It's actually right around 1500 so it's about average! You will do great! Get excited and have fun with it! I hope you'll consider writing a recruitment story if you have time :)

1500 rushing average? wow, I don't think there's 1500 girls at my uni..

19 party is this weekend, so excited and a little nervous.

my rho gamma was a sohpomore as well when she went through recruitment, and she keeps telling us that as long as we be ourselves and have fun we will have a good experience :)

Good luck and have fun!!
I hope to hear how it turns out.

I know that some schools limit the number of PNMs allowed to register for recruitment even though there isn't a cap on the number of bids that can be given out and it's still figured out using RFM. Why can't Indiana limit the number of PNMs who are allowed to register for recruitment in the first place (based on total available bids plus a percentage for predicted drops?) It seems self-defeating to have X number maximum spots available but Y number women starting out.

I never heard of that either.

You could argue that arbitrarily picking a number limit of PNMs is 1) interfering with the sororities' and the PNMs' freedom of association 2) interfering with membership selection.

If you're a dingdong and don't register by so and so date, that's your own fault...but to not be able to rush because someone made it to the GL office 5 minutes before you did and got the last spot? I can't see where that is fair - to sororities or PNMs.

I don't remember which school it was but I remember reading it here and looking at the link to the school's page and there it was. If I remember correctly, it was one of those schools that is super competitive that you wouldn't normally think of as being that way ..... maybe USC or Arizona?

Two years ago Arizona had a statement on their registration web site that registration would be limited to 1200 PNMs.

Do they still? Did it have a point for them to say that (i.e. do they normally get more PNMs than that)?

Like I said this sounds like opening a can of worms that is totally unnecessary. If the chapters are too big for your taste, add another one! But don't deny women the chance to be Greek in the interim.

IU Panhellenic just approved extension. So hopefully a year from now there will be (at least) one new chapter!

I don't see a limit on the number of women who can register. We want to get the best possible women for our houses, we wouldn't want to restrict who was able to rush. But we are VERY strict about women who miss the registration date. If you try to register at midnight on the day after you can't. No exceptions.

I'm really excited for recruitment too! Nothing compares to spending the entire weekend with your sisters. And good luck to all the ladies going through 19 party.

I'm not so sure expansion is public knowledge yet. They just approved the extension process a month or so ago and they are going to start interviews and presentations in the Spring! I'm so excited to have another chapter (hopefully) soon!

Is there a place to put comparable housing?

If not, I just don't think any group will want to come there and settle for being what is basically a lower-level sort of GLO.

Any new chapter that extends would not get a house.
We thought this would be a problem but we did a survey for women who went through recruitment and did not get a bid-- 66% of women said that they would join a chapter even if it didn't have a house. That's a pretty substantial number (about one thousand people). So we're hoping the survey is a good indication of a potential chapter's success.

Ohhhhhhh man.

You should have done a survey of women BEFORE they even rushed and asked if they would join a sorority without a house. Of course when they've gone through rush and failed they'll say "houses don't matter! I just want to be in a sorority!! I don't care if I have to live in a cardboard box!"

I'm sure when my group came on campus (early 90s when Greek life everywhere was huge) we had a similarly large bunch of women saying the house doesn't matter, only the people, but we never got a house, and surprise surprise, we are no longer there.

Maybe a group like this can sustain a chapter if the national chooses to do so, but like I said, they'll be on a lower level and probably referred to as "you know, that fake sorority without the house."

I think it's great that a new sorority is going to colonize at IU, but I don't know how well it will fare with the student body. I think many girls are attracted to the Greek system at IU because of the fact that all 19 chapters have a house on campus. A lot of girls going through recruitment would probably have a really difficult time ranking a chapter without a house highly.

But as far as 19 party goes, it just finished tonight! I won't give a total recap of my weekend because I don't want to bore you all to tears, but here are just some things about the past 2 days:

- It was so cold! I think it was quite funny/ironic how the first major snowfall of the season occurred literally the night before 19 party. On Saturday we braved snowfall which wasn't too bad, but today was just absolutely freezing. The wind chill didn't really help either! For me, the worst part was standing outside each chapter and just waiting to go inside. Once we got inside, it was all good.

- A lot of girls, myself included, have REALLY similar top 14 lists after this round. I totally went into recruitment thinking that I should go for what are considered "lower" tier chapters, as horrible as that sounds. I'm paranoid because I am not a legacy and I don't have any recommendation letters, and I hear the horror stories about IU recruitment all the time. But I have found that all the houses do an amazing job of recruiting and I just fell in love with so many houses. I know it's hard to really judge an entire chapter based on 30 minutes but I got good vibrations from a lot of chapters. People say this all the time, but now I understand that there really isn't a "bad" chapter at IU.

