Penn State Rush?
 

I know it started Sunday 18th and Bid Day is Monday, Sept 26th.

Brutal schedule:
Friday, September 16th- Orientation 7pm,
Sunday, September 18th- open house 1pm-9pm
Monday, September 19th- open house 6pm- 9pm
Tuesday, September 20th- open house 6pm-9pm
Wednesday, September 21st- First Rounds 6pm-9pm
Thursday, September 22nd- First Rounds 6pm-9pm
Friday, September 23rd- First Rounds 6-10:30pm
Saturday, September 24th- Second Rounds 1pm-9pm
Sunday, September 25th- Preference Night 6pm-10pm
Monday, September 26th- Bid Day 5pm

How many girls registered? How is it going?

Penn State has 20 of the 26 NPCs

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

No real news yet except that Phi Mu only did Open Houses this year. But, don't worry, it was for a very good reason! :)

Which was?

Phi Mu is in the process of a reorganization and strengthening of the chapter at Penn State. There is a great deal of good things coming that way!

Good for them/you, I hope it works out well! :D

Yeah, what sagesofages said.

My best friend is a member of the Penn State Phi Mu chapter and shes freaking estatic about this. This is her senior year and she was afraid that the chapter was going to close so this is the best thing possible for her. :D

Great news!! One of my best friends is a PSU Phi Mu, and her grandmother was one of the chapter founders! Good luck to them! :)

Well, bid day is today - I'm hoping someone will let us know how everything goes!

While I was not in a panhellenic sorority at PSU, a great deal of my friends were. Good luck to everyone tonight (especially Phi Mu)!

Funny story ... I was at the soccer field last Saturday for my son's soccer game. I was wearing an Alpha Phi sweatshirt and one of the other mom's pulled me aside to ask me about it. We both live in CA, but she was from Penn. So, this thread made me think of her and what a small world it becomes after college. Cheers to the ladies at Penn! And special thoughts to those Alpha Phi girls! :)

Around 500 girls registered, I don't have exact numbers at the moment but quota is below 20 with only 19 chapters participating (Phi Mu actually did not do open houses, they merged with a local service sorority [theta kappa pi -- for those wondering] and have like 60 pledges or something ridiculous like that). My chapter made quota plus with only 21 girls, so a lot of girls must have dropped out of recruitment because from what I was told, quota was much higher last year. I'll get more info as it comes along.

ETA: Bids will be handed out at 5PM in the HUB, this is a really exciting time for all of us! No running out onto the HUB lawn this year, because it is raining up a storm here in Happy Valley.

What what??

I looked up Theta Kappa Pi online and according to what I found, they have a Beta Chapter at the College of Charleston and a Gamma Chapter at Lewis U. Are they going to be associated with Phi Mu as well?? Plus what happened to the Theta Phi Alpha interest group?

For the record, I am not a Phi Mu so I am not privy to the inner workings of their sorority so basically all that I'm telling is what's been floating around the greek community since the begining of the semester (take that as you will).

As of 9/21 all of the local service/social sororities at Penn State were no longer recognized by the university. NPC basically told all of the IFC fraternities that if they did THON, Homecoming, Greek Week, etc with these sororities that they would not be allowed to do weeklongs or have socials with any of the NPC sororites. The locals cried and complained about it and were obviously very upset with the situation. This happened just as Phi Mu was getting ready to restructure their chapter. Since TKP complained the most to panhellenic about becoming a national sorority (and apparently they had been interested in going national for quite some time), they met with Phi Mu nationals and the two sororities decided to come together as one. All of the officers of Phi Mu were stripped of their duties and the chapter is basically being treated as a colony. I have no idea about the other chapters of TKP.

As for the TPA interest group (Theta Alpha Pi), they may be the next to beg panhellenic for expansion, but they will probably have to merge with a NPC just like TKP did. There are still two other struggling chapters here, so it will be a while before this campus is open for expansion. Neither of them are as far below total as Phi Mu was (they had less than 20 sisters before the merger), but it's still an uphill battle for both.

