Ole Miss recuitment 2010
 

Recuitment is this week I have a neighbor's child going through, anyone else?

So... what's the word? What time do bids go out?

Pref was tonight, bids tomorrow. Maybe someone will tell us what quota is, I understand it was a very large group this year.

Although I'm a northerner (and a west coaster), a novice in things Greek, and my kids go to a very competitive west coast (so very different) Greek school, southern recruitment has a real fascination for me. PLEASE someone tell some stories (after bid day) about Ole Miss recruitment.

I am wishing all the pnms the best time ever.

Anyone know what time today bids go out and quota? I think they started with over 900 PNM.

Why don't you ask your neighbor?

Heard that Ole Miss Panhellenic Quota was 93, reflecting the large PNM group that participated. Have not heard which Chapters made quota.

93 :eek:

I would hate to be in a pledge class that big. My fraternity pledge class was around 30 and it was hard enough to really get to know everyone, although gradually I did. I just can't imagine...how can you really know all these people? For me, it becomes more of a social club rather than a fraternity/sorority once it gets that big.

Sounds like Ole Miss needs to add at least two more sororities in the near future, although I'm sure building would be an issue and starting a colony at an SEC school is a huge challenge. I think it would really benefit everyone if ADPi and Zeta would return sometime soon, just because they have been on campus before and have strong southern/SEC reputations.

Building is a challenge in many places as donations to house corporations are not tax exempt. Giving to a GLO's foundation for the educational portions of a house is the only allowable tax deduction at this time - IF the particular foundation is willing to handle the transaction. The need to pass the Collegiate Housing and Infrastructure Act (CHIA) is HUGE so that we can fundraise for bricks and mortar.

There are a very few places where the state government allows their university foundations to take donations for all of the structure, not just the educational portions, and even fewer schools that have bond money they can loan to the Greeks to build. One such is Alabama. Too bad all states don't see the benefits of having us house their students.

Just called my friend whose daughter went through. Bids have already been given out, and she was heading home after the festivities. Her daughter went Chi O like her sister (my friend is a KD from Ole Miss), and her daughter's friend went KD (she's a legacy). I wrote Kappa recs for both of them and am a little sad they didn't go Kappa, but I'm glad they went with their legacy chapters.

I don't know any other details, but I will probably get the scoop next week.

We've discussed this before. It just isn't that simple. "Challenge" is putting it mildly - it's more like "if this doesn't work we'll be bankrupt." Also, enough time has not passed (in Ole Miss years) for either of those groups to come back. They could add 10 groups tomorrow, but just adding the groups will not make women join them. Women would rather not be Greek than be in the "wrong" group.

At Ole Miss, I definitely think new groups will be better than groups that have left in the past. It's not as if either ADPi or Zeta can take back their old house anyway. Unfortunately I don't think a strong Southern/SEC reputation matters much. All that matters is the reputation at Ole Miss. I do agree with 33girl. At Ole Miss, "challenge" is putting it mildy....but with quota getting so high, something needs to be done. It's not going to happen without a house though.

This reminds me of a snark I read once about overpopulation: "When the world gets to standing room only, the problem will resolve itself." If at some point the sororities get so huge that the women no longer see the benefits of being in them, maybe the problem will resolve itself and the rushees will refuse to join such overlarge groups?

The chapters are going to have to start taking out multi-page ads in the DM to list all their new members!

To put it simply 33girl, that will probably never happen. It's not like most girls at SEC schools are weighing the pros and cons of pledging/rushing. They're rushing/pledging because that's what you do. At my undergrad, the biggest sororities, which were well over 275 members, were the most sought after by far. Same with the fraternities, with the bigger ones being 150-180 members.

How many women do most of the houses hold? Do entire pledge classes live in sophomore year?

Most of the sororities have a floor in a dorm located between the two rows of houses. Most sophomores live there and move into the houses as juniors. Unless they are officers, the women usually move to apartments as seniors.

