Let's bring back "rush"
 

Frankly, I'm tired of the word "recruitment," one of many new terms designated by the National Panhellenic Conference about 10 years ago. "Recruitment" instead of "rush." "Potential new member" instead of "rushee." People are still using the terms "rush" and "rushee." And why not? They're shorter, easier to say and spell and everybody knows what you're talking about. What do you think?

I completely agree!!

I'm glad SAI does use the terms Rush and Rushee. However, a few years ago we had to change "pledge" to "member-in-training". I HATE the new term! I wish they were still called pledges.

I don't give a rat's butt either way. My first semester in AGD was during the transition period from Frat Ed to NM Education, rush was recruitment, rushee was PNM, and pledge was now NM.

The NPC changed it for a reason as part of the anti-hazing movement.

I really don't think it matters to them that "rush" and "pledge" are shorter to write and easier to say. I think that the NPC has other and bigger problems to worry about.

I went through RUSH , then I PLEDGED my sorority. I learned my organization's history from my PLEDGE HANDBOOK and from my PLEDGE MOM.

And somehow, miracuously, I actually lived to tell about it! :rolleyes:

PS I was even expected to wear a PLEDGE PIN!!! How did I EVER survice?!?!?!

amen sisters!
 

sometimes i feel that we are going to politically correct ourselves into oblivion!!

Right, I had a pledge trainer...even more politically incorrect! :eek:

Why did the change it anyway?
I also went through RUSH. I was a RUSHEE. I then PLEDGED my sorority. I had a PLEDGE mom (actually we had two). I, too, had a PLEDGE pin.
How is any of this dergatory or not PC?
And how bad is this- when I was a Rho Chi, we weren't allowed to refer to PNMs as "girls" or "ladies". We had to call them "women".

Ooh, I was hazed because I was expected to wear tiny wine and blue pledge ribbons! All the other Auburn sororities did the same thing!:rolleyes:

It makes me crazy that that's now considered hazing. We were all so proud to wear the colors of our sororities.

Here's my thought.

I sort of object to the term "new member" To me, that signifies someone who has been initiated into the sorority. Okay, don't say nasty things because "once a woman accepts a bid, she is a member of that GLO". To me. a "new member" would be someone who was recently INITIATED!

The term "Potential New Member" is stupid. Nuff said.

Perhaps PenquinTrax could give us more insight.

I think that NPC has to have a unanimous vote to adopt a policy/practice. Was this something that the individual members were allowed to discuss within their GLO before it was brought to a vote or was it something that the NPC delegates thought of and then voted on.

We wore little purple and gold ribbons too carnation :)

I agree with you, 2blue. To us, a new member was one who had just been initiated. 'Potential new member" is a heartbreaker to me because some of those women won't get bids and it seems to be a misnomer--like whoops! You had a chance to be a new member and blew it!

I don't understand NPC policies either. As I understand it, NPC says new members must be initiated within 8 weeks...however, Chi Omega waits a semester for grades. I wish everyone did....but does that mean that the 8 weeks period isn't an NPC policy?

Re: Let's bring back "rush"
 

I agree totally.

I'm sure there was much discussion among each GLO's governing body before the NPC vote.

I don't think that is a fraternity-wide policy for Chi O. Some schools require that new members have so many hours before initiation which translates as having to be a NM for a semester. I'd be very surprised if one chapter on a campus waited a semester while the others initiated. This sounds like a good subject for another thread...

We complained about this before but it doesn't hurt to do it again. :) http://www.greekchat.com/gcforums/sh...threadid=29470

I wonder if NPC bothered asking high school seniors (the people who this is supposed to "protect") if they were offended by the words rush or pledge. If you have to indoctrinate someone for them to get offended, duh, it's probably not offensive.

The term "pledge" had to go, in part, because a lot of Universities are starting to NOT recognize any group that has a "pledge process".

