University of Texas-Austin Roundup
 

During our local Panhellenic meet & greet, many of the reps (some alum, some actives...from various colleges) encouraged girls who were considering UT-Austin to attend the Round Up events the weekend of March 25-27. When looking into this via google...lol....I found this...

http://deanofstudents.utexas.edu/gli...ifcroundup.php

So I am recommending to my daughter that she does not attend. She has not 100% decided on UT but is leaning that way and feels if she does not attend (because of what was said at above mentioned event) that she will be at a disadvantage in the Fall. Anyone??

Isn't this for the men? IFC is for the mens groups?

IFC is the council that oversees the men's group. But this event was talked about at 80% of the tables, especially when the active that was representing their sorority was also a member of a UT chapter. It was my understanding that it is basically a big social event, with mixers being the focus. With the UT Panhellenic attempting to curb "dirty rush", I suspect the linked letter is a direct result of that. It puts PNMs in a bit of a damned if you do/damned if you don't situation. I am currently in the don't do it camp.

Does she have any UT connections at all (i.e. people she knows from HS who go there, etc) or will she be coming in to the school a complete unknown, if she decides to go there?

It's not necessarily bad for her to be up there.

Roundup traditionally is a big push by all fraternities aimed at current students leading into summer recruiting in prep for fall rush. And of course a lot of high school kids figured out they could join in, which just means they have to talk to someone to get a wrist band.

Sororities will be all over the place in letters trying to see and be seen as promotion for rush, but I don't know that they're actively recruiting.

However, sororities are doing a LOT of events too. Most of them are charity BBQ or lunch at XYZ house for 5 bucks kind of things, none of which requires a wristband. All that stuff is floating around facebook. It might be beneficial for a girl to go to a bunch of that stuff so she can check out the sororities outside a rush environment & just get an idea of what she's getting into. Don't think it's really necessary or anything though.

33-

She does know some girls from her HS who are active members. They are actually spread out among a multitude of sororities.

She should probably ask them about the appropriateness of attending or whether there are similar events appropriate for high school students.

Some of these girls are the girls that asked if she was coming that weekend. I guess the issue I have with it is that from what I read, ie the letter linked and other information state that high school seniors should not be at these events. But the conflict is that although "officially" seniors should not be there, unofficially I would say it is apparent they will be. If it doesn't hurt to not be there, then I would prefer she not. I guess a compromise would be her attending the charity focused daytime outings and skipping the evening parties.

Lady Longhorn will know more than anyone but I'll put in my 2cents.

The Sorority chapters are planning to have HS seniors drop in for their events during the day. That's why they have asked her if she is coming. It is a great opportunity to meet the girls and see the houses. It is like a giant open house.

I know nothing about the fraternity parties.

If these girls from her HS have seen evidence of you being strict on other things...they'll most likely say "don't hold against eightlet that she wasn't at roundup. Her mom has a stick up her butt like you would not believe and doesn't let her do ANYTHING." :p

Of course, if you were the parent who buys the keg for the party, you are screwed out of that concept.

As a former Alumnae Panhellenic Sponsorship coordinator for a LARGE suburb of Dallas, I can tell you that this has evolved into a large pre-rush event and that girls are being looked over left and right.

My daughter went even though she wasn't planning to attend UT, and she came back with anecdotes about lots of the members asking her who she was and where she was from and if her mother was in a sorority. She said she felt like a piece of meat.

What else would one expect at UT? Seriously.

haha...I don't buy the keg, but not a prude either :rolleyes: I am just in the camp of if doesn't hurt to not be there, why take the chance of going and getting into a situation that could hurt her? I am refering to the innocent stuff..not getting crap faced and acting a fool. I am simply talking about a guy coming up and saying hi and her having a conversation with an active's boyfriend and pissing said active off, even though kid would have no idea who's who because she new and just being nice. I just see it as a mine field. She came to me looking for an opinon on whether to go or not, and her, not being sold on the idea one way or other, and me, frankly not sure how to guide.

When in doubt, stay home! Do you have any friends that were in sororities at UT? They would be your best guides. From what I understand, it is a lot calmer than in years past and not as "necessary" but again I'm only getting third hand information. I do know that most if not all of the sororities will be having some kind of event on the 25th.

It sounds to me like the compromise of attending the day time events but not the fraternity parties is the best option. That way she can start to get her name/face known with the sororities but not have to deal with the social pressures/minefield side of the parties.

this. when my daughter was a freshman(different school) she thought about attending some fraternity rush parties, which were held in the evening the same days as sorority recruitment, which was a daytime event. i told her that it was up to her what she did, but that i wanted her to realize that she would be on display in an unsupervised situation, i.e. not organized sorority rush, where sorority members would be scrutinizing every move she made and the most innocent incident might be misconstrued (much like your scenario where your daughter might have a purely innocent conversation with a guy, who turns out to be the boyfriend of uber jealous susie sororitysister). the cons outweigh the pros in my book. not to mention that should she wait to attend a fraternity party until after rush, her sorority sisters could warn her off any douche bag guys that always prey on freshmen girls.

my daughter decided to wait until rush was over to attend any fraternity parties. her social life did not suffer.

