i hate skit night. there really is no purpose. who cares if the chapter can dance and sing???? not me. plus i think it is rude that as the week goes on, pnms are expected to be more dressed up and the sisters are just sitting around in costumes.

we didn't have a philanthropy night when i went through rush. i would like to experience that, i think.

i was left by my rusher in one of the "popular" houses. literally, i was talking to her, she excused herself and never came back. were were all talking 1:1, but there were plenty of people around. she didn't even introduce me to someone else. i stood there for a few minutes in complete awe that this was happening. the president of the chapter came over and was like, where is so and so...lol...i told her i didn't know. she turned out to be sweet, but i dropped that house ASAP.

starting this year, our Panhel has decided to eliminate skit night from formal recruitment. They also voted to 'tone down' decorations.

I never went through formal recruitment here, so I would have liked to see how it has been done, but the older sisters say the decorations thing means they won't have to blow up 500 balloons a day, which I guess could be a good thing!

I think it's the same way most places. There are some schools where you can't ever touch a PNM, and others where you can't touch her at any round except Pref, but I think for the most part it's off limits.

What I hated about recruitment was that it took all day, but I was actually only at houses for about 2 hours a day. We had to show up about an hour before anyone actually left to go visit a house. We never just went straight from one house to another, we came back to a central location for about a half-hour. And to top it all, we had more rush groups than houses, so for 2 or 3 time slots each day each group had a 'bye' during which we had to sit in this room and do nothing. Well, we did watch Mary Kate and Ashley movies and color in coloring books and eat candy...which was fun, and I know they were trying to make it like a 'destressing' time for us, and there was nothing to do about with the schedule as it was. But man, it was boring!

Sarah

Carnation, I cut a chapter partly because of the "Sister X" thing. It was just creepy.

That's wild... I don't recall my school having any rules about touching PNMs. I guess it's so that you can't hug them?

I seem to recall shaking hands with a few sisters when I rushed and with a few PNMs when I was on the other side... but no hugs... I'm not the touchy-feely type.

Would there be an exception for people with relatives going through? I can't imagine not being allowed to hug my blood sister, cousin, etc. if she were rushing my chapter and I had the chance to talk to her.

Would there also be an exception for emergencies, or for unusual circumstances - a PNM trips and a sister catches her arm so she doesn't fall?

Hm - skit was my favorite part. It helped me see there personalities and such - which is partly why I picked DG. I went in thinking I need to find a down to earth sorority that focuses on school and sisterhood - but also knows how to have fun. DG's skit showed me EXACTLY that.

The part I hated the most was pref night. I know that should be the most important night, but I felt bad when many other girls were crying and I wasn't. It made me think that maybe they thought I didn't want to be there as bad - which wasn't true at all.

My #1 hate though was when I fell in love with *insert sorority name here* on the first day. It went beyond "what's your major" and yadda yadda yadda - we talked about things real friend stalked about. On day two, one of the girls I talked to on the first day came and said hello to me - and then the president came over and said "We've heard so many good things about you Andrea!" I was over come with joy because it made me think they really liked me - then that night they cut me. I was so confused I didn't even get upset about it. When I looked at my invitation list for the next day, I thought my eyes were fooling me that I didn't see *insert sorority name here* on it.

I figure the president was just trying to be nice, but it really does more harm than good. I mean after the 2nd day I loved this sorority. Oh well, everything happens for a reason, and I just couldn't imagine me being anything else but a Delta Gamma now.

It's supposed to be so that PNMs don't feel left out if they see other girls being hugged by a sorority member and they don't get hugged. Or, conversely, so that girls don't feel like the sorority is more likely to give them a bid if they get hugged and nobody else does.

I'm assume it wouldn't apply in emergencies. I can't imagine just letting a rushee fall down the stairs and split her head open just because it was against the rules to touch her! :eek:

I don't know if there's an exception for relatives -- I would doubt it.

And again, I'm not positive that they have this rule EVERYWHERE -- just that it exists at a number of places I'm familiar with.

I've never heard about the rule before... Probably because all of our sorority houses have these huge marbley-looking tile stairs in the entrances... and all our recruitment events take place on the second floor! We definately have to grab PNMs as they walk in or else I am sure that many of them would fall!

I don't know whether we have an actual rule about not touching PNMs. We're encouraged/expected to shake hands, but our advisors tell us to avoid touching them. I remember that being one of the things about which I was über-paranoid during my first time as a rusher. We were supposed to get our PNM at the door and lead them over to the rotation group. Mine was someone I already knew (we have winter rush) and she started to wander away, and I instinctively reached out and guided her along with me. Then I freaked out, 'cuz I remembered that we weren't supposed to touch the PNMs. "Bad touch! Bad touch!"

I think skit nights are pointless. We only have three rounds of rush, and we traded skit night for philanthropy night in 1998. Thank god.

I'm trying to think of a good way to explain the selection process to PNMs. I guess it'd be best to say, "Every chapter does it differently and the process is confidential, so I don't even know." I'd say "confidential" rather than "secret" because the latter implies exclusion, whereas the former suggests that it's to avoid hurt feelings, which is the reason that it's secret.

I don't think there's a rule against touching but we don't do it because some girls get really creeped out if you touch them. If we need to guide them somewhere, we might touch them lightly on the arm or we put our hand behind their back but don't touch them. I tend to be kinda bad about it and lightly touch their arm to sort of grab them but I haven't had anyone freak out on me yet.

Then again we had some weird sisters who are gone now who freaked out about some weird things. :confused:

I know that at Wisconsin we have the no-touch rule, at least for the first couple rounds (I can't remember about pref). When I was going through, my Rho Chi warned us that we shouldn't be offended if we try to shake the sisters hands and they don't respond, because if they touch us they get a rush infraction.

I think, but I'm not completely sure, that the rule is different at Pref. I vaguely recall shaking hands with the presidents of certain groups or girls touching my back or arm during the pref ceremony.

I have to admit that from my point of view, there are some girls who just have no conception of personal space, and it would freak me out if people who just met me were touching me too much. So I think just from a don't-scare-the-rushees standpoint, it's a good rule to have for the earlier rounds.

My roommate hated the fact that everyone hugged her during rush last year.
She is not an affectionate person at all, even with her close friends, so it really freaked her out. I don't mind in this setting if there are girls I don't know hugging me or touching my arm - I think it's a sweet gesture that can either make you feel at home, or let you know how at ease the sisters are. I do understand that some could be wierded out though.