lol, not anymore I spent 4 years as a collegiate spackling, wallpapering and painting - along with decorating, as long as it isn't falling down, ripped or broken - I'm content to leave it with them!!!

Two more weeks until formal recruitment!!!!!

Being the dinosaur that I am, I remember when we actually had a decorator (oh, did we have fun with him!) and our own cleaning lady (Ardma). We would always fuss about how we would decorate the suite, if we had the chance. But that was when there was a TON of money in our Housing Corporation (long story). We didn't know how good we had it.

Now, I just wish I/we had the money to do it up right again!

Cheyenne or Dani, are all 11 NPC sororities going to participate in rush or is that one nameless sorority still not allowed?

I have no clue. i'm pretty out of the gossip loop!

Okay I'm a bit confused someone pm me with the name of the nameless sorority and I can snoop some.

We had a cleaning person for out bathrooms for a while - but then we got a new one and she stole stuff from people so housing doesn't even do that!

Cheyenne

Yeah, I'm curious, too - I thought that the one thing Panhel couldn't do was keep a chapter from rushing.

Cheyenne, our Housing Corp. paid for Ardma, not Pitt. She did our whole Suite (except our rooms, of course), and was a real gem!

I've been meaning to ask, is anyone living in the Theta house?

OOOHhhhh, I see thanks Killarney! That was my guess but I just wanted to confirm!

Honeychile-I think it is their international organization - not panhel, although I would think that they wouldn't do that because it would hurt their "reputation". It serves them right though! They've been so obvious about it and they just got in trouble for it about 3-4 years ago!!

I'll see what kind of info I can find out. As far as housing goes-well I had my own bathroom my senior year but I wouldnt want to share now that there isn't anyone cleaning it....eeew.

ETA: Honeychile, the last I *heard* Kappa was looking into buying it. I think they have interntional students leasing it from Theta currently. It's kind of sad-everyone was talking about raising ceiling last semester at bid matching but I'd much rather see a new chapter.

I know what you mean about a new chapter - ever since I saw those old Pitt yearbooks with Phi Mu and ZTA in them, I've been thinking, "I wonder..."

How strong are most of the current chapters? Are most somewhat near Total (or will be after Recruitment?)? I'd like to make sure that there's a strongPanhellenic system first. My memory goes back too far - it just seems that there's always one very weak chapter that gets killed off by a new colony. Has there ever been more than 11 sororities at Pitt in the last, oh, 30 years?

I think that everyone is pretty close to total with the exception of 3-one of which I know will be very close by the end of the semester, maybe the second one as well. I don't know about the 3rd one-they seem to be content at where they are but I could be misinterpreting their status.

Pitt will not expand anytime soon, you need to have over 50% of the chapters at total for over 2 semesters to expand, and that has not happend in a long time.

There's over 50% of the chapters at or over total, and have been for a little while.
DZ, XO, SSS, KD, DDD, and KKG
And I don't have a green book (fire1977, you may know this better than me) but I'm pretty sure there's no hard and fast rule as to 50% for 2 semesters, etc. It's a vote of the panhel.
Several of the other 5 groups on campus have been stepping up their efforts to COB. COBbing has become more and more popular, and you get better girls. Not enough girls go through rush, and a lot of chapters are going to them and pulling them in through COB.
Also, opening up a system like ours may very likely renew an interest in greek life, as most of the chapters already have an established niche/reputation on campus.

Outside of the rush talk------ next Tuesday is my birthday. However, I have class until 6pm that day and have an 8AM Wed. So instead, a bunch of people are going out this Friday night, probably somewhere in the strip, I don't have the details together just yet. But any of you fellow yinzers are more than welcome to come!!!! :D

To quote the green book:

Just as a random tangent-besides NPC Unanimous Agreements-the green book is meant to be flexible, it is not the "handbook" it's the manual of information. I suggest everyone that is in an NPC sorority to read it as you will find out that it is a generic formula meant to be flexible to work on different campuses.

as of the spring there were 7 chapters at total, and 4 that range anywhere from being 15 members short to 40 members short. It depends on retention and if anyone did a second NM class after numbers were released for the spring. I think every one but 1(definitely) or 2 will be close to ceiling in the spring.

Dani-don't know what I'm doing on Friday yet, keep us posted!!

Another September person! :) My birthday is September 13th!

But I'm on call this weekend - again! - so I'm iffy at best. I will, however, gladly raise a glass to your birthday!

That's my grandpa's birthday! :)

Are you serious?! I may have met 5 people in my LIFE with the same birthday!! For some reason, the 13th of every month is not a very popular day...!