NPC Unanimous Agreements are just that.. agreements. They are not laws and NPC doesn't have a way of "punishing" or "enforcing" them. Groups and collegiate Panhellenics are strongly encouraged to follow the Unanimous Agreements in the Panhellenic spirit of keeping things fair and even. Individual GLOs may incorporate these agreements into their policies which they can enforce with their own chapters, but NPC doesn't do that. A good example of this is frills/no frills recruitment. NPC strongly recommends no frills, but can't stop PCs from having frills.

Some Universities are also requiring that New Member periods be shorter and shorter.. some as short as 3 weeks. Other Universities don't govern anything. Trying to draw an organizational chart would be a nightmare!

Think of NPC as a consultant group for GLOs, made up of representatives from each GLO that belongs to it.

As for Rush/Recruitment.. I don't know why those changes were made. I agree that PNM is a mouthful. What if they were Recruitment Guests, or, to make it Greek.. Rho Gammas?
(then the PCs that use Rho Gamma for Recruitment Counselors would have to change)

Dee

Oh - I thought initiation schedules were up to the individual group. Our maximum length is 8 weeks, but I thought that was our national policy -- I didn't know that NPC had a schedule too. Strange! Chi Omega is the only group that I know of that waits over the break for grades. I do wish that was the case, because it sucks to initiate and then lose girls for grades the next semester!

I too was a rushee going through rush that later pledged and had a pledge handbook given to us by our pledge mom - I miss that! I was also in the first pledge class at our school to be initiated in one semester. We were initiated the day before reading day -- in other words, the absolute last minute for them to initiate us!

They won't let us call our new women "Pearls" anymore either - its kinda sad for them because all the other groups on campus have a "nickname" for their girls, but ours our just NM.

Name some, please. And whether or not they are public or private, and whether they kept Greeks after the name was changed.

If a school was going to take that tack they also would have to ban things like freshman orientation and athletic tryouts.

Is there some way to petition the NPC to remove some of these PC terms and change them back to how it was. I may be an ALum Initiate but when i was in college it was RUSH and RUSHEE and PLEDGE and PLEDGE PIN and so on....... hazing is just that hazing ( harm or embarrssement to another) i do not see where a word comes into play to saying it is hazing.

You take away some of these old words and it takes away fromthe legacy these groups formed over thru out the yrs. I mean come on these are big long drawn out words ...they are a mouthful to say......this is just my 2 cents

If NPC got rid of the terms "rush", "rushee", "pledge", etc, then why do AGD NMs (collegians, anyway) still get a "pledge pin"? That's what my NM handbook says.

On our campus, I believe it was a max of 6 weeks of the "new member period" before they can be initiated. Pretty much all the GLO's waited until the 6th week to initiate.
I agree with the waiting for grades- especially for those girls who are on the fence with grades anyway. And I also agree with the term "New Member" it connotes the feeling that they are an initiated member. If you don't want to use Pledge, I think they can come up with something else....Thats why I like when orgs use cute names for their "New members" i.e. rosebuds, angels, phi, ect.

I'm convinced that the new terms are just a way of making alumnae feel old!!

Question: if organizations are so concerned about grades, then why don't they make it a national/international rule that one can't go through recruitment until second semester or even sophomre year?

My opinion as stated in a previous thread...
 

My understanding is that NPC wanted to change the terminology from "Rush" and "rushee" so we could encourage non-members to join by not using terms that they don't understand. Right?

Well, not only is "Potential New Member" a mouthful, but also it's so cumbersome that we've shortened it to "PNM." (Which I always have to stop and think, so I don't say "PMS!") Do we really think that "PNM" is easier for non-Greeks to understand when I'm sure many don't even know what the letters stand for? I think the term "rushee" was a perfectly good word.

I understand the choice of the word "Recruitment" -- that's easy enough. And certainly I'm glad the term "suicide" is no longer the official term (although "Intentional Single Preference" = "ISP" is kinda the same thing as "PNM" -- cumbersome.)

I'm just afraid that by trying to be "politically correct" we're shooting ourselves in the foot by doing away with terms that were unique to our community. In this day and age, I would think being unique is not such a bad thing.

