So with respect to deferred recruitment, I'm guessing there are these "no contact rules" for the fall semester as well? And do they apply to only freshman (1st years) or would that apply to sophomores as well?

For example, say a girl decides to go through formal rush her sophomore year *because* of the friends she met in her dorm her freshman year. She has to wait until formal - the 2nd semester - because COB is not an option due to all chapters are above total. Thus she wouldn't be able to hang out with her friends least it be breaking the rules?

ETA: I agree with both "rules are rules" and should not be broken as well as the "no contact rules" are stupid and should be changed. Just kind of goes against the whole "freedom to associate" thing that we all often fight so hard to protect.

That's true, but there's a difference in getting to know ONE sorority girl in your class and going out to dinner with 6-7 of them regularly when you don't know any of them and have had no other contact with them prior to that summer. The PNM in question knew one of the sisters of that particular sorority from high school, but no others, and they were casual friends, but not BFF.

As far as friends not hanging out during formal recruitment when one is a PNM, that's a situational question, sort of. If a girl decides to rush because she met sorority girls in her dorm freshman year and became friends with them, then it's ok for them to talk to her because they're friends already and she's probably got at least a good idea of where she'd like to go BASED ON HER OWN OBSERVATIONS . If you meet a freshman PNM in summer classes, your contact with her could unduly influence her because chances are she hasn't had the chance to make those same observations as a girl that lived in a dorm freshman year.
In practice, though, we're encouraged to try to limit our contact with friends that are rushing or at least not talk about rush. That doesn't always happen, but we are encouraged to try not to influence them.

Thanks. I think I now kind of understand. And if I may, an additional follow up question.

Does the "limited contact" apply for only a certain time (situation) during/before formal recruitment? Say once a PNM registers until after she is offered a bid or drops?

We have deferred recruitment at my school, and the no contact rule really pretty much only applies to freshmen. Freshmen are not so much as allowed to breath on our property before the end of formal recruitment at the beginning of second semester (with the exception of recruitment and pre-recruitment events). Upperclassmen, however, can come over to visit friends whenever they please. Sorority members cannot hang out with their friends going through recruitment during recruitment, however. Sorority members who have roommates going through recruitment actually have to move into their respective houses on pref night to ensure strict silence until bids are given.

If I remember Green Book rules correctly, if you're an active/alumna, you should try to limit contact with a PNM you know or know of the semester before formal recruitment, except for family/close friends. So if I knew a girl I went to HS with was going to rush, I couldn't call her up and talk about rush that summer, but I could talk to her if we ran into each other at a ballgame or something, so long as I didn't try to persuade her to go AZD and just kinda told her to be excited about it. If my younger sister were rushing, my mom and I could talk to her no problem because we live together, but we'd still be encouraged not to persuade her to "go KD/AZD or nothing at all." If my very best friend were going to rush, I could still hang out with her, so long as I didn't try to encourage her to join my particular sorority. That's rushing a girl and supposed to be reserved for formal recruitment, so that would be dirty rushing if I encouraged her to join my group or nothing else outside of recruitment. So basically, you're right in that it's from once a girl registers for rush until she drops out/signs her preference card.

During formal recruitment, we're not supposed to talk to PNMs very much. If I'm filling up my car and a PNM is at the pump next to me, we could say "Hey," and maybe a couple comments about how hectic rush is or how hot it gets in Alabama during August, but again I should try not to talk to her too much because that's a potential influence outside of rush and that's bad.

Strict silence is enforced from the end of the last preference party until PNMs have signed their bid cards. Pref Day, naturally, is quite emotional, and girls may be torn between two or more chapters, so they are not allowed to speak to anyone (nor is a member/alumna/rush counselor allowed to talk to them) until they have signed their card ranking the houses in order of where they feel the most comfortable. That way, a girl's final decision is her own. Rush counselors are basically only allowed to tell her to rank houses in order of what she wants. After she signs her card and her decision is made, she can tell the world if she wants the order in which she ranked the sororities she preffed.

We have 6 NPC chapters here and a fairly laid back rush. This years qouta was 19-21 (not exactly sure) and there were about 140 PNM's starting, but only about 100 going into prefs.

Everyone usually gets a bid. I think maybe only 2 girls went completely unmatched.

Day 1- First Round (Saturday)
Your standard average opening round. (visit all chapters)

Day 2- Philanthropy (Sunday)
You do a craft, and get to learn more about the expenses involved with being in a chapter. I have noticed that alot of schools shy away from discussing finances. We hand out financial info during this round and welcome girls to ask questions.
(you visit all 6 here also unless you are cut for grades)

**There is a full week in between these parties. You will pick up your invites from your Sigma Rho Chi for the next round. You may visit up to four so if you have more than that, you have to cut some.**

Day 3- House Tours (Friday)
These parties are longer and more formal. You watch a video or a slide show and you'll get a tour of the houses.
(you visit a max of 4)

You don't have parties on Saturday, but you pick up your 4th party invites. You can go to a max of 3, so if you have more you have to make a cut.

