What's rush like at your school?
 

Here at the U of AL sorority rush is really strict. I was just wondering what rush was like at other schools? Here are some rules for rush here:

No form of bidding may occur outside the prescribed Panhellenic procedure. No bids, oral or otherwise, may be directly or indirectly issued during events at any time, including any indication to a potential new member by a sorority member, new member, or alumna that the sorority intends to see the potential new member at a future recruitment event.

Sorority members may not sing outside their houses or continue singing after time has elapsed and there must be no exterior decoration.

Each sorority’s budget must not exceed $6,000, and a maximum of $1,500.00 may be spent on flowers. Balloons will be prohibited, including Bid Day. Within 30 days of the conclusion of Fall Formal Recruitment, all Recruitment expenditures, including the value of all donated goods and services, are due to the Panhellenic Advisor. Receipts must be turned in with expenses.


All invitation and bid lists must be turned into the Greek Life office at the designated times. Turning in the disks and related recruitment materials late will be an automatic $100.00 fine per 15 minutes after they are due.

Strict Silence is the period in which there will be no conversation or contact with potential new members by sorority members, new members, and alumnae. This includes any and all references to the sorority - verbal, written, or otherwise. Strict silence is designated as the period of time from the end of the potential new member’s last event until she reports to the sorority from which she accepts a bid.

Sorority members and alumnae are not allowed to separate individual potential new members from the rest of the recruitment group. If repeated, this will be a Tier 1 offense.

Sorority women are not allowed outside their houses at least one hour prior to or following the conclusion of recruitment events (on non-class days) as it reads on the official Panhellenic Recruitment Events Schedule. This same rule applies on class days, except the time restriction is 30 minutes. The Panhellenic Advisor must approve any exceptions, due to work, school or illness.

Shutters, shades, blinds, and windows on the front of the house and around the doors must be closed and all excessive noise must end one hour prior to and following the conclusion of recruitment events and between individual events.

No artwork, choreography, or entertainment, including the use of a DJ, shall be done for Fall Formal Recruitment by any person other than the collegiate members of that sorority on this campus.

No food will be served during Recruitment events. Only drinks will be offered to potential new members during Formal Recruitment events.

During Fall Formal Recruitment, no potential new members shall visit a sorority house except for during designated Fall Formal Recruitment events. The only exceptions would be: if rain occurs, potential new members may be allowed to enter the sorority houses even if events have not yet begun, and a potential new member has to use the restroom, she can enter the house if escorted by a Rho-Chi or Judicial Board Member.

If a Potential New Member must leave an event for any reason, a recruitment counselor must escort her. Actives are responsible for notifying the recruitment counselors if a potential new member must leave.

Communication between sorority women and potential new members is to be kept to a minimum. During formal recruitment, sorority women must not discuss information in regards to Greek Life outside of the formal recruitment events. There shall be no purposeful seeking of contact with potential new members by sorority women during Fall Formal Membership Recruitment except at official events. Purposeful seeking of contact includes, but is not limited to, sorority members making or receiving phone calls or sending letters, wires, flowers or gifts to potential new members. Normal friendly contact shall be allowed during Fall Formal Recruitment, excluding the mother-daughter and sister-sister relationship with the guideline that they are not discussing Recruitment or Recruitment-related activities.


There will be no reference to alcohol on anything worn or used by the sorority members during Recruitment activities. In addition, no elaborate costuming may be worn during Fall Formal Recruitment. Elaborate costuming will be defined as anything that sorority members would not normally own. Exceptions allowed will be:

1. Identical shirts, printed or unprinted, costing no more than $10.00 per member.

2. One (1) accessory/prop costing no more than $10.00 per member. Accessories/props include: shoes, hats, collars, belts, bow ties, and vests. Identical shorts, pants, skirts, pajamas, nightshirts, boxers, dresses, or jumpers are not accessories/props and therefore may not be worn.

Recruitment Counselors will warn the recruitment chairman five minutes before the time for the total event to be over if the sorority has not begun to show signs of ending the party. Recruitment Counselors watches will be set at the same time and theirs will be the official time.

From the beginning of school until the conclusion of formal recruitment, no philanthropic events or social functions can be held where potential new members may be present.