I didn't mean women wouldn't rush, I meant they would be more amenable to new groups. If it gets to the point where there are so many women in a sorority that only a tiny fraction of them get to live in the house, hold a position or - most importantly - even be recognized as XYZ sisters, I can't imagine anyone would find that worthwhile. With the Echo Boomers, numbers will likely keep going up. I mean what's the limit? 400? 500? 800?

Quota was different this year.
Freshmen Quota 84
Upperclassmen Quota 9

About 950 PNMs started recruitment last week. (There were some drop outs before recruitment even started). ALL chapters made quota this year from what I have heard.
AOII-96
Phi Mu-94
Theta-95
DG-95
Not sure on numbers for the rest but from seeing pics on FB, it looks like all made quota.

Most of the houses sleep anywhere from 48-75 members. I think they all require their sophomores and officers to live in the house. (Although I want to say 1 or 2 chapters require seniors and officers, can't remember which ones.) However, obviously each new member class can't live in the house. So most of the chapters have floors in one of the dorms (Crosby Hall) for their sophomores. Living in Crosby is actually one of the best things I think the sororities every "required." It allows members to meet freshmen who live on campus and I think it creates healthy competition to sorority life. For example, two different sororities might share a floor in Crosby so that can make things interesting! Plus, it keeps your younger members on campus. As an adviser I have found that when a member moves off campus early in college they usually lose interest in Greek Life and I have even seen some who suffer academically. For most sororities, I think as long as their beds are full that is fine with most sororities on campus

I see what you're saying 33girl, but you'd be surprised. We are talking about 18 year old girls, after all. Most really just want to be able to wear letters of a top house and have mixers with the top fraternities. It's often times not really about the kind of "sisterhood" you might find at smaller or less greek oriented schools.

But there are big schools out there with competitive recruitment that are able to successfully add a new chapter. I think the trick is doing it right and somehow blending in ASAP. But if all chapters made quota, which is fantastic news, they DO have parity and thus the bottom chapter isn't being disregarded even if it means no sorority life. The time it's a killer is when you have that competitive of a rush AND there are chapters that aren't making quota. The 18 year old girls at Ole Miss might be a little more open minded than people are giving them credit for.

That doesn't answer the housing issue, however...

Making quota is in no way an indicator of chapter parity, especially under RFM. You have to retain those members plus worry about COBing to and then maintaining total/average size. At a campus with sororities that have hundreds of members each, this isn't an easy task, even when one of the struggling chapters makes or exceeds quota.

According to the Ole Miss Panhellenic web site, one chapter is much smaller than the rest despite taking quota (and despite being, by national standards, a gigantic chapter).
________

Yeah, for some reason the Theta chapter there struggles (if you can call a chapter that size "struggling," but compared to the rest on campus, they are).

BUT! Making quote with RFM is an improvement over the state of affairs previously. Things can change over time.

There are reasons. Look to history, IrishLake; there are the answers. And I owe you an email, btw :p

And (my opinion) it will take a very long time for things to change, AOII Angel, assuming that the system desires change or requires change. I have read enough about the Ole Miss Greek culture to gain a healthy respect for a system that in reality I know NOTHING about, since I don't live in that world.

I offer my congratulations to every chapter who achieved or exceeded quota, as it is the sign of a healthy system. WOOHOO to all the new members at Old Miss.

I think Theta will be fine. In my honest opinion, I really think more and more PNMs are open minded. With out-of-state enrollment increasing, more PNMs come to campus not knowing who the "top tier" sororities are. Yes, there are websites out there we don't talk about on here that love to bash all of the sororities at Ole Miss. However, I think we need to give more credit to the PNMs at Ole Miss. They have come a long way from when I went through in 1996. I also think credit is deserved to the current members in each sorority. I think all 9 groups have realized you cannot just have a chapter of "Mississippi girls." It just won't work in 2010 and does not reflect the current diversity of our current student body. I think with RFM and strong retention all of our chapters on campus will continue to grow.

I do think we need 1 more sorority, heck maybe even 2. But as we have talked about many times before there is more to it on a competitive campus like Ole Miss.

