Well, the budget you are suppose to spend is a mere $10,000. However, if you have items donated, that does not count. Therefore, I am pretty sure that is what all 9 Panhellenic sororities do. I know parents and alumnae will donate just about anything. Most houses send out a "wish list" before recruitment to their alumnae and parents to get items in. This past year we had alumnae and parents donate white-stringed lights for skit round of recruitment.
I know Ole Miss has gone to a "no frills" recruitment, but you can't take the frills out of the Ole Miss sorority girl! I will say our philanthropy rounds have gotten better because all the houses focus on their crafts and their philanthropies. Don't get me wrong, there are still decoratoins, food, drink, and tons of smiles!

Also, I will say this that all 9 houses probably spend over $10,000 just on Bid Day. We all give our new members great goodies, this year KD gave our monogramed Vera Bradley and Phi Mu I think did monogramed laundry holders and we did monogramed LL Bean type totes, anyway, there are great goodies, awesome food, games, and maybe a band or a DJ at the house (NO ALCOHOL AT ALL!!!). I know the Tri Delta's rent out the Double Decker bus to take their new members around on Bid Day, that bus is not cheap!

What we do might seem frivilous to some, but it is the way it is at Ole Miss. You can change the dates of recruitment but you cannot change the way recruitment is done!

Um, that is the price of my car. MY CAR. That is also the balance on my student loans. I'm trying to picture it now...my degree all over the walls of a sorority house.....

WOW is all I can say.

Everyone's right when they say it's the culture there. I've never been there, but wherever something is that ingrained for that long, it will take twice as long to change it, if it can be changed at all. Although I would have been cut first round from Ole Miss had I attended (they're just not my speed at that school....) I would LOVE LOVE LOVE to go through and experience their recruitment. Can I just come to the DG house (at least I could wear an anchor!) and observe all week?

PsychTau

A mere $10,000.............? for rush...and then another $10,000 for bid day.....

*clunk* sound of my jaw hitting the floor!!!! That just blows my mind......

I can think of about a million more worthwhile things that money could be spent on..... Philanthropy, for one.

That is abso-friggin-loutely ridiciulous. I don't care if it's the culture, if it's rich mommy and daddy, but that is an insane waste of money. $25,000- how many hungry people could that feed? How many scholarships could that fund?

That's amazing. I really want to see stuff like this. How about the fraternities? I can't imagine ridiculous costs even when you factor in the ahem ladies who work by the hour or the food. We rent out restaurants and I've heard of chapters going on cruises, etc. but I still don't understand how it adds up.

The thing I've noticed with sororities that spend this much is that it seems a lot of it is for nothing. I spoke to a girl who rented air conditioners for several thousands every year and also paid about 5K to create some special video. Why not buy the air conditioners and shop around for cheaper videos?

-Rudey
--Your greek system sounds so impressive.

$25,000 divided by all the hungry people in the world is nothing. People make their own choices and don't need the morality and decisions of others thrown on them.

-Rudey
--Let's all live in lower income housing and drive kias because anything else is a waste.

I have a dumb question. Are they monogrammed with the sorority's letters or with each individual pledge's initials?

I'm too blown away by the $25,000 fabric (was it diamond encrusted?) to say anything more. :cool:

Holy Crap

$25,000

I don't think my chapter even has that much money. I think we spent $250 on pref night. And that was a lot.

I can't imagine the world of a southern sorority.

I just might have to visit one of these chapters one day, and count my lucky stars I didn't go to Southern Methodist, like I thought about.

Or I probably would not be in a sorority right now.

While my chapter doesnt spend nearly that much nor the other chapters bc we have caps on the amount we can spend that are much lower.. i can understand spending this amount.

When XYZ and ABC are doing it, you have to spend that much money as well. Unless everyone decides to change its not going to change. I know at least at my school.. everyone is competing to have the best decorations, the best drinks, bc to the PNMs this is what they see for that short amount of time. They see this and think oh they really went the extra mile for me or they really seemed like they cared. As silly as this sounds just from past experiences I know its true.

I know personally one year we spent a lot on a new white fabric/pole system thing for the whole downstairs of the house when we found out rush would have to be done entirely in our houses. Its just one of those things you have to do to compete so that you are around to have philanthropies and other events.

taken from West GA panhellic. http://www.westga.edu/~stuacts/greek...npcrules.shtml

8. A limit of $750 may be spent on Formal Recruitment. A budget must be turned in to the Panhellenic Recruitment Chair 48 hours prior to the Recruitment Orientation session. This budget includes all items used, whether bought or donated.