A. There will be no planned sorority functions with potential new members beginning the last day of spring exams until the conclusion of formal recruitment. (This includes: joint parties with fraternities or other sororities, trips, philanthropic events, etc.). The guidelines established in Article IV, number 8 will also be enforced.
B. Sororities may not ask fraternities to invite women potential new members to their events. This will constitute an illegal recruitment event for the sorority.
C. Potential new members may not stay with sorority members during orientation.
D. Sorority members cannot meet any potential new members at the Ferguson Center or any other area of campus during orientation times and events.
E. The sorority house may not be used for recruitment purposes during the summer.


Invitational Rounds

A. Ice Water Teas/15 minutes

1. No skits shall be performed during the first round of Fall Formal
2. Only ice water shall be served during the first round.

B. Philanthropy Day/30 minutes

1. Each chapter must have their philanthropy project approved by the Panhellenic Executive Board on a first come basis prior to the start of recruitment.
2. Three songs sung by the individual chapters are permitted, along with a king size banner for decoration. The use of a video is optional, but the Panhellenic Executive Board must approve it prior to the start of recruitment. Any extra programs must also be approved by the Panhellenic Executive Board.
3. During the second round, those sororities willing to have the Alabama Panhellenic Association extend an invitation to any potential new members receiving no invitations to the second round, must inform Panhellenic at the recruitment meeting immediately preceding Fall Formal Recruitment.

C. Six Party Day/45 minutes

1. Anything other than the skit (slide shows, etc.) must be approved by the Panhellenic Executive Board.
2. No decorations other than those used for the skit are allowed (this includes balloons, etc.).

D. Serious Night/50 minutes

1. Strict silence will be enforced from the end of the last recruitment event until bids have been distributed.
2. Potential new members will sign Formal Membership Recruitment Acceptance cards (preference cards) immediately following the last Recruitment event.
3. After potential new members sign their Formal Membership Recruitment Acceptance cards, they should go to their place of residence for the rest of the evening.
4. If a sorority invites a potential new member to their preference event, the potential new member must be somewhere on that sorority’s bid list, even if she did not attend the event.

Bid Day

A. The only outside decorations allowed during Bid Day shall be welcome signs.
B. All refreshments served on Bid Day must be served inside the sorority house.
C. There shall be no live entertainment, inside or outside, on Sorority Row.

Re: Re: What's rush like at your school?
 

Balloons are no longer permitted on our campus either :( I'm not sure about the balloon-thing on Bid Day, but I don't remember seeing any balloons at this past Fall's Bid Day?

From what some of the older members told me, they used to be allowed to use balloons, and for each day(except pref), there were hundreds of balloons on the ceiling of each chapter room.

Now we can't use balloons or even hang anything on the walls :(

When I was an active in the house we used ballons. I do not know why they have stop allowing this. And as far as matching dresses, we have never worn them. We were told what color, length, material, and sleeve type to buy on our own.

Just for a little contrast I go to a school with very small greek system.... (three NPC sororities) no houses... total is 45 members.... until recently no chpater had reached that in about 10 years or so....our rush budget is 500 dollars and rush is held about the third week of school... (which makes it SUPER stressful because you're JUST getting settled into classes and have all this rush stuff to worry about. We don't have any specific rules about what we can and can not wear... we do have the strict silence time and no bid promising... as all Panhellenics...we did have a rule about having only 10 balloons at our open house night... but that's only becuase we had it in a room that was fairly small and having every chapter having sooo many balloons would be waaaayyy too much... but other than that no balloon rule... (as a matter of fact this fall at bid day we had HUGE balloons that spelled out Phi Sig on our table with the ladies' bid day bags when they came out to meet us on the quad. And our fine for late Pref/bid lists only incur a 20 dollar fine for 15 minutes believe. :D and MATCHING PREF DRESSES BY A SEAMSTRESS ??? WOW that is like TOTAL wishful thinking to me... Kinda like when people here post pics of their homes and I just drool in jealously == sigh == to have a more "traditional" greek experience... (not that mine wasn't WONDERFUL) just SUPER cool to see the gorgeous homes and hear about football games and "greek row" and rush that people WANT to come to.. (it's like pulling teeth to get people to come to rush at my school) and not having to deal with trying to get rooms on campus for our events ... GEEZ what a nightmare that is.... NE WAY .... interesting to see what is at other schools... kinda makes me go :eek: to hear about other schools...