I will add that RFM and better retention has helped my own chapter. They are thriving and it really took about 4 years to get where they are today. Over the last 10 years since ZTA left all of the chapters have had to adjust to huge new member classes. Some adjusted faster than others. Some are just now finding their stride and figuring out how to manage 200+ members. Ole Miss Sororities are complicated but at the same time full of sisterhoods, philanthropies, socials, and traditions just like any other chapter on any other campus.

What's the story with upperclassman quota? It is as simple as it sounds?...upperclassmen are in another quota pool from the freshmen? I just never remember very many non-freshmen going through sorority rush at Ole Miss.

This is the first year they had upperclassmen quota. It is just that a quota that is separate. Ole Miss has many more upperclassmen who go through recruitment. I would say there were about 100 upperclassmen based on what the upperclassmen quota was set to this year. There are also more students transferring in from junior colleges and even other 4 year institutions.

So are chapters close to 400 women, or do they lose a lot of them during pledgeship?

No chapter has 400 members. I would say post recruitment they range from 175-325. I don't know exact numbers. I'm just basing them off of spring 2010 grades report (minus seniors) and then recruitment numbers this fall 2010. I would say most chapters do a great job with retention. Some struggle with this but overall it's not awful.

So based on this, do you think the women wouldn't care if the chapters had 800 people in them? Maybe you're mixing with the "top fraternities" but no matter how huge they are relative to other chapters nationally, I don't think the fraternities will ever be as large as the sororities. What fun is it to go to a mixer and talk to no one but other girls all night? Unless you have a mixer with one sorority and 5 fraternities.

Well, your example is a little exaggerated and quite frankly, impossible logistics wise. A sorority that big simply couldn't operate. Anyways, no I don't think girls would want to join a sorority that big, but you're kind of missing my point. I'm making a lot of assumptions here, but I don't think I'm off base at all for the most part. I was just saying that "most" freshmen girls aren't really too worried about anything other than being able to wear XYZ letters and all that goes along with that. As far as girls just talking amongst themselves at mixers. I mean, it happens. A lot. They're there for the free alcohol just as much as they are to "mix" per se.

As far as sororities generally being a lot bigger than fraternities. That's true, but at least at my undergrad girls generally stopped going to mixers after junior year and go straight to the bars. With guys, it's much later. Some never stop going, but most that are of age at least go to pregame for the bars. So the ratio is generally pretty even anyways.

If the only reason you join a sorority is for letters, free alcohol, and to stop attending the most fun events once you're a junior, quite frankly, I fail to see the point. I guess it's a North vs South thing again.

I'm not passing judgment on it, either way. I'm just saying that's how it is a lot of times.

There are some that are joining for certain "letters" but seriously do you think all 800 something that got bids only went through recruitment for free alcohol and parties? Geez. Maybe I'm naive but I'm pretty sure they are all looking for more than that in a sorority at Ole Miss.

I don't believe there are any fraternities that are bigger than any sororities at Ole Miss. I know Sigma Nu gave out 60 bids, Sigma Chi 80 bids, Sig Ep about 50 bids, just to name a few. The bigger fraternities probably have around 180members and the smaller ones about 30-40 members. Many sororities are doing joint swaps now with two sororities and two fraternities. Most upperclassmen don't attend swaps/mixers so it's your younger crowd. Even when I was in college it always felt like there were more women than men at mixers and that was when average sorority chapter size was about 175!

Notice I didn't say "all girls" or "all the time", because that wouldn't be remotely true. I was just saying that it does happen more than some might think. And I wasn't talking specifically about Ole Miss, but SEC rush in general.

Gotcha. Did you go to an SEC school? Just curious. Not to sidetrack or anything.

Yea. UK. Not as competitive as Ole Miss, but probably just as much as UT and USC. I'm a guy, by the way, so none of that was from first hand experience as far as rush goes. Just from girls I know.

I know Delta Gamma made quota if it was set at 93. From what I hear they had 95