- I had some really great conversations with girls in different houses. People always say that the best conversations at rush are the ones that go beyond the generic "What's your major?" "What brought you to IU?" ones. Those conversations are what helped me remember houses the best.

- It was a really fun experience overall. I am dead tired and have no energy, but I'm very happy with how things turned out. My biggest fear is being "that girl" who gets back a minuscule number of houses for 14 party but I'm crossing my fingers. I hope that the rest of recruitment goes just as well!

good luck to you!

You don't have recommendations? Why not? You can't help your non-legacy status, but recs are a thing you could control for the most part. Most PNMs aren't legacies, but at competitive schools nearly everyone has recs.

Well that's the thing, because no one in my family has ever been in a Greek organization I had no idea that recs were even beneficial to the recruitment process until I got to Bloomington. I was also back and forth about whether I wanted to rush and didn't decide I want to for certain until October. Finally, since I'm new to this whole thing, I had always assumed that recs HAD to be written by your family who were legacies. And now obviously it's kind of late... oh well.

19 party was last week. It was freezing, but so much fun! I feel like it went really well. I talked to so many great girls, heard so many stories, and had some really good conversations. Cant wait until January!

CookiesNCream:
When I asked my rho gamma about letters of rec, she said that they werent a huge factor in recruitment. The most beneficial part of rrecs would have been the pre-rush events where you would be invited to have dinner at that chapter. This helps the chapter remember the PNM, but shouldn't give them higher preference over the girls without recs.

My rho gam also said that she went through recruitment with any letters of recomendation, and that it ended well for her :)

Good luck with the rest of recruitment!

Ladies who are rushing-

I can't speak for every chapter at IU. But at my chapter, recs have VERY LITTLE to do with how we select our members. Because we have bed quota, my chapter can only take 50-60 members a year. With this set number compared with the 1500 pnms out there, we are more concerned with getting the best possible pledge class out of that hugeeeee number, thus having a rec, and in many cases, being a legacy, have little effect on our final decision.

I did not have a recommendation for my chapter, nor was a legacy.

But I did have numerous recommendations as well as legacy status at another house. That chapter dropped me after 3 party. So my being a legacy and having letters of recommendation, which were actually from several women placed very highly in the national organization of that chapter, had NOTHING to do with me getting a bid.

Note:: I'm really happy that this chapter did not give me a bid. My best advice to potential new members is to follow your heart independently of everyone else. A lot of the reason why I liked chapter X was because my mom is very involved with the organization and I really wanted to share that with her. While I do still wish I could have shared that with my mom, I feel very lucky to be in my chapter. All the way through rush I loved the house, but I never ranked them #1 because of my mom. However it was always the house I knew would be the best home for me.

So follow your heart and make your own decisions! If you have any other questions please let us know :)

I just want to point out that, as a PNM, you don't actually know if you have a rec to a chapter. Chapters do solicit recs, and alumnae do write recs unprompted. It's not the norm, but it happens.

this.

and iugreekgirl, maybe your legacy chapter could tell that you were just not that into them. glad you found the right home for you!

Ok please forgive me if this is a dumb question...but at a school using Bed Quota, how will quota be determined for the group that is unhoused if they have no beds to fill? Sorry I know I'm probably overlooking something :o I just don't see how that will work.

They'll probably use an average of the other 19 - like if one house holds 120, one holds 110 and one holds 90, quota would be 106.

And my guess is this chapter would be unhoused initially but working like crazy to get one. Although it's possible they could succeed at IU, I think being the oddity would add an obstacle they'd rather not face. Even getting a "lodge" type facility would be something, and could probably be attained by buying a regular house on or near campus, should one ever go on the market.

I hope something can be worked out. It's a shame for so many interested gals to lose out on such a great lifetime experience.

No. This won't work either.

If the school is straight up saying "you won't get a house" - I would take that as gospel forever and ever amen - not wait for one of the fraternities to eff up and lose theirs, or for land to magically appear. Any group that comes on thinking "we'll get one eventually" will most likely be screwed.

(This applies at any big Greek school that doesn't give a colonizing group definite housing plans - not just IU.)

Well, it looks like the university is opening up land to build a new fraternity house for Fiji (Phi Gamma Delta) so maybe there is a possibility of them adding space for another sorority as well.

When Kappa Sigma built their new house, the university originally offered them the land that is occupied by the tennis courts across from Sig Ep. That might be a perfect place for Fiji, and if not, at least a new sorority!

