Recruitment Disasters
 

The sorority for which I work is experiencing some difficulties leading up to recruitment not of their doing but affecting the house's appearance. The problems are no one's fault; sometimes s@#% just happens. In the end it will all probably all work out well and if it doesn't, it will not be for lack of an Herculean effort on the part of all involved.

Has anyone experienced a major hurdle that had to be cleared before recruitment. I don't mean that the shoes didn't match or the punch was the wrong color, but things like the roof blew off of the sorority house or all the grass and landscaping died in a drought or all the power was lost and House tours took place with flashlights. I'm exagerating a bit but that type of thing.

I rushed at a house that had a disaster - their house was sliding down a hill and had to be closed indefinitely. They held rush in a tent. The problem was not the tent but the fact they kept talking about the tent and the house sliding down the hill, so we all thought of them as the tent chapter. If you have a chance to reassure your actives, just tell them NOT to focus on whatever house disaster is at hand but just offhandedly remark that renovation of houses/lawns/whatever is part of keeping a sorority house a great chapter home. Then they talk about something else and they make sure that whatever the problem is, it does not interfere with the PNMs ability to concentrate on conversation.

Well, I think everyone understands natural disasters. A comment or two to explain should be adequate.

I've known of a few houses that caught fire during recruitment. Candles, maybe?

I've seen projectors for slide shows almost catch fire and begin to melt tablecloths. I'll leave it there!

Yes! Oh dear - had two of them while I was doing housing...windows/doors open, a draft ensues, sheers float over candles and there you go!

Heard it happened to the AXO house at SDSU during preference years ago. SDSU was one of the first campuses to ban candles after that. I don't know about other sororities, but KD will no longer allow candles for this very reason.

DaffyKD

Last year I seem to recall that at least one of our chapters held recruitment in the midst of massive flooding that affected some of the campus houses - it was in the Midwest, I believe - and recruitment was successful.

Greekchef did you check out the 2011 Recruitment Bits & Pieces? U of L had some weather related problems this year.

Iowa State University in Ames had some serious flooding right around campus (where many of the Greek chapters are located) last year right before recruitment started. Some houses had water damage in the basement (mostly minor, IIRC, but almost all the basements are used in some capacity with either dining, lounge or study areas so living areas were affected), the city was on water conservation rules during work week, I think even some of the dorms had issues with water damage that affected how/where the PNMs going through ate their meals.

By the time recruitment actually rolled around, the city was back on normal water use, the houses had [mostly] cleaned the issues up and, as far as I know, none were adversely affected with lower numbers because of any damage sustained by the flooding.

a few years ago, a hurricane came up i the gulf and took a right turn toward orlando and several sorority houses at UCF were damaged-during recruitment!

My sophomore year, on the afternoon of Preference, two young men from my pretty-small university were in a motorcycle accident on a road close to campus. One of them was killed. He was good friends with many women from two chapters in particular, mine and my roommate's. My roommate was one of his best friends, and I knew that her feelings for him had moved beyond friendship. We all found out about the accident less than an hour before Preference parties were set to start, and several of the women from the two chapters were so upset by it that they couldn't participate in the parties. I was a recruitment counselor that year, and I had to bail on my group so I could take care of my roommate. Naturally, Panhellenic knew the PNMs would know something was up at those two sororities, so they gathered the PNMs before the parties to tell them that there had been an accident off campus that required the attention of several chapter members, and that the parties might be a little smaller than they had earlier in the week. They also gave them the head's up that the mood may be very somber. Still, that was a very rough night for the two chapters, and for the PNMs whose nosiness got the best of them and couldn't resist asking the sorority women what had happened - lots of hysteric crying and pref parties that really didn't revolve around the sorority at all.

While I would never wish a recruitment disaster on any chapter, and certainly not the kind of tragedy Peppy posted about, I will say that seeing how a chapter handles these sorts of things would give you a real glimpse into their sisterhood. It's just like any other relationship - stress brings out the best and worst in people, and can give you insight into their true natures.

I've written before about the coldness shown me by a legacy chapter during my recruitment when I broke down because I had just been told my aunt had died at the age of 32. I saw a side of those women that no one else did; it wasn't pretty. I knew then that they would never be my sisters because in the face of genuine grief they were unsympathetic. I guess that's my recruitment disaster - but in a way, Bev's death helped me find a true sisterhood.