$750 which included DONATED!

I am glad I will be rushing a school that is not insane. But then again it is a no frills rush (not even drinks)

You have to realize we do give more than $10,000 to our national and local philanthropies. I know some sororities raise over $30,000 for their philanthropies. What goes around comes around, and yes it might seem like tons of money, but our chapters tend to have at least 190 members on average. So, with dues maybe being a little bit higher than most campus dues, we always use our money in a good way. To think all of the money we do spend on decorations, food, Bid Day, etc for recruitment...and we don't even offer Interior Design as a degree anymore!

Also, the bags and laundry bags at KD and Phi Mu were monogrammed with the sororities letters on them. However, I could see some houses monogramming their new members names on them and having them ready in time for Bid Day.

Also, the fraternities set their houses up very nicely during recruitment. Some houses like Phi Delta Theta, Sigma Nu, and Sigma Chi have food, drinks, and tons of flowers and tablecloths. I know of one fraternity on campus who rents furniture during recruitment to make their house look nicer. They obviously don't have skits and costumes, but they do spend some money, maybe like a total of $20,000 or less for recruitment.

Oh and all of the sororities on campus, at least to my knowledge, have local chapter scholarships they provide within their own chapter. Also, we all aren't from "rich" families, there are members who work to pay for their dues and their tuition. I think it is something that cannot be fully understood until you've seen it and visited Ole Miss.

Oh and I think someone asked about houses. All of the sorority houses are alcohol free and smoke free and house between 45-75 members, maybe more for the Tri Delta & Chi Omega house. They all have a full time kitchen staff who prepared meals 5 times a week, except no dinner on Friday's. They also have maids, yes I said maids, who help keep the houses clean and the bathrooms looking spotless. It is the members' responsibility to keep their rooms clean but I know at the AOII the maids vacuum and wipe the sinks down three times a week. We all have house guards at night to protect our members and to ensure that no men are sneaking into the house. The fraternity houses are pretty much the same way, only there are few on campus that still have parties at their houses. Other than that I know the newest house, Phi Delta Theta (new meaning structure not newest chapter), built their new house after their old house burnt down in the late spring of 1996. Their new house was finished a couple of years after that and it was reported at being built at a cost of around 4 million. Their house is amazing. It really is gorgeous. I know the Sigma Nu house and Sigma Chi house are awesome too as well as the KA Order house which just underwent some renovations two years ago.
I know the AOII house is always having renovations and improvements and alll the sororities update their decor as much as possible.

I think we just have our Greek system down to a business that is runs the way it does. However, our main purpose is our sisterhoods, our ideals, our philanthropies...

Katherine,

This is a bit of a hijack, but... when did they discontinue the Interior Design degree?

My friend graduated in 1998 with it and I believe that was the last year. They offer a degree in Fashion Merchandising with an emphasis in Interior Design now. My sister transferred because of that reason, she goes to USM in Hattiesburg now.


PS TippieChik and HottyToddy can you tell you all more about recruitment and Ole Miss sororities, they were both in one here.

From hearing the stories, I think you're exactly right. It sounds like a well run business, and that's probably one reason why you have so many PNMs wanting to join. It's almost like you don't have to think about it...your group knows what they're doing each year and have the resources to make it happen. Well organized systems attract people....chaotic, disorganized ones turn people away.

When I pledged, my school had about 5,000 students and a greek system that wasn't run so well. It had it's positives, but it seemed like each year we were finding "new, exciting" ideas from big schools and trying to start them at ours. Great idea, but you've got to have these new ideas around for a while in order to work out the kinks. If you don't get a large turnout for the new lip sync contest one year, figure out what to do differently and try it again. Practice makes perfect, and that's something we really didn't do enough of.

Seems like every year at my school we would redo the recruitment rules, change the budget amount, switch the rooms around, and basically recreate the wheel. Of course, we'd start working on this in the middle of the spring semester and hope everyone knew what we were doing by the start of fall semester. God forbid you have all the sorority members move in a week early for recruitment workshops and the like!!!

That's why I'd love to go see a recruitment like Ole Miss, Alabama, Tennessee....heck, even U of Ark. would be worlds different to me! I would like to have that experience.

PsychTau

Isn't it interesting... Movie and sports stars make multi-millions... however, teachers, police officers, fire fighters and military men/women make $20,000-$30,000 a year... (which is more waste of money?)

