Statistics
 

2013:

• 1,735 women registered
• 1,025 received bids
• 146 women not matched in process
• 182 women released for grades
• 135 participated in preference round and did not receive bids
• 376 withdrew themselves from recruitment
• Nearly 64% of women registered joined chapters

2012:

• 1,720 women registered
• 890 received bids
• 252 women were not matched throughout the process
• 74 released for grades
• 196 participated in preference round and did not receive bids
• 504 withdrew themselves from recruitment
• Nearly 52% of women registered joined chapters
• Average chapter size is 156

2011:

• 1,511 registered for recruitment
• 908 receieved bids
• 85 were released for grades
• 108 participated in preference round and did not receive bids
• 128 were released total
• 340 withdrew themselves from recruitment
• 60% of women registered joined chapters

Here are the statistics, cut and pasted directly from IU Panhellenic's website. The cuts are NOT due to grades. Bed quota is the issue. I believe many women withdraw themselves from recruitment on this campus because they do not feel they are being matched with chapters that they connect with or they are turned off by the nature of this rush. The point is, there aren't enough places for them all in the first place.

The bidless ones after pref, I wonder how many of those suicided or didn't maximize the options.

Just wanted to throw my two cents in here...My heart goes out to all the PNMs, the families, the actives, and alums going through this process. It's hard to believe I wrote my own IU recruitment story over 5 years ago - I lived it and I totally get all of your frustrations. Recruitment for me was absolutely heart-breaking in the end, or so I thought at the time. I had a wonderful experience up until 3 Party when I was dropped by all of my favorite chapters. I still ended up with a bid but it took me a while to warm up to my house and to my sisters (which makes me sound like an entitled brat, I know).

Then I experienced recruitment as an active. Then as a Rho Gamma. Then as a recruitment party chair. I experienced IU recruitment in so many different roles that I could write a book about it. I watched girls that our whole house loved not return for the next round (they dropped out, didn't rank us, etc.). I watched women in my Rho Gamma group pref my own chapter and not receive a bid. From any angle, this process is painful. It's not fair and it needs to change. I don't have the answers but I do know it's going to take some adjustment. I think the senior live-out policy change is HUGE (granted, my chapter already allowed seniors to live out which I really enjoyed).

Obviously the women have already filled out their pref rankings at this point but I hope that the moms and daughters out there will take this advice. Even if Bid Day doesn't turn out the way you had hoped, make the best of it. If your daughter received a bid to a house they might not have connected with, tell her to go check it out. This year makes this true more than ever - these woman barely got a glimpse of the chapters. It took me weeks to feel comfortable in my chapter and now I could never imagine being anywhere else - they knew me better than I knew myself. If your daughter does not get a bid, there are options. IU is an amazing place that has so many opportunities beyond Greek Life! Some of the women in my Rho Gamma group didn't received bids (far too many) and they went on to have an amazing time in college - I can't believe they are seniors now! I wish everyone the best of luck and know that I'm thinking about you!

To Address Rho Gammas advising PNMs to rank the unhoused chapters last because they
 

"Invite everyone back"

Those Rho Gammas should be turned into the Panhellenic office, tout de suite! What they are doing is not in the panhellenic spirit and I have a hard time believing that any one of them consider this fair play. I feel this is serious, and IU Panhellenic should be made aware of it. So if your PNM mentioned her Rho Gamma saying this, or anything similar to this, tell her to turn them in.

I have been reading this thread and have not commented. I am a recruitment adviser and have been for many years. My daughter just navigated a competitive PAC 12 recruitment with a happy ending. Her experience was not happy all the way through the process and she had peaks and valleys loosing some of her favorites along the way. I think my daughter is street smart more so then the average girl. Looking back her opinions on the Chapters going through recruitment were almost spot on. I think that if some of these girls are not feeling a connection that's ok.

Housing. If you want the sorority experience to include housing and the majority of Chapters have housing that might be a deal breaker for some if not most of the PNM's. For my daughter and for me it would also be a deal breaker. I lived in a sorority house for 2 years. I was the BEST experience ever and I would recommend it to any one. I advise at a non housed chapter that does live in University dorms. It is a completely different experience. There are no meals, no cook and no traditions that go along with those meals including grace. Meetings are held in a classroom and not the Chapter House. You loose a lot by not having that communal shared living experience and being in a dorm or apt. is really not a replacement in my opinion

Bills. There are bills to pay with an unhoused Chapter. The budget is HUGE! What I can tell you is that unhoused and housed Chapters do the exact same thing. In fact, my Chapter does more events then my daughters Chapter and her dues are more then my girls.

