisy dukes and bikinis dancing, jumping around, and blowing kisses.

Alpha Phi has since deleted the video, which had 500,000 views on YouTube before it was taken down.

Alpha Phi is not the only sorority that has come under fire for lacking diversity in recruitment videos. For example, 2015 recruitment videos for the University of Arizona's Kappa Alpha Theta and University of Miami's Delta Gamma show a similar theme of young, predominately white women in scantily-clad outfits promoting sisterhood.

Matthew Hughey, associate professor of sociology at the University of Connecticut, stresses that the modern-day segregation that exists in Greek life is a problem at universities and colleges across the country, one that stems from the very inception of the Greek system.

"When Greek life organizations were first founded they mirrored in their campus demographics, and that was when campuses were for elite white men," Hughey said.

As demographics changed, and women were allowed to attend college along with other races, Greek life organizations adopted exclusion policies in their constitutions to prevent these groups from infiltrating the organization, he said.

"The exclusion policies existed until the 1960s when pressure from the civil rights movement forced them to get rid of them, but they continue to function that way today," Mathew said.

At the University of Alabama, the video's celebration of the sorority's homogeneity opens old wounds. In 2013, Greek life came under fire when The Crimson White published an article about a young black woman, who did not receive a bid from any of the 16 sororities on campus.

"Like other black women before them, these two students tried to break what remains an almost impenetrable color barrier," University of Alabama students Abbey Crain and Matt Ford wrote in the article.

The writers noted that, "there remains one last bastion of segregation on campus: The UA Greek system is still almost completely divided along racial lines."

The article's laser-like focus on systematic racial discrimination prompted campus protests and gained national media attention. In response to the backlash, Jody Bonner, the university's former president, announced the university was working to desegregate the predominantly white sorority and fraternity organizations on campus.

"The University of Alabama has an incredibly exclusive Greek life. We aren't just talking about things that college students engage in when they are young and figure themselves out; the Greek life system is a pathway to power and prestige," according to Hughey, who studies racism in Greek life.

Officials at the University of Alabama say diversity has increased among Greek organizations.

Of the 2,261 women who received bids from the 16 Panhellenic sororities at the university this fall, "214 were minorities, a number that increased by nearly 13 percent," from last year, Cathy Andreen, a spokeswoman for the University of Alabama, told USA TODAY Network in an email.

"While numbers are not the only measure of success, they do indicate that we are making progress," David Grady, vice president for student affairs said in an statement. "We will continue to focus on creating and sustaining a welcoming and inclusive campus for all students."

This year, 25 African American women received bids, an increase from the 21 who received bids during 2014 recruitment, according to Andreen.

However, few colleges and universities keep track of racial demographics in the Greek life organizations, ​according to Hughey's research.

Even on a national level, there isn't a clear sense of the makeup of many historically white sororities.

The National Panhellenic Conference, an umbrella organization for 26 member sororities, does not "collect membership information pertaining to ethnicity or religion and background," a spokeswoman for the Conference told USA TODAY Network.

After the University of Alabama's Alpha Phi video received criticism, some questioned whether a predominately black or latino sorority or fraternity would receive the same attention for a tape that featured members of predominately the same race.

However, Rashawn Ray, a sociology professor at the University of Maryland, contends that these organizations were formed in response to the exclusion of historically white Greek organizations. Using the excuse that, "Latino, Asian or African-American organizations keep to themselves, why can't we?" misses the point of why those organizations were formed, he said.

"One group is aiming to be exclusionary to be exclusive … another group is responding to that marginalization and aiming to find a place to feel more comfortable and included on campus," Ray added.

Griffin Meyer, the University of Alabama student filmmaker who shot the Alpha Phi recruitment video, told USA TODAY Network that the shoot was "not very organized, and there was a lot of improvisation that led to shots with similar looking girls."

The University of Alabama also condemned the video on Monday, saying "the video is not reflective of UA's expectations for student organizations to be responsible digital citizens."

Social media reaction

Some people on YouTube didn't understand the uproar over the lack of diversity in sorority videos, calling it a "manufactured crisis." On Twitter many women who said they were in sororities argued that they saw nothing wrong with the recruitment video.

Others have called for changes within the Greek system to reflect the diverse makeup of the country.

Ray said change is especially hard, even for organizations that want to create more diversity, simply because there is such resistance not only within the organization but outside.

"Symbolic changes to membership doesn't necessarily change the treatment members experience once they are members," he said. "Many still feel marginalized and experience discrimination in their organization from alumni or other chapters that don't embrace the change the chapter… is trying to implement."

Hughey likens the current climate of Greek life to 'Jim Crow 2.0.'

"The exclusion policies are off the books and not enforced legally, but still enforced through custom and tradition," he said. "If the Greek system is simply about reproducing tradition, the question is a tradition of what?"

Contributing: Kristen Rein and Morgan Baskin, USA TODAY Network