ChioLu, thanks for letting us know! I fully agree- it makes the most sense. Give ladies time to settle in to the organisation and to university in general. It doesn't surprise me that newer members don't take their vows very seriously- they are pushed into saying yes IMMEDIATELY by the system.

So for deferred recruitment schools, women are held over the summer?

Grades are already established so most chapters wait till the end of that semester or quarter for initiation

Maybe everyone should wait until the beginning of 2nd semester to hold formal recruitment. That way, all the freshmen get a chance to get used to college life and have a starting GPA already set. And then they could initiate at the end of the semester, just before summer, so they get to know the chapters they are pledging and get used to greek life & see if it's what they want before they initiate.

^^^ Total disaster for the big Southern schools.

It would be a disaster for one year until the housing overlap got figured out and then everyone would learn how to deal. I'm sure when Arkansas changed lfrom being a bed rush school they said that was a disaster... I'm sure when Ole Miss delayed their rush that was a disaster... They still have huge pledge classes there. You figure out your housing so that you don't bankrupt yourself and/or don't have to force freshman to rush before they are ready. I don't know how we can say we're about academics, and then urge women to pledge before they are even acclimated to school or have taken even one class.

My pledge program was 6 weeks and that was fine... We also had five pledges and thirty-five sisters at the time. I can't imagine doing that with even a chapter of 75, let alone those in the hundreds

I think that the deferred recruitment would actually be way more of a disaster for smaller schools. At schools with <4,000 undergrads, the PNMs and the active women should have the opportunity to meet with a clean slate rather than after a semester of dirty rushing has the chance to happen.

We had weekly meetings the entire semester that I was a pledge, which averaged about 1 hour. We had tests on the material we learned in the meetings. We really learned our national and chapter history. We should go back to semester-long pledge ships.

We knew every initiated members full name, their hometowns and majors. We didn't attend chapter meetings- that was only for initiated members. We polished the chapter's silver. We were encouraged to offer to take an "active's" plate to the kitchen after they were finished with lunch. This would be considered hazing now.

Dirty rushing also happens at schools that recruit primarily pre-freshmen in August recruitment. Timing doesn't stop it, especially nowadays when you can look at the chapters online in a variety of social media and spend hours on gossip websites. If it's going to happen anyway, we might as well know that the women we're spending time rushing and educating about our groups have shown themselves to be academically and otherwise a good fit for college.

A lot of thoughts here:

What is the percentage of NPC-Initiated young women dropping-out of school due to poor grades before graduating?

Are there corresponding figures regarding only newly-initiated NPC members who drop out of school due to grades before beginning their second year at university?

Might NPC thus have an interest in making a change over a period of 6-10 years, initiating and keeping quality women within their ranks?

I would suspect cold Northern schools might object to snowy recruitments, but as I and others believe Change Is Good.

Quota/total numbers may become more manageable (IE may lower) under a 2nd semester recruitment requirement.

Referring to bolded/quoted above, the percentage of women allowed to rush after 1st semester grades are given would not excessively drop due to bad grades as women understand the goal: Study To Rush.

Amen!

33, you can go on about that until you're blue in the face but *the way we do it is the way that works for us*. The sororities' GPAs are significantly above the universities' women's averages and study hours have a lot to do with that--thank God for study hours that teach new members how to study and get them in a routine!

Plus our schools tend to go back right after New Year and trying to conduct a rush that wouldn't have women missing classes? No way! It would be about 4 months long to try to fit in all the parties as well.

The only disaster about Arkansas dropping their bed rush/sophomore rush was according to some Arkansas women, "Now we can't be as exclusive anymore.":eek: There was massive cheating as far as contact with freshmen. Sorority members were required to have "Coke dates" with a certain number of rushees over the summer and believe me, that got screwed up.

Most of my daughters pledged as freshmen and we're glad they did. They had groups to belong to right off to orient them to campus and give them a sense of belonging

Yet the overwhelming majority of deferred recruitments are in colder places...

I am about to commit heresy: I wish IU would move to summer/pre-semester recruitment. Now that strides are being made to move away from bed rush, which was the real reason IU had deferred recruitment, the campus no longer needs to wait until January. The women who struggle in grades for first semester would have someone checking up on them, older members to ask for help and older members to mentor and tutor them.

With 22 chapters (soon to be 23), it only makes sense to make the move to summer recruitment. The dorms already open a week early for "Welcome Week", open two days earlier and the entire process could be done and over by the time classes start. Chapters who have girls drop or transfer at semester break could participate in a winter unstructured or structured COB.

Anyway, back to the topic... I think the "lifetime membership" piece of joining an NPC group falls on deaf ears too often. Some of these young women act like they are joining a health club and want to change to another one after a few weeks!