Trust me, no one makes a greater effort to learn and use the current terms, but the point I want to make is that I think NPC acted hastily in ditching the terms "Rush" and "Rushee." I think there was a study (or probably several) showing that numbers on many campuses were down; therefore, the push was made to change things. I'm not against change, per se, but I think many factors went into the decline in numbers during the '90s (the least of which was semantics).

I completely agree. This is one of the reasons the NPHC groups do not accept first semester freshmen, and they are absolutely right.

I also don't have a problem with the term "pledge," as I view the agreement between the organization and the new member as a "mutual pledge."

Also, I don't see that it's a bad thing to have a semester to "wait for grades," for joining the organization as a full member is a life-long decision --

I would rather be calling it rush, rushee, and pledge. The fraternities on my campus get so damn confused and annoyed just as much as we do (they still call it rush, but it is in the process of changing to be called fraternity recruitment) . I still accidently call the NM's in my sorority pledges and quickly correct myself. When I went through, yeah I was called a NM BUT I wore a PLEDGE pin!!!! Even when I explain ribbons, PLEDGE pin, and badge to PNM, I say the word pledge. Ever since I knew I wanted to join a sorority (senior year of HS I knew I wanted to be in one) I was use to hearing the word rush, rushee, and pledge....not NM, PNM, or recruitment. This is all so annoying.

Not very PC, but to me it will always be Rush and Pledge. Hard to teach old dogs new tricks.

Also..."pledge" can be a verb.

"I pledged Chi Omega in 1979."

When I was in school, our campus tried really hard to use and get used to the new terminology. I use Recruitment, PNM, etc. . . without really thinking, but I don't feel that the old words were "bad" necessarily. And I think the changes were made during a time when being PC was the biggest concern and some people did have negative connotations associated with the terms "Rush" "Pledge" and what they may possibly insinuate. It's just another example of going to extremes to try and please everyone and make everything as non-offensive as possible.

I was the last group to go through and have a semester-long pledge program in my chapter. It's been a difficult transition to go to the shorter program, and, even five or more years later, we're still trying to work out the kinks in it.

if it looks like a dog, smells like a dog and sounds like a dog...it's a dog--no matter what you try to call it.

the same goes for "recruitment":rolleyes: we're still doing the same thing, in the same way but just with different terminology. if they really wanted to change things up, changing a name does nothing. change the process if that's what the problem is.

calling it rush or recruitment, pledge or PNM....it's still the SAME thing.

Amen.

As James said in the other thread, if we were really serious about it being "recruitment" there wouldn't be any more skits, matching outfits or masses of women we know nothing about looking at each chapter. We'd be going to the nearby high schools looking at the brightest students and inviting campus leaders to hang out with us and join. And COB wouldn't be a dirty word, it would be a way of life.

But NPC can't actually tell people to do that so they change shallow things like terminology and pat themselves on the backs for their grand accomplishment.

The University of Michigan is trying to force deferred recruitment stating that it will reduce hazing (How???) on any organization with a "pledge" process. NPC and PC are working hard to fight this along with numerous alumnae and are using the argument that NPC groups do not have pledge processes anymore and therefore should be exempt. Deferred recruitment for this campus will be a huge financial crush to the GLOs because it will be hard for them to fill their houses without those Freshman signing up to live in for Sophomore year.

Freshman Orientation and athletic tryouts are not called pledging anywhere that I know of.

I also think with the term "pledge" vs. "New member", they are trying to get everybody to think of it differently. This person IS a new member, part of your chapter, not someone who has to earn their way in yet. Don't be surprised if, eventually, they are initiated immediately after Recruitment and then go through an education period. That's a whole nother thread though!

Dee

Wow, sounds more like joining a health club than a GLO! :rolleyes:

that's ONE school, and considering I'm in favor of deferred - I don't understand how it will be a "financial crush" unless you have to sign up for living arrangements a year in advance. If so, that's a school-wide problem that should be addressed rather than denying that we have pledge processes anymore. If we didn't, we wouldn't allow someone who received a bid and quit pledging halfway through to join another NPC group.

UM isn't going to care what it's called, they are going to define it as a period of education before they are fully initiated or whatever. It sounds as though they will only accept instant initiation. Sorry, but no.

