Indiana University Recruitment 2021
 

I can't believe it's time already. Indiana Recruitment is here! Here is the schedule. Take note all rounds are virtual.

January 25-27th- Open Invite (All 22 chapters are visited)

January 29th-30th- Philanthropy (Max of 16 chapters)

February 4th-6th- Sisterhood (Max of 9 chapters)

February 13th- Preference (Max of 2 chapters)

February 14th- BID NIGHT!!

As a quick post I know PNMs, parents, actives, and advisors are lurking or reading this thread. I wish everyone the best of luck in the coming weeks and I hope everything goes smoothly for everyone!

I think I've said this before ... but I'm surprised that, at a school with 22 chapters, you can only pref 2 of them. And you go from 9 to 2 - that's a big drop.

Good luck to all the IU PNMs! I look forward to reading some interesting recruitment stories after it's over.

Here's the IU Panhellenic 2021 primary recruitment page. If you click on Detailed Schedule, you can see exactly how each round is going to work.

NPC used to allow pref to be 3 chapters where campuses had over 16 chapters.
I believe the guidelines are now :
1 - all chapters
2 - 12 chapters
3 - 7 chapters
4 - 2 chapters
But, Indiana has never followed NPC guidelines.

Does anyone know how many PNM's are participating in the process? Has it been dramatically impacted by COVID?

Actually, this is incorrect. IU has been following all the NPC guidelines regarding recruitment for around 5 years now. This includes, quota, QAs, snap bids, etc.
The only thing IU does not have is a total chapter size limit.

Yes, dropping from 9 to 2 is incredibly difficult.

My daughter thought she had heard a little over 1,700 but she's now a senior and currently at home so not sure how accurate that number is since she's not in the thick of everything like before. However, if it is around there then that isn't too far away from years past but would be lower.

My younger D has some friends going through rush so we are watching to see how it goes from them. IU rush is hard enough in person, can't imagine what this year will be like.

Bumping. I hope philanthropy went well for everyone!

Students are starting to arrive back at IU (dorms are now open). So this upcoming weekend (sisterhood round) will be the first done with the majority of students in Bloomington. Fingers crossed that the WIFI holds up!

I've heard if you have technical issues you can just tell your rho gamma and they'll relay it to the whichever sorority you're visiting.

I'm more worried about the chapter houses... even at reduced capacity I'm not sure the WIFI will hold up!

I'm gonna assume the houses took that into account. I did hear of Bama and other big schools seemingly having no internet issues.

Not sure if Indiana is doing this but for the chapter I advise they planned an entire additional time slot into each round where they could schedule chapters or pnms who had technical difficulties during their normal scheduled round.

Good luck to the PNMs heading to pref!

Those poor PNMs have one more week to wait until the 13th rolls around and they get to attend prefs. I feel for them(and their moms!).

I know recruitment is different this year but this thread is quieter than usual. I hope that means everything is going smoothly.

I’ve been thinking the same thing. Very quiet on this board as well as the Facebook groups for IU. To be this close to the end and have hardly any comments is amazing to me.

I suppose with some students doing an entire semester remote at home the parents might know immediately what houses their daughters might have with each round, or similar with them being in their dorms all day.

I also wonder if this is going to effect pledge class sizes, or maybe they might hold off rushing till next year where they could get the "full" experience rather than zoom rush.

Pref party
 

Hi! Newbie here with a question. My daughter just got her pref party schedule back and was thrilled to have gotten invites back to her top 2. So, am I correct that if she puts both houses on her bid card she is guaranteed a place at one of the two houses?

Thank you in advance for your response!

You are correct. And congratulations to her!

Thank you so much!!

Got an update on our daughter’s friends. One got her top house back for pref which is her legacy house and where she wants to go. The other friend dropped however she wasn’t sure about rushing to start with and instead is going to join Melenzana bike team.

Congratulations on friend's invitation to her legacy house and to friend #2 for finding her own spot on campus.

PNMs will get their bids at 7:20 tonight with bidnight starting on zoom at 7:30. Congratulations to everyone!

Our younger Daughters friend got her legacy house so we’re happy for her. My older D looked at her sorority bid list and said they had 55 names on it so despite lower numbers sounds like potential decent class sizes.

This pretty much wraps up our IU rushes since we won’t really know anyone going through next year and our older D graduates in May.

Our younger D is OOS and rushed in the fall so now we get to sit back and relax.

That’s a good feeling, no?

Several of the IU sororities are introducing their new members in their Instagram stories.

A lot of chapters are participating in COB/Informal Recruitment. From Indiana's Panhel site.

Alpha Delta Pi
Alpha Omicron Pi
Alpha Phi
Alpha Sigma Alpha
Alpha Xi Delta
Chi Omega
Delta Gamma
Delta Phi Epsilon
Pi Beta Phi
Sigma Delta Tau
Sigma Kappa
Theta Phi Alpha
Zeta Tau Alpha

Usually the site will update saying which chapters are no longer taking new members.

KKG took 58 or 59...they had a power point on Instagram that quickly flipped thru photos of their new class; it moved very quickly and couldn’t be paused and I counted as fast as I could. So it’s either one or the other!

NPC has held firm on their requirement that campus total NOT be any lower than it was before COVID. So, I am sure that the vast majority of chapter everywhere are below total.

Also note Indiana does have quota but no campus total. So even if the chapters hit quota they can COB anyway.

Why might a chapter that has hit quota COB anyway?

(Asking out of pure curiosity.)

If they haven't hit chapter total--like if they had a large amount of seniors graduate or members transfer.

I'm sure there are a multitude of reasons, but just a few examples of why they might be so inclined:

- A smaller chapter wants to increase their membership numbers
- More members = more money, which helps with paying for the house and lowers overall member dues
- A chapter recognizes some women on campus as being great potential members, but those women didn't go through formal recruitment

With no Total set, the sky's the limit. Chapters on some campuses might be more limited if Total is 100, for example, and they're at 98 members. They might not bother COB'ing the last two spots. But if there's no Total, why not throw some events and see if you can get a few more members, especially if a smaller chapter.

At IU it is generally so that they can fill the crazy large house.
Keep in mind that most second semester juniors study abroad, so in a normal year they will overfill the house first semester to make up for all the women gone second semester (obviously covid has changed this) but now you have women requesting live out status without ever living in.

Also with COVID you may have decreased chapter sizes as women drop for financial or social reasons.
Seniors dropping has become an issue throughout the IU sororities - most say they feel disconnected when they return from study abroad and are 21 so don’t rely on “pairs” for social activities.

I have heard that the county health dept wants Greek housing at 75% capacity next year.

Thank you.

Thank you.

And thank you.

Unfortunately, with such big houses these days, it is all about filling beds!

Add Alpha Gamma Delta and Kappa Delta to this list. (Here’s the IU Panhellenic Informal Recruitment page.)

It occurs to me that this is the ideal scenario for chapters to really make a big push to be more inclusive by targeting BIPOC women and open up the member experience. If women of color don't typically sign up for formal recruitment in large numbers, then the chapters can seek them out in CO . I don't know if Indiana is progressive enough for this, but the current generation of collegians seem to be more open. I would love to see more members of color in the chapters and a little less tokenism. It could really be meaningful for the future of Greek life. IMO

Updates?
 

Any updates on pledge class sizes, chapter totals and chapter COB status?