Purdue's Recruitment
 

.... starts Saturday! I am so excited! This year we are having Open Houses during November and then coming back in January for the rest of it. This is something new for us, but I hope it works out.

Here are our recruitment dates:

November 15 &16 – Open House Round (house tours)
January 8 – Casuals (room rushing/video)
January 9 – Cokes (skits)
January 10 - Suits (preference)
January 11 - Bid Distribution

This is going to be my second year on "the other side" and I am really excited. Last year I was a really good rusher and lots of girls I talked to wound up pledging Sigma Kappa. During their depinning ceremony, a few of them even said that I was the reason they joined! (Awww... hehe) But yeah, I am really excited about it.

This year there will be 15 houses participating in formal recruitment. (Last year there were 16, but AOII has closed.) The houses are:

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

I am not sure how many girls have signed up for recruitment, but I know that numbers are up from last year thanks to the awesome Go Greek campaign by Panhel and IFC.

I'll update on how Open Houses went some time on Sunday or Monday. Just wanted to give all of you a heads up. :)

Will there be cuts between the November round and the first January round, or will everyone get to come back in January?

There will be cuts, but none of the girls (and none of the houses) will find out who is invited back to where until January. The PNMs can go back to 10 houses on casuals, 6 on cokes, and 3 on suits.

are you guys basing your rush on IU's?

have fun :) IU starts this weekend too! here's the schedule:

11/15-11/16 - 19 party (guests visit all 19 of IU's chapters)
1/7 & 1/8 - 12 party
1/9 - 6 party
1/10 - 3 Party
1/11 - Bid Day

Opps! Forgot all of the chapters at IU:

AXO
ADPi
AEPhi
AGD
AOII
APhi
AXiD
XO
Tri Delta
DG
DZ
GPhiB
Theta
KD
Kappa
Phi Mu
Pi Phi
SDT
ZTA

here's a link to the Chapters & their websites. Some of them are cool, some of them don't work... whatever! http://www.indiana.edu/~pha/chapters.html

Wow, if I was rushing there I think I'd be really really impatient to find out where I was invited back to - a two-month wait seems really long!

PurdueGirlie, Isn't there also a SDT chapter at your school? The last time I knew the Alpha Epsilon chapter was at Purdue even though they don't have a house. Did they close and I have not heard about that yet?

Also good luck with open houses this weekend at both Purdue and IU. Rush your little hearts out.

Elena

Questions
 

purduegirlie and mullet, do either of you know the reason the recruitment period is split at your schools ? is this the first year it has been split ? if not, how did the split recruitment number compare with the previous style recruitment? best wishes to you both and all the other chapters and pnms!

I can't speak for Purdue, but I know IU has done split recruitment since I can remember. I was there in the early 90s and that's how it was done then. I do know that each sorority at IU has a specific GPA requirement (most are significantly higher than the general Panhellenic GPA requirement), so maybe they wait til final semester grades come out to make the first cuts and that's why they split.

IU has a short semester break anyway (compared to other schools) and sorority members and PNMs have to come back a week early to finish rush, so in essence sorority members and PNMs only get a two week semester break. It stinks.

Purdue Panhellenic

Formal Chapters:
Alpha Chi Omega
Alpha Gamma Delta
Alpha Phi
Alpha Xi Delta
Chi Omega
Delta Delta Delta
Delta Gamma
Delta Zeta
Gamma Phi Beta
Kappa Alpha Theta
Kappa Kappa Gamma
Phi Mu
Pi Beta Phi
Sigma Kappa
Zeta Tau Alpha

Informal Chapters:
Delta Phi Mu
Phi Beta Chi
Phi Sigma Rho
Sigma Alpha
Sigma Delta Tau
Sigma Lambda Gamma

I can understand these other groups being in a different category as they are multicultural or religious or social/professional...but how does SDT, for lack of a better phrase, get away with that? They are an NPC member group, shouldn't they be in the same category as the other NPCs?

