"Courting" for Homecoming
 

I'm new to this whole process... and I'm really enjoying everything that is going on! Homecoming is Nov.15 at UF.... so this past week the Fraternities have been courting sororities. The fraternities go all out.... putting letters on their roofs in lights, offering rides to class, renting out movie theaters for the girls, buying them breakfast, etc. They do everything they can to get the girls in the chapter they're courting to vote for them.

For example, Kappa was being courted by Pi Lam, Fiji, and Phi Sig. Fiji and Phi Sig are right next to each other on fraternity row, and both houses had our letters on their roofs in lights. Phi Sig brought pumpkins to carve with us and made us root beer floats. Fiji gave massages after dinner. Pi Lam has "serenaded" us a few times. Pi Lam placed little hearts on our lawn...one for each girl... and they say "Pi Lam loves (insert girls name here)...one for EACH girl! Also, our lawn is littered with huge signs put up by the fraternities saying "XYZ loves Kappa". :eek: They've done a whole bunch of stuff for us all week long, and I think it's hilarious! (since I'm new to all of this) Anyways... our house voted last night and results will be in later.


It's really funny, b/c I've talked to some people at other schools... and they do it completely different! I was just wondering what everyone does at your school.

I have never heard of this before, but it seems like so much fun!!!My vote is for Fiji...I'm a sucker for back massages! :)

What happens to the fraternities that aren't chosen by a sorority? What does the one chosen "win" in regard to Homecoming?

It sounds like a lot of fun and good for egos! The fraternities courting KKG seem to be going all out. Let us know the outcome.

I personally don't like homecoming done this way. The fraternities can spend thousands of dollars in only one night and still not get a sorority. UF discussed a system of pairing a large fraternity with a small fraternity and then pairing a sorority with them. I think that system would work alot better. We're not even doing corting this year. We some what courted DZ but they decided not to do homecoming so we only spent like 500 bucks. I think the courting system needs to be redone, cause as of right now...I think it's a waste of money.

We have something similar to that except our's occurs in the Spring semester. Fraternities will go to the sorority of their choice and serenade them. They'll bring flowers, decorate the front lawn of the house, and sing songs about how much they love the sorority. :) It's lots of fun. After all the serenades, the sororities then vote on the fraternity they want to do Homecoming with. The fraternities that do not get paired up are matched with sororities. For instance, Zeta picked LXA this year. Fiji was automatically paired with us also so that they would not have to do Homecoming alone.
It's great doing the serenades during spring semester because the fraternity that we're paired with helps out at all our philanthropy events, coaches our intramural teams, and says lots of good things about us to incoming freshman. :) We also help them during their rush.

ZTA voted for SigEp. Yesterday PhiDelt had an airplane flying around campus with a banner that said "PhiDelt loves ZTA." It was really cute... but they didn't get picked by them.

We're going with Phi Sig... they signed all the papers tonight.

At UF there are more fraternities than sororities... so some fraternities decide not to pair up if they don't get their first choice. Apparently there is this whole complex system to it, and maybe someone who knows about it can give us the insight.

But for example, sorority ABC was being courted by XYZ. (and only them) When it came time to vote, ABC decided not to go to with XYZ b/c they were hoping that EFG (who was courting another house) would not get picked... and then would ask ABC to go. Am I making sense? I know it's confusing....which is why I hope someone else can explain. :confused: :confused:

What I don't know is what happens to the sororities that don't get courted... do they get paired up with someone at all?

Also... about pairing up a large house with a small house. That might sound good in theory... but I know that it might work the other way. If a big "popular" fraternity house is paired up with someone they'd rather not be.... then they could just turn the cold shoulder...and be jerks b/c it would "hurt their image" to go with them. :rolleyes:

And I don't really know what we do with them for Homecoming.. but I've heard that it's a week of social events with them.

Home Alone Coming--how clever!

Times have changed!!

Back in the 1980s at UF, the fraternities didn't bribe us with material things. They would just come over, do a skit/sing a song and that's it.

I'm surprised to hear of the amount of money the fraternities spend... WOW!

I wouldn't be surprised if UF's Greek Affairs dept puts a limit on this - like they did with sorority rush. There was no such thing as "ice water" rounds in my days...maybe they happened my senior year (1988)..

I never even heard of being paired up with a fraternity for HC until I found this site!

Actually, KD did this my sophomore year. We were asked by 2 fraternities on the first round, but "heard through the grapevine" that another house (#3) was going to ask us on 2nd round. So we rejected those 2...and the 3rd house DID ask us.

