Fight the stereotype. As KSUViolet said, even if a few people in your chapter are size 10 or 12, "tent talk" will be "ZOMG they're the fat sorority." (Believe me, I'd kill to be a size 10 again. :( ) So, represent, and look good. Have a letter day once a week, and encourage your sisters to wear letters on one or two other days during the week as well. When wearing letters (and even when not), encourage your sisters to look like they didn't just roll out of bed - you don't need to go all out and do full makeup, hair products, and jewelry (ok, except on pref night ;) ) but at least run a comb through your hair and put on some lip gloss. And have a day, from time to time, when you wear your badges/pins and dress up. You will catch people's eyes when you walk into lecture wearing a blouse, slacks or a skirt, and tasteful makeup, jewelry, and hairdo, and everyone else is slouching in wearing jeans and a t-shirt.

As for recruitment, informal is a different animal from formal. With formal, you have short parties, lists, bid matching, a lot of rules, and a lot of stress. With informal, you can (and should) take the time to get to know a PNM in a low-key manner. Have a few sisters befriend her before you even get into selling your sorority.

All the best to you and your chapter.

I'd focus on having fun as a chapter. Send out a survey to find out what kind of activities your sisters want to have and plan them. That will increase participation. If you are having fun as a chapter, and your sisters get to know each other better, PNMs will naturally be attracted to you.

This is a good point. You could encourage women to sleep around a bit, so that you'd be known as the slutty chapter instead.

(kidding, of course)

I'm in a similar boat as OP. I know formal recruitment is eons away, but our sorority is known as the house that would take anyone it could get, and it isn't that way anymore, but we still have that rep.

My question is, how do you encourage girls to get cute(r) for class and what-not without seeming shallow and bitchy?

Maybe this isn't the case where yall went tot school (and obviously when you're older, you gain weight, so this is not relevant to alums), but here, unless you're 5'10" or taller, a size 6 or 8 is considered fat. In this case, "xyz" would be accurately labeled.

No, not "accurately." The fact that people at your school would consider those women fat doesn't actually make them fat, much less appropriately "labeled" fat.

It may well be accurate, however, to say that these labelers at your school need a reality check.

Start with letter and badge days. Members are required to look appropriate while dressed in this attire. If you have weekly letter and badge days, that cuts down on the number of days that sisters can go to class looking shabby. Beyond that, it takes making your members understand that recruitment is 365. You never stop. Sure there are days that you wake up late and run to class in whatever you can grab, but making the effort pays off.

It's attitudes like this that perpetuate the unhealthy expectations. I pray that my teenaged nieces keep their heads on their shoulders and don't try to starve themselves into size 0 because, OMG, they are size 4 or 6 and teetering on obesity!!1!11!Eleventy!!1!

Some bodies are just made differently, and sizes are NOT uniform across designers.

I have a visual of your campus and, in addition to being a bunch of "high schoolers who happen to attend college," your campus probably lacks true diversity. It reminds me of my college days when the majority of the campus population used to form these informal rules and labels that tended to exclude those who "look/live a certain way."

The rest of us responded to that by not giving a damn and forming our own social groups which included NPHC GLOs. That is one way in which GLOs (through a supportive Student Activities and/or Greek Life Office) can find their own population to cater to regardless of what the idiots across campus are saying are doing.

I am 5'10, a five time marathoner, and I cannot imagine my body ever EVER fitting into a size 6. I'm a size 10 on a good day, a size 8 if the pants are mislabeled...but I can't imagine being a size 6.

Whoa so since I said 6-8 would be considered fat, there's nothing left but 0? No, 2 and 4 would be about normal. And that's rarely maintained in an unhealthy way. And in college, "fat" does not mean obese. It means overweight or chubby, just in general that there is more fat on the person's body than is desirable.
People who constantly complain about those of us who have realistic standards of what should be thin are the ones who perpetuate obesity in this country. You can't tell a chubby kid that they are "normal" just so their feelings aren't hurt. That's not helping them in the long run.
Also, if you're 5'6" and a toned/fit size six you probably wouldn't be considered fat. However, if you're a flabby size 6-8 then it's best to start making healthier habits. But yes, it does depend on body type. However, most people are not so curvy that a 6-8 would be their ideal size at age 19-20.

Yes, college in general happens to be a bunch of high schoolers who attend college. Graduating and moving into a dorm does not make you suddenly way more mature.
It seems that most of you on this site are older. You are probably lying to yourself about how you were in college. I guarantee you were at least somewhat judgmental and immature. It's part of life. We all go through it and most grow out of it. However, you all sit behind a computer screen and often pass judgement on the people on this site, whether you actually know the whole story or not. So I'd say that's not much better.

We are older but don't waste time trying to assume things about us. This is not about us saying we were mature saints in college. You are getting ruffled and trying to defend the stupidity at your college.

This discussion is not just about being judgmental and immature. It is about this specific type of immaturity that would not have flown at my college. If you read my post, you would grasp that.

LOL. Are your feelings hurt? Keep the information to yourself next time.

You are clueless just as I thought you were. Your campus lacks true diversity (including culture, race and ethnicity) just as I thought it did. Get out of your bubble.

I agree. 180 pounds is a normal weight range for some one who is 5'10". That person does not fit into a size 2 or 4 and is NOT fat. So says the person with the MD behind her name backed up by her endocrinologist husband.