Considering, what I found a bit surprising in the Ole Miss stats is how many sorority chapter averages are in the yellow zone. There are five chapters in the green zone, and most of those just barely over a 3.0.

Not that my own alma mater is a flagship of academic selectivity :), but it seems as if the sorority/Greek chapter averages at Ole Miss are noticeably low in general.

@Hartofsec: I agree they are very low, but that is part and parcel when the University forces Chapters to have Recruitment during the Semester at an SEC school. So many unsatisfied PNMs were withdrawing from Ole Miss after Recruitment that Administration moved Recruitment out of the traditional preterm August time frame. Today, the largely non-Greek Alumni Instructors choose to routinely put midterms, papers, projects, and tests during the week of Recruitment out of passive (or active) aggression. Further, Recruitment is scheduled around the Football schedule so we cannot set Recruitment dates until the Football schedule is written in stone. For an Institution where the Administration, Alumni, Faculty, and Students say they want to be taken seriously, the current arrangement flies in the face of any appearance of Ole Miss having a serious purpose for academic achievement. Probably why it's the #1 party school in the nation right now it that academics are not the primary purpose. That being said, I have been told that Spring Term grades significantly improved over Fall, but do not believe it has been published as of yet.

My daughter went through recruitment at Ole Miss in the fall of 2012 and said that this was very apparent. When it happened in a couple of classes she thought perhaps it was coincidence, but it soon became obvious that it was not.

Another note on something that may or may not have had an impact on the sorority GPA's...my daughter had several friends who were dropped from recruitment fairly early on due to grades, but were given snap bids on bid day when some of the chapters did not make quota. (I doubt that these few girls that my daughter knew were enough, in and of themselves to make a significant impact, but I'm certain that they were not the only girls who had been dropped and received snap bids.) Just a thought...

I can see how rush conflicting with the midterm could have an impact on GPAs -- honestly, I don't know how everyone survives (especially the actives!). And most girls will have this interruption 4 semesters during their time at Ole Miss. Best to schedule one's most difficult classes in the spring if possible (made me wonder if this discourages some serious students from recruitment and membership).

I didn't see the spring 2013 numbers anywhere, but looked up the previous spring (2012). Interestingly the numbers are similar -- still very low -- with just a 0.08 overall difference for the nine NPC sororities:

http://web.archive.org/web/201211200...ks/scholarship

This might make it difficult to advocate for a different recruitment period based on the impact on grades. It might also lead a PNM with similar "yellow zone" grades to feel less concerned about how her grades will affect her recruitment.

I'm not sure how this can be explained considering the rising GPAs of more recent freshman classes at Ole Miss overall. If MS is anything like Alabama in terms of rural high schools (and I think it is), high school GPAs from rural high schools may seem inflated compared to more urban (suburban perhaps) high schools and private schools.

In other words, a 4.0 at Outlying Rural High is not necessarily equal to a 4.0 at Jackson Academy.

I think the rising numbers of OOS students probably helped us in this department at Bama.

This ^^^ and the intense social scene at Ole Miss. I remain amazed at how busy these young women are. Ole Miss is deceptive. When I was in undergrad in the 80's, it was known to be a moderately easy school with only certain courses of study being challenging. During Chancellor Khayat's tenure, Ole Miss acquired a more serious tone and a Phi Beta Kappa Chapter. People who rely on their parents memories will be sorely mistaken. And those who were never allowed off the leash in high school? They will be lost in the whirl. When I was a young one, Ole Miss used to lose 50% of the Freshman every year ("The Dean of Students hopes that you will take this next semester to reflect on how you might improve your performance in the Spring Term next year at Ole Miss"), I don't know what it is now.

Hartofsec, I don't have 2012-13, but there is data showing that Fall recruitment might have a detrimental effect. Though I'm sure it's not the only drag on GPA affecting Greek women. And it is obvious that Panhellenic is taking grades far more seriously than in the recent past.

Panhellenic All Sorority Average

Year . . . . . . . . . .Fall . . . . . . .Spring . . . . . Diff +/(-)
2007-08 . . . . . . 2.88 . . . . . . 2.69 . . . . . . (0.19)
2008-09 . . . . . . 2.96 . . . . . . 2.70 . . . . . . (0.26)
2009-10 . . . . . . 2.99 . . . . . . 3.06 . . . . . . . 0.07
2010-11 . . . . . . 3.02 . . . . . . 3.10 . . . . . . . 0.08
2011-12 . . . . . . 3.00 . . . . . . 3.12 . . . . . . . 0.12

Looking at the chart HartofSEC posted, is it a typo or is there one chapter really 100-150 members smaller than the other 8 chapters? If so, how does that happen with RFM and QAs, etc? I know technically how it could happen, but I can't imagine the college Panhellenic not helping even out the numbers.

^^^ Hey! My husband's cousin has taught there forever!

My beloved Mr. Poppins went there as a young man.

Pardon the crash (and I'm sure this has been explained before and I missed it)--why didn't they opt for a deferred recruitment (In January) instead of having a long drawn-out recruitment in the fall? I can't see how the current schedule is good for anyone.

Everyone of the Chapters said that it would negatively impact their finances to move Recruitment a whole semester. Given that not for profits cannot retain proceeds after expenses (known as profit in the for profit world) it may have seemed impossible to plan for that eventuality.

That makes sense--I didn't think about the financial implications. The two schools I know of in Texas that do deferred recruitment don't have houses.
Is this true for most of the deferred recruitment schools?

Not true for Indiana University or Ohio State University. Both have deferred recruitment and chapter houses.

ETA: I forgot Butler University, too.

Definitely to the first sentence as they would lose a whole semester of income. As for the second sentence, that's not exactly the case for all non profits. C 3's can retain quite a bit of revenue in investments and use the interest/dividends for programming and donations without any problems. C 7's, which is what most NPC's are nationally and locally (as well as most HCs) can retain a "reasonable" portion - but Lord only knows what that might mean to an IRS agent these days! Also, C 7's can do "set asides" with non member income (interest, dividends, rentals to non members, donations, etc) over $1000 per year for certain approved items such as principal payment on a mortgage, educational and charitable giving. To go a little further, some HCs are C 2's which are title holding corporations. They must spend all their income by the end of the fiscal year or return it to the stock holders. The only exceptions here are voted on items that will maintain their property (roof, boiler, etc) for which they need to accumulate funds over several years. (The old housing person in me coming out! I even have a chart of all this.)

Thank you. It has been 18 years since I was the FCB Secretary. And of course the operations policy varies from GLO to GLO.