A dreamy Fall/Spring 2010 Recruitment Story
 

I'm a freshman doing recruitment at a small school. The way we do rush at my school is a little unorthodox compared to most of the threads I read around here: Over the course of the fall semester, each sorority holds 2 "informal" rush parties - as well as a bunch of unofficial events during which you can get to know the sisters. Then, when we go back for the Spring, formal rush begins in January with PNMs submitting a card with the names of the sororities we're still interested in. (Sororities do the same with the PNMs they're interested in.) The last week of January each of the sororities has a formal party for everyone who matched there, then we submit our pref cards and Bid Day is at the beginning of February.
If you know the school, I'm sure I've given it away, but please don't say it publicly.

My school has 7 sororities. I'm going to name them after characters from Inception because I just got the DVD and I've been watching it nonstop!

Cobb: This is a great group of girls, they have a very strong presence on campus. They're one of the larger groups, which I like, and I feel like I could thrive among them. Also, one of their informal parties was wild- I had a blast with them!

Ariadne: This is another great group. The girls are all very sweet and classy. I have liked every single Ariadne I've met. Also, a lot of the friends I'm rushing with are very interested in Ariadne. I know I shouldn't let my friends' opinions influence mine, but I feel like I would really love to be sisters with the girls I've already formed strong bonds with over the last semester. Ariadne is definitely staying on my list.

Arthur: These girls are very nice. It's another large group, although I don't seem to share interests with a lot of them. They're not at the top of my list, but I could see myself accepting a bid to Arthur. They're staying on the list and maybe I'll see how things go at their Formal.

Eames: I'm not sure how I feel about Eames. The girls are nice but I haven't clicked that well with any of them. They also have a reputation I'm not wild about. I feel like this is different from "tent talk" because I've been around for a semester and really seen their reputation around school. I'm not going to cut them right now for that, but I would have to think really seriously about accepting a bid to Eames. I guess that's something I shouldn't worry about yet.

Yusuf: These girls are awesome, they don't fit any particular stereotype, which I love. Also a lot of Yusufs are in my major so I was in classes with a few of them and we really got along well. I'm definitely keeping them on the list.

Saito: These girls are a lot of fun to party with, but it's a very small group and I'm not sure I would fit in with it well. I feel like I should keep my options open, but I don't think I am going to list Saito on my card. I'm struggling a little bit over that right now.

Mal: Mal is founded very strongly on a set of values that I don't share. I won't be RSVPing to Mal.

If people like, I could talk about each of the informal parties I went to over the fall semester to fill in the time between now and rush in January...

I love your theme! So original. Good luck, and I'd love to hear about your other parties :)

GREAT theme! I LOVE LOVE LOVE this movie :) Good luck with the rest of your recruitment!

You're getting too far ahead of yourself. I don't see a reason why you wouldn't list every chapter unless you are restricted to a maximum. And if you read through many threads you'll find lots of gripes about cutting the small house just because it's small. You like the girls but you fancy yourself a big fish in a big pond. That is fine if the big pond feels the same about you, but I'd keep your options open in case they don't.

Good luck!

Amen. Why cut a chapter out before recruitment even starts unless they're a) absolutely horrid (which I'm guessing they're not) or b) you can only go to so many. It's been said a zillion times but... keep your options open!

Cutting groups if you don't have to/not looking at a group as many times as you are able to is just plain stupid and closed-minded.

Re Mal, just because they were founded on those values doesn't mean Christians can't join, or that every girl in it is Jewish. The philanthropies that both historically Jewish sororities embrace are not anti-Christian, and I'm guessing that their initiation ceremonies do not consist of everyone dancing around saying JESUS IS NOT THE MESSIAH, NYAH NYAH NYAH NYAH NYAH NYAH.

Re Saito and Eames, you need to look beyond reputation and/or size. If you don't, you could end up cheating yourself out of true sisterhood and picking a sorority for extremely shallow reasons. Or being cut altogether because you thought you didn't "fit" a group. Honestly, the sisters often know better than you do where you fit.

Actually, we do do that in AEPhi. Who told you?! :p

Seriously, I don't think there's anything in our ritual and practices that would offend non-Jews. When I was an active, my chapter had plenty of Jewish sisters, of course, but also a lot of sisters of various Christian denominations, and a Hindu.

To the OP, unless you are limited in the number of chapters you can RSVP to, why not list them all? Mal and Saito might surprise you.

Ha! I knew it! ;)

In 2010, aren't 100% Jewish chapters of AEPhi more of the exception rather than the norm?