At least, these chapters use this money for recruitment.. which, in turn gains them 75-100 new members a year... roughly an additional $100,000+ in dues alone, not including house fees, etc. AND, they still give back to the community, the campus, their nationals and thier philanthropy ten fold!!! Someone will have to correct my numbers on this... but I think Sigma Nu raised over $100,000 for their philanthropy last year!!!!!!!!! If it takes $10,000 to wooo(sp) new members... then great if they can return it x10! It truly is all relative...

The answer? Neither. There are very few talented people that can make millions. On top of that their money is based on demand so you and whoever else, has chosen to fund their salary. Finally, in terms of sheer audience they reach millions more people than any of those above mentioned professions.

-Rudey
--Sorry for the hijack :)

Sorry if my post came off wrong--didn't mean that the chapter wasn't absolutely fantastic by any means. I just meant/was trying to say that at least in Jackson, the alumnae groups seem to continuously try to outdo each other & the Thetas (my mom included) seem to work very hard at help the Ole Miss chapter.

[p.s. my mom, aunt, & grandmother are all Thetas, I know you guys are AWESOME!]

Also fraternities spend a lot of $$ on thier informal rush parties. In the summer, they all have "rush parties." My friends and I used to always go to the Kappa Sig rush parties. For them, there are two every summer. One in Jackson, MS and one in New Orleans, LA. They invite PNM's that they knew in HS, stc and go on these road trips to Jackson & New Orleans. In addition they invite lots of girls..I guess this helps rush the guys too.

The one in Jackson--they get hotel rooms rent out a bar on a friday night and usually have a band and all. Then the next day everyone goes tubing down the river...it's sooo fun. they rent rafts for coolers and everyone has a good time.

The one in New Orleans...well it's new Orleans. Bourbon Street. Enough said.


So they spend a lot of $$ on rush as well.

LOL.. Thank you Rudey... However, that was not really my point!!!!!!!!!!!! Glad you got something out of my post though!!!!

Article about Ole Miss...and soo true.

http://weeklywire.com/ww/10-04-99/memphis_trvl.html

Here are some pics of the grove too.

http://www.tailgating.com/Tour%2003/Ole%20Miss.htm


Just another Ole Miss tradition. And yes we wear dresses and heels to football games...

We wore dresses and heels to our footballs games, and the guys wore ties as well. (Not that I'm saying that Western Carolina is ANYTHING like Ole Miss.) That's something I just never understood. What's the point of being dressed up? My sorority little sis would bring her bf up for the games, and she would always have to remind him what a major faux pas it was for him to forget his khakis and tie.

For Homecoming the guys upgraded to suits.

Wouldn't you want to be comfortable for the game and wear jeans and a school sweatshirt or something?

Thanks HottyToddy Ole Miss sister for the pics! Those are great! I invited some friends of mine who went to LSU, they were DZ's & Phi Mu's, anyway, and they were so confused about tailgating at Ole Miss. It is just done differently here. You gotta see it and experience it to understand it.

I love the way all of the sororities and fraternities have tents in the Grove with their letters with flowers, catered food, guest books to sign, and the STICKERS to wear! For example, AOII has stickers that say, "AOII loves our Rebels," and another sorority for example might have one that says, "Phi Mu supports our Rebs." Fun times. Just another way to support our football team and to promote our sororities while we are all dressed!

Oh the stickers are great...it's all about PR! Girls in the South in general, I think, are just raised to dress up even when we're dressed down. The grove is just another excuse to get pretty. This past year there was a group of guys from NYC that get together once a year and go to a college football game. We met them and invited them to our tent. They said they've been to games all over the country. They fell in LOVE with Ole Miss...they said now they are going to get together every year and come back to Ole Miss rather than ever go to any other school.

One of them told my mom after tossing the football around with me the thing he liked about me(a girl from the south) was that I was in my dress, my heels, drink in hand and I still threw the football 20 yards...I think they were just blown away that girls in the south get that dressed up for FOOTBALL!! A few weeks later those guys showed up at our tent for the LSU game...they said they couldn't wait another year to come back to the grove.

I know it makes no sense, but it's a tradition that I love! Wouldn't want it any other way.

Alabama does the stickers also - and I believe a few schools up here do it.

This sounds pretty much exactly like W&L!!