Really? They were huge hazers back when I was there, too. Everyone in the greek world knew it, but it never seemed to hurt their numbers. I remember when I was a pledge we were standing as a group in front of Amos waiting to be picked up for a mixer and we saw their pledges filing into the building all carrying their mattresses. And our pledge mom said, that she couldn't believe the _________'s never got in trouble for hazing.

Oh, and way back when each sorority had its own group of tables in the Towers Cafeteria and the pledges sat at their own table and had to stand holding their trays until a sister told them they could sit. Sometimes those girls stood for a loooooong time :rolleyes:

Despite that, I had a lot of friends in the sorority. Well, it's not like they were hazing me !

I pm'd you! But they don't do anything like that anymore!

I lied when I said two weeks till recruitment more like 3 but I get confused easily. Now if only someone from Pitt would do a rush thread *closes eyes real tight and says "please please please can we have a Pitt rush thread"*

Happy b-day Danielle!!

I have actually considered making signs that say, "Interested in Sorority? www.greekchat.com" and putting them in various places - just to try to get a local woman to post a Pitt, CMU or Duquesne thread!!

I think I have a real problem...

Hey, have you guys seen the Ohio GC Gathering thread? Columbus isn't that far from Pittsburgh is it?

LOL - I go to Columbus for the occasional soccer game! It's about 3 hours or so.

So, if you go over for beefcake, why not for cheesecake?

See, he meeting is at a cheescake place...

Sorry, I couldn't help myself.

Back to the recruitment thing, yes, sororities are at total in the fall, but there are never over 50% in the spring. As for us taking the green book literally, news flash Pitt, does NOT do that. There should be no organized spring recruitment, we are still deciding if we can shake hands with a girl (which is okay by the green book.) We do not want alumni to talk to girls, which excludes a huge part of membership and the idea of life long membership, which NPC advocates and I hope your nationals do to. The major problem with Pitt Panhellenic is the fact that smaller chapters allow bigger chapters to make the decisions when it comes to expanding membership, for god sakes a chapter did not want smaller chapters to be able to bring in collegiates from other local schools to help them recruit. Seriously, before we talk about expansion and raising total, Pitt sororities need to work out the internal problem. Just pointing out a fact that 7 sororities did not have total in the spring, TPA, ADPi, DPhiE, AEPhi, SSS, KKG, SDT all took girls in the spring that is 7 sororities under total and only 4 over.

KKG and SSS rushing was a very rare thing. And they rushed to total. They chose to do that instead of COB. I'm not sure which, but another of those groups made total in the spring.
And check the attitude, sheesh. Contrary to what you make think, fire1977 and I both have a pretty good handle of what's going on at Pitt. Being that she's an advisor and I just graduated very recently and am still very active.

And newsflash for you, KAT before they left campus was allowed to bring in girls from another campus to rush for them. ADPi did so a couple rushes ago also. None of the groups on campus, except many one who seems happy at their size, has a need to bring in girls from other campuses. That should only be done if you don't have the numbers to be able to do formal rush. Rush groups are only around 20 or so usually.
If you have that big of a beef with panhel, then you should talk to your sorority's national NPC delegate. Yeah they do things screwy, but they're not going to do your rush for you. It's not that hard to make a turn around. Hell, my chapter has done a total 180 over the course of the past several years. Yeah it takes some hard work and dedicated sisters, but it's not that hard. You've gotta fix your own problems.

ETA: ADPi and DPhiE are doing it- making a major effort in increase numbers, etc and become stronger houses. If the rest of the groups did it too, our greek system would be awesome.

Eek!! Misscommunitcation is a bad thing!

I think when Salacity18 was talking about alumni, she was being unclear, and it might have been misstranslated. As it stands now, our panhel does not want to allow alumni participate in rush, besides standing there and carrying food. Personally, for our house this creates a problem, because the alumni participate actively in our preference ritual in order to show that the sorority last a lifetime not just four years. This is an important part of sorority life, this can not be argued. However, if Panhel votes to keep alumni completely segregated, then the only thing that we can do is violate their rules, because we arent allowed to change our ritual.

Also, I think its a lot to assume that houses are happy with their numbers. I know a lot of sisters from the smaller house on campus, and they have been trying their hardest to get more numbers because otherwise they remain under the eye of their international organization. It looked like they were starting to pull away last year, but now they are almost back to square one. I agree that a lot can be said about hard work and dedication, but sometimes that isn't enough.

Thirdly, spring rush, in the years that I have been at Pitt, has been utilized by everyone. In the past three years, Tri Sigma has used it twice, so I dont nessicarily think that it is rare. Granted, a lot of the time chapters join spring rush by inciting early alumhood with their senoirs, but two out of three of the years that I have been here, all but two houses go through spring rush. These are not even the same houses each year. Please correct me if this was not the trend before my time.

