Any 16 year old New Members?
 

I can't really give specifics for discretion's sake, but I'm looking for just anecdotal information right now.

Have any of you in NPC organizations ever had 16-year-old pledges/new members? Did you require a parent to sign financial documents? Were they allowed to live in the house (if you had houses)?

Thanks in advance. I'm just collecting information for someone.

Edited to add: I guess I am looking for more recent information, as things have probably changed over the years. (Thank you, Carnation, for the clarification!).

Yes but that was years ago so I'm sure that rules have changed.

Yes we have had 16 year old members, and it wasn't that long ago. We have had several 17 year old members and have not had to do anything really differently concerning signing the agreement forms or housing, but I would think this may vary from place to place depending on whether or not you have university housing or a house corporation. It probably isn't a problem if housing is done through the university.

The bigger problem is that we have had some disagreements with locations for social events that denied access to members that were not 18. This can happen based on local liquor laws and whether or not the establishment is open to other clients at the same time. In our case, we had a private party room inside a larger establishment, but security denied access to 17 year old new members. The social chair was able to clear this up to prevent it from happening again (by providing a list of what girls to expect that were 17), but it didn't work out at that party.

I would think the one other place that age might be a problem is if you were going to go on a trip that had the members leaving the state?

It's not all that uncommon with students skipping grades. I was a 17 year old - as were a couple of others in my pledge class. Though back then, 21 was the legal age and we all had to have our parents sign. Nowadays, we have to police that and make arrangements as we have to cover the legalities. As for a 16 year, not sure I would want one or let mine go thru recruitment.

I was a 16-year old when I rushed, but was 17 by the time I moved into the house. As far as I can remember, my parents never had to sign anything.

Also, I thought it was a cool unique thing about me, but in retrospect, it probably was something I should have kept to myself during rush (see the comment above mine).

The campus where I advised had a 16 year old go through recruitment. She had taken summer school in high school for three summers to graduate a year early. Her birthday was after recruitment, so she was 16 years old when she received her bid. She got a bid to a chapter that was not able to pledge her officially until her birthday in late September. This was a small campus and the organizations didn't have events (other than formals) in public places, so there was no issue there.

Do you have any idea why? I can't understand why 16 would be different from 17, in that you are a minor either way.

I am not sure since it was not my organization and I didn't think to ask. I guess I didn't think it was such a big deal since it was only three weeks' time. I don't know if it was the GLO or the university who insisted on the wait.

One of my pledge sisters was 14. She was in a special program for gifted students. I knew she lived in the dorm where they were housed, but so did a lot of other women. We found out about this the evening of initiation...she mentioned it in passing and we were all really surprised. The pledge director and her asst. were shocked...a last minute call was made to IH, but it was after business hours. She was initiated.

I just turn 16 when I pledged.

We pledged a 16 year old last fall. No one knew about it until after she was given her bid. As far as I know/have heard she is one of our best members and wants to be more involved in leadership positions.

Yes. The one we had was nothing but trouble. This was 3 or 4 years ago, so we didnt have a house at the time.

No 16 year olds, but I was 17 when I pledged my local sorority. I didn't have to have my parents cosign my financial documents. (In Massachusetts, a 17yo can have her own checking account. Not to mention, a local can set whatever rules they want. ;) The treasurer probably could have tracked down my parents if I didn't pay, but as a local, our dues were practically pocket change, so I never had a problem meeting my financial obligations.)

We didn't have a house, so no issues there. No risk management issues either, as we didn't have alcohol at our events, and if we had an event such as a mixer where alcohol was available, all underage members (pledges and sisters) were expected to stay away from the booze.

AEPhi does require a parent or guardian to cosign financial documents if a new member is under 18. I have no idea if there are issues with women under 18 living in-house, as we didn't have a house while I was an active.

I do know of a 16yo young man who pledged a fraternity at my school and lived in house, but this was decades ago, and this is hearsay - I didn't know the young man in question.

If your chapter house qualifies as official university housing, I don't see why it would be a problem for someone young to live there, i.e. it seems that it would be subject to the same rules as the dorms.

