Boy, you learn something new every day, don't you?

I'll say!

I took a look at the Davidson website, and I am massively confused.

For the women, it seems straightforward enough. It's very similar to the way dorm rush ran at my school. You visit all the eating houses, or just the ones that interest you most, and then you rank them and get matched to one according to your lottery number. The eating houses have no say in who joins them. (And no, NPC wouldn't touch this with a barge pole.)

It's the men's rush that confuses me. It looks like you have to receive a bid to be considered a member of the fraternity on the national level, but you can be a social member, and be considered a full member as far as Davidson is concerned, just by self-selecting. So the fraternities actually have to accept social members who are crammed down their throats? :confused:

As for Order of Omega - we had several "independent living groups" at my school, only some of which were Greek lettered. If I recall correctly, their members could be selected for membership in Order of Omega just like members of any fraternity or sorority, but few if any of them went out for it - I don't recall any ILG members being active members when I was.

It is similar to Creighton's guaranteed bid system in sorority recruitment.

aephi alum- What exactly is an "independent living group?" How do they compare to a fraternity or sorority?

The independent living groups (ILGs) at my school are considered part of the greek system, and hold rush at the same time as the fraternities. Most are coed; one is all-women. A couple are former fraternity chapters that decided to admit women; their charters were therefore revoked, and they became local coed fraternities.

Back in the day, all fraternities, sororities, and ILGs (other than NPHC orgs) were members of IFC. There was also a Panhellenic Council for sororities. Since my graduation a few years ago, the sororities have seceded from IFC and are now governed only by Panhel. The ILGs have also seceded from IFC and have their own governing body.

Hmmm. Interesting. Thanks for the explanation.

Creighton's Greek website indicates that "Recruitment is a mutual selection process between sororities/fraternities and potential members. " - so I don't think it's the same thing as the one-sided selection process for the Eating Houses, is it?

Guaranteed Bid = if you go to the maximum number of houses available to you at every round of rush, you will be guaranteed a slot at one of the houses you attended during Pref Night. You don't get to select the house you want, though - you rank AND the houses rank. And you are only guaranteed a slot at one of the house you attend on Pref Night - not any house you want. (This is how it worked at UTexas - detailed info on Creighton's exact permutation on the concept isn't available on their website)

Eating House = the rushee, and only the rushee, selects the house she wishes to join. The house itself has no say.

That's wild! The girl just picks her house, and the house has to live with it!