Heh, I'm sorry, but I just looked at the website for the Purdue Theta chapter, and the first thing listed is "the largest parking lot on campus." That cracked me up. We Theta's certainly have our heads on our shoulders :)

Sarah

Hey, on some campuses parking is hard to come by! Having the largest parking lot on campus here would be a big draw! :D

Purdue has just switched to split-rush this year, modelling it after Indiana's rush. We discussed it in another thread and decided that the reason for it was probably so that they could get girls to rush before they were entirely settled into their routine and involved with other things, but so they could still wait for grades.

Some answers!
 

Ok to answer some of your questions. Yes, there is a SDT chapter at Purdue but they are fairly small and do not have a house. It is hard to be a large sorority on campus when you do not have a house. It makes it that much harder to compete. SDT holds all of their meetings in Hillel, the Jewish student center. I know they are a NPC sorority, but they don't participate in formal rush here.

As far as why we are doing split recruitment.... I know a lot of you had theories, and they were good ones at that... hehe. But the main reason is because there are so many luxury apartments that keep going up here. Every year a new one goes up and now there are so many apartments (actually too many!!) and people start signing leases early. This was one of the ways that we thought we could keep girls from signing leases before recruitment. It's hard to ask girls to live with 2 or 3 other girls in a room together... when they could have a 14x16 room, with their own bathroom, free tanning, cable and high speed internet... all for the same price. What usually happens is that girls that were thinking of rushing (quality women at that!) decided to just "look" at apartments... and they are so nice, that they sometimes wind up signing a lease and don't rush at all.

We're trying split recruitment this year... but we'll be voting in Panhel some time next semester about doing rush over fall break next year. Honestly, I'm all for that idea.

And they don't have to wait 2 months....

Oh one more thing! I started getting rush cards together last night and there were soooo many! Not sure on the exact number, but we have over 740 girls signed up!

I am so excited! I can't wait to meet them all! :)

Re: Some answers!
 

Are they working toward getting a house and eventually participating in NPC recruitment? I just think this is weird.

I don't think so. They seem to be pretty happy with the way things are.

That's so strange. I didn't know NPC groups were just allowed to decide not to participate in formal recruitment -- I thought it was required.

The SDT chapter here also is the only NPC group on campus that doesn't have a house, and they are smaller than other groups for it, but they do participate in formal recruitment.

Visit their website. They advertise they DO NOT participate in formal rush. And that they offer the sorority experience without the expense of sorority living. I think it is great that they are allowed to interact with panhellenic on their own terms. I think I saw somewhere their membership was around 50. About half of the average sorority with a house.

Maybe it is just the marketing person in me, but I think it is great. Particpating in formal recruitment is so expensive, and when the return on the investment is sure to be small during formal it would take away from funds that could be used to recruit where they need it. I am glad they have been giving the option of not participating.
http://www.angelfire.com/in3/boilers...s/whyjoin.html

Kristin, I agree - I think it's a wonderful option to have and they are very smart to market "house-free" living as I know there are women who are deterred from sorority life by the prospect of having to live in the house. But like s and s said, I didn't think you could be an NPC group on a campus where there is a chapter of Panhel and just never participate in formal rush. In other words, I don't find their way of doing things weird (I actually think it's kinda cool), I find the fact that Panhel/NPC permits it weird.

Actually, the AEPhi chapter at Duke did the same thing. They were offered the choice of participating in formal recruitment or not, but they turned it down and focused on informal recruitment.

Sadly, it backfired and the chapter dwindled away... :(

I went through a few of the websites and I won't names names, but one in particular made a whole bunch of claims that had me scratching my head. We just had our chapter website reviews and some of those things would not have flown under the radar.

I think the SDT set up sounds like something that should be available on every large greek campus. :)

I have a close friend in the SDT Purdue chapter, so I will continue to fill you in. No, they don't have a house. No, they haven't participated in formal recruitment. However, she told me that they have thought about trying it out next year. They are smaller compared to other PU chapters so it'll be hard for them to be competitive during formal recruitment. My friend says that they really like doing informal recruitment, and they do well during it. If there are any other questions please feel to PM me.

