As a matter of curiosity ... what will the PNMs be doing during their "off" parties? I hope they aren't sitting outside ... and I can't imagine that panhellenic will set them free ...

Is it bad that I'm thinking . .

If you love a pnm, set her free.
If she comes back, she is yours.
If not, she never was.
:rolleyes:

You know, I feel rather stupid right now but this hadn't dawned on me before. It's an excellent question. I'm not sure how Panhellenic plans to set these breaks up. Will some PNM groups have delayed start times or will the breaks be intermixed throughout the days? I'll have to ask unless someone here already has the answer.

Last year there were a few extra rounds scattered throughout the 2 days. (Sorry, I can't recall exactly how many.) There were tents set up with chairs, water and fans. Parties last only 20 minutes with 10 minutes in between, so that's not much time to really go anywhere. I'm not sure if they're even allowed to. I guess I just assumed it would be similar this year but with so many more breaks it could be different.

I'm guessing that having something cool to drink, and relaxing one's tootsies is going to be high on the list!

Having a few extra round makes sense to me, but to have 9 extra rounds seems a little hard on the current members.

Was the issue mainly that all the groups would have to double rush during first round because of the number of PNMs?

We do the first round like this at Maryland. The first round takes place over 2 days, and PNMs see 7 chapters each day. Seven chapters rent rooms in the Union the first day, and the other seven rent the rooms the second day. The PNMs are broken into 3 "shifts" for round 1, approximately 8-12, 12-4, and 4-8. Each chapter hosts 21 parties, 7 for each shift. Since only a fixed number of actives are allowed to be in the room, this system allows chapters to switch actives in and out so no one (except the President, VP Recruitment, and appropriate advisors) has to be there for 12 hours. (Or a chapter can choose to keep the same 30 or so pretty girls there all day:rolleyes:)

I think the biggest issue is that some of the houses can not physically accomodate the number of pnm's and active members at once. The rho chi groups are still over sixty pnms. So sixty girls plus 120 active members is a whole lot of people in the house at once. Also, there are 22 or 23 rho chi groups so on the first two days all the groups have to have the opportunity to visit the houses. If there weren't so many groups, there wouldn't be so many parties, obviously. I think, but I'm not sure, the during breaks girls will be able to go into Tutwiler (the nearby girl's dorm) and rest or sit under a tent set up around a couple of the houses. I could be wrong about that though. Panhellenic gives all the girls water, but shade, or the lack thereof, on sorority row is a big problem.

That's part of it, but more importantly the Fire Marshall was having fits about so many people being inside the houses at one time.

Last night I was told Harris Hall (another nearby building) would also be open for PNM's during their off times.

I'm still have trouble believing that almost all freshmen who maximize their options and will accept any chapter (let's face it, some are better than others, but ANY house at Bama's going to give you a pretty quality experience) actually DO get bids....Is that really true? I know I read it somewhere on here...

I'm a little confused by your question AlphaFrog. Are you asking how many PNM's don't get bids or how many don't accept them or what exactly?

I will offer this as coincidentally I was just printing off a copy of our past years Recruitment Stats from the UA Panhellenic website. In 2006 78% of all women who attended Open House received bids. 88% were matched to their 1st choice, 10% to their 2nd and 2% to their 3rd. Very few women were completely released.

Obviously we don't know why those who voluntarily withdrew did so. As with any campus, some probably didn't receive invites back to the Chapter(s) they wanted and some decided they didn't really want to be Greek at all.

I think that you answered my question...78% is pretty high. And the way people talk about Bama, you'd think that 78% would be the percent released completely, instead of the placement rate...

I guess I was really wondering about those released completely as opposed to those who maximize and take whatever chapter they are matched with. I'm not much concerned with those who drop because they'd rather die than be an XYZ...

Again according to the 2006 stats (link in previous post) less than 1.5% of the total PNM's participating were completely released.

Maybe I'm missing something but UMD has sorority houses, why are they renting rooms in the Union for rush?

We had our first round in the Union at my university - it's cheaper for PHC (no renting buses), and quicker, since you're all in the same building...plus it puts everyone on an even playing field for the first round (which actually hurt our chapter more than helped, because we had one of the bigger, more beautiful houses on campus, but a smaller chapter.

Gotcha, thanks!