Rho Chi name change
 

I was just reading my daughter's To Dragma and it said that because there's a national pharmacy honorary named Rho Chi that has requested it, NPC is now asking that colleges quit using the term "Rho Chi" and use "recruitment counselor". Has anyone else heard about this?

Re: Rho Chi name change
 

Oh, for the love of Pete, do we have to be 200% PC all the time? Does someone HONESTLY think that a rushee is going to get confused and think that her Rho Chi is taking her to a pharmacy party, or that an honors pharmacy student will accidentally wind up at a Rush function? NPC needs to stand up for itself for ONCE. Geez. :rolleyes: I guarantee that NPC sororities have been on campus a helluva lot longer than the Rho Chi honor society.

(small break while dzrose93 does some internet research)

Yep, just as I suspected... Panhellenic came about in 1902, and the pharmacy society started 20 years later in 1922.

LOL!!!:D

OMG!!! dzrose93.. you have me ROFLMAO!!!!!! I am about in tears!

I don't see how people can be confused between the two. There are two different Delta Phi Epsilons one is my sorority and the other is a coed professional foreign service group. There is probably more confusion in this case than with Rho Chi.

Which one was first?

the following is an article from the Greek Life newsletter from New Mexico State University - dated 11/19/2001

Say 'Goodbye' to Rho Chi


NPC requests Panhellenic colleges use term Recruitment Counselor

The National Panhellenic Conference (NPC) is asking colleges that use the term Rho Chi during recruitment to use the title Recruitment Counselor in its place.


Executive Vice President of the Rho Chi Society national office Wayne Pittman contacted the National Panhellenic with his concern about the use of the term Rho Chi.


The Rho Chi Society, established in 1922, is an academic honor society for pharmacy students.


NPC said Pittman called to their attention the fact that confusion has developed between Panhellenic Rho Chis and Rho Chi Society members.


"Out of respect for the Rho Chi Society and in order to eliminate any potential confusion between Panhellenic Rho Chis and the Rho Chi Society, if you currently use the term Rho Chi to describe our recruitment counselors, NPC is requesting that you stop this practice," NPC requested in a memo sent to college Panhellenics on November 6.


NPC Area Advisor for Arizona and New Mexico, Barbara Probst, said she thinks it is "perfectly acceptable" for the Rho Chi Society to request the term Rho Chi be removed from recruitment.


Probst said it has become convenient to use the term Rho Chi, but "we are in fact Recruitment Counselors."


The Rho Chi Society national office is located at the University of North Carolina and currently has 77 active Rho Chi chapters.


NPC said they understand the title change may require time to phase out the use of the term, but asks that each college Panhellenic "demonstrate their best efforts to ensure that this phase out will happen as soon as possible."

Thats crazy. I doubt it will never be fazed out completely. The use of the term pledge is still very common even though people are suppose to use the terms new members or associate members.

Next thing you know, the Secret Society of Sporting Recruiters-turned-Guidance Counselors is going to rise up and protest the use of the term "recruitment counselor." What a crock of s***. :rolleyes: Why don't we just get rid of every rush term ever conceived? Just wipe them off the books completely. That appears to be where we're heading. Who cares about tradition and history anyway?

The sorority came first.

I agree that the Rho Chi "issue" is crazy. I don't understand how anyone could get the two confused for more than a minute. They are probably going to do away with the NPC Rho Chi dangles too.

I'd love to see NPC tell the Rho Chi Society to change ITS name. Bet that would have gone over well. :p Why can't they just be the National Pharmacy Honors Society? What's wrong with that title? Not fancy enough?

We were! Delta Phi Epsilon International Sorority was founded on March 17, 1917 at NYU.
Delta Phi Epsilon Professional Foreign Service Fraternity was founded on January 25, 1920, at Georgetown University. Their sorority was founded in the 1970's. This is according to their website.

It was kind of weird when I first searched Delta Phi Epsilon, and I started to read about my Brothers! :confused:

You've got to be kidding! That would be like the Society of Automotive Engineers (which calls itself SAE) asking the fraternity to change its abbreviation. I was never confused with Rho Chi. Do they not understand that a rush rho chi is not a specific, all time entity? Get a grip.

I don't see why it's such a big deal. Most people I know don't even use the term "Rho Chi" (it could be because we only have 2 per Recruitment). Although the NPC came about before 1922, when did we start using the term "Rho Chi"?

I just feel like there are more things to complain about. At least we still HAVE Recruitment Counselors.

They were Rush Counselors when I was in school... Rho Chi was not widely used.

Talking witha few people who had Rho Chi /Pharmacy at their school, there was some confusion with PNM - some girls would show up at their chapter room saying "Okay I'm ready to go!"

