As much as I keep trying to say that I am "retired" I seem to find myself helping to build a house in NC for one of our chapters and serving on the NPC University Housing Initiatives Committee! (Don't you love it when they nominate you for a position and forget to tell you until you've already been chosen?) I do have to admit it's been interesting.

Titchou, I do envy you just the tiniest bit, and then I remember how dramatic FCB could be and then I offer thanks that I'm currently happier being on Advisory Board.

All the boards have their drama - it just depends on which kind you'd rather sign up for!
But I did retire this year as an adviser - complete with a thank you plaque and all. Bittersweet for sure as I've volunteered in various ways on that campus and with our chapter for 30 years. I will miss the girls....they keep you on your toes!

Worse yet, those figures are an average of all sororities, and include the chapter GPAs of 2 NPHC sororities (with 4 and 8 members respectively) that were higher than any of the NPC sororities.

For the last fall (2011) listed on the chart, the 9 NPC sororities holding huge fall recruitments even fell slightly below that with a collective average of 2.98. :eek:

Panhellenic needs to be serious!

I don't really understand how deferring recruitment to January, for instance, would represent such a financial hit to the chapters (at least relative to the potential impact on scholarship). The new members wouldn't be joining until midterm anyway, and they don't live in the house. Not to mention that the chapters have grown over the years -- there are many more actives now to spread the cost over than in the past.

And I don't really buy the University's concern that girls will drop out of school to pursue their dream chapter elsewhere if rush is held in August. Just the logistics of this -- not to mention the complications presented by social media -- would render this improbable to be successful or likely to occur with any regularity. Heartbroken PNMs can otherwise drop out or transfer regardless of when recruitment is held (and probably do on every campus).

It seems a lot more likely that the girls' grades would cause problems with retention. GPAs that low will certainly limit their opportunities on the other side of undergrad -- even if they stay until graduation.

The current recruitment time frame just seems illogical -- especially, as you pointed out, for an institution that should be in the business of serious academics.

Girl, you are preaching to the choir here.

Has there been a lot of new construction here like at Alabama? Maybe that's why they can't take the financial hit of deferred recruitment?

I agree--keep recruitment before school starts. First priority should be grades. Let the PNMs who don't get their dream chapter go elsewhere if they want. Was there THAT many girls that did this?--enough to financially impact the university or sororities? Maybe there was--I don't know the history.

Oh, this has set me off!

Where does the campus Panhellenic get off telling the girls what to send to the local Alumnae Panhellenics? I write dozens of recs each year, and am VERY uncomfortable writing a rec without a transcript. You have mentioned some of my reasons, but I also like to see the quality of classes that the PNM has taken and the types of electives. However, mostly I want a school confirmation on their academic ability. I have seen some very generous "roundings" of GPA. I fully understand that the chapters can sniff this out with the Panhellenic transcript but if I am signing my name to a rec then I want to confirm that what I am telling the chapters is true.

I find it very odd, not to mention inappropriate, for a campus Panhellenic to tell the girls not to send the transcripts to the APH's and to their rec writers. If the individual chapters do not want me to pass along the transcript, then I won't. But please don't interfere with the information available to me through the APH.

Rush 2013
 

Lots of questions and would LOVE any feedback. Has anyone heard that they are cutting quota next year due to new colonies (I know about ADPi but apparently another is in the works?) I was told by a current member that they are going from 120-130 pledge classes to 90. Anyone else hear this? Also, I've been told 1 rec/1 letter but am reading here that 2 or more for each is better. Would love feedback on that as well! And all of us new moms are so confused about ranking and what the girls should do. That may be off limits for this board, but it is certainly complicated.

Quota is not pre-determined. Do a search for RFM (release figures method) and you should find a full explanation. What you have heard is patently rumor and can in no way be true. In short, the computer takes in a list of members in preferential order and a list from all the rushees and their ordered preferences. It does a match using first choices first until every girl has a home. The only girls it won't necessarily match are girls who haven't listed every chapter to which they attended a preference party. If 900 girls went through the preference round and listed every sorority for that round, then 900 girls would have a bid the next day. The problem is some girls (NOT that many) don't get invited all the way through to preference. Some girls drop out of rush for a variety of reasons, including they aren't happy with the outcome, and some go through preference and only write down their favorite chapter. That can drop the number of matched girls considerably. But someone deciding quota needs to be smaller this year isn't part of the equation. At all.

By bringing on more groups, it will make pledge classes smaller(unless the number rushing continues to climb) by spreading the PNMs out among more groups. However, colonies usually don't participate in all rounds of formal recruitment, so I don't know that this year's quota will be considerably smaller than last year. Spaces aren't being lost.

And I type slow.

Ranking isn't an issue as long as you keep an open mind. If you are invited to all your top choices, that's where you go. If you are released by one or more of them, your ranked chapters fill in the gaps, in the order you ranked them.

ETA: Alpha Phi is also scheduled to colonize, but not until 2015.

This isn't how quota is figured.

It may not be the EXACT method, but it still gets across the "quota is NOT predetermined before rush even starts" point - which is what a lot of people mistakenly think. That's the important thing here. Leave the detailed discussions of RFM and QAs and whatever else for another day.

I also thought that was odd advice. I have always advised girls to include a transcript with the packet passed along to their rec-writers, and appreciate these when I am writing a rec.

The GPA doesn't always reflect what went on academically -- if there was a hardship or a circumstance during high school that should be noted, then this can be included on the rec. If a PNM took a lot of AP courses, then this can be highlighted too.