Arkansas Recruitment
 

Hi!
My little sister is going to attend University of Arkansas this fall and will be going through recruitment. I am a Zeta Tau Alpha Alumnae so am familiar with recruitment at the University I attended but would love to learn more about the University of Arkansas recruitment process. Any information is appreciated!

Thanks,
Arksis:rolleyes:

There are so many threads about Arkansas Recruitment, so fyi, the search button is your friend. However as I'm feeling super awesome and nice today:

Press Me!

No, you are an [B]alumna[B], not alumnae. That's plural and I am assuming there is only one of you.

I know I read some stories about Arkansas recruitment in the Recruitment Stories section. You might want to look around in those threads and see what you can find.

wavycutchip and gee ess are both involved at Arkansas. I used to be an advisor there. Arkansas is a very tough recruitment. Not a lot of chapters and a whole lot of PNMs. However, 2 NPCs are colonizing this fall to help alleviate the overcrowding. All the chapters are very large and outstanding - many are award-winning in their respective national/international organizations. Like everywhere else in the SEC - she will need recs and an open mind.

Thanks for the correction.

Thanks maybe I should have been more clear... I have already googled this information I'm looking for more detailed information other than what google and the university site provides. But thanks for the link.

This was very helpful information. Thank you very much!

Thank you this is very helpful. I'm new to this chat thing so was looking for any helpful guidance! Thank you again!

Search this site for Arkansas recruitment info - not Google. Lots of threads here....

You can use google to search greekchat you just need to use the advance search option and put www.greekchat.com as the domain. Sometimes I find that more helpful because you can exclude some words and filter by date.

University of Arkansas
Fayetteville, AR
August 14-20 and 27-28, 2011
Quota=131
Campus Total=130
Quota last year=101
Registered PNMs=1,200
******************
Chi Omega Psi (Founding Chaper) 1895
Zeta Tau Alpha Epsilon 1903-1938/1947 (137)
Pi Beta Phi Arkansas Alpha 1909
Delta Delta Delta Delta Iota 1913 (137)
Phi Mu Alpha Beta 1923-1933/1978-1995 Colony Fall 2012
Kappa Kappa Gamma Gamma Nu 1925 (134)
Delta Gamma Alpha Omega 1930-1992
Alpha Delta Pi Delta Delta 1957 (115)
Alpha Chi Omega Delta Rho 1961-1977 Colony Fall 2012
Kappa Alpha Theta Delta Nu 1966-1989
Kappa Delta Zeta Gamma 1989 (136)
Alpha Omicron Pi Xi Omicron 2007 (137)

As you can see, quota last year was 131. Yes, 131. So, most chapters hover near 300 members. I would think most PNMs should be able to find a niche in any chapter of such a size. Unfortunately, many PNMs get caught up in tent talk and drop out if they don't get invites from certain chapters. However, I believe that the "worst" chapter at Arkansas would stand up well against power chapters at many other schools. Greek life is very big at UA, so hopefully your sister will give all the chapters a good look. She will need recs to every chapter.

Wowza! That would have replaced my entire chapter...

Yea - quota was higher than total. LOL. Makes it hard to find a place to have a meeting, ya know?

Can you imagine roll call? An hour later "I call this meeting to order..."

When I searched Google for the OP I used the search terms below:

""Greekchat Arkansas Sorority Recruitment""

Google brought up pages and pages of information all from Greekchat.

Hi ArkSis - What an exciting time for you and your family! I know that you must be excited for your sister as she prepares for recruitment. I can't tell from your post, but are you an initiate of Zeta Tau Alpha at Arkansas, or somewhere else? If at arkansas, was it in the last 5 years or earlier? Arkansas Greek life has gone through many wonderful changes over the years, specifically house total and quota have doubled in just the past 4 years.

Just as all have said, Arkansas is a competative recruitment and all 8 chapters are great. Preparing for recruitment by obtaining recommendations is very important on this campus. As a Sorority woman, hopefully you have some personal connections with members of npc groups to help her with those. With the pnm pool over 1300, its important to realize that many of the chapters have more legacies than they have room in their pledge classes. Keeping an open mind is important.

Tell your sister to enjoy her summer and preparing for recruitment! The ua greek life facebook page was making rumblings about opening up registration before June 1st - but since that is tomorrow its not a huge deal :)

Feel free to pm me if you have other questions

Great posts Irishpipes and Wavycutchip. Please keep an open mind at all times and remember that there are two sororities, Alpha Chi Omega and Phi Mu, colonizing after formal recruitment. Being a founding member has many benefits and gives you a chance to be a leader from the start. WPS!