Day 4- Preference Day
Most emotional day. You have a pref ceremony. It's the usual.
(max of 3)

After this, you sit down and rank your prefs and turn in your card by 2 pm or so. The parties are over at 11 am so you have some time to think. Bid matching is finished by 6 and then comes Bid Night.

**Bid Night**
It's in the student Center. All the PNM's line up outside the Campus Life office and go in one by one to open their bid envelopes. If they accept, they then go back out and line up alphabetically backstage in the ballroom.

The sororities are all out on the floor in front of the stage in groups doing cheer and wearing their bid night shirts. We have turned in our bid lists, but we DON'T KNOW how they matched with us, so it's VERY SUSPENSEFUL for us.

The PNM's come out one by one. When they come out onto the stage, a Sigma Rho Chi announces them:

"Suzy Q is now a new member of ...XYZ!!!"

The PNM then runs to her new sisters who usually tackle her with hugs and laughter. She receives her bid day shirt, puts it on, and gets her bid day goodies.

After ALL the PNM's are announced, then the Sigma Rho Chi's are announced in the same fashion:

"Becky is GLAD to go back home to....ABC!!!"

They are usually greeted with a welcome back ballon or basket of some sort. Then we ALL go back to our houses for fun and games.

:)

We have deferred rush at Valpo - recruitment is the first week back in class for the spring semester, in January. Lucky for us we have a "sorority dorm" where we each have a hallway to live on and chapter rooms on the first floor - it gets cold in northwest Indiana! Anyway, we're allowed to talk to freshmen all the way up until we leave on Christmas break. The same thing for sophomores who are rushing. So essentially, you can talk to and make friends with as many freshman as you want, and this definitely does happen, I think everyone here gets quite a few girls that way. The upside is its nice from both ends to see a friendly face. The downside is that girls definitely go into recruitment saying "I'm going to be an ABC b/c I hung out with them this fall."

Thanks to all for the information. I still find NPC recruitment very fascinating. And I mean that in a good way!

My main perceptive has been from UK's (Kentucky's) formal rush which was/is the week prior to when most of the students would even be on campus. Thus by the time classes started, rush was over and the 'issue' of running into friends prior to rush - and possible "dirty rush" - was limited to hanging out with your hometown friends during the summer.

There is no recognized greek life on our campus, so as an underground fraternity we do whatever we want... of course continuing traditions and keeping the alum association happy come into play here.

They weren't allowed to talk to the PX's? Really? I was a PX this year, and I had girls who balled for hours on the phone to me about not being sure which one to sign (our g.l. advisor said she should have paid our cell phone bills for that quarter). All I could do was explain that you are making a "life" choice, that you should look at this as a LONG TERM choice, not a "popular" one. I also had to deal with the "non match" phone calls, which were REALLY REALLY rough, especially since I had been one of those girls last year.

I guess ours is pretty loosely structured compared to some of you guys.

The stats:
6 Sororities, All local, All Housed
Average chapter size is about 40, maybe 50?
Average quota is around 15
Average cost to join is $55-60
Recruitment is deffered to winter quarter (three quarters per year)
Sign ups begin at the end of fall quarter, and continue up untill and including the first night of rush, which is the 3rd day of Winter quarter.

We have Rho Chi's, 2 per group.

Sororities MAY NOT invite in to their house, talk favorably about their sorority, ride in cars, send gifts, etc. to Freshmen women, or Sophomore women who have NOT gone through recruitment and either pledged or signed independent unless an initiated member of another sorority is present. Basically,hands off! until they have gone through recruitment. All infractions must be reported by the PNM
wthin 24 hrs of the infraction.

What I meant was that if Susie were going from her last pref party to sign her card, she wasn't supposed to talk to anyone EXCEPT her PX and then it would be pretty much kept to the PX telling her to list chapters in order of where she felt most comfortable. Say Susie went to three pref parties. She could ask her PX general questions, but not stuff related to picking one over the others. She couldn't ask "Which one would you choose?" for example.

I should have clarified that better in my last post.

So I'm guessing women register the quarter before so you know which ones are going through? Otherwise you could be talking to a friend who didn't want to be Greek and get an infraction if another sorority member saw you, it sounds like.

/accounting and Spanish in a 5-week mini-semester has already fried my brain and it's only 3 days in

Don't forget - not even a rushee is allowed to bring anything out of the house! Not even a napkin. I remember during rush if I saw a girl about to leave with a napkin in her hand I would run over to her (scaring the crap out of her usually) and grab the napkin....

Silly, I think but I guess it keeps members from passing notes to the 'outside'.



When I went through rush nobody warned me about the doorsong. I was standing in the front and it
did scare the crap out of me!!!!!

Sign ups start about the middle of fall quarter, and girls can sign up even on opening ceremony night. We're supposed to follow and use "extreme discretion" in associating with freshmen women...the men, however, rush the crap out of the guys from the minute they get there.

We have had chapters file reports of other chapters "dirty rushing" during fall quarter, even with women who DO NOT want to go greek. It gets to be a big mess. (one drawback to delayed recruitment!) .