AGDee's Retro aka How NOT to do recruitment
 

Background: I was totally clueless. Totally. One of my best friends from high school was a boy named Michael who was the ex-boyfriend of a friend of mine (Nancy). After my friend cheated on him, I was very angry with her and remained close to him. He was a year older than me and when he graduated, he went to Eastern Michigan University (Go Hurons! ((Once a Huron, Always a Huron))). He had a new gf from my high school class and I drove her up to EMU a couple times to visit him. In the process, I fell in love with his roommate, who took me to my prom and we ended up in a long distance relationship.

First Semester Freshman Year: The year was 1983. There I was, a brand new freshman at EMU, entering the world of college, scared to DEATH, except for the fact that I had Rich (bf) and Michael (bff) there to guide me. During my first semester, I was getting my feet wet on campus. I'd been invited to join the University Ambassador's Society, an organization for students with good grades and leadership potential (based on high school info) who worked to help recruit new students by doing phone calls and tours and stuff like that. Michael was also invited to join as was Nancy. Pretty much, Michael, Rich, Nancy and I hung out all the time. We ate all of our meals together, partied together, etc.. even though Nancy and Michael were just friends. Through the Ambassador's Society, we met a TON of greeks. Michael and Rich both went through fraternity rush that first semester and ended up pledging TKE. When I was talking to my parents one day, I mentioned that and my dad told me that he is a TKE. I had no idea until that day. The greeks who were part of the Ambassador's Society were really amazing leaders. Several of them were seniors who were also on student government and stuff. Michael and Rich had two female friends who lived on their dorm floor named Karen and Theresa. Karen and Theresa hung out with us a lot too. Karen was really nice but Theresa just always rubbed me the wrong way. They were in one of the four sororities on campus.

So, once Michael and Rich were TKE pledges, I was at the TKE house with them a lot. They were really awesome guys.. campus leaders, preppy types, good grades and, as they wouldn't let you forget.. Ronald Reagan (President at the time) was a brother. Lots of sorority women hung out with the TKEs and they had a little sister group, which I contemplated joining. But, I decided to try out sorority rush instead.

Back then, our rush was pretty frilly (not quite so much as the South, but way more than today!). There were 4 NPC groups on campus and a local. The local sometimes did formal rush and sometimes didn't. Formal rush was held both fall and winter semesters, which was kind of insane.. no.. REALLY insane. I decided to rush winter semester, much to my mother's chagrin, but with my father's blessing "Don't worry, I'll help you pay the dues if you need me to".

Yes! Another Retro story. :) I'm a little confused though, were you at EMU too?

What NOT to do, Part 1
 

Part 1 of what NOT to do.

Once I had decided to rush, I started asking the guys what each of the sorority chapters was like and got pretty much the same stereotyped reply from all of them.

Poodles: They are all blonde and pretty and stuck up, except for the fat ones and they are just fat. (Yes, very odd.. they were both the pretty group AND the fat group) They were one of two big chapters on campus. I wasn't blonde and, although I was not a stick figure, I wasn't fat either, so I knew I didn't fit in. Karen and Theresa were in this group and I knew I didn't want to hang out with them, so I eliminated them as a possibility.

Labradors: Very popular girls, party girls, (not "good" girls), the other of the two big chapters.

Russian Toy Terriers: Who?? Super small chapter, nobody knows any of them, pretty much the invisible chapter. I also eliminated them as a possibilty immediately, simply based on lack of campus visibility and smallness.

Airedale Terrier: "They are the really stuck up girls who won't sleep with us", the smart girls, they're the good girls.

So, before attending even ONE party, I had eliminated two groups purely based on the opinions of the majority of the TKEs (and my dislike of one member of one group).Can we stay STUPID rushee???

Oh, yes, I was at EMU too, a year after the guys had started there.

I was so hoping that you would eventually join the retro recruitment bandwagon!

(Think I mentioned to you before that my cousin was in a sorority at EMU - Alpha Sigma Tau, but she would have been a few years after you. Don't know exactly what year she went through rush, but she graduated HS in 1987. She lives in Texas now, but I'll be seeing her next weekend for a family cookout. I should ask her about her rush experience...we've never really talked about it, and she's the only other person in my family who initiated into a sorority.)