I realize you aren't on the inside of this, but can you clarify something? Did the members of the local decide to just pledge the reorganized Phi-Mu or was there literally a chapter consolidation? There is a difference and I wonder where Panhellenic stood in the middle of that. It would seem to me that if a local affiliates with a national GLO, they have to go through the protocol for these sorts of things. Just curious.

There was literally a chapter consolidation. Theta Kappa Pi at Penn State is gone for good; Phi Mu actually presented to TKP and TKP accepted. I'm not really clear on all of the details, maybe someone else could answer this question in better detail?

Thanks for the info.

IMO there are too many of these "service/social" sororities that put the social before service and just use it as an excuse to get around NPC rules. I'm glad Penn State's NPC finally did something about it.

The local/service sorority issue has been a problem for a while. When Pahellenic voted to go dry my freshman year (2000) a bunch of the fraternities started doing more with the local/service sororities because they weren't bound by the same rules as we were. It was really frustrating. I will say it is difficult for the fraternities because there are so many of them and only 20 sororities to pair up with for Greek Week and other week longs.

It's good to see Phi Mu get some new blood. This will be really good for them!! We lost AGD my freshman year and that was hard to see. Yea for Phi Mu!

Here's some more information:

I was told that quota was 18 (+juniors) and I'm pretty sure almost every chapter on campus made quota and ALOT made quota plus.

Over 80% of girls received their first choice which is just absolutely AMAZING.

sounds like a happy ending....
good for them.

Sigma Kappa took quota + 2 juniors for a total of 20.

My understanding is that Alpha Delta Pi took Quota plus One, for a total of 19. I'm not entirely sure how far they are from Total, but this sentence may get edited! ;)

Well, wouldn't you be upset if someone basically said your chapter is to be treated as if they have the plague? I don't think it is "Crying and complaining" as much as "wanting to be treated as equals because the second part of local sorority is still SORORITY."

It's not so much to do with the fact that they are local.

It's the fact that they are calling themselves "service/social sororities" and partying more than the actual "social" NPC groups. They're using the "service" appendage to try and get around NPC rules when they rush and operate exactly like NPC groups - except they aren't bound by alcohol or rushing rules. It would be the same deal if Gamma Sigma Sigma or Omega Phi Alpha (both national service sororities) were putting a higher priority on socializing than service, which is supposed to be their reason for existing.

Okay, what's a weeklong?

Piggying back on Shelia's statement...

when I rushed one of the social/service sororities in Fall 2003, they told us that they scheduled socials Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and occasionally on Wednesday. We HAD to attend at least 50% of the socials and attendance at all was encouraged.

I was attracted to the community service part but there was nothing there really about community service. It seemed more of a group of girls who socialized with fraternities, did the occasional service project, and participated in THON.

I think weeklongs are like Homecoming, Greek Week, Greek Sing. Its been a while since I went through rush so I don't remember everything I was told about Greek activities.

The week longs are Homecoming, Greek Sing and Greek Week. You pair up with a fraternity for the week and compete in various activities all week.

Homecoming you build your float and compete in the various Homecoming related activities ie. lip sync, and nittany persuit.

Greek Sing you put together part of a broadway musical to be performed at the end of the week.

Greek Week you build your chariot for the race and compete in all kinds of other games.

THON is a whole different story that I don't feel like typing right now. Maybe I'll edit this later.

Homecoming and Greek Sing are in the fall and THON and Greek Week are in the spring.


What 33girl said is exactly right. The orgs in question weren't focusing on the service aspect of their service/social designation (that's the only word I can think of right now). They were focusing way more on the social and the NPC sororities who have to play by the rules set out by our Panhellenic were getting the short end of the stick. The guys wanted to do more with the girls who could drink.

As an alumna of Gamma Sig at Penn State, I really resent these statements. I pledged because I wanted to concentrate on philanthropy more than anything. Yes, there were socials and we participated in some weeklongs, but that doesn't discredit the amount of service hours that were required (and greatly exceeded by the majority of the sisterhood). We were never forced to attend socials with fraternities. I understand that there are some girls that do join social/service sororities just for the social aspect, but they are certainly in the minority.

Unless you know who blueGBI is and know for sure she's talking about you, don't get so defensive. If you kept service FIRST then you have nothing to worry about. I was in a service fraternity, and we had some great parties - after the service was done. But I seriously doubt that a group that is scheduling socials 4-5 days in the week is putting service first.