Well - in any event, PNM's will better understand "Recruitment Counsellor" than "Rho Chi" ("like, what the hell is a Rho Chi - a jellied donut?" - no kidding - that's what a PNM said to me once)

You guys, this isn't a laughing matter. One of my sisters wrote "I Love ASA!" on the sidewalk with chalk, and the American Statistical Association opened up a can of whup ass on her right there. ;)

But seriously...I agree with dzrose, even though it's biologically impossible, NPC really needs to grow a pair of balls.

I think if people put it on their resume, they probably put it as "Sorority Recruitment Counselor" or no one would know what they meant (same reason I always noted that APO was a national service fraternity). Maybe if we still called it Rush, rush counselor wouldn't be such a mouthful to say and we could avoid the Rho Chi thing like amycat said. :p

Groan. I was a Rho Chi! :p

I've been out of school long enough that it's not on my resume any more, but I think I did list myself as a recruitment counselor under the list of AEPhi offices I'd held. No one outside the NPC sorority world would necessarily know what a Rho Chi was.

eeeek
 

a bunch about verbage...
pc goes only so far
mmcat
:eek:

So lets add another 20 pages to the big green manual...
 

This is exactly how the NPC recruitment rules got to be about 300 pages.

And yet NPC officers dont understand why fraternity men look at the female recuitment process with awe and befuddlement.

:confused: :confused: :confused:

I don't know of anyone who would put Rho Chi on their resume, though. It's not an organization that anyone is a member of... it's just a brief position that is held during Rush. If you're going to put something Greek on your resume, it would be under extracurricular activities, and it would be your sorority or fraternity name plus MAYBE any executive board offices you held. I seriously doubt Rho Chi would ever come into play because most employers wouldn't have a clue as to what it means.

I do understand your point, Tibi, and I guess it's a possibility. However, I live in the South and was actually told NOT to put Greek information on my resume unless I had held a leadership position on exec. board AND participated in other extracurricular offices on campus. Since I was President of my chapter and also a member of the Marketing Club and reporter for the school paper, I decided to add it. But, had I been a Rho Chi, I would probably have either a) left it off the resume completely or b) stated that I was a "peer counselor". Since the term "Rho Chi" means little to people outside of sorority life, it would serve no purpose (to me) on a resume.

That's why I was saying that there is slim to no chance that a Rho Chi Society member would ever be confused with a Rho Chi for Rush.

I really don't think it is right of this organization to ask NPC to change the term "Rho Chi". This term has stuck with all of us for so many years, and there is so much tradition behind it. Also, I agree with the many people that say that this term won't faze out. The reason for that is because it has been around so long. Anyway, can't these names co-exist? I really don't think there is any confusion between the two... but maybe that's just me.

Well, I wouldn't put any sorority positions and/or PH positions on my resume. Maybe the first job I got, but not now.

I was on PH for 3.5 years and although I learned so much from it, it might confuse people who are not familiar with the system.

I would put down under community service/phialnthropy current alumnae positions and hopefully that would prompt a question regarding my KD lif and then I could get into college experience.

I don't think any future employer would be impressed that I was a Rho Chi or anything else, they want to see what extra you do know and since I am a year out of school it is current experience that matters not past college experience.

Back to the original question: Although it would be weird to not call us Rho Chis, we did change the word Rush and that seems to work well as Recruitment so I have faith in the NPC women that it is a good idea as well.

Okay, I have a question. I've seen those officer recognition dangle thingies (whatever they're called) that people wear with their badges. The one for Rho Chi is, simply, the Greek letters Rho and Chi. Are they going to have to change this? I can just picture all these poor women walking around with these huge dangles that say "recruitment counselor" on them. Geez.

Yes, they'll probably make them change the dangle to some other symbol. Stupid, stupid, stupid if you ask me! :rolleyes: I mean, hello, we ARE Greek Letter Organizations. It makes sense that when we abbreviate a title, we're going to use Greek letters in the abbreviation. Rush Counselor naturally translates to Rho Chi in the Greek alphabet. This whole thing is just ridiculous.

I agree. What's next? I don't know that much about the organization NPC itself, but why don't they just say no, we won't do it? I guess that's the $100,000 question...

valkyrie,

Please refer to it by its proper name...recruitment counselor recognition ornamentation. :p

Just because I like you, I'll let you slide this time. ;)

I think we're going to use Pi Rho Chi this fall. I don't know if this is common practice, but the recruitment couselors-formerly-know-as-PXs wore greek lettered shirts just like the lettered shirts we wear with our respective orgs on them. I guess it's cute b/c there's phi rho chi and pi rho chi (fraternity and panhellenic recruitment/rush couselor)
I thought we should change it to Rho Gamma (recruitment guide), but hey whatever man.
H

Ok, this is a completely random thought that I had when I read this. Many moons ago when I was at LSU, there were two fraternity houses that burned down within a few months of each other. After the second house burned, the editorial cartoon in The Reveille showed a picture of a burning house with the letters Pi Rho on it. There were several "Pi Rhos" roasting marshmellows in the flames. I thought that was so wrong, but yet I couldn't help laughing.

