Southern Miss Recruitment
 

This may be a long post but im a newbie to Greek Life at Southern Miss and I have several questions.
1). How cut throat is rush ( if at all) at Southern?
2). What about rushing as a sophomore from a community college?
3). Is recruitment any more formal than the greek life website suggests?
4). Do they take PNM's cell phones during recruitment week?
5). How important are recs?
6). Any special info about the chapters at Southern Miss?
Thanks for any help you can give me;)!

Wow - do some schools do this? I have mixed feelings about this, if true.

From what I have read here, I believe she means that cell phones may not be taken into house during a party and must be left with the recruitment counselors.

Under what authority would anyone even attempt to do this??? That's the most bizarre questions I think I've ever heard regarding recruitment!

Maybe they're trying to prevent communication with actives and alums? At all 3 universities I went to, PNMs had to stay in assigned dorms and all the phones were turned off. Other GCers have told me the same about their schools.

Ah! thank you...just wondering what to expect!

They did this at my school. We labeled and handed in our phones to our Rho Chi upon moving into the Rush Dorm. Our room phones had to be placed in the hall. We could check out our phones for 1 hour each evening. We also were not allowed to leave the dorms and had to be accounted for 24 hours a day. Although, you can probably tell from my use of the term “Rho Chi” that I “rushed” some time ago.

My school has restrictions about cellular phones during recruitment. I honestly don't think it is that bad of an idea. We've discussed it in another thread.

I don't know if the policy has changed, but in the last few years during Southern Miss recruitment girls were required to hand their phones over to their recruitment counselors for the duration of recruitment. I think they are given a certain time each day when they are allowed to have their phones back and make phone calls. There is a new Panhellenic director, though, so it's possible she will change this policy.

I'm confused. Why would the PNMs have to surrender their phones because of communication between actives and alums? (Which doesn't make sense, either. Unless Panhellenic has a no-alums-during-recruitment policy that I'm not aware of.) Do you mean prevent communication between actives and PNMs?

I can see why it could be beneficial to remove cell phones from PNMs, but not for any reasons already suggested. For me, the main reason would be to prevent helimomming and actually require PNMs to think about their decisions on their own, without constant updates/input from home.

Whatever the reason, I think it's a fine idea. I'm surprised I hadn't heard anything about it before - I'll have to look for the other discussion VandalSquirrel referenced.

For most people, cell phones are a primary form of communication since most schools don't supply landline plugs anymore. What if there's an emergency? What if a girl needs to make plans for a group project? What if she's an only child and her mom has separation anxiety and needs to talk to her every night? (haha, my mom did this)

Also, if they're going to take phones, why not take computers too? I feel like the internet can cause more rush damage than a cell phone can...

Good point.

Usually the girls don't have their internet set up yet, as it is not free on campus and each student has to pay and set up an account. As far as why the phones are taken away, you would (or maybe you wouldn't) be surprised at the lengths actives will go to to get in touch with PNM's (and vice versa). There have been issues in the past with people doing things like changing an active's name in their cell phone to another name or a male name to hide the fact that they're communicating. In addition, limited phone time prevents girls from being stressed out or influenced by heliparents and friends. Plus, incessant texting and phone calls takes away from the bonding experience that the week provides. In my experience as a former recruitment counselor, when the girls got over the initial shock of not texting constantly it wasn't that big of a deal.

We do recruitment before school starts, so there is NO internet access on campus until they register their computers and deal with the campus IT people, the women are staying on campus traveling in groups, and to the best of my knowledge if they leave campus they are in their groups (I've seen a recruitment group out shopping or having a meal). This is to prevent the influence of ANYONE (parents, boyfriends, other relatives, actives, alumnae) during this time. I am not sure if there is a designated time to check voice mails but my school is one where any parent can call the Dean of Students Office (where Greek Life is located) to report family emergencies, illness, so messages can and do get passed to any student all year long, not just during recruitment. When I was in the ER and briefly hospitalized I had the ER call the Dean to notify my professors I was legitimately out, and so there wasn't an issue with missing class and exams. Yes, it is a bit old timey, but it works for us. I'd also like to think the Dean of Students Office acts as the heli-parent filter to other campus departments.

I think this is a good introduction for students and parents to realize that now at college they are not accessible when a parent wants (or when they want), and that turning off their phones for class is doable and not the end of the world. Does no one ever go camping or somewhere where there isn't cell service and just suck it up for a few days?