7.1 my community at cornell

One community that I am involved with at Cornell University is my sorority, Delta Gamma. The Delta Gamma house is located on North Campus and over 40 active members live there, while another 60 active members live elsewhere in Ithaca. The Delta Gamma social network is made up of ties and actors. These 100 girls are the actors in the Delta Gamma social network. The 40 actors that live in the house together have strong ties because they are in contact with one another everyday. Of the 60 actors who do not live in the house, some have strong ties because they live with other Delta Gamma members in Collegetown. Some of the actors have weak ties (rare contact) because they live with friends not in Delta Gamma. The common ground that every member of Delta Gamma shares is that every girl is required to live in the house for at least one year. By living in the house, every girl shares commitment to the Delta Gamma culture. Haythornwaite states, “Community ties are maintained with people we feel are similar to us, who we expect to understand and concur with our experience and viewpoint and with whom we share commitment to the common culture or enterprise” (p.129). Reciprocity is defined as a mutual interchange of favors or privileges. One example of reciprocity in my community is being the president of Delta Gamma. Only one girl of the 100 active members in Delta Gamma wanted to be the president. Being the president requires a lot of time and hard work. However, the president gets to live in the biggest and nicest room in the house with air-conditioning and free cable. Etzioni and Etzioni (1999) state that “Communities that combine both f2f and CMC systems would be able to bond better and share values more effectively than communities that rely upon only one or the other mode of communication” (p.131) I agree completely with the statement above, and CMC plays a very large role in the Delta Gamma social network. In Delta Gamma, the president emails all the members notes about chapter meetings, members receive emails about sorority events (events such as formals and crush parties to sporting and musical events members are in to parent weekend events). There are also numerous Delta Gamma groups on facebook.