DZ Story Featured in Newsweek and US News

March 4, 2007, Greencastle, Ind. - "Nobody would take note if a sorority rejected 23 of 35 girls who tried to join," notes the March 12 issue of Newsweek magazine of the recent action by Delta Zeta's national leadership. "But members are rarely asked to leave without good reason, and a purge like this was unusual enough to attract the attention of the New York Times, and to call down a denunciation from DePauw's administration of 'actions that so negatively impact our students.'"

Newsweek, which Thursday featured former DePauw DZ President Carolyn Thatcher on its Web site, publishes the story in its latest edition. The magazine's senior editor, Jerry Adler, writes, "Although DZ's national executive director, Cindy Menges, insisted that hair color and dress size played no role in deciding who stayed, it did not go unnoticed that among those invited to leave were the chapter's only black member and two of the three Asian women. But 'it wasn't about race,' says senior Danielle Elsner, one of the 23. 'It was about social image, appearance and weight.' Of the 12 keepers, according to Thatcher, half were blond, and all were beautiful. It might have been easier to swallow if it had been about race. Sophomore Lyndsay Moy says she kept hearing from her friends: 'Well, I guess I wasn't pretty enough.'"

Newsweek asks, "why was DZ having trouble recruiting pledges in the first place? Cindy Babington, DePauw's dean of students, may have given a clue in describing DZ as 'filling a great, eclectic niche.' Typically, women join sororities to experience conformity, not eclecticism. Before the cuts, officials visited the house and interviewed the members; Menges insists that the only criterion for staying was a commitment to recruiting new members. But some of the 23 said they were eager to help rebuild the chapter. You might think that a house of 35 members would be more attractive in any case than one with only 12 left in it. But if the national office wanted to project an image of exclusivity, it got its wish, and then some: as of last week, six of the 12 had left on their own, out of solidarity with their departing sisters."

U.S. News & World Report's new issue includes the color photo of the former DZ members which first appeared in the February 25 New York Times. "Some say they were asked to leave," by Delta Zeta's national leadership, notes the caption. "Others resigned in protest afterward."

Read the Newsweek story, and access an accompanying color photo, by clicking here. You'll find the U.S. News mention here.

The former Delta Zetas have been telling their story in a variety of other news outlets this week, making appearances on CNN and ABC and being the subjects of a two page feature in People.

To read more about Delta Zeta and DePauw University, click here.

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