This is my understanding of how our chapter at IU does it. The chapter sets a quota prior the beginning of recruitment and turns that number in to Panhellenic. It is generally set by how many open beds there will be in the house. We do not require seniors to live in. Sophs and Juniors live in (because recruitment is deferred, all freshman are initiated toward the end of the Freshman year). In the years IU has reported to me, our quota has been somewhere between 50 and 55.

I don't have a clear understanding of how RFM or bid matching are done within their system. I'm guessing one of the existed programs is doctored to accomodate the varying quotas and chapter totals.

I guess if you predetermine your quota, it would work the same. If 1000 girls are going through, you need to get to 500 for day 2, 250 for day 3 and 150 for pref so that you can have 55 on bid day. Yes, these numbers are random. I don't have any idea what the actual numbers would be.

And I'm glad to have a clearer explanation of housing at IU. A bed quota makes sense if you're talking space for sophomores and juniors. A quota of 50 or so makes sense to me for a school the size of IU. Then also if you have some sort of member crisis and lose several in one year, you can "invite" some seniors to live in so that the house continues to be full. Otherwise, one bad recruitment could be deadly.

That's true of the houses on North Jordan, but the ones on Third Street are very well located.
________

A couple things--

Recruitment stye: 1st round is the first weekend in December and the rest of recruitment takes place the 2nd week of January before spring semester begins. A lot of this has to do with the fact that grades are a huge factor in many chapter's decisions on who should be on their bid list. New members will be initiated around early March usually depending on their national's regulations. The new pledge class does not move into the chapter house until the next school year.

Housing: Each house has its own rules for who lives in and who doesn't. In my chapter- Freshman still live in their dorms, sophomores and juniors live in and seniors write a letter to housing corp. to request to live out. Senior year is spent living in an off-campus house, usually with other sisters but occasionally with non-Greek friends. Some girls will live-in senior year out of convenience though. But there are chapters that make all seniors live in (Tri-Delta being one).

Bed Quota: The chapter takes the number of juniors who plan to live out next year and that determines the size of the pledge class. We do not give out bids to more girls than we have beds for. However there are girls that receive bids who decide that Greek isn't for them and they drop out. They cannot accept a bid to any other house. If a girl drops, the chapter will issue a bid to the next girl on their bidlist who did not receive a bid from another house. Another route is for a recruitment director to invite girls that did not get a bid over for events and they choose which girls they issue bids to. This way, all 19 chapters will end up making quota.

Location of Greek Houses: They aren't that far removed from campus and they're mostly concentrated on one street on the north side. There is a bus that runs about every 5 minutes. It's actually nice to live on North Jordan- there's a lot of camaraderie between Greek members since we all live so close together.


It is painfully obvious that IU needs (at least) two more sororities. However there isn't any land to build a new chapter house. The other problem is that the social atmosphere of all living together is a big part of the Greek experience at IU. A lot of women wouldn't be interested in rushing if they didn't get the housing option.


Any more thoughts?

Couple of questions?

1. How do the houses vary in chapter size?
2. Has IU thought of having a set total and quota and not doing a bed quota? Or would that really make the chapters with smaller houses struggle compared to the chapters with larger houses?

The people there that I had contact with maintained that there is inadequate supply of other housing on or near campus and that this is the reason why it has become the situation it has.

The whole idea of bed rush and the strong desire to live in the house for three years is fascinating to me. hat happens if a girl is local and plans on living at home for all of her college years? Is there a live-in requirement for all members even if they are local? Would such a pnm be at a disadvantage during recruitment?

At my school, if the house wasn't full (it wasn't ever full) you were required to live in. The fact that your parents were 1 mile away (I don't recall this ever happening) wouldn't have played into that fact at all. There's a mortgage to pay, sister!

From what I understood from my friends at IU, yes, the live-in requirement is absolute. I know a few senior girls are allowed to live off-campus, but (from what I understood) most do not.