I'm new to this chat thing so if I"m not suppose to "quote" everytime I want to reply to something I'm sorry! This was very very helpful! That is huge! I thought my pledge class of 60 was big!! WOW! Thank you so much!!!

I echo what my friends Irishpipes and Wavycutchip have posted. Arkansas is a great but very competitive system.

Is your sister coming to the university from out of state? If so, that will reinforce the need for recs, recs, recs!

And, like MapleStAlum (love your name, by the way!) says, we are welcoming two groups to campus this year. This is exciting news for the Greek system!

Go Hogs!

No, no need to quote every time you reply unless you want to stress a particular item within a previous post. Then you can quote and just delete the parts you don't want....

Just to emphasize, getting into these colonies is going to be very, very, very, very, very, very, VERY competitive. The national volunteers are going to be putting the women who want to join under a microscope. The groups have a lot to lose if these colonies don't go REALLY well and they don't want to make any mistakes.

Sorry if that sounds overdramatic, but I don't want anyone to think for a millisecond that getting into the colonies will be "easier" than going through rush. It will be far harder.

My friend is going to Arkansas this fall and I am looking into the school for next year. We were talking about recs and she said I should start thinking of people now for recs and letters of support. She has been working on getting hers for months. Do the Arkansas sororities treat recs and letters of support equally? I know we definitely need recs, but are the letters of support just as important?

I did not mean to imply that becoming a pnm of a colony was going to be easy. I agree that recruitment is tough, I just wanted to make it known that there will be colonies to consider also. Any pnm needs to get recommendations for these groups as well.

Yes, letters and recs are basically treated equally. I suggest you keep a file with names of women and their contact info as you find out who you know that is a member of those groups on UA's campus. Then, next year, you will have this part of the process completed. If your friend is from your same town, she will be a great resource for this info, obviously.

Wait, wait, wait...do you mean "letters of support" as in "letters from active collegians"? Some groups do not treat them the same as all.

I'm confused, I thought you needed recs even if you had a letter of support...it was my understanding that the rec was more the "official" thing that some groups require to pledge a woman. Then again if someone was going to write you a letter of support I don't know why they wouldn't write you a rec.

I'll bite :)


First, mellymoo - that is very exciting! I hope that you will make a college visit this fall to Fayetteville! I loved my 4 years there, and it is beautiful in the fall!


Second, as far as the questions "Do Arkansas sororities treat recs and letters of support equally and are letters of support equally important" - my first response would be that it boarders on membership selection criteria, and as you will read all over GC, that is not something that we talk about - because it is specific to our chapters and our membership procedures are private and only discussed during selection by the active members of the collegiate chapter.


However, what I will say is that in the Little Rock Alumnae Panhellenic, this was something discussed quite extensively, and we wrote the following in our Greek Life booklet this year: "You may find that you have more than one member of a specific sorority who would like to write a recommendation for you. Because each specific sorority’s recommendation form contains standard information, many times one sorority alumnae will write the official recommendation, and then attach additional alumnae’s (from that same sorority) letters of support to the official recommendation. These letters of support just give additional information to the chapter concerning character qualities and individual knowledge of the potential new member. In most cases, this is a good way to save paperwork and is useful to the sorority chapter; however please check with your college/university’s Greek Life office to confirm that this is an appropriate practice on a particular campus." (from this link: https://docs.google.com/open?id=0Bw_o1msD5zEILXJXWXdUdXZVVjg, pg. 5)


Yes, for most chapters on campus this is a normal practice (have a recommendation written, and then the rec writter will attach letters of support from additional alumnae from that same sorority). This happens when you have chapters on campus for over 100 years and large alumnae support/involvement = lots of alumnae who may know a PNM. However, it seems to me it is much more helpful to have recommendations and letters of support from alumnae who actually know the PNM, and not just something to "check off" the recruitment prep check list. Remember, there are close to 1500 women going through recruitment - even if only 50% of the PNMs had recomendations to a chapter (this is only an estimate, and I would contend a very low estimate), that is stil 750 recommendations. Now, multiply that by 2 or 3 letters of support, and that is a bunch of paperwork, and still a whole lot more recommendations than spots open from quota for the chapter to take. As all have said, recommendations are a tool (as well as letters of support), but they are just a door opening. Set yourself up by getting good recommendations and letters, but also prepare for recruitment in all the other ways listed on GC. IMHO.

And keep in mind that some groups accept letters in pplace of a rec form itself. I know my group gives just as much credance to one as to the other.

