Tag Archives: sorority

Monday Night Dinner

Nationality: American
Age: 19
Occupation: Student
Residence: Ohio/California
Performance Date: April 18, 2012
Primary Language: English
Language: French

My informant told me about the tradition of “Monday Night Dinner” at sororities at USC

“Every Monday all the girls come to the sorority house for dinner. They all dress in fancy attire and arrive at the houses around 4:45pm. The new members make “deliveries”, which is when before dinner they bring gifts and notes to the different frats that are having Monday Night Dinner too. After they finish they come in and sit down to dinner. As they eat, boys from different frats come in and make deliveries to the house. The girls clap as they come in and each gift is delivered to the specific girl. They can be anything from a romantic bouquet to a funny card from a friend. It is also a way for frats and sororities to strengthen their relationships with each other by sending deliveries to certain houses.”

My informant told me that she enjoys the tradition, and she likes to take advantage of it for flirting with boys. If you like someone, you can send them a delivery.

I am in a sorority on campus and I enjoy the tradition of Monday Night Dinner as well. I have utilized it to ask certain boys to our House Invites and also to send funny notes to friends. I’ve also noticed that boys who are usually very shy will use this as a way to communicate with girls that they like. I’ve also noticed that if girls “hook up” with boys over the weekend it is often customary for the boy to send the girl a delivery on monday, such as chocolates or flowers, as (although it seems ridiculous) a “thank you, I’d like to kiss you again some time” kind of delivery.

I also talked to my friends who are in sororities in other schools and none of them were familiar with the tradition of “Monday Night Dinner”. It seems to be a unique tradition to the Greek System at USC. It has been happening for as long as many of my friends can remember, so I assume that it is something that the Greek life likes to keep alive to pride itself on its heritage.

Chant

Age: 22
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles, CA
Performance Date: March 15, 2007
Primary Language: English

Kappa Alpha Theta Door Chant

Boom boom they’ll be nothing but Theta

Boom boom for the one I love

Boom boom they’ll be nothing but Theta

And the twin stars up above

Cuz there’s a Theta kite for every girl that’s’ right

And two twin stars shinning down so bright

Boom boom they’ll be nothing but Theta

I wanna be, I wanna be, I wanna be a be a with a Theta now

Right here at USC

We wear our black and gold

For everyone to see

So if you’re thinking, hey hey what should I do?

Just remember, Theta loves you!

Kristin Boyert pledged the Kappa Alpha Theta sorority at Southern Methodist University in Fall 2003 and transferred to the University of Southern California two years later.  She is now an active member of Theta at USC and has focused a lot of effort on philanthropies and rush. The Theta door chant is performed at rush to draw in and impress potential members of the sorority. The “door chant” aspect involves the sisters arranging themselves to completely fill the doors and windows and choreographing their hair and hands in unison to the tune.

The door chant is designed to make the prospective members feel wanted  (“they’ll be nothing but Theta”) while proclaiming their love for the sorority (“for the one I love”). The idea behind the door chant is to overwhelm the prospects with enthusiasm and passion, hoping to inspire the girls to join with a concentrated, united routine. It also reveals the symbols of the sorority, which are the twin stars and the kite. However, the song warns that not all girls are a correct fit for the sorority, and rush is often extremely competitive (Theta is one of the most coveted sororities at USC). Unfortunately, this song represents a very superficial process, designed to judge girls based solely on their résumés and first impressions. Still, rush is an incredible process in that it unites the entire house (often over 200 people) behind a common cause of recruiting the best girls for the future.

Song

Age: 22
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles, CA
Performance Date: March 15, 2007
Primary Language: English

Kappa Alpha Theta Sisterhood Song

We are the best

We are the K A T

We make up

The best sorority

You can try

But you can’t match the fun

Cuz Kappa Alpha Theta’s always number one!

We got swing

No one else is better

And we’re always hot no matter what the weather

We the top the list

The cream of the crop

Kappa Alpha Theta is the top!