I can't recall the details (which sorority and what year), but didn't a PNM going through recruitment collapse and die outside one of the sororities at UT Austin in the late 80's? I don't think this is actually urban legand, because I remember reading about this and wondering how they handled the situation.

Also concur with SWTXBelle: This can bring out the best OR the worst in sisters. I don't know all of the details on your recruitment, but to show lack of sympathy to a NPM (...or anyone else) who had just lost a family member is reprehensible.

We had a near disaster last year during recruitment. A small black racer snake got into our house through the elevator shaft hallway (the door was proped open to the outside..this hallway connects us with KD next door) and was slithering around the foyer! The only people that saw it was our ELC and our chapter advisor (it was in between parties thank goodness lol!) Dont remember how they got it out..I think maybe a security guard just so happen to be walking around greek village at the time. Imagine how bad that could have been if the actives were walking the PNMs out while this snake was in the foyer!:eek:

ouch
 

Back in the 70s there was a top tier sorority at a flagship state school in the midwest that went through some major drama when the wrong list got turned into PanHel after the first round. In other words, PNMs who were intended to be released got invitations to the next round and PNMs who were intended to receive invitations to come back got the shaft. The error happened when one of the more clueless actives in the house thought the person designated to turn in the list was going to miss the deadline and so she went into hero mode, grabbed up the reject list and ran it down to the PanHel office. The error wasn't discovered until the match list for the next party was received and it was too late to do anything about it. Panhel said the house had no choice but to move forward with the pool on record as having been selected. The only exception made allowed the biological sister of an active member to continue rushing the house. The house went nuts --- instead of splitting hairs over discriminators, all of a sudden they were scrambling to save face by finding qualities to appreciate in girls they had been quick to dismiss. It's hard to say how many of the pledges in that class ever figured it out, being new to how recruitment works and all. I sometimes wonder if the actives ever fully recovered or learned anything from that fateful year.

Can you imagine--they must have run the "hero" girl out of town.

I know of a chapter that had the house they had leased sold out from under them about 6 weeks before recruitment? They had to find a house to lease, but it had to be within a certain distance of campus. The only house they could find that would work as a lodge was a historic house, but it had been a frat house. The fraternity had left, but the entire inside of the house was painted black and the outside of the house had not been maintained. The girls (and some experienced Dads) dropped the ceilings, installed air conditioning, repainted the house inside and out, and repaired the roof before recruitment. The transformation was astonishing.
The house would later gain a spot on the historic registry (and be sold out from under them again!) They have since taken steps to make sure that this doesn't happen again....

In another event - was it Southern Miss that had raw sewage back up into the sorority dorm suites after Rita?

What I wonder is this (assuming that the story is true and not an urban legend of sorts) : Did the "top tier" chapter retain its "top tier" status on that campus?

In other words, did it really make a whole hell of a lot of difference whether they took their top choice PNMs, or the PNMs they didn't plan to invite back?

Every so often GCers mention sort of jokingly that random selection / assignment might work fine -- I don't agree, of course, but now and then one is tempted . . . .

Does fraternity rush count?
 

I remember when Phi Sigma Chi, the petitioning local of Sigma Chi at <Southwest>Texas State, lost the building they were planning to use for recruitment in 1985 (I think). I found out when I came home from class and the entire fraternity was in my apartment (I was married to the president). It reminded me of "Revenge of the Nerds" - but instead of their house burning down, there was a zoning issue (this was in the days of wet - VERY wet - rush). It took some scrambling, but they found another building and had a very successful rush.

@exlurker… I’m pretty sure that word leaked and for a short time it was hot super-secret news, but in my opinion damage to chapter status was limited. The chapter had recruited outstanding classes by every measure for many years leading up to that year. Nationals must have given the chapter execs a pep talk because from what I could tell most of the actives sucked-up the faux pas with grace and made the new girls feel welcome just the same; of course there were those who had a hard time with it and acted out in various ways, too. The new girls did pick-up that something was off on bid day, but without knowing the degree to which serendipity had worked in their favor they just ascribed it to actives being overcome with exhaustion as well as their own being naïve to the whole experience.

