The upcoming Women’s March on Washington is expected to draw more than 200,000 attendees promoting women’s “shared humanity” and a “bold message of resistance and self-determination.” The protest is set to take place on Saturday, just one day after the presidential inauguration, and on the same day as the last formal round of Inter-Sorority Council chapter recruitment. After deliberating whether to accommodate those who wish to attend the march by moving one of its rounds, the ISC voted to maintain its existing schedule. This decision directly contradicts the organization’s claim to empower its members.
Whether sororities actually empower female members in practice has long come under scrutiny, for reasons ranging from national restrictions on Boys’ Bid Night to bans on drinking in sorority houses. The march provides a unique opportunity for the ISC to defend what it believes in. The ISC rarely has an opportunity to publicly assert the importance of its members’ rights outside of its own internal community building. For the ISC to throw its weight behind the march would be especially meaningful now, at a time when a rising national tide of reactionary politics threatens women’s rights.
One may argue that as a University-sponsored organization, the ISC should stay out of national politics. Encouraging women to attend the protest would constitute a political statement, especially given the timing of the march. However, the ISC’s decision to hold a separate women’s march at a later date indicates that it has already accepted the politics of this march, so it should coordinate its efforts to make the greatest impact possible.
One could also argue delaying recruitment events would burden Potential New Members, or PNMs, who have to manage their classes in addition to the rush process. Even if rescheduling recruitment is not logistically feasible, offering waivers for fees (which may total hundreds of dollars) for sorority members who attend the march in lieu of recruitment is a reasonable compromise. The ISC has encouraged University chapters to waive fees, but chapters are not required to adhere to this suggestion. The ISC has also given PNMs the option not to attend recruitment during both the inauguration and march, a nice gesture that realistically would hurt PNMs’ chances of getting into the sorority of their choice given the structure of the rush process.
For the largest organization of women at the University to effectively prevent its members from attending a march for women’s rights is wholly inconsistent with its foundational principles. Now that the logistics are unfortunately set in stone, individual chapters should at least support their members attending the march, or risk sending the message that exercising the fundamental rights of citizenship is not valued by one of the most prominent organizations on Grounds.
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