I'm going to look at pictures from your school later, but I wasn't impressed here. The guys looked weird and overweight. If the girls are all hot and the guys look like that, that's awesome.

-Rudey

This thread has been thoroughly entertaining!
As a Delta Gamma, I've always been aware of our heritage in Oxford. And the comments about the various Southern sororities is fairly accurate, but having lived all over the US, and in other Southern areas, there are some places that are a world unto themselves. Ole Miss is one of those places. (Not a swipe!)
I would never doubt that Theta has done well at Ole Miss. They are an AWESOME group whose members are wonderful and quite frankly, among the cream of the crop on a national level!
I lived in Dallas for almost 20 years and just relocated back to my home state of Florida. I was very active in Panhellenic, and it was known that many Dallas girls went to Ole Miss and took their love of the "Big Three" to Oxford and pledged. I am speaking of Theta, Pi Phi, and Kappa; some were legacies of these groups and would have been caught in the legacy numbers game at SMU or UT and to avoid breaking Mother and Grandmother's heart, they went to Ole Miss.

Someone said that FSU was not so big on recs, but more on looks and clothes. I think that statement is unfortunate and undeserved. Every campus focuses on something. Would it be fair to say that Ole Miss focused on your family, your connections, your family's bank account, the "right" church, etc?
FSU is in a Deep South town. Give us a break!
:(

Are any active Kappas from Ole Miss on the board?

Yes, MSKKG!!!!

Just adding here that certain high schools in Mississippi (including mine) do the exact same thing-dressing up for the football games! Also, there's an extremely popular high school sorority (I was in it for a year before I got bored and dropped), and the majority of girls who were in that are sorority members at Ole Miss. I think I'm the only girl who was in it who didn't go to a state school.

A&A, you just made my day! I am a 27-year alumna of Delta Rho chapter of KKG. I was at Ole Miss when Alpha Xi Delta left and when Theta colonized.

Why did Alpha Xi leave Ole Miss?

I would guess they went off campus for the same reason our chapter left there: sheer numbers and a lack of a VERY strong tradition of Alumnae sending their kids to join.

Again, just a guess. Maybe Katherine (OleMissGlitter) would know.

When I went through rush, they had very few members, I would say between 20 and 25. I'm not sure how many pledges they got that year, but I don't think it was over a handful.

Hello everyone:
I have some news, which shocked me last night because I didn't think it would ever happen while I was around but....



OLE MISS Panhellenic is taking a poll tonight to see if current sororities would be interested in a new sorority joining our campus! I attend our Leader's Council meetings and last night we discussed this. Our panhellenic has not asked an sorority to come yet or anything like that. They are just entertaining the option of expansion. Ole Miss has already accepted (doesn't mean they are coming) 150 more students and with last year's 900 women who went through recruitment, the numbers are expected to rise to about 950. Therefore, a new chapter would be a great addition. Now, no names have been mentioned yet and obvsiouly like mentioned in this thread before, this sorority would have to be willing to spend LOTS of money, have a great alumnae base near Oxford, MS, and put on a HUGE PR Blitz. Also, they would not participate most likely in Fall 2004 recruitment, but have deferred recruitment most likely. Anyway, this is just the latest news so far. Oh and they are about to hire a new Greek Life Director too, our former one moved to Jackson, MS to take on a job Gov. Haley Barbour. Just wanted to keep ya'll updated! I know our Leader's Council was happy to hear this and we think it would be a great idea!

I think that is great.

HOORAY!!! The new member classes are so huge now with the numbers going through rush. It is so hard for a new member to get to know everyone in her class, much less the active members. I bet a new group will be welcomed by the groups on campus already. Is a house available? It's been a while since I was back in Oxford :-)

OK, so who has a great group of interested & active alums in Memphis (the closest big city, an hour away)?

What would be wrong with bringing back one of the groups that used to be there? I know it was mentioned that Alpha Xi was there, and I think someone mentioned ZTA was also there. What other groups were there? I think someone also mentioned that a lot of the alumnae of those groups now have college-aged daughters who might be looking to be legacies...I think that would help give the new org. a head start. But then I think it was also mentioned in another thread that the former reputation of not having thrived on the campus would hurt the group more than help it.

Any thoughts?

It seems that the consensus is that the onus of having to live down the reputation of having left campus outweighs the leg up they would get with lots of legacies.

OleMissGlitter...let me know how the meeting goes. I was in Oxford this weekend and didn't hear anything about it. Kepp us updated please ;)