The live-in requirement is different for every chapter. In my chapter, all the seniors live out, and we have one junior who lives out because of special circumstances.
I can't stress enough through that each house has its own living requirements and that it isn't a focus for potential new members.

As a University whose 19 sororities all have chapter houses, everyone wants to live-in. You get to live with your sisters for all of college essentially. Therefore, the girls that are from Bloomington and live at home are not going to go through recruitment if they have to live at home. There are several girls in my chapter who are from the town and all of them live in the house.

That's just the way it goes here. With about half of girls actually getting a bid, every spot in a house is competitive so it would be a huge disadvantage for a pnm who wanted to live at home.

recruitment as a sophomore
 

hi there!

I was just curious if you had any tips for going through recruitment as a sohpmomore.

My freshmen year some things were going on, and I wasnt able to make it to 19 party. I just registered and am super excited but at the same time super nervous that the girls are going to be a bit skeptical becuase I am not a freshman.

I understand that recruitment is very competetive, but I really feel like greek life is for me :)
please let me know if you have any tips!

thanks <3

Helpful thread:

http://www.greekchat.com/gcforums/sh...t=IU+sophomore

Thank you, that really does help me!

I am also slightly nervous about the grades- it sounds like your grades need to be at the top for them to really take you seriously.

As of right now I have a 3.34. So far all my classes are going really well this semester, so it could potentially increase by January. I know a 3.3 isnt bad, but is it good enough?

I think you're over worrying. You should be able to get the grade requirements for each chapter from the Greek Life office to set yourself at ease.

hoosiergirl - wait until you get you Rho Gamma in early November. She will answer all of your questions! In the mean time, plan on attending Greek Means October 28th at 7pm in the IMU. It will be a fun night to learn more about the IU Greek System. :)

I was there at the time. Of course I'm not privy to any of the official information, but based on what was reported in the IDS and the yearbook at the time, all 3 of them were struggling with low membership. ASA and Tri Sigma didn't have houses and there was no land available for them to build. As 33girl mentioned, it is a HUGE disadvantage at IU - when all the other sororities have gigantic, gorgeous houses to live in, how do you sell living in a dorm? And when a housed chapter has left, many times the University snaps up the house and the land. I know the old AOPi and Beta Theta Pi houses on 10th Street are now used for the School of Informatics, and I think the Pike house on 3rd Street was demolished (or if not, is also being used for some other purpose)

One thing that was noted in the yearbook story about Tri Sigma, when it was announced that the chapter would close, the pledge class was given the choice to be released before initiation (so they could rerush) or be initiated into Tri Sigma even though there would be no chapter next year. All the pledges chose to initiate. Sisterhood right to the end! :)

Sigma Kappa did have a brand new house (I think they moved into it in 1990 or 1991, and their former house became the IU Office of Admissions). That one was a surprise - if I remember correctly, that news came right at the end of the 1993-1994 school year. (The others were announced earlier in the second semester.) (A couple of my APO brothers were also in Sigma Kappa) Pi Kappa Phi is now in that house, but I don't know if Sigma Kappa sold it to them or if that chapter is leasing it.

Interestingly enough, lack of housing doesn't seem to affect fraternities, as there are quite a few unhoused fraternities at IU.

Sister Havanna I always love reading your posts!

Regarding the Pi Kapps/Sigma Kappa situation....I think Pi Kapps bought it from Sigma Kappa.

When ADPi was having numbers problems, a lot of off campus fraternities were spreading rumors that they would be losing their house in hopes that the same situation would happen again. Fortunately it didnt!

IU's housing problem has and has not affected fraternities.

Quite a few fraternities HAVE sprung up and gotten members without the use of a house...but for the most part...the ones that have no chance of getting housing (some of these "new" fraternities are just recolonizations waiting to get their numbers up before they return to "old" houses) arent really taken too seriously. Sororities dont usually plan a lot of socials with them and people dont really go out of their way to learn about them.

I respect a fraternity or sorority whether it has a house or not...but you have to remember that at IU, living in a house is a very central part of the Greek Life culture and it's hard for people to move past a chapter not being housed.