Mutual Selection. It is mutual selection. With not getting into membership selection a lot of going through recruitment is who you know. Also, please consider that the Chapters have to release a certain amount of women but get 3/4 through the release list and all the women appear to be equal. At that point you have to figure out a way to weed through that next 1/4 you will release. It might be that the Chapter has predetermined what they are looking for and do it that way. They want to raise their grades and they take that 1/4 from girls who have the lowest GPA. Your girl could have missed it by .10 of a point and been the one left off the list. It is a numbers game at ANY university. We do our best but the reality is we can not take every one. Do we make mistakes? You bet, but hindsight is 20/20. Here is a really good example: 2 years ago we released a friend of a member. At the time we didn't know she was a friend because she didn't tell us! We loved this member and respected her and felt bad about it. She went through the entire process preffed 2 houses and still did not feel a connection. She dropped out of recruitment. This was the year 5 Chapters at our University didn't make quota including us and we Snap Bid her. 2 years later she is the Chapter President! Recruitment is not a science. It is a lot about the way people connect with each other much like dating is. Sometimes one feels the connection but not the other and it goes both ways. A lot of recruitment, whether we want to admit it or not, is how you look and dress and the conversations and connection.

Vent. This site is not good on letting people vent. These Moms are hurting and if you don't have a child that has gone through the process I don't think you can comment or judge what these women are feeling. It is crushing when your daughter calls you in tears. A Mom wants to fix things. It is hard to advise your kid when you are hurting because they are hurting. I do this and get it and it was the most difficult process I have ever gone through including my own recruitment experience. These women are hurting we need to let them hurt. Don't get offended when they tell us what their daughters felt about certain chapters. They don't know you and are just writing it down to work through the grieving process. I personally have not once read elitist or entitled into one of their post. I have read that a Mom is hurting and is trying to make sense of the process. We need to cut them some slack.

Indiana. This was a school my daughter had on her radar very early on. I said absolutely not. There are to many fabulous Universities that have thriving Greek systems that I can give my money to. I will protest with my money. I will tell you I have a rec girl going through the process and she has had a perfect recruitment so far. We will see after bid day. She is involved in a group that has a ton of sorority women in it. I think that has helped her along with the fact that she is the perfect package. Again, Indiana might be a place where who you know matters more then recs and how you look on paper. When someone asks me about the Greek system at Indiana I'm honest and tell them it has the most horrible process in the country and recommend if they want to go Greek to do it at another University. I also direct them to the Pan website and have them read those comments. Not many choose to go there after being educated.

Rho Gamms
 

I wouldn't recommend turning Rho Gammas in. They are just trying to help their PNMs, even if in an inappropriate way. A lot of what happens at IU rush is not in the Panhellenic spirit. I think that is why the NPC has chosen IU to feature on their website with a message board for parents to complain about recruitment. No other college in the nation has been chosen for that honor.

http://sororityparents.com/2011/01/s...y_bloomington/

This whole post is spot on, but especially the highlighted parts. I'm not a mom, but I recently became a stepmom so I get feeling your daughter's pain and wanting to help.

I haven't been on Greek Chat that long and don't have that many posts, but I've read just about everything pertaining to recruitment because I'm a new alum advisor to a fairly new-ish chapter (I am a speed reader, it's not like I spend my life on here or anything. :D) and I've gotten some great information here. I would steer anyone to whom having a full-blown sorority experience is critical to their college happiness away from Indiana. I'm sure the process works for a lot of women and they are happy with their bids, but perhaps they don't come here to post. Good for you, AXORushAdvisor, for voting with your dollars. I would have done the same thing.

As far as the housed/unhoused debate - my northeast school didn't have sorority houses - or apartments - or dorms. We did have chapter rooms. I guess it's a case of "not missing what you have never known", although having a house might have been fun. It certainly didn't detract from my experience in any way.

One final thought, I feel bad for the unhoused chapters that no one wants to join - even though my sorority does have a house at Indiana. That is a hurdle that is hard to overcome.