The ASTs came back to campus when I was almost graduated (graduated in '87). I'm pretty sure they were the Lambda Chi Crescents and when the little sis groups were banned, they petitioned for expansion and re-colonized AST. Everybody was really excited because it was their Alpha chapter. Shortly after that, another group of women formed an interest group and I *think* they became Delta Zeta, but I was moving onward and upward by then. They now have a lot more.. DPhiE, Phi Sigma Sigma, and.. I don't remember them all now!

I should say, when I went through recruitment, the four there were

Alpha Xi Delta
Sigma Kappa
Sigma Sigma Sigma
Alpha Gamma Delta

ETA: I was going to start this before my mom went in the hospital but then the last couple weeks became insane and I barely even had time to read GC, let alone post this.


And then, Sigma Nu Phi, the local, who has been there over 100 years, which I think is pretty darn impressive.

My dad is a TKE too and I never knew that until I went through Recruitment either!!

I didn’t take any notes and this is all from memory from 23 years ago, so bear with me! I have been thinking about it a lot and I think I remember most of the details. Keep in mind, this was January in Michigan. Nobody was wearing any sundresses. We were wearing boots, bringing shoes to change into, wearing parkas, scarves, gloves, etc. Sometimes you even wore a pair of jeans under your skirt so you didn’t freeze your legs.

All events were held in the student union because nobody had official houses. Tri Sigma had an unofficial house as did the Alpha Gams (which the TKEs ended up leasing after Rich burned their house down, but that’s another story).

I am using old terms because I am old and those are the terms we used.

There was some sort of informational session during which we filled out a form and were organized into groups. We met our Rush Counselors and I can’t remember AT ALL who mine was or what role she played, if any, during rush. In my group was a gal named Renee who lived on my dorm floor and a gal named Kirsten who I just took to very quickly. I had really liked Renee from the first time I met her too. She was bubbly and enthusiastic and just a pleasure to be around because her positive attitude was contagious. Kirsten was more quiet, but very very nice and I liked being around her because she was so serene. My sort of friend, Nancy, was also going through recruitment and she really wanted to be a Labrador, but she wasn’t in my group. One of the sophomores from the Ambassador Society was also going through rush. Her name was Libby and she was this hyper spaz enthusiastic gal who I really liked from the first time I met her.

They introduced all the Panhellenic officers who had disaffiliated and they told us things about Greek Life. I knew a couple of them from the Ambassador’s Society so the disaffiliation didn’t make a lot of sense to me. I understand it better now, but people didn’t make a huge deal out of it. Nobody tried to guess what group women were in or anything. They gave us the basic Go Greek pep talk and told us what to wear. We got an info booklet with symbols, colors, flowers,and financial information on all the groups. We were told that we would be receiving invitations to the first parties in the next day and that we would be invited to all the first parties and go with our rush groups. I still really had no idea that cuts could happen and that some women wouldn’t get bids, etc. I thought you just went, saw which group you liked and then joined them.

I was wrong!

I'm so excited about this thread!

First Parties: (How not to do recruitment Part 2)
 

I received my invitations the next day. I only remember what one of them was like (and this probably makes it very obvious which group this one was) but it was in the shape of a record (yeah, we had records back then, it was post 8 tracks and cassettes were getting popular, but we still had records) with the invite information as the record label. It was very cute. It was from the Airedale Terriers. All were handmade invitations from construction paper and they all looked like they took a lot of time to make (and they did, as I found when I was Rush Chair the next semester)

Since I knew I didn’t want to be a Poodle or a Russian Toy Terrier, I didn’t go to their first parties. Nobody had told me that this could impede any chances of getting a bid or that I had to go to their parties and, to be honest, I don’t think anybody cared back then. Almost everybody wanted to be a Poodle, except me.

I knew we had to dress up a little, so I wore basic black pleated dress pants, black pumps and a silvery/gray silky blouse. I wore the ever-present gold herringbone chain and some simple gold hoop earrings. Nothing too fancy. I had (cringe) a bi-level cut with big permed hair. If you don’t know what a bi-level is, I’m not telling, cuz they call it something else now and I don’t want to admit it.. BUT, it was VERY in then, I swear it.