A pledge is an oath, not a person! :p

I think Gamma Phi Beta is actually bucking some trends on this - we're lengthening our NMEducation period. I think my chapter is now going to be holding girls over for grades, which will be good for us. It's also going to make us a very odd duck with our school, but considering that SigEp takes up to THREE YEARS to fully initiate somebody, they can't do much to us. ;)

Re: Let's bring back "rush"
 

In Alpha Phi Omega, we still use the terms Rush, Pledge, etc. I can see the value in using the term 'recruitment' because some students don't know what 'rush' means.

At least no group has 'smokers' anymore as an event. :)

I also don't understand why some GLOs seem to think 'pledge' is a bad term, then have to figure out some alternate term to call them. I had no issue with being a pledge.

I was a longtime pledgemaster for my chapter. Some use the term pledge trainer. I don't care which term is used. Using the term 'pledge trainer' is good in the sense in coveyes what the pledgemaster should be doing: training the pledges.

The concepts I was talking about got too intertwined...

U of M wants to force deferred recruitment on all GLOs because of the hazing incident in September there. (Although the man who was hospitalized in that incident had gone through recruitment last Spring). They defined the groups who would have to do referred recruitment as those with "pledge processes". Since we don't have pledges, then we have no plegde process, right? That's part of the argument against it.

As far as the financial impact.. yes, to get an apartment in Ann Arbor for September, you sign a lease in January or February because it's very difficult to get housing. This is true at Eastern Michigan just down the street from them too. If people have to sign leases by January or February, then yes, deferred recruitment will prevent them from filling their houses. There really isn't a way to stop landlords from doing this as they are independent business owners who can do what they want.

My comment about "instant Initiation" is just speculation that sometime in the future, it will be that way. (Maybe decades from now even). I can see NPC and GLOs going that direction as the increasing costs of liability insurance impact them more and more. With instant Initiation, there can be no hazing, reducing Risk Management costs significantly. Like I said, that would be a whole new thread to discuss the pros and cons of it.

Dee

Although I went through the Rush period, I like the idea of recruitment. This is what is being pushed heavily by national during my days as an active, I believe it's still being pushed now.
I don't like the idea that the period for rush is only 1 or 2 weeks. I would rather see this period being year round. And, I think recruting is a good thing. Chapter has weaknesses, by recruiting, that chapter can find potential members that can fill that gap. It may sound impersonal, it isn't. I've seen this work.

Phi Mu has been pretty progressive in its terminology and keeping rational in terms of being over the top with PCness.

Our members who have made a pledge but have not been initiated are referred to as "Provisional Members" or affectionately
as "Phi's". Their membership is "provisional", they are members to participate, but they have obligations to meet before they can be initiated and they are pretty much in the drivers seat for accomplishing that (ie, grades, understanding of GLO life, realizing they fit.) We refer to their education time between when they make a pledge and are initiated as their "Phi Program" and the sister in charge of the process is our "Phi Director"

We have Big and Little Sisters. There was a move to change that to "Carnation" Sisters to avoid the connotation of hierarchy. It didn't work. Everyone just said "my Big Carnation sister and my Little Carnation sister". SO...we went back to Big and Little ;).

I think I prefer the term of Membership Recruitment over Rush. Phi Mu calls the "rush" Chair position the "Membership Director" office anyway. I think thinking of it as Membership Recruitment does two things....1) it allows the person who is going THROUGH the process to know that THEY are of interest to us. We are recruiting them, and 2) it is an important decision to make and should not be "rushed" through. I realize the whole process is pretty much a RUSH..time and energy ways. A better term would reflect the mutual selection process that actually occurs, say like, "Mutual Membership Festival" :) :) :) (note the big smile!)

I don't even mind the "Potential New Member" to refer to Rushees. I think it adds a bit more dignity to how we think of them. We should think of each one as a potential new member, until they leave the process one way or another. The acronyms however are pretty silly :).

Our org has always required us to use Members-in-Training to refer to our new members. However, it is such a long and cumbersome name like everything else now, we almost always use the term "pledge" when we're talking informally, and save MITs for meetings or other times when PCness is needed. :)