I miss my sorority
 

I went through rush in the fall, and was a new member for the first semester. I had a big, learned all the necessary things to become initiated, and became very close to a lot of the girls. Throughout the semester I was homesick because I had moved 4 hours away from home. At the end of the semester I decided to transfer to a school back home. They did not have the sorority I was pledging at my new school, and here none of the sororities seem to fit me. I now want to go back to my old school and continue my initiation process, however I do not know if this is possible. I signed papers when I left, but I cannot recall what the terms were. If anyone knows anything about this, please help! Remember I was not yet initiated into the sorority, just a new member. Thanks for your help

I would say your best bet is to contact HQ of the sorority to where you were a new member. They could tell you if you are able to continue with that sorority.

I can tell you that it's my org's policiy that bids are extended for a calendar year. We had two cases this past semester that received bids in the fall, but were unable to finish the process because of personal issues. During our spring recruitment (informal), they came back through recruitment. But there was no turning them down, as their bid was still active.

Beware, though! This may not hold true for all orgs!

We had the same thing happen for a few girls while I was a collegian, my sister-daughter included.

Chapters can terminate a new member's pledgeship for whatever reason, right?

Not AST. We are not allowed to revote on new members.

It's not necessarily a "oh, I changed my mind about this girl...let me change my vote."

What if a NM doesn't fulfill financial obligations? Doesn't pass her NM test (generally speaking, since a lot of sororities have them)? She's a rotten NM who causes harm or damage to the chapter? Or, in the OP's case, decides to leave school prior to initiation?

I can see a pledgeship carried over to the next semester for the first two, but if she leaves school and intends (at that time) not to come back?

I might be wrong so of course the best thing to do would be to check with the chapter president and/or adviser, but...

I would think that the slate would be clean for both cannon37 and the chapter she pledged. I think she needs to be extended another bid to rejoin. She is free to go through recruitment and join any chapter that bids her, and the chapter is not bound to give her a bid.

I say this because when a woman pledges a chapter without initiating into it and then transfers, she is eligible to go through recruitment at her new school right away. The "you can't go through recruitment for a calendar year after signing a bid" becomes null and void when the woman transfers, so I don't see why the bid at the chapter at her first school would still be good.

Aside from her chapter's policy, wouldn't Panhellenic need to be invovled, as well? If the chapter filled her NM spot with another NM, or is over total, they may not be able to add her to thier roster, even if the sorority's policies state that the bid is still "active/open."

As violetpretty said - her pledge to her sorority was broken when she transferred. If the chapter's at total then yeah, she's SOL.

I think this must be a campus rule.

Do NOT go to HQ. This might sound mean and I don't mean for it to, but they have more important issues to deal with. Talk to the President of the sorority (or membership director maybe) and they can talk to the appropriate HQ person. (Inter)Nationals have advisors for every department of sorority life and you might not necessarily know who to go to. Also like has been mentioned, the President would know if they are over total and what not.

Agreed.

Question answered, thread over :)

I'm sure it's possible. But your reasoning for saying that?

Now that the OP's question has been answered, please allow me this PSA: all of you who are about to go to college, or who are freshmen thinking of transferring because you're homesick, please don't do this! I know what it's like to be homesick - I was way homesick my freshman year, too - but the good thing about homesickness is that it's almost always very temporary. You will get over it once you find your new life at college. You can always go home at winter and summer breaks, but it's best that you learn now to be on your own, away from the family and friends you've been with all your life. I'm so disappointed by so many of these stories of college students, especially girls(!), transferring back to the hometown college because they got afraid. I actually think a huge part of college is living away from home, and by that I mean living far enough away that you can't just drive home on the weekends. You chose your first college for a number of reasons, and I just think you'd all be made stronger if you saw it through the transition. Don't be a wuss! And seriously, four hours? I hope you're talking about by plane, because four hours driving is nothing...I can't even drive across my state in four hours.

It's not a rule with which I'm familiar.

No, that's a Panhellenic rule. They didn't leave campus or transfer, they just couldn't/didn't finish pledging and so are still bound unless the sorority releases them. The thing that is screwy in smile_awhile's scenario is that the girls should NOT have gone through rush again.

This was the rule when I was in school (on my campus). In fact, we had a girl that didn't get initiated for personal reasons, then re-rushed the next year. We were told by our advisor that her bid from us was still good until pref night. So she could decide the day of pref that she really wanted her bid with us and not go through pref or even go to pref, not sign her bid card and re-accept her bid with us. It was really screwy and I haven't heard of other schools with this rule (note: it was not just my org, it was a campus panhel rule as far as I can tell, since another group did have someone renew their bid after attempting to re-rush).