I caught up with Renee outside the Airedale Terrier room in the student union and we waited outside together. She had already been to the other two parties. I had no idea what to expect. We walked into the room and there were two lines of women dressed in 50’s clothes.. poodle skirts, sweaters or blouses, with pony tails and saddle shoes! How adorable! They were singing some catchy song with their letters in it. As we each walked in, one of the girls stepped out of the line and escorted us to a table where they gave us a nametag and we wrote our names on them. They were homemade nametags and these were like the outline of a ’57 Chevy. They took us over to a table where there was punchbowl of root beer floats and platters of cheese and crackers and helped us get some food and a root beer float. Yum! I liked this rush thing. I enjoyed talking to the girl I was with a lot. She took me over to meet some other sisters. The room was all decorated like a 50’s diner. I chatted for a while with several different sisters and then they sat us down for a skit. It was a Grease skit and ALL the words to the songs were adapted to fit the sorority! How clever these women were! I was so impressed. I had no idea what to expect coming into this and I was really enjoying it. The skit was touching as Rizzo decided to become a member of this great sorority and all the sisters sang “We go together” and looked like they really loved hanging out with each other. Wow! I wanted to be part of that! Then, we had to leave and I was bummed out.

Renee and I headed to the next party, the Labradors and waited outside again for the party to start. We talked about how much fun the Airedale Terrier party was but Renee wasn’t quite as impressed as I was. Maybe because she’d been to two parties already?

We walked into the Labrador party together and stopped at the nametag table to fill out a nametag. Then, one of the sisters took Renee into the crowd but nobody picked me up. I kind of stood there, not knowing what to do. Nobody came and talked to me. I felt like a Martian. What was up with this??? I went to the refreshment table and they had assorted candies.. m&m’s, mints, etc. and a punch. I helped myself to those and tried to kind of hang out near a group of girls who were talking, but was too intimidated to just join in with a group. When the skit was going to start, I found Renee and sat by her. I don’t remember this skit at all. I think I was just shell shocked because nobody had spoken to me.

I left that party knowing that I wouldn’t be going back to them.

oh gosh dee. how awful for you. i think you were very brave to have stayed!

Whoa....that's horrible. Maybe they just miscalculated or someone got out of place or something. But still! No one ever came in for the save?:confused:

Rush was spread out over a couple weeks, only on weekends, so it was 3 weekends in total. I had so enjoyed my time at the Airedale Terrier party and knew that was the only sorority I wanted to be in. I spent the week in Rich and Michael’s dorm room watching out the window for Airedales to walk by (because their dorm was more in the middle of campus where you could see a lot of people). Each sorority had baseball type jackets, which were worn year round, and each sorority had a different color jacket. I kept my eyes pealed for the Airedale jackets and would get excited whenever I saw one.

Around Wednesday, we got invitations for the second parties. The Airedale one was a grass skirt on the front with an invite to their Luau on the inside. I also received an invitation from the Labradors. I talked to Nancy and found out that she had not been invited back to any parties. What??? How can that happen??? Oh, she didn’t make grades. She’d had a 1.99 our first semester of college (a little too much partying I think!) and you had to have at least a 2.0 for every sorority on campus. Whoa! Grades matter? Who knew??? Well, I had a 3.8.. so if grades matter, then I have NOTHING to worry about, right? I sought reassurance from Michael, Rich, Karen and Theresa (they knew I didn’t want to be in their sorority and were OK with it) and they all assured me that I was the ideal sorority girl and I just had to pick where I wanted to go. I wasn’t quite so confident by this time.

So, Saturday comes and I go to the Airedale party only. If the Labradors couldn’t talk to me the first time, they didn’t get a second chance. Humph! But, I wondered now if maybe I should have given the Russian Toy Terrier a chance though. Kirsten really loved them when she went to their party. Oh well, what’s done is done. Renee was going back to all four parties. She liked things about each of them. She was so positive! We didn’t have to cut until Preference.