It's a risk the sorority takes...sometimes, it can backfire. I know that one of those first 2 houses was VERY involved in all kinds of campus leadership (Student Government, Cicerones, etc)...and let's just say that there was payback..IMO :(

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Also... about pairing up a large house with a small house. That might sound good in theory... but I know that it might work the other way. If a big "popular" fraternity house is paired up with someone they'd rather not be.... then they could just turn the cold shoulder...and be jerks b/c it would "hurt their image" to go with them.

Yup - this happened my freshman year. The fraternity was not too friendly with our chapter as a whole. Actually, I take that back - they were always cordial & showed up when we had our events together (always at their house). It's just that after experiencing HC my soph year, I realized how much fun the week could be.

(Needless to say, my junior & senior years were not spent at fraternity parties... ) http://smilies.uniquehardware.co.uk/...n/pcheers1.gif

Thank god we don't have to do anything like that.

We are put into triads by Greek Affairs...Each Sorority is paired up with at least two fraternities (with the exception of Towne Club - a local who seldom shows up to much - and ADPi b/c they only have like 16 members...those two seem to be parts of quads) I'm pretty sure that there is some sort of way to make sure that a "more involved" (and I hate to use such a term) is part of each triad, followed by a so called "less involved" fraternity. I think that at the first pairing of more involved house with sorority is fairly random, then the other house is added judged on relative strength. However I'm just making assumptions and the whole thing could be random...however I have a tough time ever believing that we would be paired with SigEp...they were our main competition last year...there would be no way that we could lose the homecoming lawn display unless we were to get in a major fight:p

As usual it just goes to show that the sororities at UF usually go by size of the fraternity rather than what the fraternity does at courting. BAHH!!! I really dislike homecoming...

Who are the AXO's doing homecoming with?

I believe Kappa Sigma and someone else is courting AXO.

It's so cute to see the boys courting the girls. I think AGR was the fraternity who flew millions of rose petals over Chi Omega...I was walking into DG for my friends birthday dinner and saw the whole thing! They put little hearts ALL OVER their lawn with Blah Blah Loves CHI O...SOOOOO CUTE!!! I heard they spent almost 6000 dollars on all the stuff they did!

I think most fraternities have a budget of 2000 dollars to spend...At least the larger ones. Oh and ZTA did pick Sig Ep...They actually took the girls to the new Mall of the Millenium in Orlando...so that may have been what put them over the top! :)

I know a lot of Phi-Delts and saw one of the boys who painted his truck with expensive Zebra stripes (Zeta's mascot or whatever they call it is a Zebra) and drove up and down Sorority Row...and they had a huge crown in front of their house all lit up with lights...Poor boys! :( But one of my Zeta friends said that the house was pretty much completely split and Sig Ep won but only six votes!!!!

I'm not positive but these are the Homecoming matches I know of...

ADPi- SAE
DG-Theta Chi
ZTA-Sig Ep-they won over Phi-Delt
AOPi-Pi Kapp- They won over Pike
KD- ATO
AEPhi- ZBT
KKG-PhiSig
I know DTD was courting Theta...but I think someone else was too, so i don't know.

I don't think anyone courted Phi Mu or Sigma Kappa or Pi Phi...Not postive though...and I thought Lambda Chi (SP?) was courting DZ, but I guess they aren't anymore...

Basically each group that is paried up has a full week of Homecoming activities together and they build a float together. It's a good chance to get to know a fraternity really well... And not all of the fraternities spend so much money. It's usually only when tow or mare fraternities are competing for one sorority that things get crazy...Mostly it's like having a movie night together or giving rides to class, singing songs and if they see you in class...Making sure you aren't cold, offering jackets, opening doors, buying you a drink...etc. It's actually a really great tradition and from what I hear, most of the guys actually like doing it...providing that they win the affection of the sorority they want...:)

DTD *was* courting Theta and lost. They called up Pi Phi and are going to Homecoming with them now. I talked to one of them and he said that they had a lot of fun with them at a social, so he's really excited. He also didn't understand what the purpose of courting was....when in the end, they just called up Pi Phi!

Theta was being courted by Phi Tau, KA, and DTD. They voted for Phi Tau.