Sorry I wasn't clearer. I know Panhellenic bids bind the PNM for a calendar year. In my experience there is not a rule in our organization that requires us to allow a new member to "reactivate" her bid within a calendar year.

Can I get an AMEN ?! :cool:

amen!

But she's still bound to you, unless you expressly release her. That doesn't sound fair.

But it seems to be a pretty standard Panhellenic rule. Unless Lyrelyre has experienced something different, of course. :)

In our scenario, one girl did leave the school for a semester. The other was still enrolled. However, they rerushed because we were unsure of the particulars. We decided to be rather safe than sorry.

The one who left school did need to re-rush - her pledge was broken when her enrollment at school ended. The one who was still in school, however, should not have re-rushed.

I know this is kind of a late response. I’ve been thinking about this issue and I don’t know what I think.

I agree that it doesn’t seem fair that a PNM is bound for a calendar year, but the chapter is not. However, if a PNM doesn’t accept a bid the chapter is allowed to “replace” her by offering a snap bid. At that point, although the PNM is bound by the bid she was offered, there isn’t a spot for her in the pledge class.

Additionally, I come from the perspective of a chapter that only does Recruitment once a year. Once the new member class is initiated in October or November we’re finished until formal fall Recruitment. So, I guess we don’t have a mechanism for a PNM who declines her bid and then attempts to accept it later. I went through my Alpha Chi Omega recruitment materials and was unable to find any reference to a rule like this. I suppose Panhellenic rules could only “force” a chapter to be bound by a bid for a calendar year if they are taking new members.

In my experience, we have had a case like this only once and it was at least 10 years ago. Campus Panhellenic contacted us about a PNM who declined her bid on Bid Day, they said she now wanted to accept the bid. We were given the option of whether or not the bid was still active. We were over total and had received quota additions, so maybe that’s why we were given an option instead of being required to take her.

It’s all very interesting to me. I am intimately familiar with a fully structured formal recruitment, but I have little experience in continuous open recruitment. I am something of a Recruitment Junkie, so I find this all fascinating.

This is probably it. In the majority of your experience, the point is moot. If Zsa Zsa withdrew from pledging in say early October and wanted to repledge in the spring, she'd be in a pledge class by herself. No fun for Zsa Zsa or the pledge educator!

If you're used to having 2 classes a year, repledges and holdovers and things like that are actually somewhat common.

As I understand it...

By a woman being "bound", even if she declines her bid and the chapter fills her spot, it merely means she is not eligible to go through recruitment for a calendar year. I think the intent of this policy (balanced by the "guaranteed matching for maximizing options" that many schools have) is for PNMs to really think about what chapters they write down on their MRAA and the consequences of their rankings.

Think about it, if a Panhellenic guarantees a bid for PNMs who maximize their options, but without the NPC "bound for a year" policy, every PNM would rank all of their options, whether or not they intend to join that chapter. This would inflate quota and most likely "less popular" chapters would match quota, but would experience many no-shows on bid day. That only creates a void that needs to be filled while "popular" chapters have an inflated quota of new members, furthering a membership gap.

I could be totally wrong, but this is my guess.

I totally agree and this is from a parent's POV. My daughters went to another state to school and are in a location that it is not really close to major airports. We see each other several times a year. Would I like for them to be closer? Yes. Would it be good for either one of us? No.
They said they found they could take care of themselves in ways they never thought they could. In other words, they grew up. I'm very proud of how all this turned out.

I was talking about lyrelyre saying she didn't think they had to repledge someone within that year if they quit pledging before they were initiated. that's what I meant by it not being fair.

I would like to reiterate this statement. Too often I see/hear folks throw out "Just call HQ". Of course it depends on the situation, but for most stuff that's jumping like 4 levels in the chain of command (for lack of a better phrase). This is one of the purposes of setting up the organizational structures, to address issues and answer questions at a lower/more local level rather than always going straight "to the top". Also bear in mind those who work at HQ may not necessarily be an expert in all areas of sorority life with the specific policies and rules. They would have to investigate.

One should start with the specific Exec officer who is in charge of this area. If she cannot find this info, then go to the advisor in charge of this area. Next step up the ladder would be an I/nat'l officer such as the equivalent of (for our org) a province director/president. These IO's oversee several chapters in an area. The next or possibly instead of that would be the IO in charge of that area of sorority life. Typically these IO's oversee a large geographical area of chapters with a specific focus such as membership education, recruitment, housing, finance, etc. These IO's should be the experts regarding policies, rules and implementation in this particular area.