I went into Airedale Terrier very excited because I’d had such a good time before. I am pretty sure that I wore a floral print skirt and maroon sweater with black pumps and the same jewelry as before. The details on this one are sketchier, but I remember the food! They had a huge fruit platter with tropical fruits and toothpicks with the fluffy plastic things on them. They also had a fruit punch. The nametags were pineapples. The girls were in beach attire (shorts and t-shirts, not bikinis or anything). We talked for a long time and this blonde gal named Sherri, who I had talked to for a long time during the 50’s party, came by and chatted again. She was so nice and friendly. I really liked her. Some officers got up and talked about what our altruistic project was (we called it that, not philanthropy then), finances, leadership, etc. The President was especially impressive and was running for President of Student Government. I also heard that she had a 4.0! She was an incredible woman and I admired her a lot. Every single woman I met was friendly and fun. Libby was at that party and I was glad to see her there. All the girls I talked to seem to know things about me from high school.. like what clubs I was in, where I was from, etc. That really impressed me too. They seemed to really like me and I really liked them. During the party, we were each presented with a lei and a keychain with the sorority flowers on it. Yes, I wanted to be an Airedale. They kept singing this same song that got so stuck in my head. “I just wanna be an Airedale” I loved that song and hummed it constantly.

We would receive invitations to Preference by Wednesday. I was checking my mailbox over and over all day long and finally.. an envelope. Wait, and another envelope too! Two Preference invitations???

A victim of the mullet trend!

Isn't that the real fun of recruitment threads? The suspense?? I mean, I had only gone to one party and blew everybody else off... What I've been doing is waiting until there are 100 additional views and then posting the next part.. lol. I typed out the whole dang thing last night in a Word doc so I just have to cut and paste it now.

Oh my gosh, you said it! But nobody called it that then! Really! It was a bi-level and a very poofy one at that!

ETA: The TKEs were always calling me Adrienne because they said I looked like Adrienne Barbeau and my hair was really very much like hers (but I didn't wear such low cut shirts!)
http://macumbalove.tripod.com/sitebu...nebarbeaud.jpg

I bet it was the Labradors!

How much you wanna bet? $10? $20? You know what, $50, I could use $50. I bet it was the labradors!

Maybe they were trying to make up for the little mishap on the first night. :rolleyes: Good hearted people make mistakes. :p

Did ya give 'em a chance this time?

Here's another view... update please!

I really cannot remember having any contact with my rush counselor. I remember them saying not to suicide at some point but I'm not sure I knew what that meant anyway. I meant it when I said I was clueless. Plus, I was getting most of my rush advice from TKEs.. who don't get NPC rush at all!

Didn't give anybody else a chance...
 

Yes, I received Preference invitations from both the Airedales and the Labradors. I have to admit, I was little put off that the Labradors would invite me to their Preference. I figured, if they didn't know who I was, then why were they inviting me? In retrospect, I'm guessing it was my resume (good grades, lots of leadership activities in high school) and the fact that nobody could figure out who I was and they wanted to know. A few may have known me since I hung out with the TKEs so much too. Both invitations were professionally printed, embossed, like wedding invitations. Both had the sorority flowers on them. They were absolutely gorgeous! I knew Pref was a big deal and I had to pick the perfect dress .. but I only had a couple with me.

It was Pref Sunday. We would attend parties in the morning, then sign bid cards and then, in the evening, if we got a bid, bid night activities. I was starting to get nervous now. I was hearing about some girls who didn’t get invitations. I went to Rich and Michael with my fears and they just kept saying “Don’t worry, ALL the sororities would have wanted you”. Wellll, I really wasn’t that confident. But, those Airedales really seemed to like me and I really liked them, especially Sherri.

It was the first weekend in February and probably 10 degrees outside but this was supposed to be formal, so I dressed formally. I decided on a maroon dress with big shoulder pads (it was IN, honest!), an asymmetrical hem with a big wide belt, and the reliable black pumps. I decided to go with pearls for jewelry this time.