The good thing though is that if you want to have fraternity without the liability of a house...at least you have that option.

I think IU WILL open up land for housing expansion in the future as they'll have to put those houses on 3rd street somewhere when they eventually kick them out of the middle of campus.

I sincerely hope the University opens the possibility of new land for Greek Life. But I don't foresee that happening during this administration unfortunately.

Greek Life is very looked down on by the new Dean of Students, and the University President.

I sure hope they open up land! From how it looks on North Jordan, there is space for other houses. Obviously, I'm not sure if the land has a future purpose or not but I could invision quite a few more houses down on the ADPi/AXiD side of the extension and across from Skulls and AGD. *fingers crossed*

informal rush
 

Does anyone know of any informal rush processes at IU? I'm really interested in Sigma Delta Tau, in particular.

The whole rush process sounds a bit terrifying to me; I already know that it's important to me to me that, if I receive bids, I end up in one of the historically Jewish or secular sororities. However, I am fairly open to the possibility of finding one that may not be but is still a good fit.

I'm just not sure if it would be right for me to go through the whole formal recruitment process if it's not necessary and I already have an idea of where I belong.

Any advice/insight is appreciated! Thanks ladies!
:o

You might want to ask at Hillel or a similar organization on the IU campus. They also might be able to tell you if there are organizations for Jewish women that are sorority-like but that aren't a sorority. This might be especially good for you if you end up securing an RA position.

There really isn't any informal recruitment process during the fall for houses that already make their quota (which SDT does). However if you get cut from formal recruitment you can sign up for informal recruitment afterwards- this is where houses still have one or two bids open and they try to fill those spots. You have to have gone through formal recruitment to do this though.

One of the biggest trends I've seen in IU's rush is that girls who don't go into recruitment with an open mind are the ones that will end up hurt the most. I was dead set on being in one house before rush began but during formal recruitment I ended up finding a much better fit for my personality in the chapter that I received a bid from.

You might think you belong in one house-- but the chapter knows itself better than you do. It has to be a mutual selection process to find out which houses are better suited for you and which houses you are suited for.

Hello,

So i've registered for recruitment and everything, but I had an exam on Thursday evening at the same time as the Greek Means meeting. I was wondering if anyone could tell me what I probably missed.

<3

hoosierxgirl--
Greek Means was just another way to educate PNM's about community involvement, scholarship, leadership, and sisterhood. It was basically a series of panel sessions where PNM's could ask questions about these issues. You didn't "miss" anything as it does not affect your recruitment process and only serves to educate you more. You should be getting your Rho Gamma in the next two weeks so if you have questions, she will be more than happy to answer all of them! Get excited!

kmb--
The informal recruitment events in the fall are just for PNM's to learn more about the houses and do not impact your formal recruitment process. Houses do not give out bids during this time. As IUGreekGirl said, there is an informal process immediately following formal recruitment, but the possibilities of getting a bid during this time are slim, especially with the new party structure (19-14-8-3 instead of 19-12-6-3). Most houses will just snap bid and do not hold informal events because they may only have one or two spots to fill. Hope this helps! Also, please don't focus on one chapter and make that your sole goal. You owe it to yourself and to the sorority women to be as open-minded as possible (I learned this lesson the hard way)!

Whoa, why'd they change this? This sounds horrible!

Yeah, the 19 to 14 is better, but the 8 to 3 is HOLYFRIGGINCRAP.

I just checked Penn State's, and they also go 20-14-8-3.

They changed it to give women the opportunity to see more houses before they have to cut to 3 for pref round. It's a change that's good and bad. I think this system actually helps the "middle and lower tier" chapters more because PNM's get to see these houses more and maybe develop different opinions than they had going into 19 party. Overall though, it doesn't address the real problem at IU which is the lack of quality women getting bids. I think this system was an effort to get every chapter on campus stabilized and ready to prepare for extension *hopefully*.

I know they don't use quota/total, but are there any sort of release figures? Or can chapters invite as many women as they want to each round?

