Chapter members say women of color were sidelined during fall recruitment before an outside adviser was removed from her position.
SANTA BARBARA, Calif. — Members of UC Santa Barbara’s Alpha Phi sorority are accusing an outside recruitment adviser of discriminating against women of color during fall recruitment, allegations that triggered an emotional confrontation inside the chapter and prompted the adviser’s removal.
The dispute centers on recruitment in late September, when about 1,200 potential new members began the process and Alpha Phi International sent three outside representatives to assist the Gamma Beta chapter. Chapter members say they believed their own evaluations would guide decisions about which women returned for later rounds. Instead, members said they became alarmed after the candidate pool was sharply reduced and many women from diverse backgrounds appeared to be missing. Women of color already in the chapter also reported being excluded from, or assigned to fewer, recruitment sessions than white members.
Chapter President Alana Nielsen told the Daily Nexus, UC Santa Barbara’s student newspaper, that the change became apparent when members returned for the next recruitment round on Sept. 27. Members had expected their scores and comments about prospective members to shape the invitations. Nielsen said the women who returned did not match the group chapter members believed they had rated highly and wanted to see again. Separate reporting by the Santa Barbara News-Press said the pool had fallen from roughly 1,200 prospective members to about 250 after the first round.
The concerns were not limited to prospective members. Sky Achola, a Black member of the chapter, told local news outlets that she arrived expecting to participate in recruitment but discovered she had been left off much of the schedule. Members began comparing assignments and said other women of color appeared to have received fewer opportunities to speak with prospective members. Nielsen said the pattern was noticed broadly across the chapter, including by white members who joined calls for an explanation.
Tensions reached a breaking point after chapter leaders sought a meeting with the outside representatives. Nielsen said she was initially told a chapter-wide discussion was unnecessary and that members should end the day positively. She instead gathered the members in the chapter room, where students confronted the representatives about the selection process and recruitment assignments. Recruitment Director Emerson Novosel described an emotional meeting in which members stood, cried and demanded greater transparency about how decisions had been made.
Chapter leaders said they later learned that the volunteer recruitment adviser had been responsible for selecting which prospective members would return and for assigning current members to recruitment groups. The adviser was subsequently removed from her role, according to the Daily Nexus and other local reports. Her identity has not been publicly released in the coverage reviewed, and she has not been quoted responding to the allegations. Alpha Phi International did not respond to multiple requests for comment from the Daily Nexus.
The chapter continued recruitment after the adviser’s removal, with members taking greater control and the two remaining Alpha Phi International representatives staying to assist. Novosel said prospective members invited to the final round were paired with chapter members based on shared interests. The chapter ultimately filled its recruitment quota. That created uncertainty over whether women who had been eliminated earlier could later receive invitations through the sorority system’s Continuous Open Bidding process, because the number of available spots depends on chapter membership totals set through the campus Panhellenic system.
The controversy soon moved beyond the Alpha Phi house. Anonymous posts and reviews on campus-oriented platforms accused the chapter of racism, while chapter members argued that they had challenged the conduct rather than supported it. Members published a statement saying key decisions had been made without the knowledge or approval of the chapter or its executive board. They said they chose to remain in recruitment because leaving the process would have limited their ability to push for changes from within.
Alpha Phi International representatives from its health, wellness and accountability department later met with Nielsen and attended an Oct. 5 chapter meeting, according to the Daily Nexus. Nielsen said members planned to collect accounts of what happened and provide them to the international organization. She also said she did not expect the national organization to have the same role in the chapter’s recruitment next year. The chapter has called for greater transparency and changes to the way future recruitment decisions are handled.
The allegations have also drawn attention from UC Santa Barbara. In a statement reported by the New York Post, a university spokesperson said discrimination is not tolerated and that reports of discrimination are investigated by the university’s Office of Discrimination and Harassment Prevention and referred to Student Conduct when appropriate. The university did not publicly announce in the reports reviewed whether a formal investigation specifically involving Alpha Phi had reached any findings.
No independent determination cited in the reviewed reporting has established that prospective members were excluded because of race, and the allegations remain based largely on accounts from chapter members describing patterns they observed during recruitment. The outside adviser has been removed from her role, while Alpha Phi members continue to seek answers about how the selections were made and what changes will be put in place before the next recruitment cycle.
Author note: Last updated October 19, 2026.