Having participated in this aspect of the last colony at Arkansas, I can attest to the truth of this post. AOII chose to initially colonize with fewer than we were allowed in order to make sure we had the right mix. We were careful not to relax any standards just to get numbers. At a campus like Arkansas, maintaining - no, exceeding - standards is crucial. You simply have to get off on the right foot. PNMs should get recs for the colonizing groups as well as the existing chapters. Each PNM will want to have all her bases covered. Even if a PNM is SURE she will be pledging an existing group, she really has no idea how her recruitment will go, so she should be prepared with recs to Phi Mu and Alpha Chi Omega. Those groups will likely participate in round 1, and she may fall in love with one of them. Recs are extremely helpful to the colonizing sororities.

As for the recs v. letters of support debate, if I were the PNM, I wouldn't assume that anyone has written me a rec. Even if someone promises to write one, life happens. Sometimes they don't get mailed in, despite the best of intentions. If I thought I already had a rec for a group, and someone else asked if I wanted one, I would never decline, and would suggest that if she felt comfortable doing so, would she add a personal letter of support.

My bad - I actually fired off that posting without really doing my due diligence and thinking it through.

Yes, groups vary in the way they use/give weight to recs,letters, etc. At Arkansas it does not hurt to have more than one of either of these things. Irishpipes is right - accept what anyone will do/write for you.

Sidenote:
I think one thing that makes the PNMs so crazy is that they worry/fret about the terminology and then worry further about the supposed correct "recs to letters" ratio. I have always encouraged PNMS to simply ask sorority women for a recommendation and let the alumna worry whether she is going to write a rec and/or letter. A rec IS a letter of recommendation (of sorts). If you are asking an alumna for help, you are asking for a recommendation to her glo. It may come in any form the alumna sees fit to put forward.

Thank you for all the helpful responses on recs and letters!!! My friend felt the letters would give more detailed information on her from people she knows instead of a standard rec form (let me just say, I have no idea what a rec form even looks like so if this sounds stupid, it's just because I don't know what I'm talking about!). I do like the idea of the people who know me well being able to really talk about my strengths since I don't stand out by being a legacy. I am completely open minded but know it will be tougher for me than my friend who is a legacy. I am so excited and nervous for her but I think if I do decide to go there, her experience will be helpful.

And I can't even imagine how everyone keeps track of all that paperwork coming in!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The timing of most colonizations makes me anxious for the PNMs. If a PNM does fall in love with a colonizing group during round 1 but later winds up with a bid to an established house, then she's faced with an incredibly tough decision. How can she decline the bid (i.e., a sure thing) to a house she likes very much to pursue a shot at the colony (i.e., not a sure thing at all) that she loves? If she goes for the colony, she risks having no house at all. :(

I believe that if she signed a bid card she eliminated herself from the colonization process. It would be the same as if she signed a bid card, received a bid and then turned the bid down, which action would require her to wait the requisite year before participating in recruitment again.

I believe that the proper procedure would be for the PNM who is interested in pursuing the colony to formally withdraw from recruitment thru Panhellenic sometime prior to the signing of a bid card during regular formal recruitment. I believe that the pnm could actually attend Pref. parties and then make the decision to accept a bid from her pref. sororities by signing a bid card or to pursue membership in the colonizing sorority by not signing a bid card at that time.

Please,would someone more knowledgeable than me clarify the exact process.

The recommended procedure is --
If a PNM signs a bid card pref night she is saying she will accept the bid offered or wait one year to go through recruiment again. Someone who declines a bid would not be eligible for the colony - but she could try again the following year.

Quite bluntly, that's the kind of balls most colonizing sisters need to have. Especially at big schools. The timing of these things aren't accidental, trust me.

Random piece of information concerning Arkansas sororities.
On Twitter it was announced that the University of Arkansas Kappa Kappa Gamma chapter received the top award at their national convention last night. Greek Life at Arkansas is very strong. Congrats to the Kappas!

Yay Kappas!:):):)

She's not going to have enough time to "fall in love" during Round 1. It's a blur. And they probably will meet national people, members from another chapter and alumnae. There isn't a chapter there so anyone they "fall in love with" is not going to be around anyway....except for maybe the few who will be advisers. It's not a problem!

No RECS ... Should you drop out?
 

If a PNM does not have recs for any of the houses she is invited to for the 3rd round, should she just drop out and write it off as a lost cause? This PNM spent months searching for recs but her small town size, multiple states away didn't have good contacts, and neither of her professionally placed and well off parents were Greek, or had contacts wither.

The rec search became a melt down for her, including contacts with Panhellenic alumnae groups. Many chapters she could secure recommendations from do not have chapters at Arkansas.

Would a parent best advise to quit before watching tragedy? And heartache? Is there simply no way to be Greek at Arkansas without a recommendation?