The party this time was in one of the oldest buildings on campus. It was also where the Ambassador’s Society was housed and it was beautiful. Starkweather Hall. http://www.emich.edu/walkingtour/ima...rkweather3.jpg
As we entered, the ladies took our coats. Sherri took my arm and escorted me into the room. There were no nametags but they all remembered my name. The room was lit with candles (we could use real ones back then) and there were white table clothes over all the tables. She gave me a china plate (with red and buff roses on it) that had a piece of cheesecake on it with my initials in raspberry sauce on top. Wow! There was tea and coffee and I chose tea. The teacup and saucer matched the china plate. Oh! And embossed napkins too! This was really, really elegant. Sherri was talking to me about how much Airedale meant to her. Dawn, the chapter President, came up to me and was talking to me also. She told me that I had made a really good impression on the sisters and that she could see ME being President of their chapter someday (blink.. whoa!.. they like me!!). They gathered us into a circle for a ceremony. Sherri recited a poem that had been written by an Airedale alumna that made me cry. She kept making eye contact with me and smiling as she recited it. There were some other things said by other officers that were all very touching. Each of us were given a pearl and escorted to a wishing well where we told to drop the pearl in and make a wish. We were then presented with a hand sewn felt pin pillow with the sorority letters sewn onto it and we received red and buff roses. They sang the most beautiful song I had ever heard and I got misty eyed again. Sherri kept making eye contact and smiling at me while she was singing. When they were done, they began to escort us out. Sherri and I kept talking and talking and she looked at her watch and said “You had better get to your next party” and I said “I’m not going to any other parties”. She smiled really big and said she was so glad to hear that.

Now yes, all this would’ve been rush infractions in this day and age, but then, I think it was pretty typical. Rules were pretty loose. Other women who had gone to this Preference too included Renee and Libby. Kirsten had only gone to Russian Toy Terrier. Renee was also going to Labrador and she really liked them a lot. Libby was only going to Airedale, like me.

We signed bid cards after the second Prefs were done and, of course, I suicided Airedale. We were told that we would get a phone call by 7 pm if we didn’t get a bid.

Hmmn...well, at least I know whether or not to expect a big plot twist now. ;)

Well, yeah, no real twists, just lots of memories about frilly rush and how crazy I was. I found out later that we borrowed the china from Wayne State every year because we didn't own anything. It also became a problem when our Prefs were the same day! I don't remember how we resolved that. We might have borrowed from U Mich that year?

You might already know about this, but at Michigan State we had an enormous collection of teacups and saucers with a lot of sentimental meaning. It was a chapter tradition dating back to our founding that when a Chi alumnae married, she came back for a special tea and presented the chapter with a cup/saucer from her wedding china.

Those cups/saucers were gorgeous...so many different patterns/styles representing over 70 years of Chi chapter sisters. We only actually used them at Preference, and it terrified me to handle them...the thought of my clumsy self breaking a special teacup from a long ago sister's wedding china made me incredibly nervous. :eek: Thankfully, I don't recall any ever actually breaking...we treated them with the utmost respect!

Such a shame that all those memories are packed away in storage somewhere, now that Chi is closed. :( Makes me wonder what the heck is going to happen to them if the unthinkable happens and Chi doesn't reopen for a very long time. I hope that they are preserved in a safe place, whatever happens. (Side note - VandalSquirrel's grandmother was a Chi alumnae apparently from the 1920s (? on the year). Makes me wonder if she has a teacup in that collection, but VandalSquirrel suspects now.)

(I never got the chance to present a teacup to the chapter, since I married in 2003...after Chi closed. Of course, I didn't actually register for china anyhow. LOL. But, I had always planned on picking out a teacup/saucer that I liked anyhow and presenting it to the chapter. Perhaps when we reopen, they can host another tea for those of us who got married in the interim and feel like we missed out on a special Chi tradition. :D )

So Dee, do tell, what was the song they sang, I'm guessing Special Family!

I'm not sure if my grandmother came back with a teacup, she married when she was much older, and had my father (an only child) when she was almost forty. Which is completely normal in this day and age, but back then, it was :eek: We have teacups at Idaho, but less and less women are registering for china in this day and age.

I still cry to this day every time I hear Special Family. (And I've never even been through Preference! We used it for other stuff too.)

