"I would go crazy if I had to wait until January!!!"--IowaHawkeye

I can't say whether the wait is all that bad since I never went through recruitment, but I can safely say that the worst part is that week when we finish rush in January...that is still a vacation week for the rest of IU! Actives and potential new members are the only people required to come back...basically lose a week of winter vacation. I think that is pretty unfair, but that is me!

I think its wierd and quite unprofessional that a national organization would do something like that (totally ignore a possible colony). Maybe other sororities should start sharpening their teeth and looking at IU. There will be land available in the next 2 years.

I dont know what Stan's problem is. Rumor has it though (and everyone KNOWS how I hate spreading rumors :rolleyes: ) that the Greek Life office and the Dean's Office have their hands full with the Shane's World porn scandal.

Apparently it was not just taped at the dorms, but also in fraternity houses too.

I HOPE that that is just a rumor because the IU administration has been out for blood lately and that organization would be in a whole lot of mess.

I dont think anyone at IU is that dumb though, after hearing of what happened to individuals and organizations at other schools.

Holy hell! That AZD houst at IU is huge!! What is that, like an entire city block! http://www.aimface.com/smiles/IKON40...b33055ae35.gif

First of all, its IU, not UI.

There's no such thing as University of Indiana.;)

And secondly, yes, the Alpha Xi Delta house is big, but probably not as big as you thing.

It has a corner lot and its wing shaped.

I think it holds over a hundred girls though.

Whats the deal with the current Beta house there? I know they were shut down about 2 years ago and will be re-colonizing soon (I hope). I also know that their alumni raised about $750,000 to renovate/fix the house to prep. it for the new chapter in the future.....and to keep it as their house, whereas some greeks just sell their house off.

Actually, I heard that the old sorority house across the street?? was sold to the campus. What a shame.

The sorority house that was sold was actually next doors. It was the old AOII house and it was incredible. I have no clue why they sold property with such key location.

The house was put up for sale for about a year and no one snagged it, so, the university finally decided to buy it.

Its a shame because when the university buys old greek houses, that hurts the greek system's ability to expand or "rebound" after losing chapters.

The sorority across the street is Thetas. I dont see them EVER selling that house. It think its the oldest sorority house on campus.

I had heard that the Beta alumni had raised a lot of money, but I had no clue that it was that much!

I'm glad because I was worried that the university was eyeing your property as well.

I hope they have a successful recolonization.

As for most greeks at IU, selling off there house, that actually isnt the case.

Every fraternity that has been kicked off of campus that owns property still owns their property. With the exception of AOII, no one has sold their house.

A lot have been leasing them though to create some cash flow whilie their organization is absent from campus.

If the rumor is true, the next house for sale will be the Kappa Sigma house (they are building a new one closer to campus)
(see http://www.idsnews.com/story.php?id=11710)

Other then that, excluding Beta, there are just 2 empty houses. I know that one of them is willing to lease out the property next year, I dont know about the other.

That's exactly what happened with the Sigma Kappa house. We sold it to the university, which turned it into the admissions office at 300 North Jordan. It hurts just to type that in.

The old AOII and Theta houses have the best location on campus in terms of getting to class easily. They don't have to take the bus like the North Jordan people do.

Does recruitment start this weekend?

Getting a house is one of Tri Sigma's concerns about colonizing at IU. I know that they do have a housing fund set up for IU from when they were here previously. So they either have to build one or purchase one from another organization.

Not hearing anything about this is driving me crazy. We met with
Stan this semester in mid-September, so it was before the whole "Campus Invasion" scandal. During this meeting he told us that he mailed all the necessary letters to Tri Sigma headquarters so they could send us the expansion packet. So I'm not sure what's happening now.

Lindsay

Do you have a point of contact to the national director of expansion?

Maybe greekchatters can set up an e-mail campaign to the HQ of Sigma Sigma Sigma so that we can learn whats up.

Or...do you guys think that that is going a little too far?

The Tri-Sigma website is not working but
I'm sure there are a lot of Tri-Sigma posters who want their presence at IU.

A lot of us are dying to know.


Xp2k

Update!
 

Tri Sigma is making a campus visit here either next week or the first week of January. They're supposed to be touring the campus and picking out a house! I personally like the old Beta house the best of all the vacant places on campus. hehe.

Julie has been in contact with an area alumna from Sigma, and we're supposed to be meeting her sometime next week to discuss everything that's going to happen in the next few months. The alumna did tell you Julie that we'd be initiated by March!

Re: Update!
 

I've been away from Greek Chat for a while...when did this update happen?

Is Sigma Sigma Sigma recolonizing during the 2003-2004 women's formal recruitment?

The system there is so bad that I dropped out of college entirely because of the depression I got from rushing. Read this and the comments...it only begins to describe the issue.

http://www.idsnews.com/news/story.aspx?id=68062

By Carrie Schedler | IDS
POSTED AT 12:42 AM ON Apr. 30, 2009 | PRINT | Email | SHARE | COMMENTS (17) | RECOMMEND (6)


http://www.idsnews.com/news//mfiles/...505271-tnl.jpg IDS File Photo
Members of Sigma Delta Tau rush into their house with their new members on January 7, 2007 during Bid Day.