Goodness! A no balloon rule!? Wash. U. would have hell to pay if that were the case. For the first round of parties, each sorority is given a color (red, blue, green, purple, yellow (gold), or pink)--randomly (each year you get a new color). That sorority then gets a huge mass of balloons of that color to have on the ceiling of their suite (sororities here don't have houses, just suites in our "Women's Building"). This is done so that on the first day, girls see each sorority equally and can think by color and not necessarily by reputation. It's also hard for some women to keep each sorority straight, so it's a good way for girls to remember the houses they went to.
Although I wasn't always happy with the color choices my sorority had when I was there (despite pink being one of our sorority colors, it just doesn't look right in our suite with some of the red accents we have), blowing up huge masses of balloons with helium (and high float) was always an interesting experience.

Re: Re: What's rush like at your school?
 

It could be an allergy thing? I know that last year we had someone during Orientation who was allergic to latex and luckly told us early enough to nix it from all our plans.

Re: Re: Re: What's rush like at your school?
 

To add to what Glitter650 mentioned, we had a "no balloon" rule in the past because of the room we used to have Open House in. The building manager was afraid they would get loose and be stuck in the room forever (it was basically an auditorium which had really high ceilings). :rolleyes:

I was really surprised this past weekend at my Regional Conference hearing how different recruitment is among Alpha Phi chapters. There was one chapter that had a rush budget of $15,000! :eek: Then there were chapters who had a very strict "no frills" recruitment. At one campus, they lined the girls up and they were fined if their outfits were too similar! :confused: That's just amazing to me.

Ours is pretty much no frills, but we have a decent rush budget (I think (2,000?). We get matching T-shirts for the night 1 and philanthropy, and then make the girls buy back dresses for pref. Everyone should own a black dress, so I don't think that's a big deal.
The one cool thing we do is have pref at the Shearton Hotel. When sororities were let back onto campus in 1978 (we got kicked off in 1945 and had to sell the houses to the University), no one had a house, so all the sororities rush in the Student Union, and for pref, at the Shearton.

Rush isn't very strict, besides really common things like bid list due times, and cleaning up rooms after you use them. There are rules on what you can use to decorate, but I don't think there is a money limit. If so, it's much higher than you would want to spend.

The problem with rush is we have it spring quarter, and the girls are "rushed" by sororities starting the first week of school. Onnce April comes around, the girls know which sororities they want to join, and have ideas which ones want them too.

You do realize, though, that at the U of Alabama, most of those rules are broken by most of the houses. And you probably know that the Panhellenic Council turns a blind eye to all but the very worst infractions. Most of the houses spend well over $10,000 on rush, many between $20,000-$40,000 per year. The no contact rule is definitely broken by 100% of the houses on campus. How many summer rush parties or teas did you attend when you went through rush? I remember attending various sorority & fraternity parties thoughout the summer before I pledged and a few mother-daughter teas as well.

I think a good question to ask here is not what the rules are at the various schools, but whether or not they are enforced! ;)

Quote:

3. During the second round, those sororities willing to have the Alabama Panhellenic Association extend an invitation to any potential new members receiving no invitations to the second round, must inform Panhellenic at the recruitment meeting immediately preceding Fall Formal Recruitment.

What's that mean?

PsychTau

I think it means that, before fall rush even begins, a chapter can decide to extend party invites to girls who were cut after the first round. If the chapter doesn't notify the Pan. Assoc. before rush begins, the girls who got cut first round can't be invited back to that particular chapter's parties for the remainder of fall rush.

Actually it seems more like panhell will extend invites to ladies who got none BUT ONLY if the chapter says yeah go ahead and do that... as a second chance type of deal ya know? I think it's a good idea becuase this way less girls get just kinda "skipped over"

ha ha.... yes. The rules are enforced during formal rush here, but not before, and not after.
Two chapters got caught dirty rushing a few years back and they got a silly slap on the wrist, and a great pledge class. The lesson folks? it pays to dirty rush!!!