The chapter made quota that year (no surprise that they stood out as the chapter of choice for those who ended up in the running), and it being a huge flagship state school the pledge class was big. As you would expect under the circumstances, it was an eclectic mix of girls that year --- freshman as well as sophomores and a few juniors, too. Some with borderline GPAs, some with genius GPAs, some pretty but introverted girls, quite a few enthusiastic but plain girls, some from out-of-state and relatively unknown. There was a party girl or two, and some of the girls were legacies by distant relatives. The girl whose biological sister was an active was told by PanHel that the system had a glitch in it and she got to move through recruitment and pledge with the group as well. It was interesting that a few girls who made it through were no-shows at the round one party even though they had honest reasons for missing it, i.e. death in family, wedding of immediate family member, car trouble. Gives you some idea of selection criteria on the part of the chapter if you read all this backwards ;)

It’s a true story to which I can personally attest --- no urban legend here. Sorry I can not reveal how I was in a position to know all of this information as it would compromise my identity to tell and it would really serve no purpose.

A few years after I graduated, there was some kind of short in the sprinkler system at my collegiate chapter's house during winter break (We have deferred recruitment at my alma mater). I think the damage was confined to the first floor, but basically the entire first floor had to be redone (TV room, study room, chapter room) because of the water damage. I think the people who were doing the carpeting were finishing up just a few hours before Tours started EEK! LOL

As alluded above, a huge storm blew through Louisville during recruitment this year, and yes, house tours were given by flashlights! (Ok, so maybe not actual flashlights, but by the light of the exit signs running on emergency generators and sunlight from the open windows).

About 5 years ago, the chapter was undergoing a major renovation to the chapter house that required it be closed for recruitment. This was, a huge disadvantage, but the chapter made the most of a fraternity's suite and had the interior design company produce some nice boards of what the house would look like- fabrics, wall colors, etc. As posted above, if the women don't dwell on it, the PNMs won't either. Especially if they only reference it as a positive- "we're so excited to get xyz fixed! Our house is going to be so pretty/safe/awesome when it is. You'll just have to see it!!!"

As has been said by several, how a chapter reacts to challenges really says a lot about them. I am proud to say of the ladies that I feed and help look after is that they have really rallied together and are putting a brave face on a stressful situation. While all repairs are scheduled to be done within hours of the first round, who knows what nasty little surprises fate may have in store. Already, everytime I have felt bold enough to say nothing else can go wrong from here on, BAM (once literally).... and we are back at square one.

Several years ago the chapter returned to school in the midst of a severe drought only to find all the grass totally dead and crisp, flowers wilted, shrubs brown, all the landscaping in a mess. A new house mother was starting and it was not the smoothest of transitions. The interior work that needed to be done was put off until the last possible minute. The morning of the first round mounds of stuff were all over the house and we feverishly stuffed every available nook and cranny with all the junk laying about. The chapter had one its best recruitments ever. I pointed out then as I have frequently since that it wasn't about brown grass, junk hidden in closets, or dead flowers.... it was about the members. That group a few years back didn't believe that until they saw it happen. I think this year's group is counting on it.

More stories? It's been 4 years.

I know this is an old post; but, I was their Faculty-Staff Advisor at the time! I remember sitting down to watch the evening news with my dinner when the reporter chimed in with breaking news. The cameraman was taking a close-up shot of the burnt out window. I remember noticing the color of the house and thinking, "That looks like AXO." Then the camera panned back to show the entire house and all of the girls standing in the street in their pref dresses. My thought was "Crap! That *is* AXO!!" :o

I had just been appointed Faculty-Staff Advisor a few weeks earlier. Nothing says, "Welcome new advisor!" like having the girls' house catch on fire during pref!

Our toilet had been leaking in our old Victorian House. 15 minutes before our party started, the toilet fell through the floor into the main area below where we were supposed to hold most of the party-- no joke. it was terrible!

You could have turned that into the party theme. Sisters will stick with you even when your life is in the toilet! Lol

FTW. I really hope the PNMs didn't nickname you the "toilet house" for the rest of recruitment.

My chapter experienced disaster on a personal level when the younger sister of a beloved active became sick and died suddenly in the middle of recruitment this past year. I've posted about it on here before, but obviously it was very hard on us and the Panhellenic community as a whole, especially since she was going through recruitment as well and we all knew she was going to be our sister on Bid Day. We would get updates on how sick Virginia was in between parties, and then have to clap and cheer like nothing was going on. The PNMs were told what was going on, but that didn't make it any better on us.

The younger sister's roommate-who is one of the kindest, strongest people I know-still stuck it out through recruitment and joined ADPi. I think the way we supported Sarah Katherine, her sister who was an active, and how the Greek community supported us spoke volumes about strength we didn't know we had.