The president of a University of California, Santa Barbara, sorority is speaking out for the first time about a discrimination scandal that shook the campus’s Greek community and prompted a revolt among its members.
Alana Nielsen, president of Alpha Phi, told the California Post that the controversy revealed a troubling power imbalance between local sorority members and the national representatives responsible for overseeing recruitment.
Now, angry members are working to reclaim control of the process.
“Honestly, I felt sick to my stomach,” Nielsen said, recalling the moment she realized something was seriously wrong. “I couldn’t imagine letting the day end without giving our members an opportunity to speak.”
The controversy erupted in late September after an outside recruitment adviser was accused of discriminating against women of color during Alpha Phi’s annual rush process.
About 1,200 prospective members took part at the outset, but the pool reportedly fell to roughly 250 after the first round on Sept. 26.
When active members returned, they noticed that many of the women they had hoped to advance—including candidates from diverse backgrounds—had disappeared from the recruitment pool.
Nielsen said the pattern emerged gradually over the course of the day.
“It was more of a gradual realization throughout the day,” she told The Post. “As members started talking to one another and comparing their experiences, it became increasingly difficult to ignore how many women we had wanted to return were missing from the candidate pool.”
The apparent removal of so many candidates was especially troubling because members had been told their evaluations would help decide which prospective recruits moved forward.
Instead, Nielsen said, sisters began to wonder whether their feedback had been ignored altogether.
“We had been taught to trust the people overseeing recruitment,” she explained. “These were older, more experienced representatives who had been doing this for years, and we had never been in a position where we felt we needed to question the process.”
At the same time, current women of color in the sorority were allegedly being sidelined from recruitment duties.
Sky Achola, a Black sorority member, previously told the Santa Barbara News-Press that nearly every woman of color in her sorority family group had been removed from recruitment rounds.
According to Nielsen, members were told there were not enough sisters available to take part in every round.
That explanation soon faced scrutiny, however, as some groups of women were repeatedly assigned to recruitment rounds while others were routinely excluded.
“Members could see that certain groups of women were consistently being scheduled to recruit, while many women of color were being assigned significantly fewer rounds or none at all,” Nielsen said.
As frustration mounted, Nielsen called for a chapter-wide meeting, even though an outside representative had allegedly suggested ending the day on a “happy note” with music and dancing.
The sorority president rejected that approach.
“It felt wrong to send everyone home without acknowledging what was happening,” she said.
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What followed was an emotional uprising inside the chapter house, with sisters crying, shouting and demanding answers.
Recruitment director Emerson Novosel previously described the extraordinary scene to the Daily Nexus as feeling “like a revolution happening right now.”
Nielsen said she refused to silence the women.
“Once one woman stood up, it empowered others to do the same,” she explained. “That was incredibly powerful to witness.”
The unidentified volunteer adviser, a UCSB Alpha Phi alumna who had previously assisted with recruitment, subsequently left her position.
Nielsen declined to publicly identify her, stressing that the controversy exposed deeper issues within the sorority’s recruitment system.
“For me, the larger issue isn’t just about one individual,” she said. “It’s also about the structure that allowed outside representatives to exercise so much influence over our recruitment process.”
The president said the chapter still has unanswered questions about who made decisions and how candidates were selected.
Alpha Phi International’s Health, Wellness, and Accountability department has since met with members, but Nielsen said emotional support alone isn’t enough.
“Our members aren’t only looking for emotional support,” she said. “We also want to understand how these decisions were made, what factors influenced them, and what accountability will look like moving forward.”
The chapter is now collecting written accounts from sisters and establishing a committee to overhaul its recruitment system.
Nielsen wants future outside advisers relegated to clearly defined support roles, with local members retaining control over decisions.
“We want clear procedures for how scores are used, transparency around how return decisions are made, fair and clearly explained opportunities for active members to participate in recruiting,” she said.
UCSB condemned discrimination in a statement to The Post.
“Discrimination is not tolerated at the university. Reports of discrimination are investigated by the university’s Office of Discrimination and Harassment Prevention and referred to Student Conduct as appropriate,” a university spokesperson said.
The university did not confirm whether a formal investigation into these specific allegations is underway.
Despite the ugly fallout, Nielsen insists the sisters aren’t backing down.
“Moving forward doesn’t mean moving on without accountability,” she said. “It means using this experience to build something better, with our members’ voices at the center of it.”
The California Post reached out to Alpha Phi International for comment.
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