Lastly, I think that this whole argument comes abou because of descrepancies in understanding of the green book. Do over half of the chapters have to be at ceiling BEFORE or AFTER recruitment?


*Libby*


p.s. Personally, I am a big fan of what DPhiE and ADPi have done in the past year, year and a half, not to mention KD.. It takes a lot of dedication.

p.p.s. does anyone know house numbers right now? (We are at 45)

p.p.s.s. If anyone wants to know how HENIOUS the recruitment shirts are for that ________ unspoken group PM me. They live up to the negative stigma that many GDIs subscribe to. Ewwww.

Dani - the 9th is Mr 33's niece's birthday too!! He's out of town all weekend, so I would definitely be up for something on Friday.

I can't believe that y'all can't have active alum participation (other than food handling) at rush, since you are lucky enough to be in an area where alums actually LIVE and have ACTIVE alum chapters. Try getting alums to schlep up to (insert state school name here) to help out - except for the 2.5 that live there, it's a giant pain in the ass and probably why so many of those systems are having trouble.

Hey guys! I'm going to convention tonight!!! It's a 16 hour drive to Florida. . .before you wince let me say that we have 6 drivers. . .so it won't be bad at all. Wish us luck!!!!


ONE Luv,
Shelbs :cool:

salacity18 has no problem with panhellenic, trust me...she was on the executive board several years ago...

the thing is, npc unanimous agreements are meant to be followed exactly. npc recommendations are more flexible. if we didn't follow the unanimous agreements, i could, say, decide to disaffiliate from my chapter and walk over to CMU and sign a bid card with another sorority.

in accordance with this, 50% of the pitt sororities must be at chapter total for one calendar year, meaning that if they are at 70 sisters after fall recruitment, and graduate 11 in April, then they have 59 sisters going into the summer months, and are no longer considered at chapter total.

furthermore, if we were to add another chapter, where would we put them? none of the NPHC or associate panhellenic chapters have housing as of yet. then there's that whole clause about on campus/off campus greek housing, so unless pitt's going to build some kind of multi-million dollar greek complex by tearing up all of South Oakland, it's probably not going to happen any time soon, unfortunately.

also, i think that all of the sorority chapters on campus are actively trying to improve their membership right now, and worrying about fostering a new chapter on campus would stretch everyone too thin. perhaps in a few years if the community is properly and effectively restructured...

too many rules!

Libby, I wanna hear about the T shirt; PM me! :D

Me, too! I just cleaned out my inbox! :)

ooh-lol, I want to know what they say too!

back to addressing all of the posts. If you look at the post that first mentioned this from me I said something to the effect of "it's sad everyone was talking about raising ceiling last semester where I would rather see a new chapter" I never stated that I preferred either of them to happen but if one had to happen I believe that a new chapter would spark more interest in Greek Life, rather than letting "the bigger houses" get bigger.

22 women went without bids last year who went the whole way through recruitment - that was 5 more than quota, ie room for another sorority or time for the smaller sororities to evaluate what they are not giving to PNM's that they want. Out of 30 some women last year who went to spring rush 15 of them only went to one chapter(I blame low turnout on the 0 degree temp and the lack of dates before the end of the semster).

In regards to Pitt's green book following-trust me! There are a lot more messed up campuses! I have no problem with a little structure in informal recruitment because it is easier for the PNM's to go to different chapters. Do I agree with the rules for it last semester-not really, but if my collegiate members are happy with it, they aren't breaking national policy, and it makes things easier for them, go for it. I really don't think it's a case of "big houses" making decisions for the smaller chapters. My opinion is that saying that is an excuse. My chapter had some issues-they worked on them and now I know that they will be at or very close to ceiling by the end of the fall semester, the reason that they did so well last year was because we stopped making excuses, took a step back and realized that most of that stuff doesn't matter, that when you focus on a well-rounded sorority the members will follow. Don't get me wrong, they are still small but they are a force to be reckoned with.

For alumnae involved in recruitment, or even other chapters, I could really care less what other chapters do. I know that in the past though that when alumnae rushed or other chapters rushed many of the women felt duped. I believe that alumnae's presence alone shows that our committment is for a lifetime. The real issue with the rules is trust and a lack of committment to the betterment of the group not just one's individual organization.

Shelby- I hope you have fun at convention!!! Be safe on your drive!

