Woohoo! There are 3 new Zeta babies, 2 new Kappas and 1 new Phi Delt at UA.

I have heard second or third hand that a PNM at bid day opened her bid in the Greek Theater to find a House for whom she hadn't attended a pref party. She apparently hadn't been told this was coming and it obviously set up an uncomfortable situation. This seems rather tactless.

Given the numbers reported here for three Houses (77, 75 and 73 with a quota of 63) does Uark operate under some sort of guaranteed bid system? Without knowing the facts, is it possible that the numbers over quota could include such a PNM?

In any event, how does a girl show up for bid day and get blindsided in front of everyone? It could end up being a match made in heaven, but I'm sure it doesn't feel like that at the time.

Though I never heard of it happening at Arkansas, I know for a fact that that happened when one of my daughters was rushing. I started a thread on GC but have no idea what it was called. Anyway, 2 girls in her recruitment group opened their envelopes right next to her to find the name of a third group whose parties they hadn't attended since the first day. Then I started hearing about that happening all over the state.

Out of curiosity, if that sort of thing happened:

Girl preffed A & B and ranked A & B and signed the bid card, but comes on bid day to find a bid to C

If she declined that bid would she be bound to it for a year? I would think not since her signed bid card after pref had only A & B on it?

I don't see how they could hold PNMs to it since sorority C wasn't on the card they signed after prefs. My daughter said that the 2 girls never reported to sorority C, that they just left the grounds.

That sounds worse than not getting a bid at all and getting the "dreaded phone call" - a PNM would have her hopes up that she had matched with one of her two pref parties, only to see group #3 . . . yuck.

Or it could have been a computer or hand-matching error. I mean, I think there have to be at least a few of those out there with 1000s of women going through rush every semester. She should just tell her rho chi immediately that she never put that sorority down on her bid card.

I think it's rather tactless to make rushees open their bids in a "Greek Theater" (at least they're blunt about it) in front of everyone else, period.

I have no problem with groups snap bidding girls who didn't match elsewhere, but the PNM should know about it first.

A PNM should be contacted before the bid to a group she didn't pref is put in the envelope, IMO.

I also think this kind of snap bidding should only happen after QAs are exhausted, and if they are matching bids this way, it makes you wonder if they tried to match with QA first.

I might be misinformed, but I think the Greek Theater at the U of Arkansas is not exclusively for fraternity and sorority use. Concerts, various university events, performances, etc. take place there. As I recall, it's a replica of an ancient Greek theater. My understanding is that it was a gift to the university from Chi Omega, and was completed around 1930. It's been maintained / repaired / made wheelchair accessible, etc. over the years.

I agree that making rushees open bids in front of everyone is, at the least, potentially insensitive.

[quote]I might be misinformed, but I think the Greek Theater at the U of Arkansas is not exclusively for fraternity and sorority use. Concerts, various university events, performances, etc. take place there. As I recall, it's a replica of an ancient Greek theater. My understanding is that it was a gift to the university from Chi Omega, and was completed around 1930. It's been maintained / repaired / made wheelchair accessible, etc. over the years.[QUOTE]

Yes! And we had the best ever pep rallies there!!!! I'm not biased at all. :D

This actually happened once, when I was bid matching. A PNM "didn't understand" that putting a GLO's name down meant that she would accept the bid, and she got not A or B, but more like K. She absolutely freaked, and because of the hysteria, the Panhellenic Council decided not to hold her to the one year rule.

Frankly, I place the blame for such a thing squarely in the hands of the Rho Chi, or whatever they're called on campus.

Typically, as far as I've been aware on our campus, the one-year rule applies only to signed bid cards. For example, when I went through recruitment in 2005, we opened our bid cards in the theater (which is not an invasive method in practice, really) and the PNMs screamed and hugged and found the group of new sisters in the stands to walk home wiht. A couple girls in my Gamma Chi (Rho Chi) group opened their bid envelopes to get their second choice, and so were really disappointed. They honestly should have suicide preffed if they only would accept one bid, just to keep that chapter's lists accurate. Anyway, arkansas DOES guarantee a bid to every member who attends at least one pref night party. So, the girls who got their #2 choice, and were not willing to pledge choice #2, didn't show up at their bid house that day. However, because a handful of houses do open/continuous recruitment during the year, the girl was able to affiliate to a house that was not on her pref day schedule, because she never signed a bid card.
Of course, if you DO sign the bid card, you can't be in a GLO for one full year if you decide to drop out.
At least, that's the idea. A member that dropped out of our house after several weeks pledging ended up joining a house that does continuous recruitment... only weeks after we cancelled her membership. Our greek life office let that one go by the wayside, so it's possible that other things are let to slide too.

In the Chi Omega Greek Theatre?

This is incorrect. Signing your pref sheet after pref parties is the same as signing a physical, actual bid card. Those girls were NOT eligible to pledge another sorority just because they didn't go to their #2 choice on bid day...they are bound to that group for a year.

The rest of the post tells me that this poster is not clear on NPC rules, but if this is true, that seems like potential for A LOT of dirty rushing. Especially if the new release figures aren't being used.