The 170 figure is the last one I heard. And FSUZeta is right in her assessment of most chapter size, according to the last numbers released. Unless there's been an unprecedented loss of membership from fall to spring, most groups won't drop below total in the spring.

I'm also, as I said before, really curious about this spring recruitment because it's hard to figure out "why now?"

Sure, the January admits might be new, but if the linked article was accurate, the numbers for students starting in January this year are nowhere near big enough to justify a whole new policy. If we assume that these new students want to go Greek at the same rate as is typical at UGA, which I kind of doubt, we'd be talking about between 25-50 PNMs depending on how many of the 200 students are women.

There were that number of openings in just the two groups below total at 170 in the fall. (Sure, I know that all PNMs don't necessarily want to go where the openings are, but it's hard to see a need for a whole new recruitment instead of just letting groups below total participate, like has been the case for a long time at UGA)

Trying to get rid of the stigma of COB/COR is a great idea, but if it works against the opportunities of groups below total to catch up, and there's no reason to think there's an unprecedented demand for more placements, what's up, UGA?

Sorry for the double post, especially when the last one was so long, but. . .

I think I mentioned this before someplace but it might play in here: some of the groups that are smaller today in relative size, but still above total, at UGA are groups that are regarded as being pretty desirable in terms of traditionally being popular in formal recruitment. (At least I think: I'm not privy to actual return rates, of course, but in terms of PNM/rushee hype from current students that I know telling me about how recruitment went, these aren't "struggling" chapters.)

So, if they are raising total or allowing groups to give bids above total, but in some method that looked at chapter size rather than just a straight quota, rather than a "bait and switch" the PNMS might be pleasantly surprised at where some of the openings turn out to be.

Chapter Total has not really been discussed as far as setting a "quota", that I recall. Houses under "total" (170) might receive special consideration as far as assistance from alums, etc. Orientation at UGA was Monday, Jan. 5, so sign-up's for this event should start climbing.

Aren't there some campuses where chapters are allowed to COB up to average chapter size, rather than to total (thus, by definition, half the houses are allowed to COB)? Would 50% participation be enough to counter the stigma of COB at UGA?
________
Avandia side effects

That 50% participation would be if they were bidding to median chapter size, not averare. Very large or small groups will skew the mean, leaving either more or less than half the groups below average size.

According the most recent sizes published on the Greek Life page, the average chapter size was 185 in fall of 2007. There's not much point in even noting this because things have almost certainly changed in a year, but I think I counted five groups below 185, but I wasn't really careful.

http://www.uga.edu/panhellenic/forms/Rank.pdf

(Do you think the reason that they don't seem to be posting the grade report is that people like me link them publicly on sites about Greek Life to document chapter size? Should I remove the link?)

Sorry to respond so late into this thread! From the posts I've read, most are correct in their assumptions, but I just wanted to clear up/reiterate a few things:

The reason UGA has decided to allow a Spring Recruitment this year is because for the first time, UGA has admitted incoming freshmen for the Spring semester. Since going through recruitment as a sophomore has its known disadvantages, UGA decided to level the playing field for PNM's admitted for Spring semester (as well as any girls who didn't go through recruitment or dropped out in the Fall).

For this reason, every sorority will be required to participate. There were very few sororities who didn't reach quota for the Fall, in fact. Nevertheless, there will be a set quota for each sorority that they will be required to meet to the best of their ability.

That being said, quota has yet to be set. The sororities won't know what quota is until all the numbers are in (registration ends Jan. 24th). Depending on the number of girls who choose to participate in recruitment, along with the number of open spots in the sorority, determines quota. So far the numbers being thrown around and expected is anywhere from around as little as 10 to as much as 25. No one will know for sure until all PNM's have registered.

Since this is the first time UGA has held Spring Recruitment, none of the sororities really know what to expect because it's set up quite differently from Fall recruitment.

Hope this helps! And wish all the UGA sororities and Spring PNM's good luck! :)

Why not just go with a separate sophomore quota next year for the students who entered in January?

Maybe to take the stigma away from COB. Think about it, 1) the chapters that will be taking higher quotas due to missing quota in formal recruitment will look like they are simply participating in recruitment, rather than COBing, and therefore take away the negative stigma about COBing chapters since it can be viewed negatively at a school like UGA. A PNMs spot may essentially be there because the chapter would have had to COB normally, but it allows the campus to think that Patty PNM got her bid through recruitment rather than COB.

2) The separate quotas will make it very hard to figure out if a group missed their quota or not...say ABC matches their quota of 10, and struggling chapter XYZ misses their quota of 25 but still gets 15 women. The stigma about them being a struggling chapter is gone because nobody else knew what their quota was and they, comparatively, still got a large class. Maybe they would have had to COB those 15 women anyways, and now they only have 10 spots open for COB. They can do a much more private COB or snap bid to fill those spots rather than advertising COB to get the 25 women they needed. I imagine that to get 25 women through COB they would have had to advertise a lot, and the UGA stigma would paint their chapter as undesirable, but now they can just secretly COB and add those girls to their quota from spring recruitment.

I'm totally cool with both those reasons, but the official word suggests that it's all about the January admits and I think framing it like that is less than above board. And for some reason, it bugs me.

spring recruitment
 

I agree that it seems a bit unusual to just have spring recruitment because of the new admits. The Red and Black article today posts the number of new freshmen at 202, but says that UGA accepted 950 transfers with 60 hours or more if I read it correctly. I know that there are currently about 70 women who have signed up for Spring recruitment, but I think they have the whole month of January so the number could go up a good bit. I think Spring recruitment is a great thing - much more relaxed for those girls who might struggle with the very formal Fall recruitment, but it will be interesting to see if it becomes a yearly event.

UGAalum94 - I think APhiAnna hit the nail on the head. They are killing 2 birds with one stone. The thing is, if you bring up that it's to take away the stigma, it just reminds everyone of the stigma.

Exactly...I'm sure that the sorority women from both ends ("top" and "struggling" chapters) recognize this, but it will, effectively, go over the heads of PNMs. I think it's actually a good move...if they made a sophomore quota, then what PNM would COB when they thought they would have a chance at every chapter next fall? The struggling chapters COB efforts would be practically useless...that would make it even harder for them to COB, thus strengthening the stigma.

So if someone went through as freshman dropped out then when through as sophomore and was cut would they have a chance at all with spring rush?