A sorority scandal has erupted at one of America’s most notorious party schools after members accused an outside recruitment adviser of sidelining women of color, sparking a furious showdown inside their California chapter house.
Sisters of the Alpha Phi sorority at the University of California, Santa Barbara, say they were left stunned when Black women and other women of color were allegedly excluded from recruitment activities while prospective members from diverse backgrounds mysteriously disappeared from the selection pool, according to the Daily Nexus.
The explosive allegations have rocked the coastal campus, with outrage spilling onto social media and sorority sisters turning against the very leadership brought in to help them recruit new members.
“All of us started to notice,” chapter president Alana Nielsen told the student newspaper. “It was not just one. It was not just a few. It was not just the women of color. It was all of us.”
The drama began during fall recruitment in late September, when Alpha Phi International sent three representatives to oversee the chapter’s annual rush process.
Among them was a volunteer recruitment adviser who was also a UCSB Alpha Phi alumna and had assisted the chapter for the previous two years.
Roughly 1,200 hopefuls initially participated in recruitment, according to the Santa Barbara News-Press.
But after the first round on Sept. 26, sorority members were reportedly ordered to leave while the outside representatives determined which candidates would advance.
When the sisters returned, the pool had reportedly shrunk to approximately 250 women and members immediately noticed something troubling.
“There was a large and noticeably diverse group of women who were missing from the pool of potential new members that had returned,” Nielsen told the Daily Nexus.
The apparent shake-up was especially baffling because members had reportedly been told that roughly 90% of prospective recruits mutually wanted to return to Alpha Phi.
Meanwhile, existing sisters of color were allegedly being pushed to the sidelines.
Sky Achola, a Black sorority member and third-year political science major, said she arrived at the house Sept. 27 expecting to meet prospective recruits, only to discover she had been left off the schedule entirely.
She soon realized she wasn’t alone.
“Pretty much all the women of color in my family system, except for my ‘little,’ who was white, were pulled from all the rounds,” Achola told the News-Press.
Achola said she was eventually assigned to one recruitment round after members began raising questions.
“I actually personally was in a state of shock for about three days,” she told the outlet.
As the alleged discrimination became increasingly apparent, frustration inside the sorority house reached a boiling point.
Nielsen said she requested a chapter-wide meeting to address the concerns but was allegedly told by an outside representative that a discussion was unnecessary and that the day should end on a “happy note.”
Instead of sending the sisters home, Nielsen gathered members in the chapter room for an emotional confrontation.
What followed was nothing short of a sorority revolt.
“Girls [were] standing up screaming,” recruitment director Emerson Novosel told the Daily Nexus. “It [was] like a revolution happening right now. Like standing up, crying, screaming, and I had never felt so empowered.”
Members demanded answers as some broke down in tears, accusing the outside leadership of betraying the chapter’s values.
The volunteer adviser reportedly left the meeting after objecting to the confrontation.
Later that night, chapter recruitment directors met with the two remaining international representatives and learned that the volunteer had been responsible for deciding which prospective members advanced and which sisters participated in recruitment groups, according to chapter leaders.
The unidentified adviser was subsequently reported and removed from her position.
“It had [become] so disgustingly clear how it was just manipulation, just blatant manipulation to every part of the process with whatever her hidden agenda is,” Novosel told the Daily Nexus.
The controversy quickly exploded across Yik Yak, the anonymous social media platform popular among college students, where posts demanding accountability racked up hundreds and sometimes more than 1,000 upvotes, per the News-Press.
But the sisters insist they were victims of the alleged discrimination too.
“The women of color in the sorority were discriminated against too,” Achola told the News-Press.
Despite the uproar, Alpha Phi refused to abandon recruitment, with the national organization choosing instead to take control of the remaining process.
The chapter ultimately filled its recruitment quota, leaving uncertainty over whether women allegedly excluded earlier could still receive invitations through a separate informal bidding process.
On Oct. 1, members released a collective statement through an anonymous Instagram account, declaring they would fight for change from within.
“We have chosen to remain in the recruitment process because we believe that our members have the power to create meaningful change from within,” the statement read.
Alpha Phi International later sent representatives from its health, wellness and accountability department to meet with chapter members, including at an Oct. 5 meeting.
Nielsen said the chapter is collecting statements from members and pushing to overhaul recruitment procedures.
For Achola, the fallout has been especially painful.
“We were extremely hurt by this entire thing. We were discriminated against. We were tokenized. We were used,” she told the Daily Nexus.
And while the sorority’s reputation has taken a beating, Nielsen insisted the sisters are determined to make sure the scandal doesn’t happen again.
“That’s going to be a relationship that’s going to take a long time to repair,” she said of the chapter’s relationship with its national leadership.
The California Post reached out to Alpha Phi International and UCSB for comment.