EIghtisgreat...I had your same dilema . D did not attend Roundup because I had the same fears that you are describing. D says now that it would have been a benefit for her to attend because she did not know many girls already in houses. Her rush was a rollercoaster and not something either of us want to go through ever again! The outcome was good and she is happy, but in hindsight she wished she had gone to Roundup. I cannot stress enough the importance of keeping an open mind. There were some great girls that dropped out because they couldnt see past the Big 6. I can honestly say that all of the chapters at UT are excellent and they all have a variety of girls. Please PM me if you have any further questions.

The OP said that her daughter DOES know girls already in the sororities (houses is really not a correct term) so that's not a problem for her.

What are UT sorority chapters now, like 200 girls? A couple friends from HS is not the same as it may be at a lot of other campuses.

And, I think it was said before the number of legacies that go through at UT versus quota. I recall my gf saying a sorority chapter there last fall took a huge pledge class and all but 5 were legacies. Obviously legacy doesn't guarantee you a bid. I'm just trying to express how competitive it is & that every possible advantage is important.

There will always be the view of should you take the risk of maybe someone will see you in an unscripted social situation & it'll hurt you, versus what can you gain by using that social situation as a learning/networking/interview process to set yourself up for success. Obviously that applies well beyond rush. Personally, I lean toward the more aggressive approach, but to each their own.

^^^you are correct about legacy status. It can play a huge part for some. I will say that some of the sororities (thanks for the correction by the way 33girl:)) can and will cut legacies at UT.. Legacy and who you know in the sorority can play a very big part in the process, but not always... I would also say that how you carry yourself, your personality, and if you are a good fit can be as important to some sororities. I cannot stress enough to keep an open mind...

Honestly at UT, one needs every advantage they can get..just knowing someone is not going to get you in the door..my D told many stories of girls that were heartbroken because they got cut from sororities that they knew someone from high school (including my D). I would say that happened ALOT. You also have the "camp" factor that comes into play as well as NCl and other groups.

Just to chime in (haven't been on gc in a while :)), as a mom of sons at UT, Round Up is a BLAST!

Looking at their pictures, it is clear that it is as much or more of a sorority recruiting event as fraternity. Not only are all the sorority girls wearing startlingly bright clothes and accessories with their letters proudly displayed, but the boys are wearing them as well. At chapter on Monday before Round Up, the sororities come by and drop off their gear at the fraternities, and the guys line up and take what will become a staple for their upcoming year's wardrobe (thank you, girls ;)!).

Anyway, many, many high school girls attend, going in groups and staying on floors of sorority girls hosting them. These are pre-pre recruitment unofficial visits, and do not fall under the silence period. Panhellenic recommends that seniors not attend, but they do (just as they did back in my high school days - the more things change, the more they stay the same at UT).

As long as girls are in a group, have no preclivity for wild behavior (and want to have a successful rush) especially if they are staying with upperclassmen, they'll be fine - they'll be escorted from party to party and watched over like little ducklings.

And -to answer before it gets asked -

Camp: as in Waldemar, Mystic and Longhorn (co-ed) -popular girl's camps in Texas where a ton of future Longhorn Greeks go every summer since they could walk ;)

NCL: as in National Charity League - a volunteer organization that moms and daughters participate together in requiring a certain number of hours at designated charity organizations, starts in junior high, goes through senior year, culminates in a fancy "Presentation" event.

As a boy mom, I'm glad to say I didn't have to worry about this stuff!

The camp thing has been on here before with UT. My dd went to Camp Mystic- we live in the southwest, but my in laws are from Austin. I can tell you there are tons of sorority women working at Mystic for the summer and even more HS Seniors headed for recruitment. I always pick up AXO recruitment shirts for my daughter- she likes to sleep in them. She would always get tons of questions about what her affiliation was with AXO when she was at camp wearing the shirts. On a side note, I have heard that if you are an M girl at Mystic that will set the stage for your recruitment at UT. That the groups know that you are a well rounded nice girl if you get that distinction.

Thank you srmom, that is exactly what I wanted to say. Round-up has been for generations (since I was a kid in the early 60's, at least) for the HS seniors to go to UT to see what college is like. It is so much fun and at one time, I don't know about now, there were kids went who went that weren't even going to UT. It is for HS seniors. It's Round-Up (rounding up all the HS seniors for college)

Fun! Fun! and more Fun!

XXXOOOO

:rolleyes:

^^thanks for the QFP :) Cute..Actually 33girl..that is an edict from IFC..what I am referring to are the philanthropy events that take place at ALL of the sorority houses during the day..NOT the fraternity events. Each sorority has a daytime event where they are trying to raise money for thier respective philanthropy. I could go, you could go, Grandma Betty could go. I would not encourage any senior girls to attend any fraternity events. The wristbands they are referring to are for the fraternity events that take place at thier respective houses (mostly at night).