Rush at my school is in-between.

While we usually only have around 210 women go through, there are usually about 220-230 women in the freshman class. This makes for a VERY VERY competitive Greek system and lots of tears and drama. We also have a deferred rush so that makes it even harder if women know a lot of women in one group and then get released there.

In terms of decorations, we are also in-between. We have skits, props, food, etc. We are limited to a certain number of lattices each day and can only use our parlors beginning the 3rd night of rush. We have videos and decorations and LOTS OF FLOWERS on pref....

All of our rush rules are enforced--we get inspections and whatnot.

*bump*

UCF went from frills to no frills while I was there. At last count, the max # of balloons allowed in the chapter houses was 30. As a recruitment counselor, we were allowed to pop additional balloons if someone went over!

That was in '99. We're very strict on budgets and no frills. There's a big focus on videos, and not skits.

For those of you who do not have door songs, here is what it looks like when they open the doors to the sorority house.

http://www.uagammaphibeta.com/images...18c3_small.jpg

At EWU rush is very strict! I was disaffiliated because I'm a RA, but I wasn't even allowed to sit next to sisters in class only say hi pretty much, it was horrible. We have fall recuitment, right when the girls get here and no frills whatsoever. We have boards night where there can't be themes and no girls are allowed to sing outside of the house. Very strict and enforced as well!

Re: What's rush like at your school?
 

It can't be that strict. I know some chapters at Bama who have an actual "Chairman of Dirty Rush."

I'm talking about the process: stepping over the threshold of your house, having balloons, not shutting your doors on time- all this stuff you get fined for.

Oh yeah..we get fined for all that too.

I don't know if any of you are advisors, but on our campus we do the same thing - "snap bidding" but the PNM has to come to your pref for that to happen in formal recruitment.

I was about to say that--a girl I graduated HS with was basically "dirty rushed" by one sorority starting in FEBRUARY of our senior year by a sorority at Bama. She started school that summer and spent almost every night hanging out with them. Although if I remember correctly, she very nearly chose another sorority. So it doesn't always pay to dirty rush!
Auburn's not innocent either, but those sororities that do dirty rush are pretty much just as hardcore. As far as fraternity parties, it's like some sororities use the fraternities hardcore. A cousin of mine in a fraternity here encouraged me to come over here to go to some of their parties because they knew lots of girls in XYZ and ABC and that way I could meet them and have a leg up during recruitment. I didn't go because I had a job and I was also like, "Why do you care?" One of my most "wtf" moments ever.

It has been discussed (and supported by deferred rush advocates) that in many situations, a girl should "get to know" a chapter (at least the semester) before she goes through rush. So how is this any different than say deferred rush? Or different than COR/COB?

Kind of a follow up. What if these women were her good friends from high school? Personally, I would hope that *my friends* would want me to join their GLO. So I am confused as how one might be considered "dirty rush" and the other just hanging out with your friends and perhaps chatting about college life.

The difference is that the sorority is breaking the rules. That isn't fair to the other sororities if they aren't. Yes, I think no contact rules are stupid, but they should be CHANGED - not broken and then have the sorority pay tons of $$ for fines, $$ that could have been used in much better ways.

Our rush is NOTHING like any of yours. But then again, we have no NPC sororities (they wouldn't be able to survive).

But anyway, here's the breakdown:

1 Week of Open Rush
--Each sorority has one officially advertised night for their open. It can be as long or as short as they want it and they can do whatever they want. They can go to the zoo or drink beer all night, you know what I mean.

1 Week of Invite Rush
--Once again, each sorority has a night held for their Invite Nite. Also, they can do whatever they want. This is typically when Bids are handed to the rushees.

You have to get signed bids in to the Greek Advisor by 5 on the friday of Invite week. Then 3 to 5 weeks of pledging.

NPC
 

yeah, cause NPC sororities have rules they have to go by. It's a strict order & guidelines. Local sororities can basically do whatever they want when it comes to recruitment.

Re: NPC
 

Try not to lump all locals together, there are many local members on this board that follow the NPC guidelines for rush.