I was a little overly defensive, and I apologize if I insulted anyone. (I've been sick for a week and may be just a little overly sensitive! ;)) I agree with you completely 33girl.

Getting back to the original topic... Congratulations to all of the new members!

Gamma Sig has absolutely nothing to worry about, they have a national governing board and are not getting kicked off campus. They can continue to exist just as they are right now. I honestly doubt that BlueGBI is talking about them.

PSUSigKap and 33girl are correct when they say that I didn't mean the locals were the plague, I just mean that NPCs have rules and regulations to follow and end up getting the short end of the stick. The local "service" sororities party all week long and don't have to register their socials with panhellenic which means they're free to do whatever they want doing social hours.

The whole Penn State issue of no longer recognizing some groups may be more about insurance/liability and staff than anything else. Although we are a social sorority, our Phi Sigma Rho chapter at Penn State was only recognized as a student organization, not by Greek Life. Now we are required to also be recognized by Greek life and will soon be a part of Panhel.

I am glad we are a national social sorority, I do not see how any of the local social sororities or the local service sororities are going to survive without recognition by the university.

I would like to say that you cannot generalize ALL locals as being the same. It is unfortunate that some local organizations abuse the system. What many national GLO's don't realize is that there are MANY local organizations out here that are equally as strong (and oftentimes stronger) than national organizations. But it is also to acknowledge that not all locals are the same at each campus, just as not all chapters of a NPC are the same at every campus.

In my chapter (a local at NJ Tech) we are one of the largest out of 7 sororities. We have survived for 12 years because we follow the rules set forth by the Inter Fraternity/Sorority Council and the university. We have to-because we are local if we mess up once, we're out. And because we do not give the university problems, we are still recognized even after the university has made the ruling to no longer support local organizations. We are lucky to have been grandfathered in under the old constitution.

I think that it is important to note that the reasons for universities only recognizing NPC and NPHC sororities is a risk managment issue. Local organizations typically do not have insurance to protect themselves for suits. It goes much further beyond lack of insurance. I would not make the generalization that just because they are local, that they party every night.

I know that if my university were to have told us that we would no longer be able to be recognized, we would have been crushed. We have worked hard for 12...almost 13 years to uphold the traditions and values of our sisterhood in accordance to university policies to ensure that our sisterhood lives on. In the past 12 years we have earned Sorority of the Year, Community Service Award, and Highest GPA Award, several times, over NPC sororities. So there goes your theorey that locals do nothing but party and not follow rules.

So yes to restate what has been said before....if you were told you couldn't exist at your university...wouldn't you be upset?

Graceanne Brown

Good for you. Your post sounds really defensive. Good that your local sorority has done so much in its nearly 13 years of existance.

Penn State is a different animal than NJ Tech. Different systems, different people. Your sorority and the PSU locals are under two very different situations. The locals here were subject only to Undergradute Student Government and Student Affairs. There was no involvement from Panhell here with them. And, since they were under Undergraduate Student Government, they could no longer socialize with fraternities because that is against the rules. I'm assuming that your sorority is affliated with your Panhellenic at NJ Tech.

The sororities are no longer recognized and will either go underground, become more like regular student orgs, or merge with one of the sororities here that needs members.

Just a note, USG stands for Undergraduate Student Government. I know at other campuses the student government is called something else.

D'oh! Edited to reflect that change. I get so caught up using PSU terminology that I forget that nearly 99% of GC isn't from PSU.

THIS HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH THE FACT THAT THEY ARE LOCAL.

If they were a local social sorority and on the local Panhel and following their rules, no one would have a problem with it.

It has to do with the fact that they are wrapping themselves in the cloak of a "service" sorority when the majority of what they are doing is partying, not service. And they're doing it to get around the rules NPC groups have re alcohol.

If it was a chapter of a national service fraternity like A Phi O doing the same thing, I would be just as irked about it. On the other side of the coin, if there was a chapter of a social sorority who never did anything with the rest of the Greek community, I'd be irked about that too.

I love locals, I think they're neat and great and cool, and I've never said anything to the contrary. What I do not love is groups who say they are something they are not.