Erin

I have a question, why is the round where you go back to 6 parties called "cokes?" i was just wondering.

Good luck to all chapters at purdue and IU during recruitment (especially Theta! )

It's called cokes because typically, Coke (or some other soft drink), is served. Our house does "Club 427" (our address is 427 Russell St.) and we turn our house into a dance club. Last year we served cherry 7-Up in these cool martini glasses with cherries inside them.

We sing the Coke song too when the PNM's leave our house that day. You know... "do do do do, Always Sigma Kappa.... do do do do, we're always the real thing" that one. :)

Purdue uses really weird terms. If it wasn't for Greek Chat, I wouldn't know how the rest of the country operates. Purdue's Greek system definitely has its own culture regarding terms and practices.

Thats so funny that you have a Sigma Kappa version to the coke song! Theta has one too atleast my chapter does, but i forget most of it because its' not frequently sung, and when it is it's usually at event stuff like Lambda Chi Alpha Watermelon Bust or KA Rodeo. But that's so cool! :)

I find it interesting that SDT doesn't participate only because a few years ago I was told that ZTA at Purdue didn't have a house and we're aloud to take more girls because of it. It was explained to me that at Purdue total was based on beds available in a house. If you have no beds to fill, you have unlimited spots. I thought that was really really wierd. But it looks as if ZTA does have a house. Anyone know when they got it?

Zeta's house was built the same year as my house was, which was in 1952. That has always been their house. They did shut down for 5 years in the early 90s, but they have been an active house for quite some time now. I'm not sure who you heard this from, but they have always had a house.

Well lockdown starts at 7 p.m. (meaning no sorority members are allowed to leave their houses to prevent dirty rushing). We have lots of work to do tonight and then everything starts tomorrow morning bright and early at 7 a.m.!

I'll post on Sunday or Monday and let you all know how things went. Have a great weekend :)

Interesting weekend
 

Well it certainly was an interesting weekend. We had 8 parties on Saturday and everything went really well. The weather wasn't too bad, but my feet did get a little chilly while waiting on the front porch to pick up my girls. (We wore our Go Greek shirts, capris and flip-flops.) All of the houses had to wear our Go Greek shirts for both days of Open Houses. It's to keep us all looking "uniform" so no one has an unfair advantage over each other during the first round.

Some of our Gamma Chi's told us that girls were talking about how they really liked the song we sang and liked our philanthropy project, as well. I met a lot of wonderful women and had some great conversations. It was a very busy day, but a good day.

We were a little upset because one of our Gamma Chi's also told us about something that happened at Chi Omega. Apparently, they decided to alter their Go Greek t-shirts. They cut them into one-sleeved shirts, tank tops, midriff tops, cut the collars, cut some of the shirt and tied them around their arms, totally changed them. She said that they looked really good but that all of the Gamma Chi's were upset because that is a definite infraction. At 10:45 p.m., we received a call from Panhel saying that no one would be allowed to wear our Go Greek shirts the next day because Chi Omega cut all of their shirts and we did not have new shirts to give them. They felt that if everyone else wore the Go Greek shirts and Chi O's didn't, that it would make Chi O stand out even more than they did on Day 1. And they definitely couldn't wear the Go Greek shirts that they cut up. So Panhel said that everyone had to wear lettered shirts and jeans.

It was pretty chaotic because I was actually almost asleep. I was so tired and then my Little came into the room and was like "Did you hear the announcement?" I was like, "No, what?" and then she told me about how we had to change our outfits. People were upset because some of our girls didn't even have a set of "cute" letters that were clean. Everyone was rushing around to find cute shirts. I felt bad for our newest pledge class because a lot of them don't have tons of shirts yet. Their Bid Night shirts were zip-up sweatshirts so they couldn't wear those because our recruitment chair said no sweatshirts. We got it all worked out though. I wore a black baby doll tee that has EK on it in silver glitter. I think everyone still looked cute, but I liked it more when we were all wearing our Go Greek shirts. Needless to say, most of campus isn't too thrilled with Chi O right now.

