WOW... pretty amazing to me that there are parties that actually look like this... my school is VERY low key. We all wear matching outfits everyday... but mainly stuff we own already like our house letters with the imfamous "black pants" and t shirts with jeans... I know this year we're having a jungle themed party and we're supposed to wear green shirt with khakis... WOW... You all in TX really do do everything HUGE don't you ??

I can't see the pics!!!
 

BOOOOOOO!!!!

dzsaigirl, I can't see your pictures!!!! They won't show up on my computer.

I can barely remember rush when I went through. I do remember two nights of informationals, then a theme party, then pref. (The sororities only cut for pref I think). The info parties weren't very elaborate, the room was decorated with all sorts of paraphernalia, things the girls were involved in, etc. Themes were fun. I remember a 50's theme, a Baseball theme, and a Little Mermaid/Under the Sea theme I think. (There's one I'm forgetting). The skits were very cute and very entertaining, and themes parties had good food (like popcorn for the 50's, WONDERFUL baseball cookies for the Baseball theme, etc.) And then pref was dressy, with cake and punch and a ceremony.

While I was there, rush pretty much stayed the same. It REALLY changed after I left, when they added the philanthropy party and cut the frills. I did go back to rush as an alumnae this past year, and one of the big stinks was that the Panhellenic advisor (who was a guy) told the groups that they could only serve 2 food items during pref. Our girls had cake and strawberries (and punch). They thought about having chocolate dipped strawberries, but they weren't sure if the chocolate would count as an extra food item (and result in a rush infraction). That should tell you how well thought out and organized their rush was. :rolleyes:

Hopefully things will be better this year. I am for "No Frills" recruitment, but not "No Personality-and-fun" Recruitment.

try looking now...

I can't see the pictures either :(

Okay, I posted the link where the pictures were, so here it is again so that you all can see the pictures!

Frilly rush pictures!

Thanks for putting the pics back up!
I can remember having ice sculptures and yard decorations so things have toned down a little--even in Texas!

We're going from those pics to this...
A Semi - Frills Rush this year and it consists of on Day 1 - 100 Balloons max, no wall or floor coverings, 2-3 Brag Tables, no chair covering of any sort and university provided seats, that's it...and the Rushee's and Sororities will all be wearing panhellenic shirts ~ You can distinguish each other by the colors of the shirts. Ice water only.
Day 2 - Philanthropy day: Philanthorpy projects, 2-3 Display Tables, no more than 100 Balloons, No wall or floor coverings, Project tables ok, university provided seats and for clothes, no button down or collared shirts. Ice water only.
Day 3 - No wall or floor coverings, we can do a skit, video, no limit on balloons, more frills allowed on this day I guess.
Pref - same way as always, dressy & food, etc.

I think this is a good thing because they're phasing it out but it still can be somewhat entertaining. Some chapters were having a hard time with the whole Semi-Frills thing but as a whole we agreed it would be the best thing. At my school all the sororities wear exactly the same outfits within their chapters during Rush, we're talking skew numbers on tags here. In the long run it'll be cheaper and the rushees can really see the chapters for who they really are.

I believe that Indiana U. began the "no frills" recruitment policy my freshman year. But, we are still allowed to do skits and just last year we added a philanthropy round.

It's interesting because the PNM's are not made to wear the same shirts at all during recruitment. They are allowed to wear whatever they want. However, the active sorority members who are taking part in what we call "19-party" all have to wear the same shirt. It is a red, long-sleeve shirt with with letters specific to each chapter on the front left and then the back has greek columns with "19 Reasons to Go Greek". It has reasons like sisterhood, philanthropy, and so on with all the chapters letters framing the columns. Since it looks like we are going to get Sigma Sigma Sigma, we are going to have to get new shirts and Panhel is going to have to come up with a 20th reason!

Sorry that was so long...I just thought it was interesting that the PNM's had to wear the same shirt during recruitment!

no frills
 

Arizona State has no-frills rush, and personally, I think it sucks. I hear about other schools' skits and think about how ASU has day after day of talking. Frankly, it's really boring.

NWMSU goes to no frills
 

At Northwest Missouri State University we are going to a no frills rush this fall AND having Sigma Alpha (ag related sorority) go through recruitment for the first time! Talk about big changes! From what I hear though, everyone seems pretty excited about it. I don't know everything about our no frills, but here is what I do...

No:
*bump lines
*uniform dressing (but it can be similar, like the same t-shirts, black dresses on pref, everyone wearing a black skirt and white shirt...basically you can't be super frilly and say everyone has to wear this exact white shirt from the gap, etc.)
*skits (this really sucks, sk's hilarious first day skit really made them stand out to me about how laid back and funny they are)
*chanting while PNMs are in the room. we can chant while they are waiting outside the room to get pumped up though (we don't have houses so we have the parties in various large meeting rooms around campus) but we must be silent before they enter.

Only...
*one brag table
*7 (not sure on the number) vases of fresh cut flowers, and a $50? per day budget for the flowers
*other table decoration is 2 4x6 pictures in plain frames per table...once again i don't know if these are the exact numbers, but it was something like that

There are a lot of other little nitpicky rules like that that i cant remember...i'll have to get a refresher at work weekend. Basically our whole recruitment is going to be based on conversation, which in many ways is good. Luckily we do get to keep philanthropy day and pref pretty much the same to add some flair to recruitment. And our PNMs don't have to wear the same shirts or anything like that. For me this is going to be my first time on the "other side" so it won't be that different for me, but I do feel very sorry for the older girls that have to relearn everything! I'll post again once I find out more details on our rules.