University of Iowa
 

Hi! Anyone in the "know" at Univ. of Iowa have any idea what the initial recruitment numbers will be? I know last year was pretty good I was wondering if the numbers are up/down? Btw recruitment starts Friday!

872 is the official count and registration closed at 5pm today!

The largest ever for Panhellenic recruitment at Iowa. It is going to be a crazy but amazing two weeks that this women are about to experience.

Wow! That's amazing and terrific! Hopefully all the houses will see some nice, big pledge classes! I know a couple of girls going through! Fingers crossed!

My daugher will be one of the 872! Send good vibes her way please! :)

I hope your daughter is enjoying herself. I was able to help "behind the scenes" for the first two rounds/days of parties. There are a lot of amazing women going through recruitment and a lot of amazing women waiting to welcome them as sisters.

Here's me reminding all the rushees and their mothers to KEEP AN OPEN MIND and be open to all of the sororities to which you are invited. While Iowa isn't Alabama, it is still competitive and cuts will continue to happen all the way to the end. The houses are all beautiful there and a few days after rush is over, all the sidewalk talk will be history. If you end up being invited to join a sorority that was not high on your list, try to remember that the chapters there are growing and strengthening every day. You will be able to be part of a growing and improving chapter. But you have to give them a chance first!

Best of look to everyone.

Best wishes to all Iowa ladies both going through recruitment, working as a part of their chapter and alumnae helping behind the scenes! From what I hear so far, things are going great.

I did the same thing the first 2 days too :)
Iowarose, Howdy neighbor! :D
There were quite a few withdraws the first round, though. It was up to about 92 on Saturday...before the chapters finished the first round

Crazy.

I noticed on the UIowa Greek website, it states there aren't going to be any informal recruitment events; if you want to join a chapter this year, Formal recruitment is your only chance. Anyone involved there, is that correct? I'm wondering if that's to try and prevent so many women from withdrawing during formal, but it seems unfair for the chapters not at total.

Trust me I am SURE there will be some chapters doing informal recruitment. Trust me on this one...

(from what I understand from my information) Chapters that are not at total after formal recruitment may hold informal recruitment events on their own.

I didn't think that sounded right. So they're just not holding a structured spring informal recruitment like they'd done the past few years, but chapters can do informal on their own. The statement on the website isn't very clear on that.

We used to do partially structured recruitment where for three days women could meet all chapters and all chapters were able to take women even if they were above total. We stopped doing that. So while chapters may extend bids until they reach 110 (total) there isn't an opportunity at any other point in the year to meet all 14 chapters.

I looked at the FSL website again today. Either I totally glossed over the last paragraph that talks about informal recruitment (which is very possible!) or they added more information. It's much clearer now. I hope all the chapters had a great recruitment and the members/new members are having a great bid day!

Just wanted to interject that it was a very successful recruitment for Panhellenic - per university staff, highest placement numbers in recent memory.

Do you have the recruitment results for UI?

Here's the information that was passed along to me, overall it was a highly successful recruitment with the largest placement numbers in years:

All but two chapters are now at total (110), average chapter size is now 118. The idea of raising chapter total will be reviewed later in the fall.

593 women placed, 872 were originally registered
34 women didn't match, 4 were placed through quota additions and 30 "didn't maximize their options"

75% of primary pool were placed (freshman)
Up from 63% in 2011
63% of secondary pool were place (upperclassmen)
Up from 58% in 2011

Quota was 39, secondary pool quota was 7

Wow! That is all awesome news!

Hmmm ... not sure I'm in favor of upperclassmen being called "secondary".
Is that how Iowa Panhellenic refers to Sophomores/Juniors/Seniors?
Sounds ageist. (though I'm happy the percentages are way up)

Yeah, I'm not sure why they couldn't follow the entire rest of the upperclassman quota world and just call it that. I read it as, the quota we wanted and the quota we were stuck with. And obviously that's not true. Iowa has never been a school where sophomores were severely penalized, and I know we pledged a couple juniors back in my day. And women of color and women with disabilities...

Yes, "secondary pool" was spoken specifically. I know the chapter I advise didn't bat an eye at it, they wanted as many as they could have! from my experiences at Iowa, the upperclassman are not a negative "secondary" option.

Thank you for the update, Golferslady!