Birthday plans
 

We're going to Touch, in the strip district. $5 cover, $1 drinks from 9-11, good music, lots of dancing.
If you'd like to come, let me know so I can look for you! All are welcome :) Birthdays are just a good excuse to get a ton of people to go out!
Depending on which of my friends is driving, i'd imagine we'd get there somewhere around 9:30!

PS if we are going to look at who did recruitment this year versus years past. In Spring 98 all chapters participated in spring recruitment, maybe 5 did it this year. And yes I realize that when they are at 59 they are not at ceiling, I believe that anything that happens will be in two years time.

I want to say DPhiE in the last two years have been motivated and I do think that has a lot to do with good leadership, I have heard wonderful things about your president. I do know that 22 girls were cut from recruitment last fall, but these were girls that were cross cut from chapters. I watched girls freak out over the chapters they did and did not get in 8 rounds or 4 rounds. These were the girls that I saw got there invites make a noise, throw out the card, and walk away. Now, mind you I would not wish that type of girl on any chapter, but the girls that got cut were either lead on by a certain chapter, and if you don't believe that happened last fall oh it did, or were cross cut. Raising ceiling would only at this point allow those larger chapters to increase numbers while the smaller ones stay where they are. I was on the opposite side of recruitment I did see that the girls going through become caddy and throw hissy fits when they get chapters they don't see fit to their standards, and this breaks my heart.

The thing is that is where COB comes in handy, DPhiE taking a second fall class last semester rocked my world, and the fact they took them to greek101s made me super happy. The thing is after formal recruitment sororities should be able to intake girls as many to ceiling as they want. There should be no moratorium on COB in January, that should be a time when smaller chapters are actively recruiting. I do not feel sororities should have to stop recruiting and spend upwards of $500 on informal recruitment when you can get your close friends in the chapter with a night of $5 pizza from antoon's and a 2 liter of soda. Those chapters with girls they got from COB know these are the most ideal women to have. Where Pitt is organized, and yes we are better off then most schools, recruitment is where we lack. The reason we had different types of recruitment and not formal recruitment for years is the NPC tried a pilot program where we had informal recruitment both semesters instead of formal and COB. I am just suggesting that not all chapters are happy with what is going on with the campus, and that there are better alternatives and ways to boost numbers. I have sat thru my fair share of Greek Lectures and spoke to many people inside our Greek system and outside.

I was not attacking or throwing attitude and I am sorry if people thought that, I was simply trying to get out my ideas in a quick paragraph and not write an essay.... apparently I am long winded, and anyone who knows me knows this is an understatement. I just want the best for Pitt, and I am tired of seeing the overall Greek membership on campus drop, I would seriously want to see SDT at ceiling, along with ADPi, DPhiE, TPA, and all the rest of them. I just think there needs to be something done internally to improve the Greek system on campus before and external measures are tried. On a happier note, Delta Chi is becoming a colony on Sept 26 (I could be wrong on the exact date... YEAH IFC!)

Wow, Delta Chi is becoming a colony?????? One of my very good friends is one of the advisors to their Duquesne chapter.... this could be interesting.

It's definately odd how the IFC groups have the freedom to come and go as they please....... and it's close to impossible to have a VERY successful fraternity at Pitt unless your house is on the hill. Which of course, I think is kind of weird and I don't quite understand it.....

Could it be the invigorating walk up the hill or perhaps the charming, dormitory-like atmosphere of the houses? LOL

Here's another question...

when you give someone a bid, does she have to start pledging immediately? We used to be able to give someone a bid late in the semester, she signed, and then she began pledging with the next class. This helped our numbers and we didn't have to go nuts with a jillion teeny B (C,D,E etc) classes. Our dumbass Greek advisor outlawed this sometime in the mid 90's and it really hurt us. Panhel isn't nuts about it, but it is permissible....and if you don't have the womanpower to handle many small pledge classes it helps a lot.

I don't think Panhel can dictate when a GLO holds their new member classes. I think the max we've EVER done is three a semester, and that's more because our EO limits how much time a woman can spend as a New Member without being considered a hold-over, not Panhel.

Are any of y'all going to be at Amos Hall tomorrow morning? I plan to visit the ADPi Suite (assuming we're welcome, early in the morning!). I'm going to try to dig up those Amos Hall Floor Plans that I photocopied, for those who want them.

Sorry the quote is at the bottom I am responding to

That is legal, that is what the smaller chapters are doing and should be doing to help gain numbers. You may even start a pledge sister class anytime after formal recruitment, so in theory you could have two classes running at once. The problem I have is they are banning us from COBing in Jan until a panhellenic informal recruitment is run. This should not happen. We should be allowed to take girls all year long except before formal recruitment and until we hit ceiling.

I completely agree with that.