Alabama Sororities Ending Member Recruitment

Michelle Lepianka Carter / AP

Traditionally white sororities at the University of Alabama are ending their annual recruitment period amid questions over whether the groups are accepting blacks as new members.

The university says it will release a racial and ethnic breakdown of this year's sorority pledge class once recruitment concludes Saturday.

But it's not clear exactly when the statistics might be available.

The campus in Tuscaloosa became embroiled in controversy a year ago after the student newspaper reported some white sororities had rejected blacks as new members because of race.

Administrators changed some rules, and the school says historically white sororities had a total of 21 black members by spring.

Still, relatively few blacks are members since the 17 sororities had a total of some 5,300 members last year.

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