UPDATED: Feb. 2, 2016 at 4:38 p.m.

Four days before hundreds of Syracuse University students received bids for their new sororities, senior Alex Purdy rocked the sorority world when she took to YouTube to explain why she left hers last semester.

The video had garnered more than 20,200 views as of 10:25 p.m. Monday. At that time, Purdy had received 264 “likes” and 103 “dislikes” for her three minute and 41 second long monologue — a reflection of the “polarizing opinions” Purdy said in an interview with The Daily Orange that she was shocked to receive so early after publishing the video.

Purdy, a senior public relations major at SU, rushed during the spring semester of her freshman year. She had played basketball throughout high school in her hometown of Bethesda, Maryland, and her team was like her “school family,” she said — she wanted something similar at SU.

She said she wanted another group to align herself with to “get that sense of camaraderie and belonging,” but at the time, there was no club basketball team for women. So she rushed.

From her sorority — which Purdy decided not to disclose — she expected to gain friends who were loyal, who supported each other and encouraged each other to develop intellectually. Friends, she said, “who will help you stick to your morals and your goals for yourself.”

In the video, Purdy recalls the way some of her sisters treated others in the sorority. They encouraged their sisters to care about what others thought of them, to “dress sluttier at the next formal so the guys like us.” They said no FUPAs — women with “fat upper p*ssy areas” — should be allowed in the house. One sister put Hydroxycut, a weight loss supplement, in her little’s basket.

But Purdy doesn’t want to focus on the negatives of the past. She wants people to be kind to one another — a message she conveyed in her video, which in its title has the hashtag #SororityRevamp.

The release of the video wasn’t necessarily planned to correlate with rushing season, as Purdy said she’s been deciding what to say for many months. She said since rush came so quickly, “it felt like now or never,” especially since she will graduate in May.

Panhellenic Council President Tristan Ruzic said in an email that she prefers not to comment on Purdy’s video, but said, “As a community we are moving forward and focusing on all of the amazing things that the Greek Community has to offer.”

The comments of support on Purdy’s video praised her decision to speak up. Purdy said she had seen people talk privately about their grievances with their sororities, but the conversation wasn’t public.

Since she’s posted the video, Purdy said she’s received private feedback from not only women in sororities at SU but also women across the country — from Massachusetts to Florida and California. She’s also received praise from women in and out of sororities who have either had similar experiences or have loved greek life but known other women who didn’t love it so much.

“I feel so grateful that it compelled them to say something to me, even if it’s not publicly,” Purdy said. “I feel like there’s something in that shared experience of communicating, ‘I felt this way too.’ … Because no one should be made to feel like that.”

Teresa Sabga, a Class of 2015 SU alumna who dropped the same sorority as Purdy, said Purdy’s message is important for the women who don’t feel like whatever they were promised with greek life was fulfilled. Sabga said now those women can be inspired to speak up and “let girls know that it’s OK that they are uncomfortable in a situation where someone is being ill-treated.”

Being miles away from her home in the Caribbean, Sabga said she rushed because she longed for a place to call home — for people who respected and loved her and picked her up when she was down.

When asked what her reality in her sorority was, Sabga said with a laugh, “I could go on and on.”

When Purdy saw someone being ill-treated, Sabga said she would stand up and say something, and in turn get laughed at or eyes rolled her way.

“She would say things like, ‘We need to love one another’ and ‘There’s no compassion in this house,’ and they would literally laugh in her face,” Sabga said. “It is so, so messed up because it’s like, this one girl is trying to make a positive experience out of this, and you guys think she’s dumb and too emotional and … It’s really just ironic.”

Purdy said that although she has decided to not disclose the name of her sorority, the way the message has been spreading shows how “universal” the message is to some people. Since she’s heard from students across the country, she said the problem is beyond SU, and is not specific to any one sorority house.

In regard to the future of #SororityRevamp, Purdy said she is excited to hear more about what’s going on at schools across the country.

“I think once we hear more about what the problems were, it’ll be easier to work in groups to develop changes,” she said. “I don’t have all the answers, but I want to try to find them.”

CORRECTION: In a previous version of this article, the situation involving hydroxycut was misstated. Purdy heard a sister talk about putting hydroxycut in a little’s basket. The Daily Orange regrets this error.

Published on February 2, 2016 at 1:00 am

Contact Alexa: atorrens@syr.edu