On a whim, freshman Hayley Fischer decided to go through women’s formal recruitment this past fall.

But after going through all four rounds of recruitment, she didn’t receive a bid.

“When my Rho Gamma came and told me, I had no expression on my face,” Fischer said. “She asked if I was okay, and I said, ‘Uh, yeah.’ I felt like I was supposed to cry.”

Fischer is one of 150 women who went all the way through the recruitment process but did not receive a bid to join one of the 19 sorority chapters early this semester. Only 52 percent of women who start recruitment receive bids, a placement percentage that is almost 25 percentage points below the national average, said Kris Bridges, a college Panhellenic chair for the National Panhellenic Conference, the national governing body for sororities.

After considering the current system, the IU Panhellenic Association hopes to tweak the process and increase recruitment numbers.

“This has been years in the making,” said PHA Vice President of Recruitment Anna Berg. “We were all unsatisfied with the amount of women we were placing. It was a challenge of, ‘Can we change?’”

THE CHANGES

IU currently operates on a bed-quota system. This allows each sorority to choose the number of bids it will give out based on the amount of living space it will have available the following year, Bridges said.

IU is the only school in the country that still uses this system, Berg said.

Representatives from the National Panhellenic Conference told IU’s Panhellenic Association in February that it needed to change the recruitment process so more women could receive bids. One of the recommendations was that IU move to a “quota total system,” where the number of bids each house could give out would depend on the average chapter size at IU.

To increase the number of bids, IU’s Panhellenic Association voted in April on two measures to change the recruitment process.

The first, which was rejected by a vote of 6 to 13, would have changed IU’s system to an all-January recruitment. This would decrease the number of women who go through recruitment just for the experience and have no intention of joining a sorority. Berg said she thought the change was “too much, too soon.”

The second measure, however, passed at a meeting on April 14. In the upcoming recruitment period, women will now preference two more sororities in the first and second invite rounds.

Previously, women selected and ranked 12 sororities in the first invite round and six in the second. Now, they will choose 14 and eight, respectively.

“Each sorority would see a bigger pool of women and get more exposure to them,” Berg said. “It helps everyone.”

But junior Katelyn Walbridge, president of Kappa Alpha Theta, said her chapter voted against both measures because she said they do not do enough to solve the problems of recruitment.

“There’s no reason to change when the outcome will end up the same,” Walbridge said.

And, for some women like Fischer, the changes might be coming too late.

THE OTHER 48 PERCENT

Freshman Sarah Finnerty said she loved having a Rho Gamma, or recruitment guide, to help her through the recruitment process and was optimistic because of the support she received.

But when 19 Party – where women tour all 19 sorority houses – began, Finnerty said her recruitment experience changed completely.

“I felt like I was being speed-dated,” Finnerty said. “I’m pretty sure a lot of people don’t find their true love through speed dating.”

Finnerty also said she felt like sorority members discriminated against her because she was a part of the Air Force ROTC.

“If there was more of an opportunity for sororities to get to know you longer, I could tell them I’m in ROTC but show that I’m not some strict, masculine woman who can’t have fun,” Finnerty said.

After receiving invitations from only two of the sororities she marked as “preferred” at the end of first invite, Finnerty learned of a death in her family and decided to drop out of recruitment.

Freshman Tiffany Barrios, who also eventually dropped out of recruitment, was excited at the beginning of the process.

But she felt “disappointed” after only being invited to five sororities during the first invite round and only receiving two invitations to the second round. She dropped out after visiting those two chapters.

“I didn’t understand how they eliminated people,” Barrios said. “But I’d heard it was really hard to get into a house at IU.”

Fischer also said she felt alienated by the recruitment process.

“The whole thing was hell,” Fischer said. “I got to the last round. After that I didn’t get a bid. It felt like the whole process took place after people had already formed cliques and were already friends with girls in houses.”

But Walbridge said that in Kappa Alpha Theta, having connections within the sorority doesn’t give prospective members an advantage.

“The recruitment process does give everyone a fair chance,” Walbridge said. “But I don’t think knowing people has that much of an effect.”

CHANGE FOR THE BETTER

While most people agree a change needs to be made, there is no consensus about the best solution.

Finnerty said the PHA-proposed changes aren’t enough.

“Even if there were more rounds and you could see more houses, you could still get screwed out of a bid,” Finnerty said.

Barrios also said changing the size of rounds won’t make enough of a difference, since it’s normal for women to only get six invitations during the first invite round.

When women like Fischer, Barrios and Finnerty don’t receive bids, then women’s recruitment needs to be changed, Berg said.

“When it comes to that, I’m speechless,” Berg said. “It’s a difficult situation that doesn’t happen at every school.”

But until recruitment changes, Fischer said women who don’t receive bids will question themselves.

“You’re wondering what you did wrong,” Fischer said. “You second-guess yourself. Girls shouldn’t have to go through that.”

Man...why does my day long buying trip have to be today! I'm going to miss all the comments on this one!!

what they heck do they think adding the choice of 2 additional houses will do? they are idiots. as someone in the article said,"there is no reason to change when the outcome will be the same". wake up and smell the coffee, IU.

If this is true, and you are still hurting enough to be posting about it on the internet, it's probably time to get some professional help. And I mean that in the kindest and most sincere way imaginable.