In the New York Times article about the sorority drama that is engulfing DePauw University, Pam Propsom is mentioned as the psychology professor who surveyed her classes and found that the women of the Delta Zeta house were considered to be "socially awkward." Concerned about the welfare of that chapter, the sorority's national officers came to the school and kicked out 23 members, including, according to the Times, all of the overweight women and most of the minorities. Slightly confused as to what sort of survey asks these sorts of questions, and wondering whether the results of this study were in any way the cause of why these women were kicked out, Gelf called up Propsom to learn more.

Propsom tells Gelf that her "survey" has been slightly misrepresented. She originally talked to the New York Times because, at that time, she was (and had been for 10 years) the faculty advisor for Delta Zeta. (She has since quit in protest of the national chapter's actions.) While she was talking to the reporter, she mentioned that every year for the last 20 years, she gave a presentation in class in which she asked students to identify both sorority and fraternity houses in a few words as a way of showing how stereotypes exist. She then read some of the responses back to the class.

The New York Times article began, "When a psychology professor at DePauw University here surveyed students, they described one sorority as a group of 'daddy’s little princesses' and another as 'offbeat hippies.' The sisters of Delta Zeta were seen as 'socially awkward.' "

Propsom says that while the reputation of the house might have been a reason why the national officers decided to thin the DePauw chapter's ranks, it's not as though they had stumbled across her "survey" and decided to take action as a result of it. "It was just a presentation in class to talk about stereotypes," she says.

Still, Propsom points out the negative effects of reputational prejudice: "There are a whole variety of people in the [Delta Zeta] house. All of the sororities are fairly diverse, but stereotypes get promulgated."