Opinion: Diversity?

    

      I read the weekend UA "bid day" coverage on AL.COM with interest. 
      It was the dozens of photos that caught my eye.
     Two years after the student newspaper wrote about the worst kept secret on campus---sororities were segregated---the number of African-American women in the photos is...minuscule. That's despite this quote from last year story:

"I'd say we're being a lot more proactive this year to make sure the pool is diverse and we are including everybody," Panhellenic Hannah McBrayer said in a UA-recorded video message. "Definitely being more proactive is something that has been different and can only bring positive change."

Perhaps the website's photos were limited because UA limited the media's ability to cover the annual pledge event....

"UA spokesperson Cathy Andreen emailed AL.com and other media outlets last week with Rush Week guidelines, stating no representatives from the Office of Greek Affairs, Panhellenic Executive Council or any sorority would be available for interviews during rush, a departure from previous protocol.
Though Greek Relations rarely handles inquiries into its own organizations' activities, preferring to route questions through UA's Media Relations office, the Panhellenic executive president normally provides a rush primer for press before hundreds of women descend on Magnolia Drive."

Media 101: control the message.

AL.COM did post a story with this headline:

21 black women, 169 other minorities accept bids during University of Alabama sorority recruitment. 

Yet the photos illustrating that article showed few or no black students among the 2,054 women pledging.  

      In 2014, the message seemed to ignore the national tidal wave of bad PR from the CW report. One sorority official:

 "Each organization will have a nation representative just to ensure we keep the integrity."

     Was there really any integrity to "keep"?
      And if the AL.COM photos are accurate, there may still be some folks standing in the sorority house door.