The new party structure doesn't address the real problem-- there is only x number of bids to give out every year.

But it does allow pnms to get a better look at more houses and it allows the houses to make a better decision about which girls to invite back.
This ensures that each group (pnms and chapters) is making the best decision. The goal is to make sure that you have the most well-matched girls going through your chapter's pref round so you end up with the best quality pledge class possible.

DeltaBetaBaby-

I do think we use some type of release figures. I don't know if they are tailored to each chapter or if they pertain to the whole system but I do know we have X amount at 19 party and we must cut to Y amount for 14, etc. Since I'm not a recruitment chair, I'm not really privileged to that information but I imagine there is some system in place to make the process more equal even if chapters do not end up taking the same amount of women.

alright, so i dont want to be that girl freaking out about nothing, but i still have not gotten an email with rho gomma information, or any information on rush in general.

is this normal?

I feel the exact same way! I am also a freshman rushing at IU this year and I'm SO anxious. Everyone always keeps saying "you'll get your Rho Gamma a couple of weeks after registration" but that's so vague. It's been a couple of weeks now and no news yet. Oh well. I'll keep checking my email!

I think I got my Rho Gamma the week before Thanksgiving... so that's next week.

You really don't need your Rho Gamma that much for 19 party but you'll REALLY need her for when you come back early from Break.

Don't worry! They'll let both of you know soon.

DeltaBetaBaby

I just stumbled across the answer to your question from awhile ago in the recruitment bylaws on the PHA website:

"The Panhellenic Association requires that each fraternity limit its function invitation lists to the number recommended by the Panhellenic Association based on the release figures method and the chapter's quota."


So we use release figures tailored to each individual chapter (I confirmed this with my VP recruitment). Apparently, when we made the switch last year from 12 to 14 parties, etc., the release figures were incorrect and many houses that never had to before had to snap bid to make up for it. Just thought I'd add that :)

Also, your rho gamma should've have contacted you by now to set up a meeting!!!

We just had our first meeting with our Rho Gamma tonight! I am definitely really excited for recruitment but also so incredibly scared. She kind of went over the harsh realities that can come with recruitment and told us some freaky stuff. Like for instance, there are cases where some girls get as little as 0-3 houses as early as right after 19 party. I'm so scared that I'm going to be THAT girl, haha. It's made even more complicated because I live on a small all-girl floor and the majority of us are going through recruitment, so this is definitely going to be a chaotic and stressful time. But I'm very eager to get the process underway!

Don't get yourself all worked up about it. There will be some girls who have a very rough recruitment, but most girls who go through recruitment will find a home if they are willing to consider all 19 chapters and not just the 3 or 4 perceived as the best. And remember, all the sidewalk talk and desperation about this house or that house all goes away after recruitment. Go in with a good attitude, a relaxed smile and a readiness to talk about whatever is thrown at you, and you'll likely be fine. What you can do now is spend time thinking about what questions you might be asked and think of multi-word answers to those questions. What's your major, what did you do last summer, do you have a job, what do you like to do for fun, what's your favorite movie, none of these questions should sneak up on you. And you should have a few questions ready to ask so you don't have that awkward silence when a rusher asks if you have any questions. Good luck!

Awesome advise from DubaiSis!

The best recruitment advice you can have is to go into each chapter with an open mind. There will be talk of "I hear this/that about that chapter" but it probably isn't true. Block out the trash talk and don't let what your friends think about each chapter affect what you think.

If you stay true to yourself you'll be sure to find a home!

Thanks guys! It's so nice to know there are people who have experienced the IU recruitment process firsthand on here and are able to give great advice.

19 party is this weekend and I'm getting really excited! I think it's going to be a great experience. More than anything I want to find a chapter to call home but all the chapters at IU are so great that I can't imagine myself not finding somewhere that's a good fit for me.

Oh, and my Rho Gamma said there are about 1600 girls rushing this year. I guess that's a fairly average number of girls who go through recruitment each year?