When I found out that you could hear a recording of it on our website, I e-mailed the link to all my chapter sisters just so they could get misty eyed too. :D


(Yeah, I didn't register for china either...but I would have purchased and presented a nice teacup anyhow, just for tradition's sake. After all, it could be the pattern I "would" have chosen had I felt the need to register for china. ;) )

One of our members was a chapter consultant, and I remember her telling me later about the teacups. It sounded like a wonderful tradition.

I like what using them communicates at pref. in terms of a presenting a unified, elegant overall impression of tradition, while still reflecting the individual characteristics and unique merits of each individual member.

Does anyone else have the teacup tradition?

Special Family was sang at a recent wedding, and the most recent wedding there was no singing (or it happened after I left, but before the tent blew away), however she did register for china. I lucked out and inherited two sets of silver, but my sister got the china so I'm planning on registering for some. What I don't understand is that she got the china, but registered for more when she was married the second time. I can't tell you how cranky I was when I had to help pack it and move it because she divorced him.

Hi, I'm that dork who has the music downloaded to her Ipod. I know I'm not the only one *cough* OTW *cough*.

i love the idea of the china tradition, what a sweet and sentimental and tangible way to link to all the women who came before you! susan, if i were you and i'd had to deal with the fact that all the memories embodied in that china were packed up somewhere in storage, i honestly think i would cry.

Alpha Beta (Michigan) has the teacup tradition also.

It wasn't Special Family. I had never heard that song until the mid 90's when my chapter started using it and I cried then. I love that song.

There were actually two .. AGD and Our Time is Short that made me cry at that Pref. I was thinking about AGD but then I remembered Our Time is Short after I posted it. Next post time...

The End.. almost
 

The tradition at EMU back then was that the sororities would break up into groups and go to the women’s dorms to pick them up. There would be 5 or 6 sisters per group and they would be singing their sorority songs at the top of their lungs as they traveled from dorm to dorm. Commuters usually waited at a friend’s dorm room until they got word. Thing was, there were two of us on my floor who had gone through rush! NOW, I was suddenly really, really nervous. I was pacing around my dorm room! There was no way of knowing, when I heard “I Just Wanna Be An Alpha Gamma Delta, I just want to wear fourteen pearls” coming down the hall whether they were coming for me or Renee! It was only 6:30, so it was still possible that I could get “the phone call”. But NO! They stopped at my door and sang until I opened the door. Sherri had my bid in her hand and as she handed it to me said “The sisters of the Zeta Alpha Chapter of Alpha Gamma Delta would like you to join their sisterhood”. She and I hugged and I started to cry (happy tears, of course). They had a big bouquet of red, buff and green balloons for me and they decorated my door while I got my coat and called Rich and Michael really fast and screamed “I’m an Alpha Gam!” (They said “We told you so!”).

I was the first one they picked up and I knew the song already because I had been singing it all week in my head, so I was singing it as loudly as they were as we went to each dorm. I saw the Alpha Xi’s heading up to Renee’s room as I was leaving. She had gotten a bid to Labrador, her favorite.

We picked up LIBBY! I was so excited! Libby was going to be one of my sisters! I think I forgot to mention that she was also dating a TKE. At that time, a lot of Alpha Gams were dating TKEs, but that changed to Lambda Chis the next year. We also picked up Sue, who I had gotten to know a little bit during rush and really liked. It was the perfect night, running through the streets, singing Fourteen Pearls at the top of our lungs and picking up new sisters. We went back to the house where we had cake and punch. We just hung out and socialized all evening. It was our first time at the house because it wasn’t used during rush at all, to keep things fair. They taught us songs, both internet worthy and NOT. I lost my voice the next day from singing so loudly!


The next day, we had Pledge Presentation where all the Panhellenic groups met in the ballroom of the student union and announced their new pledges. This is where the Panhellenic officers and rush counselors also re-affiliated into their groups. I was so happy to see Elisa, the Panhellenic President, join the Alpha Gams. Campus leaders with great grades but who were still down to earth and not at all pretentious surrounded me, and I was very, very happy. We all sang the Greek Alphabet Song and then each chapter sang a couple chapter specific songs for the other groups. It was really nice. They gave us MORE roses too.

