Story by Diego Alcaraz-Monje
Photos by Ella Johnston
Editor’s Note: After publication, Talisman received feedback from members of the WKU Greek community regarding this story. We have since clarified the timeline of Lydia Crisp’s membership to reflect that she joined her chapter in spring 2024 and departed in fall 2024. This article is based on the personal experiences and perspectives of the individuals interviewed. While those experiences are important to share, they do not represent every member or chapter within Greek life at WKU. Talisman apologizes for any misconceptions regarding the article and continues to value Greek life.
Greek life looks different for everyone at WKU. For some students, those experiences can be transformative, while for others, it can be more complicated.
Addie McCoy, a freshman visual journalism and photography major from Glasgow, said she decided to join Greek life to make connections with others that would push her to become a better person. She said that, having been part of Alpha Delta Pi for only one year, she’s already accomplished that.
“I really feel like I have met my best friends and the girls who will be in my wedding one day,” McCoy said.
She said Greek life is a great opportunity to connect across and beyond the Panhellenic community. In her experience, she has noticed she has gone from an introverted person to someone involved in multiple organizations and places around campus.
“I definitely did not think that [I would] be where I am today when I first went through recruitment,” McCoy said. “I’m very thankful for Alpha Delta Pi, the Panhellenic community and the girls that I met [that] makes the chapter what it is.”
However, she said she knows that every experience within Greek life is different and depends on the person and what they put into the sorority.
“Every single person lives a different life, and they encounter different people in every single different chapter,” McCoy said.
Lydia Crisp, a junior international affairs major from Louisville, and Alexandra Taylor, senior sociology major and psychology and criminology double minor from Murfreesboro, Tennessee, had very different experiences within Greek life compared to McCoy.
Crisp decided to rush the spring semester of her freshman year as an avenue to gain friends after her primary friend, who she said was her roommate, left WKU. She said she was especially influenced by her floormates while living in Pearce Ford Tower, who were largely in Greek life.
“I was very introverted, soft spoken, and I was too nervous to kind of join other organizations,” Crisp said. “It was something that everyone on my floor was doing. It was kind of just that mentality of following the crowd, basically.”
After not meeting many people during her first year at the Stonewall Living Learning Community, Taylor said she didn’t have many opportunities to meet people since she was holding down a job. She said she was inspired to rush the fall of her sophomore year by students tabling for Greek organizations.
Crisp said she was looking for a group of girl friends, perceiving sororities as feminine-oriented safe spaces. However, Taylor said the opportunities for service, career advancements and sisterhood appealed to her.
While Crisp and Taylor both had little prior knowledge of how Greek life functioned, it had different effects on their rushing experience.
Since Crisp rushed in the spring, she said her recruitment process was more relaxed than the typical fall rush. She said that because of her lack of research, the process before and after joining Sigma Kappa was overwhelming.
“I think there were a lot of things that were happening that I didn’t expect,” Crisp said. “I think I just didn’t realize how cultish the process is, and this is on me for not knowing.”
Taylor, on the other hand, said she had a great time during recruitment since she had no prior expectations of Greek life, eventually going to Kappa Delta. She said she enjoyed bonding with and encouraging other girls she was rushing with.
“There’s a lot of stereotypes for each sorority,” Taylor said. “I got to go in and just genuinely get to learn about that sorority. I enjoyed not knowing anything and learning.”
However, Crisp quickly began to notice aspects of Greek life she didn’t like.
Crisp said that she and other girls she was rushing with felt like established members didn’t make an effort to get to know them at recruiting events.
“Some of it just felt very polarizing in that it felt like it was an us and them, the new recruits and then the people who were already established,” Crisp said.
Alongside that, she said that since Sigma Kappa is considered to be a “bottom sorority” due to its size, she felt a lot of pressure to be presentable.
“I kind of went into this thinking that this was a group of girls who were gonna boost each other’s self-esteem, and it just was the opposite,” Crisp said.
Taylor said she had been sold on the idea of sororities like Kappa Delta empowering women and building friendships.
“It was a really cool thing to be included in this woman-only space,” Taylor said. “We are supporting each other, and we want you to pursue all that you need and be the best that you can be.”
But she said she began to feel left out of the sorority, even as she tried to approach others and initiate conversations.
“I definitely thought it was a me issue at first,” Taylor said. “Every time I would go up and approach girls to speak to them, they would turn while I was mid-sentence and just walk away.”
As both moved to become more involved members of their chapters, these issues persisted.