Just with my particular school, we did have NPC's (Theta Phi Alpha, Alpha Sigma Tau, Delta Gamma, Phi Sigma Sigma) however we dropped NPC's due to the numbers requirement. Many groups quit getting along with eachother and even within their own group, so we dropped them or were dropped.

Sorry for the rambling, it happens at times ;)

That I'm afraid, would have scared the crap outta me!! :o :o

:)

be very afraid... haha... joking... that sucks that the NPC sororities were acting like that?! I'm actually surprised on the Phi Sigma Sigma chapter since we have strict protocols...well, depends on what you are talking about.

So with respect to deferred recruitment, I'm guessing there are these "no contact rules" for the fall semester as well? And do they apply to only freshman (1st years) or would that apply to sophomores as well?

For example, say a girl decides to go through formal rush her sophomore year *because* of the friends she met in her dorm her freshman year. She has to wait until formal - the 2nd semester - because COB is not an option due to all chapters are above total. Thus she wouldn't be able to hang out with her friends least it be breaking the rules?

ETA: I agree with both "rules are rules" and should not be broken as well as the "no contact rules" are stupid and should be changed. Just kind of goes against the whole "freedom to associate" thing that we all often fight so hard to protect.

That's true, but there's a difference in getting to know ONE sorority girl in your class and going out to dinner with 6-7 of them regularly when you don't know any of them and have had no other contact with them prior to that summer. The PNM in question knew one of the sisters of that particular sorority from high school, but no others, and they were casual friends, but not BFF.

As far as friends not hanging out during formal recruitment when one is a PNM, that's a situational question, sort of. If a girl decides to rush because she met sorority girls in her dorm freshman year and became friends with them, then it's ok for them to talk to her because they're friends already and she's probably got at least a good idea of where she'd like to go BASED ON HER OWN OBSERVATIONS . If you meet a freshman PNM in summer classes, your contact with her could unduly influence her because chances are she hasn't had the chance to make those same observations as a girl that lived in a dorm freshman year.
In practice, though, we're encouraged to try to limit our contact with friends that are rushing or at least not talk about rush. That doesn't always happen, but we are encouraged to try not to influence them.

Thanks. I think I now kind of understand. And if I may, an additional follow up question.

Does the "limited contact" apply for only a certain time (situation) during/before formal recruitment? Say once a PNM registers until after she is offered a bid or drops?

We have deferred recruitment at my school, and the no contact rule really pretty much only applies to freshmen. Freshmen are not so much as allowed to breath on our property before the end of formal recruitment at the beginning of second semester (with the exception of recruitment and pre-recruitment events). Upperclassmen, however, can come over to visit friends whenever they please. Sorority members cannot hang out with their friends going through recruitment during recruitment, however. Sorority members who have roommates going through recruitment actually have to move into their respective houses on pref night to ensure strict silence until bids are given.

If I remember Green Book rules correctly, if you're an active/alumna, you should try to limit contact with a PNM you know or know of the semester before formal recruitment, except for family/close friends. So if I knew a girl I went to HS with was going to rush, I couldn't call her up and talk about rush that summer, but I could talk to her if we ran into each other at a ballgame or something, so long as I didn't try to persuade her to go AZD and just kinda told her to be excited about it. If my younger sister were rushing, my mom and I could talk to her no problem because we live together, but we'd still be encouraged not to persuade her to "go KD/AZD or nothing at all." If my very best friend were going to rush, I could still hang out with her, so long as I didn't try to encourage her to join my particular sorority. That's rushing a girl and supposed to be reserved for formal recruitment, so that would be dirty rushing if I encouraged her to join my group or nothing else outside of recruitment. So basically, you're right in that it's from once a girl registers for rush until she drops out/signs her preference card.

During formal recruitment, we're not supposed to talk to PNMs very much. If I'm filling up my car and a PNM is at the pump next to me, we could say "Hey," and maybe a couple comments about how hectic rush is or how hot it gets in Alabama during August, but again I should try not to talk to her too much because that's a potential influence outside of rush and that's bad.