In retrospect, I would have been very happy to be a Sigma Kappa (the Russian Tea Terriers) and I should have given them a chance. A lot of the rushees whom I really liked during recruitment chose Sigma Kappa and the chapter grew by a lot. They became very visible and much stronger with that one pledge class. Also, one of my best friends from high school became a Sigma Kappa at the University of Michigan.

Ironically, due to a rift that the newest members weren’t privy to, our chapter was cut in half over the summer. A lot of women quit over something that had happened in the house. I never knew the whole story, but we came back with only 15 members and 9 of them were my pledge class. I instantaneously became the Rush Chair and did ALL that prep, with much help from my sisters. The invitations, the nametags, the favors, the pref pillows, food, wow! It was so much work. AND we did it twice a year, crazy! We more than doubled our chapter size that year though, taking 19 in the fall and another 9 in the winter and still kept the highest GPA on campus!

I wouldn’t have fit in with the Poodles (Tri Sigmas), I still maintain to this day. They just weren’t a good fit for me. Everybody who knew me beforehand thought that I would go Tri Sigma because I was crazy about the color purple. I had purple everything! But now, I bleed red, buff and green. They were a super strong chapter, biggest on campus, always won Greek Week, very popular with the fraternities, but they just weren’t me. I probably would’ve been happy as a Labrador (Alpha Xi Delta) because they were a lot of fun and very nice, I just didn’t get to know them until after rush. I’m sure I just fell through the rotation cracks somehow during that party, but I didn’t even know what rotation was, so I didn’t know what to think at the time.

Dee,

Great story...We're very glad that you became an Alpha Gam! :)

Wonder what your name on GC would have been if you were in another GLO!

-C

My whole life would've been different if I was in another GLO. It's weird to think about. However, I met my first husband at a party at a sister's apartment and then we started dating after an Alpha Gam/Lambda Chi party, so that might not have happened. I got a good campus job thanks to my sister-mom. My best friend from college is my sister-daughter who has been my maid of honor twice and has helped me through so much. My nickname in highschool and college was Dee, but I started going by Denise when I married a guy with the last name of Klein. Dee Klein just wasn't right... My highschool and original college friends still call me Dee now though, since I'm not a Klein anymore!

LOL!

I hope that any PNMs who are reading these retro stories are paying attention to those of us who are proclaiming "Don't do rush like I did!" Because recruitment counseling was in its infancy, some of us made decisions to exclude wonderful groups, drop out when we shouldn't, come close to shooting ourselves in the foot. Yes, we got bids where we wanted but we could have just as easily been dropped.

You could get an unskilled or uncaring RC (not common these days) and you may have to make major decisions without help, so please err on the side of choosing to go to as many parties as possible!

I just love the tradition of the china cups! What a wonderful tribute to your chapter's longevity!!

Congratulations on your Airedale bid!

Woo! You got lucky with that suicide bid, but I can't say that I am not suprised it turned out well. You had a lot of positive things going for you and a great support system. I almost felt your enthusiasm when you shared the reveal!

BTW, those little traditions you shared were so sweet.

Epilogue
 

I never became the chapter president because my academic program was too demanding, but who knows, I could still end up a Alumnae Chapter/Club President or.. another President! If I do, then Dawn will get some credit for that!

I have no regrets, 23 years later, that I chose Alpha Gamma Delta. Oh yes, Sherri ended up being my sister-mother and I was thrilled. She was a great role model and friend.

The characters and what happened to them…

Rich: He decided after we had dated for a year and a half (a month into my sophomore year) that he was too young to be “tied down” and wanted to date other people, so we broke up. Two weeks later, he wanted to get back together, so we did. We went through that cycle a couple times and finally I met this very cute Lambda Chi associate (who ended up being my first husband) and told Rich to take a hike. He begged me not to break up with him, so I stayed. Two days later, he broke up with me. I think he just wanted to be the one to do it. He got really bad grades and a changed his major a few times, rarely dated anybody, and was still in school when I graduated. I have no idea what happened to him.

