But, if $5 or $10 dollars will stop someone from rushing, do you think that person will be able to make their dues? If they are that cash-strapped will they have to work so much that they would not be an active, participating sister?

It's not so much that they are cash-strapped....it's that a lot of people decide to do it on spur of the moment. Also, they're not getting lodging or meals or anything, just maybe a t-shirt.

If people are that cash strapped how do they plan to pay dues. We have a small greek system on a commuter campus and charge like 20 bucks or so for rush and they get a tshirt out of it.

Hey, thanks for your guys opinions. It sorta swayed me to actually thinking it would be a good idea. It's going to be brought up at our next panhel meeting and then most likely chapters will go back to their gen. meetings and vote on it. I now at least have some good input to say at my meeting next week. Thanks a bunch!

My school is actually considering the same thing... we're considering singing up for online resgistartion with WRGA which costs (for my campus) 300 dollars, charging would be a way to recoup those funds and also get a more committed PNM becuase we have a VERY high drop out rate...

I go to the same school as nauadpi and my sorority doesn't participate in formal NPC rush, so we don't charge at all. I have seen flyers around NAU within the past year that have formal rush costing a woman $50 dollars to rush an NPC group, to me that is alot and as some of you have posted that's alot for female that may/maynot recieve a bid. Considering that it is a NON-REFUNDABLE fee. I also don't know of any discount given to returning students that rush an NPC, and I know several returning students that have rushed during formal rush. Up until I believe 2000 formal rush had been FREE.


Oh one more thing! SInce my sorority is only an associate member of the NPC here on campus we do information night with them and if a girl wants to rush us she has to tell her PX that she is rushing XYZ and drop....bye, bye, bye $50.00.

I think that a fee is a good idea. Like others have said, it gets people to committ and if you can't fork over the fee, ours is $20 though might be upped to $30, then how the heck are they going to pay for dues? $50 is pretty dang high so there better be an explanation for it, but with ours you get a shirt and folder with all the info about prices and parties times and what to wear. I think it's worth it and helps waylay the cost of everything. My year all the AX's stayed at a hotel during recruitment, which was way expensive, so the cost went mainly to that.

I do want to comment on some of this... For the past two years to try to increase the number of upper classmen going through recruitment we have sent out to ever on campus women at least a flyer offering a discount on recruitment. I personally always found this funny cause for some reason I kept getting them even though I was already of greek afiliation (we supposedly were not sending them to women who were)... As for costs up to $50 I hope it has not increased that much for this year. Last year the highest cost was $20 for people registering late... I really think it would hurt greek life at NAU to see the costs so high... As for the fact of women paying the fee and dropping out because of interest in your sorority or our other non-NPC group that is there choice. They app itself lists the sororities which are part of formal recruitment and all the info sessions during the summer at previews (NAU's version of orientation) allow the sororities to say this. Also, I don't want to argue on these topics, but at NAU women who go through formal recruitment as long as they make it to the last night and don't try to suicide will receive a bid from one of the sororities. As a result here we have more problems with women dropping out of recruitment before preference night and therefore not receiving a bid, then women not receiving a bid by staying with the process.

And in general on the NAU campus I find much of formal recruitment to have issues since the campus is so anti-greek. But it happens when and the way that it does. As long as the fees are now not reaching $50 I think the fees that are being charged make sense and go to reasonable costs.

Iowa State, where I'm an alum and adviser charged $185 to go thru formal recruitment last year. However, the bulk of that ($150) was to pay for room and board as we do recruitment before school starts and the women move in about a week before everyone else. The other $35 was for registration purposes of recruitment.

I paid $17 to rush as a freshman. The money went to snacks for us during recruitment, as well as the room fees at the hotel where the sororities hold pref. I almost didn't sign up because of the fee. Mostly because I thought it represented all the negative things I had heard about the greek system (buy your friends, etc). But I am sure glad I did it anyway!!
-M

i think that our fees for FR were somewhere around $30-$35. i don't remember anyone complaining about it; but i also go to a school with a huge greek system and we were told what the fees were for and what not.

If you're getting something for your $$, I don't think a fee is a bad idea. For instance, I pay $10, and I get a t-shirt and pizza, GREAT! But I think it's crap to have PNMs pay for PXs to stay in hotels away from their sisters, etc. Each chapter pays Panhel dues to belong to NPC, and that sort of cost needs to be paid by the chapters. I know at my small greek school, there was no fee, but then again, we didn't have to put up Rho Chis or any of that.

As for the person who paid $185, that makes sense for you to be paying to put YOURSELF up! I guess it's just the northeast state of mind...if I'm paying $$ in, I want something back. It has NOTHING to do with being strapped for cash. You can't sell a greek system by asking women to PAY to see sororities.

Isn't it somewhat like the application fee for admission to colleges/universities? You pay the fee to be considered. There is no promise you will be accepted. You don't even get a T-shirt. I guess Admissions departments use the money to defer administrative costs and as a deterrent to keep "John & Mary Everybody" (those who aren't serious about applying) from wasting their time.

As an example...the undergraduate application fee for admission to Stanford? $95

Let's see..... I think PNMs at Hillsdale pay about $5, which basically covers the cost of 'processing' their forms. I have no idea what this means, but that's what we were all told the money was for when we went through recruitment. :)

In every active members dues (of every chapter) are included a few dollars in Panhel fees which pay for recruitment materials. However, the chapters themselves cover the cost of all materials for their recruitment: nametags at their house, etc. In truth, there is not much involved in recruitment at my school, therefore, there are not many fees.

We have deffered recruitment, so the girls come back three days early from their Christmas vacation and move into their dorms then; however, there is no special fee for doing this. There are no hotels involved in our recruitment, everyone stays in their house or dorm, and the recruitment parties are held in the houses.

We are a very small school, and our deans do everything they can to encourage Greek life, which is wonderful. It is perhaps for this reason that we don't have the PNMs pay a recruitment fee. I think, however, that a small fee to cover a tee-shirt, food, nametags, etc. is perfectly appropriate as long as it is clearly explained to the PNMs what they are paying for, and the fee is not so exorbitant that it drives members away. This, of course, would vary from school to school.

Well said! Our PNMs pay $20 dollars which includes rush supplies (a bag of mints, tissues, lip gloss, etc.) and a hat or T-shirt... Not a bad deal...