This^^^^

Oh come now.

We all know that the IFC is only saying that because they're being forced to from higher up. Show me a bunch of guys who don't want a brand new crop of girls to plop down into their midst and I'll show you...a bunch of gay guys. LOL

True that! A new crop that doesn't know how big an azz you made of yourself the previous year.

I knew of one girl whose grandfather was an extremely FAMOUS legal type and her Mom was in one of the "Big 6" at UT. She went down to roundup and passed out in a fraternity house, so trashed that she wet her pants while passed out.

It was such a big deal she ended up not even going to UT. Her Mom never understood why she insisted that she didn't want to go to Austin. We were all afraid to tell her and she never found out.

The stuff that legends are made of ... :)

Stuff like that happens all the time. Although planning to attend just the sorority functions is a good plan, once you're on campus and see how epic the parties are and have all kinds of girls (and obviously guys) urging you to go, it's very hard to say no.

Don't all throw stones, fruit or other virtual objects at me, but, what happened to looking out for each other? Regardless of what chapter we are a member of, let alone a member at all?

Color me Pollyanna, not being from Texas and understanding all of the culture, but perhaps if someone had noticed that said aforementioned connected legacy was in such terrible shape, took the extra time to look out for her and get her to a safe place, then this poor thing would not have occurred. Isn't that what sisterhood and Panhellenic spirit is all about? Looking out for each other in good times and bad. Please tell me that Panhellenic would not have frowned upon such an act or considered it dirty rushing. We all have stories to tell of either ourselves or our sisters who drank too much and did something less than eloquent but they got taken care of. Instead of feeling ashamed, think of what that woman would have seen if someone had made the simple effort to take care of her; the true meaning of sisterhood. Oh, and if word did around campus about the sisters/chapter who helped her, I would only hope that it would boast their reputation to be caring, warm, strong and dependable instead of the ones who helped "that drunk girl."

Time to get off of my soapbox...

You would have to assume that she was being accompanied by anyone who knew her on sight to know she was a legacy (not that that should matter). Her MOM went there, not her sister. Plus you have to remember you can't swing a dead flea without hitting a legacy at Texas.

As someone who remembers wet fraternity rush, the fact is, LOTS of guys showed up who had absolutely NO intention of pledging a fraternity - they were there for the free booze, food and girls. I'm sure there are plenty of people (male and female) at Roundup parties doing exactly the same thing.

I did not say that her sister went there nor her mother.

hence the wristband thing. So you have to talk to someone and they can decide if they're willing to give you a band or not. And then not all the events are really wide open just because you have a band, or at least most of them have a VIP where the real business gets done.

As far as someone taking care of the girl, I guess that would be nice, but you have to remember this is not a small tight knit community you're talking about. It's over 50k students & the sororities are some of the biggest chapters in the country. Literally girls don't know all their sorority sisters, much less some random girl.

And, UT has a different system than I've seen anywhere else. It's all west campus (walking distance). So, black outs are pretty routine. Sororities do pledge class mixers every week that are all about getting smashed at fraternity houses (contrary to NPC rules). There's parties there with thousands of people in them. They have their system to keep things relatively safe, and I wouldn't necessarily say the parties are better than some other places, but I do think they tend to be a bit drunker than most places.

Still, far as being a guy or girl considering rush and deciding to go or not, I lean toward going. Absolutely you can make a fool of yourself & harm your chances, but you can also make a good impression. The difference is mostly self-control & maybe some luck. I'd rather take my chances than not. If you're going to be a fool in social situations, that's going to come out later anyway.

So the national organizations of these UT chapters are just ignoring the obvious because... it is Texas? Some other reason?

You have no idea what you're talking about. You are not and never have been a UT student. You are not a sorority member, much less one at UT. You need to step away from the keyboard because there are so many factual errors in your post, I don't even know where to start.

WORD.

I am sitting in the bleachers where I belong; this is a Texas thread. I do appreciate what you said, although I fear it will fall on deaf ears.

Actually, I was a UT student though I ultimately got my degree elsewhere.

It has been some time since I was in school, I have rotated through adviser, housing corp, and national officer positions since then, including for UT. I have been to events there as recently as last semester. Of course I've never been in a sorority, but I do know several girls that are current actives at UT. I'm not as well versed as maybe a current fraternity officer, but I feel like I have a decent handle on what's going on.

I'm not trying to pick an argument. I'm open to correction, but I also stand by what I said. If we can have a calm discussion of the facts, that seems like it would be more helpful for anyone reading it.

If you can tell me what you found fatally flawed, I can try to clear up any misunderstanding in the way I said it. Or if I 'm wrong, I'll be more than happy to admit that too.