Hmm, it's more of the other way around, actually.

I'm not sure how to phrase this discreetly and without sounding like my priorities in choosing a sorority might not be in order, but when a social group tries to dictate what I can and can't do in my social time and my private life, I am not down with that. And even though I believe that non-Christians are allowed to join Mal, their principles as an organization make it clear that a certain amount of grooviness with Jesus is expected. Mal is definitely out of the question for me.


I've been talking to a couple of my friends about Saito, at least one of them is going to list Saito, and reading this thread and knowing what I know from recruitment stories around here, I've decided I am going to keep them on my list. I am not expecting to change my mind, but I'm trying to keep it open. Thanks for the input, everyone.

I can respect that. While I think keeping an open mind is crucial, I think trying to jam a square peg in a round hole can be an act of futility. And it's not as if you're nixing half of your options from the get-go.

Also, I will need to find a way to use the phrase "a certain amount of grooviness with Jesus" today. It amuses me greatly. :)

There are some issues you just can't get around, and religion would be one of them. If you're going to cringe every time a certain prayer is said, or they clock church time like other houses clock study hours, then yeah, you might as well deal with that right now.

And you handled that very delicately. That speaks well for how you'll do during recruitment.

I love these posts.

Yeah - there's a big difference in a Christian Sorority, and a Sorority founded based on Christian (or Jewish, or Catholic or Flying Spaghetti Monster) Ideals.

As a person raised in a largely secular way by an interfaith couple, I was completely happy joining the latter, but the former would have been a disaster for me, no matter how open-minded I (and my sisters) would have been.

Just so you are aware that the Jesus Is My Homeboy vibe is strictly a chapter thing (that could conceivably change with a pledge class or two) and not a national thing. We've all got a few chapters who roll like that, and as it cuts WAY down on risk management, it's doubtful their national will ever call them on it - even if they are teetering on the line of discrimination where membership selection is concerned.

Unless, of course, this is a local sorority who straight up is founded as a Christian group. Which as BraveMaroon said, is light years away from having what are considered Christian ideals.

We don't discriminate on the basis of religion - so what % of a chapter is Jewish varies from chapter to chapter. (If we did discriminate, our membership selection would probably go a lot more quickly. "Rachel Rosenberg, keep her; Leah Schwartz, keep her; Mary O'Malley - CUT!!" :p ) Someone who runs around yelling "Death to all Jews!" probably wouldn't be happy in AEPhi, but otherwise, a PNM shouldn't automatically strike AEPhi or SDT off their lists just because she isn't Jewish.

ANYWAY...

Ah... things are a little clearer now. I wouldn't be too happy in a sorority that mandated that I, say, keep kosher, wear long skirts all the time, and regularly attend Friday night services. If you don't feel you have the requisite "grooviness with Jesus" (btw, add me to the list of people who love that phrase) then by all means don't list Mal.

Good luck.

It sounds like Mal is a non-NPC sorority that participates in structured recruitment. There are plenty of smaller GLOs that require a statement of faith or something similar. If that's not a fit for the PNM, it can be obvious from the word go.
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Live Sex

Um, not necessarily.

Beatles fans: Am I the only one who keeps thinking of Mal Evans every time I see this story?

http://history.absoluteelsewhere.net..._evans1966.jpg

RIP Mal. :(

No, you're not alone. And OP, you are certainly winner of the "phrase of the year" contest with "a certain amount of grooviness with Jesus". Mazel Tov.

Actually, I keep thinking of Mal Reynolds from Firefly.

I'd like to go on record as also not having a certain amount of grooviness with Jesus. And I have added grooviness to my dictionary.

Ladies, I love you!!! An fyi: Just because a girl is named Leah Rosenberg doesn't make her Jewish. She could be from a mixed marriage. My daughters have very neutral sounding names and they are Jewish. I knew a girl named Maureen O'Connor. She was English, 100% Jewish, and her father's family was from Ireland. With all that confusion it was no wonder that they came to the United States. But the O'Connor part, well, they had a lot of explaining to do with the rabbi

same with Alexander, Miller, Robinson.....all who will rabbis soon...

A good thread to read :)

http://www.greekchat.com/gcforums/sh...t=87932&page=8

I went through 9 years of Catholic grade school with a girl names Maureen Callaghan who was Jewish and who used to fascinate us with the Hebrew newspaper that she assured us that she could read, but none of us ever believed her. The thing didn't even have real letters, just some squiggles.

