Separate from the cell phone issue, and pertaining to my campus, I am not a fan of how we do recruitment. Firstly I hate the term recruitment and like the term rush. Secondly I don't like having it before classes start, but that is going to be too hard to change for various reasons.

As a result of having recruitment before school, women move into chapter facilities on Bid Day. I think it is a HUGE disservice to those women (the men don't require it, and there are guys who stay in dorms or off campus), and I love love love that our neighbor Washington State University has freshmen live in residence halls for the first semester at the minimum, or for the full year. There is so much Greek/Nongreek animosity and I think not only would it help people to make friends and not be haters, but could increase inter-fraternal relations, and might increase Greek life participation through informal recruitment. It would also keep older members and leadership involved longer, as well as living in the chapter facility. Unfortunately we have too much off cheap and available campus housing (but OMG at least half is super slummy), so the new members have to move in ASAP for financial reasons. I am an outgoing person and had a lot of campus involvement so I know all kinds of people outside my chapter and the fraternities my chapter mostly associated with, but I cannot remember the amount of times I would meet someone and they wouldn't know anyone from my chapter.

But that's just me, WaterChild likely has a completely different experience.

This campus is HUGE on parental involvement (my parents thought it was hysterical to have welcome letters and invitations to events) and we even have a BBQ during recruitment for parents to attend with their students. If parents and students don't know, they just aren't paying attention.

I payed plenty of attention when I registered for recruitment and when I arrived on campus. I, not my parents, was told that my parents were not supposed to contact me during the week but if an emergency came up they could call the Dean of Students office. Nothing said that we would lose access to our cell phones. We were not told until after we had moved in and taken a tour of the campus and done several activities that we couldn't have them. There was a barbecue, but at this point, it was just a rumor. I actually had to call my mom after she had left campus to tell her that I wouldn't have my phone. It was really ridiculous. I don't know if PNMs used to be informed ahead of time, but I certainly wasn't and I am a very aware person. If it had been mentioned in an email, I would have read it. And VandalSquirrel, the boys are required to move into the fraternity houses at the end of their recruitment with the exception of one or two of the houses.

With the boys it varies year to year depending on how full the houses are, but it is not required like it is for sorority women. The men don't have to deal with the overflow issue and living in the dorms nearly as much as the women do, but we've also had chapters close between when I came here and you did, which affects occupancy, as well as all the remodels.

I'm only going off what my sisters told me re: cellphones, as I didn't even know it was a new policy. There's obviously a communication issue to PNMs and families so maybe we should let our Rho Chis and Panhel reps. know so it can be addressed for the next recruitment. If I'm writing recs or have a woman ask me about Greek Life, I'll be sure to direct her to the Greek Life Office for clarification. There's a different system being used for recruitment registration now too, so maybe that's part of it, paperwork isn't being sent home and it is all being sent via VandalMail and not getting passed on to parentals. When I registered for recruitment years ago, my family got a phonecall from the Greek Advisor at that time, but perhaps it was because I was from out of state and they didn't realize I had come for summer session and was on campus already.