Michael: We remained very close friends and most people thought we were dating, but we weren’t. He graduated in 3 years because he was a chronic overachiever. He got a job with an auditing firm so he could get his CPA and had his sights set on buying the firm when the owner retired. The owner happened to be the father of my aunt (aunt by marriage, my mom’s brother’s wife). Michael ended up marrying one of the owner’s daughters, so he was my aunt’s brother-in-law, which was very cool. He became a half partner in the firm. Until he fell in love with the secretary at the office, left the firm taking half the clients with him, taking everything from their condo, leaving his wife with nothing at all .. and I never heard from him again. That family wasn’t too happy with him. I often wonder where he is now and what his side of the story was. He has such a common name that a Google search doesn’t help!

Nancy: She didn’t make grades the second semester either and was booted from college. I was glad because she had this nasty habit of going after every boy that I liked. Last I heard, she was living with someone, was pregnant and was going to a local community college. She hasn’t attended any of our high school class reunions, but I also have often wondered what happened to her.

Renee: She was so happy as an Alpha Xi Delta and she and I remained friendly, but not real close. We lost touch after college but then, about 6 years ago, some Office Max representatives were in our building giving us free stuff in hopes that we’d order some of it later on. You know, like a vendor fair. This familiar looking woman stopped me and said “Did you go to Eastern?” and I said “Renee, the Alpha Xi?” and she said “Denise, the Alpha Gam!!” and we laughed and hugged. She was just as bubbly and sweet as ever.

Kirsten: She ended up being the President of Sigma Kappa and was always sweet. I liked her a lot.

Libby: We ended up being roommates when I was a junior and she was a senior. She graduated with a 4.0 and did her internship as a medical technologist at the hospital where my mom was working as a med tech. She kind of ended up having a boyfriend living with us the last summer in our apartment. She married the dude and now lives in Texas and has two kidlets.

Sherri: She became my sister-mother and one of my closest sisters always. She got me the best job on campus (as a campus operator with her). We kept in touch for a while after graduation and I remember her wedding well. She worked as an accountant for a while but then abandoned that job to sell jewelry at home parties. She ended up getting divorced shortly after having her first child and I never heard from her again. I have tried to look her up but she’s listed as a “lost sister” on our website.

I'm quoting this to emphasize it. I truly had no idea that my grades, previous/current leadership positions, etc. had anything to do with whether I'd get into a sorority. I had no idea that some women would get cut from all the chapters or go to Prefs but not get a bid until I was halfway through rush. I was really afraid at that point that I'd cut off my nose to spite my face. I truly didn't know if I was going to get a bid or not that night.

I also want to say that the face of each sorority at Eastern Michigan changed dramatically within a few years. With only 30 or so members, my chapter lost 3 members who all had 4.0's all in one semester. We no longer had the highest GPA on campus after that. We had one large group of members turn into wild party animals whom we had to constantly keep in check. THEN, those of us who were keeping them under control graduated and within two years, the chapter was almost shut down. I was the Chapter Advisor then and couldn't believe the crap that they started doing right under my nose. It was a living nightmare to see them go downhill so fast. Then, they were back up again and doing great, stayed at Total for several years in a row, which was very unusual and were chugging along pretty well. But, they were a very different chapter in 1990 than they were in 1984! The Sigma Kappas too... they went from very few members to Total in about a year and a half and were a really wonderful chapter. The Tri Sigmas stayed consistently solid and, from what I understand are still very solid today. The others have ebbed and waned. The point? Going by fraternity men's opinions is really stupid. They don't really know the ins and outs of a chapter. And, the stereotypes today may be very different than the stereotype in a year or two.

This was a lot of fun. I hadn't thought about my recruitment in a very long time and the more I thought about it, the more I remembered. I'm surprised how much came back to me. Those were the best of times... <clicking heels> There's no place like college, there's no place like college, there's no place like college...

Wow- that was nice of Panhellenic to the other chapters! I wish UCF did that, since on on our first or second day of recruitment you usually get house tours from housed chapters... but unhoused chapters obviously don't give tours of the fraternity houses they are rushing out of. It is an unfair advantage early in the game :p!

I love the idea of the teacups!!