Section A • Page 6
The University Daily Kansan
Wednesday. December 2, 1998
Women trade lives to explore campus divisions
Continued from page 1A
Michelle would have the opportunity to disprove the sorority community's stereotypes and also learn about life outside the sorority house.
Method
Rana Cline (pronounced Renee), 24, is an art major specializing in painting with a 3.0 grade point average. She is 5 feet 6 inches tall with long brown curly hair. She lives in a farmhouse with three male roommates. Her father, a 50-year-old mechanic, owns his own garage in a town of 400 people, and her mother is a 99-year-old secretary. Rana does not receive any financial help from her family. Instead, she lives on and pays tuition from financial aid and the money she earns from jobs. Rana worked a total of 35 hours a week at three jobs and carried 12 hours of classes at the time of the experiment.
Michelle Cadwalader, 21, is an education major specializing in middle school secondary education with a 3.1 GPA. She is 5 feet 6 inches tall with short brown hair. Her father, 49, owns a medical product business in Overland Park, and her mother is a 48-year-old second-grade teacher. Michelle's family pays most of her expenses, including tuition and housing, but she also earns extra money from summer jobs. Michelle worked a total of seven hours a week at two volunteer jobs and carried 15 hours of classes at the time of the experiment.
For a day, the two women would switch jobs, cars, houses and friends — an imperfect but interesting experiment. They both had worries.
"I was afraid that it was some kind of setup," Michelle said. "People already have a negative feeling toward the Greek system. I was wary of more bad PR. I was afraid of another Greek-bashing article because there has been so many, and I'm sure that there will be more. Pit little sorority girl against 'Tammay live-out,' and make little sorority girl look like a rich snotty bitch and make 'Tammay live-out' look like this poor, hardworking woman. I was afraid that that was how it was going to be."
Rana had different concerns. She said that although she would go into the experiment with an open mind, she thought it would be hard for her opinions to change after spending only one day in the sorority house.
The Results
Michelle
Noon, Wednesday, Oct. 21
Michelle leaves the sorority to attend her morning classes. Instead of taking the 10-minute walk back to the Alpha Chi Omega house, 1500 Sigma Nu Place. Michelle decides to eat lunch on campus. She knows that if she drove to Rana's farmhouse, a 15-minute drive from campus, she would be late to her job
A LOOK AT STEREOTYPES
Myth
+ a more expensive life to live at university.
Has access to living off campus or in a residence hall.
It's more expensive to live in a sorority
Sorority women drive expensive cars.
Sorority women have short blond hair. Womens hair are not intelligent.
Sorority women are not intelligent.
Fact
Average cost of living in a sorority: $3,875 per year. Average cost of living outside of a sorority: $ 000 per year.
a business $5,000 per year.
■ Michelle drives a '93 Red Jeep Cherokee.
■ Michelle has brown, shoulder-length hair.
■ Michelle has a 3.1 grade point average.
Lunch, which she prepared the night before,
consists of a peanut butter and jelly sandwich,
a banana, crackers and a Tropicana orange juice.
8 a.m. Tuesday, Nov. 3
Runa's day begins at the farm. She arrives at 8:30 a.m. at the Veritas Christian School, 256 N. Michigan St., where Michelle volunteers as a teacher's assistant every Tuesday morning.
Rana uses a serious tone with the rambunctious sixth graders as she teaches them how to write a research paper. The kids continue to cut up, and Rana sighs.
Michelle
Michelle drives Rana's car, an '87 Buick Regal, to Rana's job at Stepping Stones Day Care. 1100 Wakarusa Drive.
4 p.m.
At the center, Michelle feeds Cheiros to the toddlers and wipes spilled apple juice from the floor. Laughing and smiling, Michelle changes diapers and entertains the snotty-nosed children with the toys in the playroom.
5:30 p.m.
Dinnertime for Rana is at the Alpha Chi Omega house, and she slips into line with the rest of the women. The meal tonight is pancakes, eggs, sausage, biscuits and gravy. The girls at her table are curious and ask her many questions. "Are you having fun yet?" and "What do you think so far?" were the two asked most during dinner. She politely answers all of the questions between each bite.