Strict silence is enforced from the end of the last preference party until PNMs have signed their bid cards. Pref Day, naturally, is quite emotional, and girls may be torn between two or more chapters, so they are not allowed to speak to anyone (nor is a member/alumna/rush counselor allowed to talk to them) until they have signed their card ranking the houses in order of where they feel the most comfortable. That way, a girl's final decision is her own. Rush counselors are basically only allowed to tell her to rank houses in order of what she wants. After she signs her card and her decision is made, she can tell the world if she wants the order in which she ranked the sororities she preffed.

We have 6 NPC chapters here and a fairly laid back rush. This years qouta was 19-21 (not exactly sure) and there were about 140 PNM's starting, but only about 100 going into prefs.

Everyone usually gets a bid. I think maybe only 2 girls went completely unmatched.

Day 1- First Round (Saturday)
Your standard average opening round. (visit all chapters)

Day 2- Philanthropy (Sunday)
You do a craft, and get to learn more about the expenses involved with being in a chapter. I have noticed that alot of schools shy away from discussing finances. We hand out financial info during this round and welcome girls to ask questions.
(you visit all 6 here also unless you are cut for grades)

**There is a full week in between these parties. You will pick up your invites from your Sigma Rho Chi for the next round. You may visit up to four so if you have more than that, you have to cut some.**

Day 3- House Tours (Friday)
These parties are longer and more formal. You watch a video or a slide show and you'll get a tour of the houses.
(you visit a max of 4)

You don't have parties on Saturday, but you pick up your 4th party invites. You can go to a max of 3, so if you have more you have to make a cut.

Day 4- Preference Day
Most emotional day. You have a pref ceremony. It's the usual.
(max of 3)

After this, you sit down and rank your prefs and turn in your card by 2 pm or so. The parties are over at 11 am so you have some time to think. Bid matching is finished by 6 and then comes Bid Night.

**Bid Night**
It's in the student Center. All the PNM's line up outside the Campus Life office and go in one by one to open their bid envelopes. If they accept, they then go back out and line up alphabetically backstage in the ballroom.

The sororities are all out on the floor in front of the stage in groups doing cheer and wearing their bid night shirts. We have turned in our bid lists, but we DON'T KNOW how they matched with us, so it's VERY SUSPENSEFUL for us.

The PNM's come out one by one. When they come out onto the stage, a Sigma Rho Chi announces them:

"Suzy Q is now a new member of ...XYZ!!!"

The PNM then runs to her new sisters who usually tackle her with hugs and laughter. She receives her bid day shirt, puts it on, and gets her bid day goodies.

After ALL the PNM's are announced, then the Sigma Rho Chi's are announced in the same fashion:

"Becky is GLAD to go back home to....ABC!!!"

They are usually greeted with a welcome back ballon or basket of some sort. Then we ALL go back to our houses for fun and games.

:)

We have deferred rush at Valpo - recruitment is the first week back in class for the spring semester, in January. Lucky for us we have a "sorority dorm" where we each have a hallway to live on and chapter rooms on the first floor - it gets cold in northwest Indiana! Anyway, we're allowed to talk to freshmen all the way up until we leave on Christmas break. The same thing for sophomores who are rushing. So essentially, you can talk to and make friends with as many freshman as you want, and this definitely does happen, I think everyone here gets quite a few girls that way. The upside is its nice from both ends to see a friendly face. The downside is that girls definitely go into recruitment saying "I'm going to be an ABC b/c I hung out with them this fall."

Thanks to all for the information. I still find NPC recruitment very fascinating. And I mean that in a good way!

My main perceptive has been from UK's (Kentucky's) formal rush which was/is the week prior to when most of the students would even be on campus. Thus by the time classes started, rush was over and the 'issue' of running into friends prior to rush - and possible "dirty rush" - was limited to hanging out with your hometown friends during the summer.

There is no recognized greek life on our campus, so as an underground fraternity we do whatever we want... of course continuing traditions and keeping the alum association happy come into play here.

They weren't allowed to talk to the PX's? Really? I was a PX this year, and I had girls who balled for hours on the phone to me about not being sure which one to sign (our g.l. advisor said she should have paid our cell phone bills for that quarter). All I could do was explain that you are making a "life" choice, that you should look at this as a LONG TERM choice, not a "popular" one. I also had to deal with the "non match" phone calls, which were REALLY REALLY rough, especially since I had been one of those girls last year.