One of my Jewish brothers' family passed through Ireland too and he still has relatives there. His name seems to be a transliteration of Lithuanian Jewish into the closest Irish that they could find.

I don't know how to post links to specific posts, so I will quote the original below. I think that it is on topic and very touching and worth a read. I sent it to a Jewish pledge brother of mine who taught me lots of good Yiddish words like shmuck and blasted me every night when we lived in the house as pledges, with the soundtrack to Fiddler on the Roof. I of course, retaliated by blasting back Camelot and we still enjoy each others 'otherness' after several decades.

Here is the story of 'The Poor Shmuck and NPC Recruitment', and for those not fluent in Yiddish, at least to an Irish person's level: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schmuck_%28pejorative%29

Thanks for the repost, that was well worth the read.

I know. I was trying to point out how silly it is to make snap judgments about people because of their names. There's a family in my congregation where the mother is Jewish, the father is Asian, and the children (who were raised Jewish) have "Jewish" first names and their father's last name.

In Conservative and Orthodox (and I believe also Reconstructionist) Judaism, you're considered Jewish if your mother is Jewish or if you convert. So Molly O'Shaughnessy, a Christian from Ireland, could marry Ira Rosenberg, a Jew from the Bronx, and have a daughter named Leah - and Leah wouldn't be considered Jewish unless she herself converted.

Sorry for the double post... but that "Poor Schmuck" story had me ROTFL. I think I would have completely lost it, right there in the bid-matching room, as soon as I heard the last name "Schmuck" ... !

Just a sweet sad note: Paula was an SDT from the University of Texas, Austin, I believe. When she read on line that my daughter was going through recruitment at a university where there was an SDT chapter she wrote to me. Yes, she knew that I was Jewish. She knew that AEPhi no longer existed at my school. She very much hoped that my daughter would consider SDT and wrote her a glowing rec.

We had written before because on another tie that we had: we both were cancer survivors.

My daughter didn't join SDT, as some of you know. But Paula was ever gracious. We wrote to each other a few times a month...just to check in. I wrote her a holiday note in December. And, when I didn't receive an answer...well, I knew something was wrong.

Paula died in early December of ovarian cancer. So, to you who knew her here, with her wit, know that she was funny in real life. And to all of you who raise money for cancer research, be it through St. Jude's, Susan Komen...know the work that you are doing is importent. And yes, we thank you.

So sorry to hear of Paula's passing. Thank you for letting us know.

i had noticed that paula had not been on the boards for a while. i always enjoyed her insight and her advice. i will miss her. may she rest in peace.

But, getting back to the thread of (hijack) Who's a Jew? I will add but this: My parents went, many years ago, to Temple Emanuel in Oahu, Hawaii. They were greeted by a gentleman who was doing the seating for the evening. He wasn't a haole, but Asian. The greeting? "Sha aloha!" Perfect.

Or for the insider in show business: My FIL, born a Jew, but hated Jews. (don't ask) They were friends with Lee Eastman and his wife. One evening at a dinner party Mrs. Eastman served a barley casserole which was of particular Jewish origin. The guest of honor was surprised, having thought that by the sin of omission that the Eastmans were the Eastman/Kodak family. The guest asked, "Are you Jewish?"

"Not necessarily," said Lee Eastman.

That became my FIL's byline.

Oh, and the Eastmans had a daughter that you might know: Linda Eastman McCartney. Married a guy named Paul........

My bf is in medical school, and he jokes that he should change his last name to something "more Jewish" if he is going to go into private practice. I told him to make it "Katz", and when we have a son, we can name him Lowell.

Paula went to the University of Houston. When I first read her story, I guessed that was her school because I was there at the same time. After I corresponded with her, I realized that her late brother was a good friend of my father's. We corresponded many times after that, but sorry to say, we never were able to meet in person.

Sorry, I thought it was UT because she gave me such a tough time :) about my school. I knew that she lived in Houston however. She truly seemed like a lovely person.

I'm sorry to hear of Paula's passing.

And now that we've totally derailed poor smallschoolpnm's recruitment thread... SSPNM, I do hope you'll come back and update us, grooviness with Jesus or not.

Yes, I can't wait to hear it.

Thank you for telling us about Paula.

My sympathies. One of my cousin's very good friends was also an SDT at UT in the 80s. She passed in October of breast cancer, which she fought hard and with dignity. She continued to work throughout her numerous treatments. She left quite an impression on all those that knew her.

I'm really sad to hear of Paula's passing. May she rest in peace.