There was also some "dirty rushing" going on. A fraternity on campus hung up a sign that said "Rush the house across the street" and IFC had informed all of the fraternities that no one would be having any parties this weekend or advertising for any houses whatsoever. So that house will definitely be going to Greek Judicial Board for a violation. There was also an incident on Thursday night . A sorority member was at the Neon Cactus, a very popular bar here. She apparently gave a shout-out to the girls going through recruitment and said "Rush Alpha Phi!" and started screaming. It aired over the radio here, and on the most popular station in town. Again, a lot of houses were upset by this one too.

So it's been kind of a rocky start so far. I hate to hear of houses starting off already with infractions. Hopefully things will be a lot smoother in January. I know my house is extremely excited with the quality of the women we met this weekend. Also, numbers are higher than they have been in 4 years! :)

I'm surprised no one commented on any of this, especially the Go Greek shirts. Has anything similar to this happened at your schools?

We didn't have to wear Panhellenic t-shirts. I know it's bad, but I think it was genius! If the rules didn't say they couldn't do it that is.

Well, I didn't want to post b/c of my affiliation - I didn't want it to seem like I was defending them just because they are my sisters. But SoCal said what I think, too. If the rules said "You must wear the Go Greek shirts which cannot be altered in any way" then they should face the consequences. If the rules didn't say that, then more power to them!

I remember when I was Rush chair we did the Go Greek shirts for Round 1. Same shirt, different colors for each house. Alpha Chi also wore red bandanas - on necks, wrists, hair etc. It totally made them stand out and was a great idea. Of course, we were all jealous, but what could we do?

Also, as far as everyone scrambling to get letter shirts together, every house was in the same boat as you - including the Chi Os. So even though I'm sure it ticked you off, I bet the PNMs didn't even notice. Seriously! No worries.

I also didn't post b/c I didn't want to seem nasty with this next comment, and I really don't want you to think I am, but...Isn't it a rush infraction to talk to your Gamma Chis? It was at my school so I thought that part of your post odd. But maybe it is ok at Purdue. I'm not trying to be mean, just asking! I swear!!! :)

Good luck with the rest of recruitment!

I assume you mean the group that claims they are the only "true Sorority" and misspells their flower? :rolleyes: If our Purdue chapter ever sees that sorority part, some heads are going to roll! :p

The Chi Omegas didn't break the letter of the law (assuming there was no rule that said the shirts couldn't be altered) - but they did break the spirit of the law.

The idea was that no one sorority would stand out because of what they were wearing, right? So that the PNMs would make their choices based on the sisters and the sisterhood, not how cool their t-shirts are. I'm sure the "alterations" stood out in at least some PNMs' minds - for better or for worse.

Not to mention misspelling one of their colors LOL.

the chi-o thing
 

yea... we were really really annoyed. The chi-o's know how panhel is, everyone here does, and they did it knowing without a doubt they'd get an infraction for it. one would think they'd be watching themselves a little more closely with an incident earlier this year i'm sure purduegirlie is familiar with. the point is every chapter had to scramble to get thier outfits together the second day, and come up with something that would unify them when not everyone has the same t-shirts. yes the chi-o's had to do it too, but it was thier fault!!

At my school we wear go greek shirts for our open house night and for tabling on the quad the week before recruitment and if one of the other chapters altered their shirts.. I'm sure we would be mad about it, I mean sure they didn't "break" the rule but they knew damn well what they were doing and sure as heck bent it as far as it would go in my opinion. AND can I just say......WOW all those pretty houses and huge chapters... SOOO jealous.... makes me sad I don't go to a school with a more active and larger greek population...