The university actually offers options on financing the construction of fraternity and sorority houses (that's partially how Beta paid for their new mansion!) but the catch is that if you default, the university gets your land and house.

There are some odd spaces here and there on the extension that might hold a house if they're designed right. From what I understand, the problem now is that houses MUST have so many parking spaces per beds if they want to be built (as opposed to the old houses that are grandfathered in with tiny parking spaces). This is why certain sororities and fraternities on the extension share parking lots (owned by the university), and why a larger plot of land is needed for new houses being built.

I realize I'm rambling on but my point is that, yeah, there is a tiny chance that the university could open up land for a new sorority. Very tiny though because they're holding out on where to put the houses in the center of campus when they eventually buy them to make way for academic buildings.

I cant wait to see which sororities present for expansion. I wonder if Sigma Sigma Sigma will try again. I think it would be awesome if Sigma Kappa made a return.

And there you have it.

Any sorority that comes in believing the "tiny chance" they might get a house is nuts. Any group that presents needs to know they are going to be an unhoused chapter, and if anything changes that, well, it's kind of like counting on winning the lottery.

There's one thing I don't understand: if a chapter doesn't have a house, where would you hold meetings, events, etc? My chapter only has 25 and its hard enough to find appropriately sized spaces, I couldn't imagine looking for 100+ :0

The Indiana Memorial Union is a popular place. I know that APO makes good use of it and all sorts of other groups do too. They have rooms of all sizes, from small conference and meeting rooms to Alumni Hall, which has a capacity of 650 people. (We had our 80th Anniversary banquet in that room - it is huge!) Many groups, including APO, have offices in the Student Activities Tower at the IMU - this is handy for storing stuff! There are also rooms in the academic buildings that are used evenings and weekends (We used to have chapter meetings in one of the large lecture rooms in Jordan Hall, and we've met at the business school too.) Many of the dorms also have large multipurpose rooms - the Flame Room at McNutt is especially popular. There are also some restaurants and banquet facilities off campus.

There's definitely no lack of meeting or event space.

The IMU would definitely be the place to hold chapter meetings. It's hoped for that any chapter that extended to IU would be able to get a floor in one of the dorms for housing.

It's 100% true that the University is negotiating with FIJI to buy their house to expand the law school- so yes, there is land available.

But it's one of the conditions of extension that the chapter would be extending without the promise of being able to build a house. IU has a huge space issue right now. The University has over 40,000 students now and the dorms are filled to the gills. Classrooms are overcrowded- there isn't enough space. The other land is being saved for building new academic buildings and for relocating....

What the University is hoping to do is buy out all the sororities (Kappa, Pi Phi, Alpha PHi, Tri-Delt) and fraternities (Lambda Chi, Delta U, Delta Chi, Acacia, and FIJI) on third street and move them to the extension. They're saving the few lots of land for that.

The best hope for any chapter wanting to extend is to purchase a house from a fraternity that gets removed from campus. But let me make it clear-- IU Panhellenic has stated that there is no promise that a chapter that extends will be able to build a house. So while all the sororities on campus want the new chapter to have a house, it is unlikely for them to get one.

Does "the extension" = the corner of Jordan and Fee Lane on this map?

http://www.indiana.edu/~gogreek/IFCbooklet.pdf (pps 25 & 27)

The extension is Jordan Ave. between Fee Lane and 17th Street. (from ADPi to Phi Kappa Sigma).

The Third Street houses are gorgeous and it would be a shame for those chapters to lose them. IUGreekGirl, are they also looking to relocate the other houses not on North Jordan and the Extension? (Theta, DG, Sigma Chi)

Sister Havana, the university (as I'm sure you of all people probably already know) has been trying to buy 3rd streets for quite some time. When I was there, I remember a guy in DU telling me that the university offered them 4 Million dollars for their house (with the option to buy land somewhere else) because the school of music wanted to expand (kids would wake up at 5am and stay up until 2am to find practice rooms because there werent enough). DU apparently preferred to keep their house and key location rather than moving and turned the offer down.

Theta's house is so old (Beta chapter), I wonder if it can become a historic landmark? Either way that wont stop the university from using it as academic offices, but at the least the beautiful mansion would be preserved.

IU's housing problem would be partially solved if they would allow more fraternities and sororities structures on campus. Unfortunately for greek houses (but fortunately for squirrels and the environment), IU LOVES trees, and will build a structure around one before they tear it down. There are spaces here and there, but IU wont cut down the trees to make the land usable.

It would be a shame to lose those houses on 3rd, but look at what moving has done for Beta. They were a top tier before they were kicked off....but now they are on their way to possibly being the top house!