I am a Rho Chi for our formal recruitment this semester and we still call ourselves Rho Chis. In fact, we have used the term recruitment councelor but never as our official name. Our greek advisor never even brought this up. I wear the PX letters right now. This is so ridiculous. I can see the point about resumes, but who puts that they were a Rho Chi on there anyway? Most people have no clue what that is, but they do know what a social sorority is. I don't think I would put that I was a Rho Chi on a resume or application unless I was applying to work at Nationals. As for these people in this pharmacy society, do they wear the letters or anything anyway? I seriously doubt it. It's just their hypothetical name. Also, why is this just now becoming a big deal if they've been around since 1922? Give me a break.:rolleyes:

Maybe to take a little heat off NPC on this issue, the impression I got when I first heard the news was that Rho Chi Society's "expression of concern" about NPC's use of the term was actually more of a threat to sue for trademark infringement (I assume that they, like most of the NPC groups and probably all other inter/national GLOs, have trademarked their name). I could be wrong about that, but it was my clear impression. I can't imagine NPC would want to use its pretty limited resources ($$), which come largely from college panhellenic dues, to defend a lawsuit about the use of the term "Rho Chi" when other alternatives are available.

And to LexiKD: I hope you will reconsider listing your GLO affiliation and offices on your resume. I have interviewed many, many people for both my former law firm and now for my Fortune 50 employer, and I always take positive note of fraternity and sorority members, and use that as a conversation point. In my experience, employers are just like sorority members; they/we check to make sure you have the basic skills in the field, but we also want to be with people who are fun and have interests in common with us. Be proud of your involvement!

Soproundtobeanalphaxi: I would list my alumnae involvment hoping to spark a coversation. I am self employed so I do not need a resume, but thanks for the tid bit.

LexiKD: Whooops!!! That's what I get for trying to get through a thread too fast! Please forgive me, I'm pretty new at GC and don't get to it too often, so I don't know who all is alum, collegian, etc. Your comment just leapt out at me because I have met young women who didn't feel comfortable mentioning their sorority membership, when it makes the talking so much easier!

And BTW, how awesome to be self-employed. Although the challenges must be huge (especially the mental ones -- I'm too much of a wimp to ever go it alone!), it must be really nice to go through your days not having to listen to the eternal "tightening the belt" messages from 7-figure execs, and having that extra bit of personal freedom. But I digress...;)

AlphaXi: No problem, I know what you mean, you will ge the hang of it.

Being self employed is not what is all cracked up to be. I work with my family and I am the HR department, having to do the work of many peolpe. Thank God we don't have too many employees! It is nice to have the freedom, I cannot lie. I do get to plan around what I have to do...like a couple of my sisters and I are going to NYC in March and I didn't have to ask for time off!

I would put my KD positions on my resume right out of college just like I would SGA and so on. I see how it can be an ice breaker!

I believe my school has changed Rho Chi's to Rho Alpha's. They used the Rho Alpha term last year for girls who helped out with men's fraternity recruitment.

It's confusing when you attend a U w/a Pharmacy School!
 

Where I graduated from college we had Rho Chi. I also don't ever remember calling my rush counselor a Rho Chi b/c we took it upon ourselves to respect them. HOWEVER, I have to agree - I don't think a PNM would ever confuse the fact that she's attending a social sorority recruitment function or a honors. I would like to think an honor's sorority would a) want pharmacy students who were b) top notch students.

Just wanted to provide a different prospective for you.

What do you mean by"we took it upon ourselves to respect them"? They are Rho Chis, that's their title. Do you mean you would call them by their name? I am confused.

My Rho Chis were Jenny and Sam, they went by thier names or Rhi Chis #7(that was our group #).

I guess I meant that we as a greek community "took it upon ourselves" to respect the Honorary on our campus and didn't not refer to the Rush Counselors as Rho Chi's. Not that we called them Jenny and Mary.

But again, I assume that we didn't call them Rho Chi's b/c we had that honorary on our campus and the pharmacy college represented 1/3 of the entire campus population.

My husband just said that Rho Chi is a pharmacy honorary that admits both men and women. (Sorry - he's a pharmacist - he knows that silly stuff.)

my brain hurts