It's not that Trinity juniors Joia Pardo and Paola Gómez were unhappy. The two friends from high school just felt there was more that the University could offer.
"Where I come from, it's purely Hispanic," Gomez said. "I never spoke so much English as when I came here. It was hard for me to be myself."
"We felt that something was missing," Pardo added, "so last year we started looking into sororities."
After their rush process-which lasted from the beginning of the semester to the end of October-the two, along with three other juniors, joined to form the Kappa chapter of Lambda Pi Chi Sorority, Inc., which stands for Latinas Proviendo Comunidad (Latinas Promoting Community).
They chose Lambda Pi Chi from 19 national Latina sororities, most of which are centered in New York, New Jersey or the Southwest. Two chapters of Lambda Pi Chi are located in Washington D.C., so Duke members were able to communicate with their nearby affiliates. The sorority is not associated with any national fraternity.
For Pardo, the bond with Latino culture created a sisterhood that she did not think she would find in a Panhellenic sorority.
"I didn't feel comfortable enough [to rush]," said Pardo, who was recently elected sorority president. "I didn't feel like it related to me enough. I was looking for something different."
Sorority members would not comment on the details of their two-month rush process, but other students reported that the women, who wore red jackets and yellow gloves, were restricted from speaking directly to people outside the sorority.
Despite some criticism of harsh ethnic greek rush practices in the national media, Vice President for Student Affairs Janet Dickerson said that she was confident that minority fraternities and sororities at the University were appropriately regulated.
"When people join an organization, they make decisions about what kind of rules, regulations and policies they're willing to live by," Dickerson said. "[National Panhellenic Council, the organization encompassing the University's ethnic fraternities and sororities,] has many rules as well.... Rush periods are different and there are behaviors that are defined and accepted. Nationals are pretty explicit that the rush periods and actions are not supposed to be too intense."
Lambda Pi Chi is not yet a member of NPHC, and is not officially recognized by the University.
Dickerson said that, in general, minority fraternities and sororities tend to be "small intimate organizations that are lifelong, intense linkages."
For members of the sorority, this close-knit sisterhood has been extremely valuable.
"I gained four hermanas. I know there's nothing that can separate us. That's something that was lacking before," said Gómez, the sorority's secretary and public relator. "There was nothing that really tied me to Duke. Now I'm going to have them even after I graduate."
Lambda Pi Chi adviser Veronica Guzman, an associate director of admissions in charge of recruiting Latinos, said the cultural aspects of the sorority could serve as a tool to recruit more Latina students.
"It shows acceptance," she said. "Something like this can really tell students that they are welcome at Duke."
But critics of ethnic sororities argue that they further divide the campus along racial lines.
Although members of Lambda Pi Chi are not restricted to women of Latino or Hispanic descent, members said, they should be familiar with the Latino culture. The five current members come from Italian, Cuban, Colombian, Sicilian and African-American backgrounds.
Pardo said ethnic greek organizations can actually bring the campus together. She hopes that the sorority will hold events with fraternities of all ethnic types.
"The way I see it, no matter what you do these groups exist and there are differences. You're not curing anything by ignoring that these groups exist," she said. "For me, saying that I'm Latina is not excluding anyone else. As long as you don't make those differences barriers, you can use them to bring people together."
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