After being dissatisfied with her experience as a new member, Crisp said she became the co-chair of new members for the fall semester.
“I felt like no one wanted to talk to me; it felt like no one wanted me to be there,” Crisp said. “So I wanted to basically change that experience for the new members incoming in the fall.”
One of her primary roles was in charge of big-little pairings, consisting of new and established members being paired together to have an established mentor in the sorority. But, she said that the older members didn’t want to get involved in the mentoring.
“With the big-little baskets, there would be times where some littles would get a lot of stuff, because their big actually wanted them, and some littles would get nothing because, like, their big was forced into taking them,” Crisp said.
She said she felt like the approach to new members was “messed up.”
“I just didn’t understand it because we were all new recruits at one point, we were all new members, we all went through this,” Crisp said. “I don’t know why you wouldn’t want to try to make the experience for someone else better.”
Similarly, Taylor said she saw the isolation of various members through her own lived experiences.
Since Taylor had been working and balancing being a student, she said she didn’t have much time to commit to the sorority. She noted several experiences where she felt like her chapter was not understanding of her various responsibilities, and when brought to the attention of others, not much changed.
“It made me feel like I was going crazy, because anytime I bring this up to anybody, it is ignored, or made to believe, I was being too sensitive in the situation,” Taylor said. “I didn’t understand what I was supposed to do to get these girls to like me, or want to even sit next to me in chapter [or] hang out with me outside of chapter.”
Because of her constraints with her job, Taylor said she had to skip sorority events, putting a further financial strain on her since she was fined as a repercussion. But, even when she tried to get involved in her sorority in leadership positions, she was unsuccessful.
She said she would never get voted in, and while she tried to become involved as a member of the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion committee, she didn’t feel like she had a place to give input.
“It definitely made me very insecure, because I was trying my hardest to make friends in college and build these relationships and even join committees and do something to be a part of KD,” Taylor said.
Ultimately, because of their experiences, both decided to drop their sororities.
After being a member for only one year, Crisp said she ended up texting her chapter president over winter break of her sophomore year, announcing her leaving the chapter.
“Being the co-chair and seeing that with the new members, I kind of just had a sense of like, I give up,” Crisp said.
Because of an experience where Taylor and her family were isolated during a Dad’s Day event, she was encouraged by her parents to drop her sorority.
“It was really shameful to come in with my parents, and them watch me be left out,” Taylor said. “It’s embarrassing to be in front of your parents, and it’s like, obvious to the point that my parents were pulling me aside and being like, ‘why is nobody talking to you?’”
Even though Crisp left Greek life, she said they know their experiences are different than many others and still took away valuable lessons and opportunities.
Crisp said that she doesn’t regret her experience in Greek life, since she found out what she truly wanted after it. She also said that being in a sorority allowed her to grow her social skills.
“I learned I had the ability to socialize and to connect with people that I didn’t know, especially through the recruitment process,” Crisp said.
She said she was also able to develop her leadership skills.
“I feel like it’s good training for a job interview, because you’re just sitting down with people all day, talking to them, trying to promote the sorority,” Crisp said. “It was really good, and I feel like now I’ve grown with those communication skills and also being co-chair.”
Like Crisp, Taylor said that she enjoyed being involved in campus activities and being able to participate in workshops and connections.
Looking back on their experiences, Crisp and Taylor had takeaways about Greek life.
For Crisp, she said she feels Greek life has the potential to be more centered around empowerment and motivating each other.
Taylor said she would encourage others in sororities to look out for those within their communities.
“Build that sisterhood, build that relationship, involve them, invite them,” Taylor said. “It’s not just a sorority in you, it’s a sorority in everybody, and everybody deserves a chance to be included, no matter how different they are, because that’s why they were chosen to join.”
Taylor said she didn’t want her experiences to deter others from joining Greek life, since it can have benefits for those who enjoy that life.
Equally, Crisp said that she would still encourage others interested in Greek life to try it, since they can always leave if they don’t enjoy it.
“I know that I know plenty girls who are still in their sorority and have had the best time in the world and have made great friends and have been able to be involved in such amazing ways and do amazing things,” Taylor said. “I feel like that’s still representative of what Greek life and culture is and should be.”
At the end of the day, McCoy said negative experiences in Greek life still teach lessons.
“You grew through your experiences and the opportunities that it gave you in the time that you were in it,” McCoy said. “I just hope that even though it may not have been painted positively, there still is positive in it.”