I think one point that everyone on this thread (IU, non-IU, actives, alumnae, Moms, PNMs) can agree is that the typical caveats about recruitment are more difficult to manage where the collegiate Panhellenic intentionally supports an exclusionary and unpalatable process. It isn't very Panhellenic and it isn't very nice. AZTheta put it well --provide some persuasive evidence -- not rationalizations -- for such an archiac and mean system.

IU recruitment is heartbreaking every year, and we discuss it here every year. The best "reasoning" I have heard thus far is that, unlike Michigan or Illinois (as someone mentioned above as similar schools), there are NOT a lot of good non-Greek housing options.

To me, it's totally shocking that someone would want to live in a sorority house with an open-air dorm rather than having her own bedroom, being able to have men visit, being able to cook or have a drink or whatever, during her senior year. But if there aren't good, affordable apartments near campus, I guess the sorority house is a great deal.

Question on post #290. I thought PNMs who dropped from the recruitment process were not eligible for snap bids.

She did not sign a bid card so she was eligible.

Here is the deal about joining IU's unhoused chapters (I don't even know which ones they are) or any sororities anywhere that are perceived by campus gossip to be extremely weak:

You must be strong to join them. Yes, you can have a good sisterhood experience but-- all year, you will have to put up with that campus gossip. Then during recruitment, you will have to deal with the pain of girls not wanting to join.Through years of working with Greeks, I have seen this played out again and again.

Are you strong enough? Good! I was not--but if you can shrug off campus opinion, I respect you greatly.

My daughter is in the recruitment process right now and I am a nervous wreck! I can sympathize with all the hurt the mothers are going through right now. I actually went down to IU on Sunday to be there for the preference round announcements just in case my daughter did not get any invitations back, I wanted to be there to console her. I really don't like this process as like all the other moms I know she would make an outstanding sorority girl. I guess I am lucky because she is really open minded about what place she ends up, even though she did not get asked back to any of her favorites she realizes those were not for her and is open minded about the un-housed as well. I have been reading how brutal the process is since she decided to attend IU last year and have been dreading this day. I am so hopeful that she gets any sorority at this point unhoused or housed because I really want her to have the sorority experience. Hang in there Ladies, I know how sickening and helpless this process is for us and our girls. I know my daughter thought a lot of girls dropped yesterday because they did not get houses that they wanted, I hope that the girls that stuck it out will be very happy on bid night!!! fingers crossed for everyone!

From an older thread
Titchou http://www.greekchat.com/gcforums...er_offline.gif
GreekChat Member
Join Date: Jul 2003
Posts: 2,622


From the NPC MOI section on Recruitment Counselors:

The goals of the recruitment counseling program are to:
• Provide support, friendship and personal guidance to women participating in the recruitment process by women’s
fraternity members who are educated to represent Panhellenic attitudes and ideals.
• Provide objective and impartial counselors.
• Promote an understanding and explanation of the mutual selection process.
• Promote an understanding of the benefits of fraternity affiliation and emphasize the similarities in ideals and goals
of all women’s fraternities.
• Provide encouragement to the potential new members to continue recruitment through the Preference round during
fully structured recruitment and to accept the maximum number of invitations possible during each round of
recruitment.
• Promote membership recruitment retention and pledging by lessening disappointments and disillusionments.

My bolds added.

IU Rho Gammas (barely older than the PNMs) are trying to help these young ladies through a very difficult process. While these hearsay statement may seem anti-PanHellenic to you. I feel they were probably an awkward way of conveying objective information to the PNMs.
My daughter was given similar advice from her Rho Gamma during recruitment at a different school. (Full disclosure: they were friends before recruitment.)

ATTA BOY! to all members who volunteer to be Rho Gammas at IU. Judging by the mother's comments on this forum, think how Rho Gammas must feel at the end of the day.

Excuse me. Kindly explain: how is making a derogatory statement about any chapter "objective and impartial"? Further, the rest of the first bulleted point indicates "educated to represent Panhellenic attitudes and ideals." Incongruent with making a remark like "they'll invite everyone so list them last". Please.

The Rho Gammas are disaffiliated from their chapters. By making such a statement, the RG imparts an aura of "less than" to certain chapters.

I stand with FSUZeta. This needs to be reported.