She’s a Kappa Alpha Theta

Cute little lass

She’s a Kappa Alpha Theta

Notice her class

She’s a Kappa Alpha Theta

Doin’ it right

She’s a Kappa Alpha Theta

Wearin’ her kite, yeah!

Kristin Boyert pledged the Kappa Alpha Theta sorority at Southern Methodist University in Fall 2003 and transferred to the University of Southern California two years later.  She is now an active member of Theta at USC and has focused a lot of effort on philanthropies and rush. The Theta sisterhood song is recited at special events such as bid night in order to generate excitement. This song, however, was much more prominent at Southern Methodist and is not sang very often at USC.

Unlike the songs at rush that are humbly designed to impress girls, this song is a declaration of superiority, aimed at making the new initiates excited about their new status within the sorority. It describes the Thetas as well-balanced girls (class, attractive, fun) who are the envy of the other sororities and coveted by the men. While it is understandable that sororities have tremendous pride and tradition, songs like this help to explain the resentment that often develops between members of different sororities. Although girls may feel like their association to the group makes them superior to others, the reality is that any two girls could have easily ended up in the same sorority during rush. As a USC Greek, I have directly seen this out-group bias (and have sometimes been guilty of it myself), and while I have tremendous faith in the Greek system, this song certainly indicates the resentment potentially fostered amongst the row.

Tradition

Nationality: Irish
Age: 19
Occupation: Student
Residence: Scottsdale, AZ
Performance Date: April 13, 2008
Primary Language: English

In the Greek system when a sorority and a fraternity member are in a serious romantic relationship the fraternity guy can “pin” his girlfriend. Every system has different variations of the same basic tradition. Basically, when the guy wants to pin his girl friend he tells the president of his house who tells the president of the sorority that the girlfriend is in. They keep it a secret from the girlfriend while planning the pinning. Then one night after the chapter meeting, when the entire house is present the president will announce to the sorority to head downstairs to the dining room for a special ceremony. Right away everyone knows that it’s a pinning. All the girls make a large circle in the dining room and turn the lights down low. The president lights a candle and it is passed around the room and passed past the girl getting pinned, once it passes her the candle switches direction and moves back towards the girl to be pinned. Once the girl has it in her hand her sisters to her left and right blow the candle out, the house claps.

Once this happens the president opens the door and members of the boyfriend’s fraternity come in one by one usually dressed in suits, each with a single rose in their hand. Each brother hands the rose to the girlfriend and gives her a smile and a hug. Lastly the boyfriend comes usually with a bouquet of roses and kisses his girlfriend. Next the two closest friends of the boyfriend and the girlfriend tell stories about the relationship between them, funny, serious, anecdotal etc. Lastly the boyfriend tells his girlfriend how much he loves her and gives her his fraternity pin as a symbol of his commitment to her and her official invitation into the fraternity’s family. This is the end of the ceremony, however each fraternity has a different variation of this basic ceremony.

I have witnessed 3 girls get pinned from my sorority in this past year. The particular pinning described above was the most formal and respectful. The other pinnings were less formal and frankly, more embarrassing for the girl. Because each house cultivates its own traditions each pinning will differ depending on the house. To pin your girlfriend was once synonymous with proposing; however with time it has lost a lot of that connotation.

Currently, when a girl is pinned it means that her boyfriend is putting her first in his life. He is putting her before the brotherhood, which is a very big step for any fraternity brother. When initiated brothers take a vow of allegiance to the fraternity and pinning is one of the ways to respectfully break the vow. Also, symbolized by the rose received by each brother, when a girl is pinned she is welcomed into the house, into the family of that particular fraternity. Usually only juniors or seniors are pinned. The couple has usually been dating for more than a year as well. Pinnings don’t happen unless the relationship is very serious and long term.

Pinning is a public display of affection and commitment accepted in the Greek community and an active tradition. For sororities pinning usually embodies the girlish fantasy of a wonderful boyfriend who isn’t afraid to show how he feels, and secretly, every girl wants to be pinned at some point.