NPC rush history
 

A few questions for all the NPC historians out there.

I was looking at a friend's yearbook from 1979 (1978 maybe) and read that the campus panhellenic council had just implemented a "formalized" rush per the NPC. (i.e. rounds of parties etc.) I know that Kentucky was using some sort of formal rush by then so I was kind of surprised this was considered a 'new thing'.

So my question is when did the NPC develop and begin implementing the idea of a more formal or structured rush? Did certain campuses already have some sort of formal rush and the concept was adapted by NPC as a whole? Or was this something that was developed by the NPC (Unanimous Agreements?) and then passed down to the campuses?

Also when and how did "totals" and "quota" come about?

OK. It's been eight months. Any non NPC historians want to take a crack at this?

This is an interesting website pertaining to some of the history of quota and total. . . I am currently researching the history of Recruitment, so we shall see what comes up!!!
http://kuznets.fas.harvard.edu/~aroth/sorority.html :p

Thank you for the link. From Endnote #7 - Membership Selection (Section 3), tenth edition (1979), "How To" for College Panhellenics - it looks like the current membership selection (mutual selection & bid matching etc.) was established by 1979. Perhaps as one of y'all's (NPC) Unanimous Agreements?

I know this system was in place at The University of Kentucky (UK) before 1979. And many of my friends rushed under a similar membership selection at other colleges around that time. So I guess I am still curious as to the where, when and why it originated. Especially since family members rushed in the early 1970s (and before) at some of the same schools - yet under a different process.

I looked up unanimous agreements, but I was not able to find anything about Formal Recruitment and when the changes were adopted. . .

In 1975 when I went through rush, MTSU had formal rush with rounds of parties, etc. You could only receive one bid which was matched from Panhellenic. The main difference is that we could give favors at our parties.

When I went thru rush at Western Kentucky in the fall of 1970, we had formal rounds ending with preference. You signed a preference card with up to 3 preferences and could receive a maximum of 1 bid.

We got flowers to keep at each preference party. At preference, you could tell where else the women had been at 2nd and 3rd parties by the flowers they were carrying. :)

On rushing...

From Etiquette in Canada by Gertrude Pringle © 1932, 1949

This sounds like informal recruitment. Did formal exist (at least formal as we know it) in those days? I have also read annoucements for "rush dances" (e.g. ABC will be holding a rush dance at the King Edward Hotel, Toronto, on September 15th) from society pages of period.

Miss Pringle DOES advise girls to be discrete.

It may only be an invitation to luncheon, or an outing with a party, but during the course of the entertainment the girl is carefully studied.

Hahahahaha @ "carefully studied."

Oh wow, that's no good. I would imagine that would cause all sorts of trouble.

OK, here ya go...
 

quoted from NPC Manual of Information, Seventh Edition, 1958 (a.k.a "Green Book" which was actually blue in 1958!)

Rushing Policies

A. College Panhellenics

1. A short rushing season after matriculation.

Early fall rushing has more advantages than any other system. This policy has been continually reaffirmed by NPC since 1925...

2. Bidding between the major (formal) rushing seasons.

Informal Rushing sometimes called Open Rushing -- (Note: "Open Rushing" was defined by NPC in 1931...

Policy As To Number of Chapter Members (The Quota-Limitation System)

A. Principle of Chapter Size

1. The element of size is fundamental to the spirit of fraternity.

2. For quota and limitation purposes, a chapter of a fraternity is defined as its initiated collegiate members and pledges.

3. In determining the number of members in a chapter which will enable it to function as a fraternity, consideration must be given to the number of women students enrolled.

B. Limitation of Chapter Size

NPC recommends:
1. That control of chapter size be maintained through a definite plan of combined limitation and quota.
a. That it be flexible enough to be adjusted to changes in enrollment.
b. That the rights and needs of all groups be safeguarded...

2. That quota alone or limitation alone is not advisable...

C. Determination of Number of Chapter Members

Accurate determination of number on each fraternity's chapter roll is essential in the Quota-Limitation system. Some, but not all, fraternities grant "inactive status."...To avoid any misunderstanding in the counting of chapter members, the "inactive status resolution," approved by NPC in 1955, outlines procedures to be carried out in determining number of chapter members, as follows: ...

LOL, same at Auburn although some of the groups like ADPi or Kappa who had hard-to-get flowers would substitute something else so you had to guess. The other way you could tell, as with JoBelleSis's campus, was that sororities were allowed to give out favors--major favors. I remember Pi Phi gave out sterling silver arrow lavaliers and Chi O gave out these huge and handsewn owls.

Wow. That's really interesting. I can just see girls walking around campus lugging around huge owls. ;)

Do you think the sororities did this to impress the PNMs or do you think they wanted to see which sororities they were competing with (like, they wanted to see if PNM Peggy was carrying an owl b/c they really liked Peggy and XO was usually the group that "fought" them for the same girls)?

I'm just wondering what the real thought was behind the favors.

There were probably multiple thoughts behind these carefully planned favors, who knows. The only reason I remember Pi Phi's is that I went Pi Phi and Chi O's because I lived with 2 Chi Os and they were griping because each member was responsible for sewing 2. Only- most of them didn't sew so they had to find professional seamstresses.

I recall, though that almost every group gave something big and/or expensive because I have this vision of people coming into the dorm lugging things so maybe they did pick something noticeable on purpose. Also, now that I think about it, maybe we got the sterling silver bowl with the arrow on it for prefs and the lavalier came for pledging. That would've been more noticeable!

We had favors when I was in school too ('83-'87) and I was from a smaller greek northern school with only 4 sororities. We always gave handmade pillows with our letters on them which could serve as a room decoration or as a pin pillow. I think they were about 8 inches x 8 inches. We had favors at every round though! We also made name tags for the PNMs which went with our theme. There was always big competition about who made the best name tags. We had food and beverages at every party. It was an incredible amount of work. Since we didn't have houses and we didn't have enough china to use different sets for each party, we had to wash the china in the bathroom sink in the student union. Looking back on that, it was just gross!