For those of you who have not had the pleasure of reading the strongly worded e-mail sent by a member of University of Maryland’s Delta Gamma Chapter, prepare yourself for a vulgar, expletive-ridden (and rather creative) rant in regards to, er, a few “social issues” within the chapter. While those of us involved in Greek life can definitely relate to the stress that can incur between planning philanthropy events, ensuring active member participation and dealing the inevitable drama within the chapter, this girl had some much more unique frustrations to share with her fellow sisters. And boy, did she.
We were able to speak with a collegiette that is a sister of another sorority at University of Maryland, who explained that many of the fellow sororities and fraternities have been asked not to publically comment on the issue out of respect for Delta Gamma and to prevent a second media nightmare from happening. She did explain that the e-mail was in regards to UMD’s Greek Week, in which every sorority gets paired with a fraternity to social and team-up with in events. Sigma Nu, who is referenced multiple times in the e-mail, was DG’s “matchup,” and clearly things weren’t going as well as the writer of the e-mail thought they should be.
“I do not give a flying f-ck, and Sigma Nu does not give a flying f-ck, about how much you fucking love to talk to your sisters. You have 361 days out of the f-cking year to talk to sisters, and this week is NOT, I f-cking repeat NOT ONE OF THEM. This week is about fostering relationships in the Greek community, and that’s not fucking possible if you’re going to stand around and talk to each other and not our matchup.”
…perhaps she’s attempting to fulfill the “honesty” part of sisterhood? The e-mail goes on to describe the ways in which she feels her sisters weren’t “measuring up” to Sigma Nu’s standards, and states very bluntly that many of the sisters value their time with each other too much and should consider not being so “f-cking AWKWARD.”
More importantly, once the full e-mail was leaked to Gawker last week, it wasn’t long before it went nationally viral and the very opinionated writer behind it was revealed. While national attention can be great for sororities that are looking to further their cause, we’re confident that being recognized for coining a slew of outrageously vulgar terms intended to belittle your own sister’s social skills was probably not the type of PR Delta Gamma was interested in receiving. Even the author’s social media accounts were shared for the world to see, including some eloquent profane tweets in a tone similar to that which is expressed in the e-mail.
“It’s been hard for all of us” says our UMD sorority source, “All of us, inlcuding DG, work so hard for our philanthropy and to maintain a positive reputation. It’s unfortunate that one mistake has reflected negatively on our school’s Greek Life as a whole.”
Today, Delta Gamma’s national headquarters released a statement informing the public that the writer of the e-mail has resigned from her sorority, and it turns out they weren’t very much amused by straightforward suggestions included in the e-mail either;
“This email should not be depicted in any way as standard or routine or tied to any official sorority voice. It is not an official voice or message and should not be construed as such. For the young woman who wrote it, we can only express our regret and concerns for landing notoriety in this manner.”
Because of this, UMD is now left with a sorority shamed, a personal reputation ruined and many sorority girl stereotypes seemingly confirmed, all for the sake of seeming “fun” to one fraternity. And while we’re sure Delta Gamma will move past this embarassment, the situation provides an even greater tesament to the power of technology in sharing information; the good, the bad and the down right ugly (we would catergorize this rant as very, very ugly). Our advice? Enjoy your sisters, be kind to everyone, and always think before pressing “Send.”
Photo credit: Gawker