"All In The Family"

Collected by Jennifer Rodan (Jennifer.A.Rodan@vanderbilt.edu)

Summary: At Vanderbilt, there are perscribed rules to dating and mating.

Text: After joining a frat or sorority, there are certain rules on who one can appropriately date. As a general rule, Greek men should restrict their dating behavior to only Greek women. As a side effect, independents(non-greeks) end up dating each other as well. In addition, guys from the most elite frat are supposed to date only women from their counterpart most elite sorority to maintain its high prestige.

Notes: My informant provided the names of the "most elite" organizations, but i decided to omit them from the text.

Context:

A. Brief summary of tale: At Vanderbilt, there are perscribed rules to dating and mating.
B. Tale type and motifs: type-College Dating Tale motifs-Exclusion, Greek System
C. Comments on tale: I've heard this tale since i was a freshman. It's fairly widespread.
D. Approx. date informant first heard the tale: 1995, freshman year
E. Relationship of your informant with the individual from whom the informant heard the tale: friend
F. Circumstances when tale was first heard: on campus social gathering
G. Give the following information on your informant:
Age: 21
Sex: Female
Place of birth: Colorado
Ethnic Group: Caucasion
Languages Spoken: English
Religion: Undecided
Year in school: Senior
Extracurricular jobs: No
Date collected: 11/5/98