She finishes her meal, gets up from the table and, following the lead of the other girls, leaves her plate behind at the table for the waiters to pick up.
Michelle
δ p.m.
Michelle arrives at the farm and is greeted by the four eager dogs that belong to Rana and her three roommates.
Making her way past the friendly canines, she enters the old farmhouse where Rana
has lived for two years.
Michelle's first order of business is to cook dinner. She looks through Rana's cabinet and finds a can of broccoli cheese soup. She turns the burner to high and burns the bottom of the pot. She finishes her soup, and she leaves the bowl on the living room coffee table.
Rana drives Michelle's '93 Jeep Grand Cherokee to the Sigma Nu fraternity house, 1501 Sigma Nu Place.
6:30 p.m.
Rana
She colors in the script books for the Rock Chalk Revue and mingles with other fraternity and sorority members. Throughout the evening, she asks them questions about life in the Greek system.
"Why do sororities have to have a house mother present each night?" Rana asks.
7 p.m.
Michelle crashes out on the couch in front of the TV, attempting to study and watch an episode of Chicago Hope. The studying is interrupted by growling dogs, frolicking in a nearby room.
Rana
11:30 p.m.
In the temperature-controlled sorority house, Rana enters the common shower room and notices a shelf along the wall filled with neatly organized toiletries. Rana washes up for bed in the white shower stall.
Michelle is ready for bed. She showers in a rust-stained bathing stall as rusty water sprinkles over her.
Michelle Midnight
Midnight
Rana
12:15 a.m.
Rana spends the night in Michelle's room, a four person sleeping room, in a bunk bed.
Michelle
Michelle pulls up the covers and goes to sleep alone in Rana's room.
Discussion
After the experiment, Rana and Michelle discussed their insights into each other's lives.
Rana's dim view of sororities and sorority women was not changed by spending a day in the life of Michelle.
I don't like to feel I had to do something," she said. "They have all these organized parties, like 'Mystery Date.' I'm not into those big group mixes. I don't want anyone to tell me who I have to socialize with.
More photos
"They have all the conveniences of living at home with your parents. When you walk in the door, you're guaranteed to have food, heat and shelter.
"It was nice to drive her Jeep, but I don't
To see additional photos about the social experiment, see the UDKi:
http://www.kansan.com
think that someone her age should be driving such a nice car. My father doesn't even drive a car that nice, so why should I be able to?
"Iliked the security of three meals per day. I did not have to worry about taking time out of my schedule to cook or go food shopping." Michelle
Michelle:
Michelle came away from the experiment with a new understanding.
"I could look at her life and realize that I have it easy, and I am very grateful that I don't have to work and my parents are able to help through college.
"We live different lives,but neither one of us have a better or worse life. They are just different."
"She may have to work, and it might be hard to work and go to class and get all the other things done. It might be easier for me to only concentrate on school and all the other things that I only choose to do. The things we chose
to do and the things we have to do are just life, and people have to cope. I don't think that I'm better than anyone else is, and I don't believe that anyone is better than I am. We are all on an equal plane, and we are all different, too."
Conclusions
The hypothesis failed. Changing lives for a day didn't produce a warm, fuzzy feeling about sorority girls inside of Rana.
Michelle did have a better understanding of her advantages, but she did not see inequality because of them.
"There might have been more positive results from the experiment if there was more contact between the two groups," Biernat said. "A longer time interval also might have created more positive feelings."
Rana's negative stereotypes might have been changed if she had met a woman who seemed to meet the sorority girl stereotype, Biernan said. As time wore on, Rana might have realized the stereotypes weren't true.
Biernat said she considered Michelle's conclusions a positive outcome.
"It could get her to respect others who don't have what she does and appreciate what she has more." Biernat said.
Michelle Cadwalader shares a laugh with 2-year-old Annie Kisner at Stepping Stones Day Care Center, where Rana Cline works.
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