Actually, 1027(give or take a few ) started the process last fall. I was off by 100 or so.
I'll just say that Blinn team maing more of an impact than I expected. it is going to interesting when it is all said and done.

UT Dean of Students put a letter out last week to its Greek stakeholders, asking them to please clearly state their organizational policies regarding membership restrictions for PACE students (the Texas equivalent of Blinn Team).

Formal rush at UT starts today. It will be interesting to see how this all shakes out in September.

Could the bolded above fall under membership selection?

That will be interesting to see. I feel like that's infringing on MSS a bit, since if a girl knew going in that she couldn't join a certain chapter then she would have no inclination to carry conversation or make an attempt to impress the actives. Obviously rude PNMs will be rude regardless but I would feel disheartened if I had to attend a bunch of parties first round that I had no chance at.

I would think, ideally, panhellenic and the chapters who cannot take them would agree that it's okay not to make the ineligible pnms go to their houses during that round. Easier on the sisters, easier on the pnms.

That's if this information becomes publicly known, of course. I'm not sure how I feel about them requesting this information in the first place.

Does UT allow PACE students to rush?

Yes. It has been the stated policy of UT Panhellenic for a while now. (before registration opened)

When does the university stop intruding upon the NPC members right to meet ALL registered PNMs?

The university may someday choose to tell PNMs they don't have to attend rush parties at houses where they do not meet that specific home's GPA requirement.

Or the university may decide to tell certain NPC groups they can't rush upperclassmen, negating the necessity for certain PNMs to attend THOSE rush parties.

The point of recruitment is to meet women from all walks of life regardless of their GPA/social status/legacy status/etc.

I wasn't aware that they'd started, outside of university-mandated minimum GPA requirements to participate in recruitment.

I'm saying that if it's very clear from national policy that they cannot take these women, no matter how much they want to, it would be nice if they didn't have to waste one another's time and resources. At my alma mater, 3/5 of the chapters could take grad students. Grad student pnms still had to attend the other two chapters' parties for no reason. In situations where those chapters are smaller and may be double rushing pnms, for instance, this hurts them by throwing one more body into the mix whom they absolutely, positively cannot invite back to another round.

At the University of Texas, not so long ago, they did not have an open house round. They were an invitational only recruitment. The collegians openly recruited girls during the summer at parties in Austin and in their hometowns and made 1st cuts before rush ever started. Just thought I throw that out for discussion. If that were still the case, girls would know right up front. Is that what what you mean by telling PNM's they can pick their parties to attend (only in reverse)

I'm picking up what you're laying down, but I think at UT, for the most part the chapter parity is such that it really isn't a problem.

There's also the chance that by actually meeting and liking some of the PACE women, the chapters will be more likely to lobby their HQ to alter their policy if HQ is reluctant to do so for whatever reason.

I cannot imagine how disruptive to the process it would be if Rho Chi's had to sift through PNM files to determine if specific PNMs could be excused from a party for whatever reason. The situation is organized chaos at best and this would just really push things to the edge. No matter what reason a chapter choose not to invite a young women back, whether it be grades, PACE enrollment, the color of her hair…WHATEVER, if it is a blanket reason the young women will be gone after open house. I honestly believe young women should treat Open House rounds as a way to get an opportunity to see inside of places they will never see again, meet great people and learn about the process. It is kind of like going to the store to just buy milk. You have to pass many things to get to what you want. It just is what it is. It is just how the process rolls. The serious stuff starts on Philanthropy day.

For basis of people not knowing exactly what "not so long ago" means:

Open House round started about 30 years ago, and summer rush dates continued for another 5-8 years...

I'm all for that!

Really, I am against the sharing of membership selection information. However, I understand wanting to confirm that the PACE women would be eligible for bidding by at least one of the chapters before telling the women that they may register. Having every single one of them be cut after open house round because no one can take PACE students would be a nightmare scenario.

My unease is in the knowledge that it's probably not going to be one person confirming that bidding eligibility within the panhellenic community exists and then moving on.

Surely no more complicated than a right-click sort in Excel, and then putting the PACE women in their own Rho Chi groups. Easy peasy?

This made me laugh and think of the very annoying local Whole Foods knockoff where when I just run in to buy milk, I invariably leave emitting a cloud of f-bombs because the place is set up in such a ridiculous fashion and what should take 5 minutes takes 25. If anything near me inspires stress levels akin to that of a large Southern rush, this would be it.