As of Monday night at Chapter DZ was being courted by Sigma Kappa too because they sent stuff over. Just to give a little more insight into courting and homecoming. A sorority/fraternity has wait four years before it can do homecoming with that group again. I know two years ago when DTD was paired up with ADPi they had a band come over and play on their lawn, made them all ice cream sundaes and tons of other stuff. The same year Sig Ep and SAE were fighting for DG. SAE had t-shirts made for all the girls along the lines of "make the right choice" and sent over chocaltes that they had specialy ordered for them, they flew a plane with a banner over a football game, and gave almost $1000 to their philantropy and DG still voted for Sig Ep and SAE is still mad. Supposedly next year they are going to do the matching by drawing out of a hat. For the girls its definately more fun to be courted by a couple than just one because then they have to fight for you. But AGR had a banner that says "helicopter money?, rose money?, carnations for every sister money, being dumped by Chi O? priceless" on their house....can we say they are a tad bit bitter. But they took it down already.

how was DZ being courted by Sigma Kappa?---that's a sorority.

Yeah, someone wrote in chalk on the sidewalk in front of AGR... "Roses are Red, AGR is Green, We Love you, and the Chi O's are mean." I wonder if AGR is going to pair up with another house for homecoming.

my fault I meant Kappa Sigma.....a little dislexic today!!

I think this is really cute but what about the sororities that don't get courted? I'll be really said if my fellow Phi Mu sisters don't get matched:( It seems a little unfair especially with so many organizations at UF. I know Phi Mu isn't top of the crop there but I do know they have great girls with a good vision for improving the chapter.

No one is courting DZ. As of last monday the voted not to do homecoming at all. AGR was going to do courting paired with us but decicded to go at it alone. Can't say they didn't get what they deserved after lying to us...
All the sororities will paired eventually because all the large houses that didn't get signed...such as Phi Delt well go after the less renouned houses, they are back up plans...Have I mentioned how much I hate how homecoming works? I think the entire system needs to be done away with because it's a waste of money...
Oh and BTW pairing can happen only every two years, not four...

EM1843

Doing homecoming the right way...without wasting money on courting...

well since I am a DZ I would know that Kappa Sigma was trying to court us.......:rolleyes:

And we didnt necessarily vote to not do homecoming at all either....but since you go to our chapter meetings you would know that right?

WOW!
$2,000 on helicopter, planes, rose petals??!! If you have that much money in your budget then why not skip all that and write a big fat check to your philanthropy. If I was a UF sorority woman and a Fraternity came and told me "hey we want to do homecoming wtih you guys period. Instead of all the pomp and circumstance we spent the money in our budget to benefit a charitable organization" That alone would be a very noble reason to vote yes on them.
Just my opinion.

UF56, sorry, I was going on the information provided to me by our social chair. I guess he was told wrong. Hope you enjoyed the massages and the luau we had anyways. See you at the social during homecoming week I guess...

ZTAMiami -

I agree with you. Not only does it sound like the money could be spent better elsewhere, from the stories here it sounds like it causes a lot of resentment and disunity.

While courting sounds like a fun way to do Homecoming matching up, I can see how it could really hurt some of the smaller sororities. Imagine if ABC is smaller than the average house and doesn't get the attention lavished on it that some of the other houses do or isn't courted at all. By the next rush, word gets around to the freshman girls about this and this hurts the sorority's chances of expanding.
In general, it sounds great for the "stronger" houses but that it isn't necessarily positive for the Greek system as a whole.

I definitely agree that it's not the best way to go about things. I know that they definitely stressed to us that Homecoming affects things like Recruitment...and although I didn't understand it when they told me, I can see how it does now.

It's all about the image of the house... and what it looks like to the outsiders. It's fun... but I can say that because my house was being courted--although not the most elaborate in comparison to the rest. But freshman will definitely hear about all the fun the XYZ house with their courting, and want to join them because of that.

<sigh> It's all so silly to me. I wouldn't be very happy if I was a fraternity's "second choice"....it's like 'gee thanks!':rolleyes:

Yeah, we locked with Delt either on Monday night or sometime Tuesday. There was some confusion b/c our chapter wasn't aware of who was calling...it got messy.

It was a weird year for courting (did anyone notice how EVERYONE turned around and changed up who they were courting?) Last year there were a lot of obvious locks. This year everything was all up in the air.

Well, anyway, I'm happy. My little sister and her pledge class are all pleased with this decision, so that's all that really matters. :)

We do stuff like that at Penn State for Homecoming, Spring Week, Greek Sing, and THON. It's great! Guys ask for spring week and Homecoming. Girls ask for Greek Sing. Thon alternates every year. It's not as expensive as down in UF I don't think, but askings include everything from bringing over snacks, setting up breakfast for when everyone wakes up, driving us to class, decorating the fraternity houses or sorority floors, cooking, e-mails, serenading, and other crazy stuff. It's SO much fun and actually it doesn't break up greek unity as one may think because it's all in fun. Yes, if you do a really good asking and get turned down it hurts, but that doesn't cause bitter rivalries because there's always a different event or next year.