There used to be a chapter at my school who was non-pledging that actually used to try and initiate guys during their FRESHMAN ORIENTATION.

The first year they did it they ended up having about 10 guys at Freshman Camp trying to initiate other Freshman.

They were very open about the fact that they didn't care who they initiated. Their removal process was also very swift. They would often brag about how many guys they would initiate, collect dues from, and then remove afterwards (keeping their dues). They got HUGE, and always won intramurals, always got their brothers elected to SG, and always had giant events on campus.

If you're wondering...Yes, they did get what was coming to them eventually. All of the other Fraternities started working together in the IFC to create a few basic rules. Things like requiring Greek Life orientation before initiation, no bids for freshman/transfer students until bid day, and a full report to the National Office of an organization who violated ANY recruitment rule.

After a suspension from their National Office they were removed completely. Good riddance.

The only recruitment infraction I really knew of (infractions aren't really an issue at my school) was when I was a PNM...
Went through the whole recruitment week, got to Bid Day, the Rho Chis were revealing their affiliations, and I noticed my Rho Chi wasn't there...I asked around and found out that she spoke to her Little the night before (after pref was done and decisions were made) on the phone, just to say she couldn't wait to see her at Bid Day...my PX's roommate/sister wrote her a check, handed it to her, and said "I reported you for talking to your little but then I felt bad so here's the money to pay the fine" :eek:
I felt bad for her because she had been such a good Rho Chi (although I did guess her chapter on Day 2) but all she had to do was wait a few more hours...

I guess that makes more sense. :p I was like, but... they have new members... that would be a very awkward party...

Thanks for helping me understand it better.

My chapter had a crazy rivalry with another chapter on campus. There were so many recruitment infractions filed on both of us it was insane. The only time I was really taken seriously was if a Rho Gamma or another chapter filed one for the same thing.

We have never had an PNM related infractions, but during the actual recruitment we have so many little rules that it's hard to go through the week without getting an infraction. If the party lasts say 45 minutes, all PNM's must be out and our front door shut within exactly 45 minutes...a few extra seconds and we get a violation. And if a sister puts a foot or even a toe past the threshold of the door while another sister has yet to get her PNM and turn around towards the house, we get a "face" violation for too many faces out of the house at once. It's so finicky. Girls definitely violate the no talking to PNM during recruitment rule, but they do it in private and its usually only best friends or biological sisters that they talk to, and they never try to convince them to join or tell them any private info or anything, its just casual conversation.

Our chapter was reported for an infraction for dirty rushing. Our campus was pretty stringent about only being able to say hello to PNMs. One sister had a PNM sit down next to her in an intro Engineering class the day of first rounds. The PNM just started talking up a storm to my sister, who politely said something along the lines of "I can't answer your question, as recruitment has started". An XYZ girl was also in the class and reported her for "extended conversation with a 'special interest' PNM"

Wow NPC rush seems so cut throat, What happened to being panhellenic?

Well, I think the goal of having infractions is to ensure that chapters ARE being Panhellenic. The problem is, some chapters/members of chapters use the infraction system of tattletailing and filling up GL offices and chapter officers of other chapters will needless paperwork/mediation/bullshit.

When it's all about you making your quota/total and wanting the "best" girls for yourself it becomes a big huge tattle-fest. I think a lot of it is that you're pissed you can't talk to friends/go out to bars/spending all of your days at rush or rush prep, etc. Everyone's tired and bitchy so even the hint that someone else might be "cheating" is enough to go for it.
And this is true at rather friendly campuses where outside of recruitment the chapters get along well and support each others' philanthropies.

A lot of the campi that adopted "no frills" really didn't want to do it and have used it as an excuse to fink on other chapters rather than embrace what it's really about - getting to know the rushees instead of concentrating on skits, decorations or food.

Drole is also spot on about if you're cooped up and doing nothing but rush for 4-7 days, with no outlet, it makes you super duper bitchy. We had rush spread over 1-2 weeks, no rules about not going out whatsoever and calls on infractions were few and far between. Being thought of as a fink was far more of a social faux pas than whatever you did in rush.

How come campuses don't allow an explanation along with "hello"? Seems like it would be more natural for active to be allowed to remind PNMs why they can't talk.
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I have never understood if your national orgnization and your campus greek life office want sororities to promote greek life, then why are you not allowed to speak to freshman women prior to recruitment. It just seems counter-productive.

By not allowing the freshman women to get to know the sorority members in anyway, and limiting the sorority members to "Hi" it almost perpetuates the stereotype of sorority members being bitchy or elitest.

But if you let them really "get to know" the freshmen then you've opened up the doors for a lot of dirty rushing. I agree that if it's a deferred rush a semester long silence is just silly, but for the first 2 weeks or so it's manageable. And we typically wore letters the WHOLE time so it was really obvious that we weren't just ignoring someone in class for kicks.

No, you haven't. The freshmen get to know the sorority women as normal people, not as some sort of superhuman being. That's the whole point. If sorority members don't go out and try to meet women on their own, that's their problem.

Are some people going to shitty things like promise bids? Probably. But I personally think the solution lies in educating the rushees - i.e. telling them that people who do that are bad people and should be taken with a grain of salt. If you can tell them that women aren't talking to them because of silence rules, and expect them to understand that, you can just as easily tell them what is and isn't dirty rushing and expect them to understand that as well.