I was 16 when I pledged, but that was mumble, mumble years ago. My parents had to sign, but I think it was more of a state thing as opposed to Alpha Delta Pi.

If you are in a chapter and think/know that a rushee is very young, I would be very careful to make sure she is mature enough to handle the massive load of responsibilities and change she has in front of her. If you know the rushee, I would suggest she spend some quality time with herself considering this topic for herself. She may be completely stoked to jump right into college life, but it is a lot of change very fast. That's not to say she can't handle it, just that she should consider what all this is going to mean before she potentially damages her reputation when more than likely she could wait a year and pledge as a sophomore when she understands what it takes to live in a dorm, attend classes without Mom waking you up, doing homework without being nagged to, eat on schedule and heathfully, dating without chaperones (or Mom watching the clock), etc. If she can do it, then great, why not!

My cousin was 17 when she accepted her bid to Delta Zeta 4 years ago. Her 18th birthday was only a few weeks after recruitment, but I vaguely recall that her mother had to sign some of the early paperwork. Housing was also not an option at her university. But, that was 4 years ago and I've slept since then, so I may be wrong.

How is that any different when someone is 17 or 18? If a woman skipped ahead when she was young, she has been with an older peer group her entire life, and has been coping with an increasing level of responsibility in her life every year. There's not some magical difference when you have a 18th birthday that suddenly makes you an adult.

This isn't to say I wasn't an immature asshole at 16, but rather that maturity is not strictly correlated with age. Ask any straight woman in her 20's who's trying to find a husband.

I'm sorry - this made me LOL!

Age isn't necessarily tied to maturity, but it helps. A person would argue the same thing with 17 and 18 year olds but that's why rush is thorough, or should be anyway. And that lack of maturity is why some girls get into lots of trouble in their freshman year. Presumably if a girl is sharp enough to be starting college at 16 she's got a grasp of all this, but I still contend that you should be more aware of a heightened need for social guidance.

And we all know that 25 in boy years is about 15 in girl years. ;)

I just think that you need to balance the potential immaturity with the fact that most of these women are extremely bright and may contribute to the chapter in a lot of other ways. You don't get to college at 16 by being average (is my bias showing yet???).

I'll agree with that. My husband was in med school at 17. Was he the most mature thing in the world? No, but he was far more mature than any other 17 year old you could conjure. I was 17 when I pledged AOII...now this was 19 years ago in August, but my parents did not have to sign anything for me. They didn't have to sign for my sister, either, who pledged at 17.

holy crap

^^^ I believe there were a couple fraternity men who would have had the same thought, had they known....

When I say the pledge director and her asst. were shocked, I'm saying that you could practically see the wheels turning as they recollected all the mixers, fraternity parties, etc. she'd been to all semester. They were very concerned.

I have always wondered whether she is our youngest initiate.

Thanks for the discussion. There are some schools (well, at least one) that mandate a minimum age for living on campus/in the dorms, and I am aware that the same cutoff could extend to Greek housing.

Regardless of minimum age requirements, even for the most mature students, 16 is quite young to take on living away/alone, and taking a full course load, and possibly working, and pledging. The difference between 16 and 17 or between 17 and 18 isn't always that big, but the difference between 16 and 18 can be.

Thanks again! You've brought up some great points that I can pass on to the interested party.

Re the 14 year old: I take it that it wasn't obvious physically that she was 14? I doubt any guys would have been in trouble though, as they could argue that her not disclosing her age to y'all amounted to fraud. (Not that I think that, but that's probably where a lawyer would go.)

She looked like a regular freshman...not 14. I don't think anything went far enough to involve The Law, but I do recall her making her out with a guy at a Lambda Chi Alpha party shortly before initiation, and that visual was the first thing that popped into my mind when she revealed her age.

It's been several decades since my time, but surely we put our month/date and YEAR of birth on rush registration forms and sorority forms.

I'm wondering if anyone really pays attention to the birthdate on a recruitment form.

They didn't pay attention to mine - both houses where I preffed were unsure if I could receive a bid, due to my age. I got "the call" to see if my parents would sign for me to accept a bid!