Recs and School Rules/Suggestions
 

So far my rec writing has been limited to my area, meaning I have hand delivered them to the chapter and given them to the sister in charge of them. However I have noticed that some schools put on their informational pages to send them to a person or office, and not the chapter directly.

Personally I don't think the form I write for my sisters should be seen by anyone who is not a sister for various reasons. I consider that form, and the information it contains an extension of Membership Selection, which we all know is private. I am just imagining someone opening the mail (perhaps a student) and private information not staying private.

Has anyone here ever worked with a chapter at a school that suggests or attempts to require this method? If so, did you follow it or ignore it?

Whoah! Red flag!

I definitely would not do this!!

My school's panhellenic won't even tell us who the parents are and the student's address so that we can try to track down alumnae who may know her. So why should we give them what we've got!:mad:

Their concern should be that the person made a specific GPA.

I can see the definite possibility of the rec info being given out, verbally or not, to other Panhellenic members.

my daughter rushed last year and her school recommended that all recs. be sent to the panhellenic office. panhellenic would then distribute them. i felt that left too much to chance.

i felt uneasy about this, so all recs. for my daughter were sent to the appropriate person designated in the magazines of the sororities on her campus.

I also had my D's sent directly to the respective chapters.

Some schools don't have sorority houses and the chapters have their respective mailboxes in the Panhellenic Office. Something to consider if you send something to XYZ Sorority in care of Campus Panhellenic.

That is sending to the chapter directly, though - it's their mailbox. VS's situation sounds like the school is saying "just send the rec to panhel and we'll get it to the chapter eventually."

In that case, some may feel more comfortable sending the form to the Membership Advisor or Advisory Board Chair to give to the Membership chair. I know I received a few each summer when I was ABC.

All of my recs were sent directly to the individual chapters, and I've always sent them directly to the chapter. I completely agree with V's statement, that they're an extension of Membership Selection.

In my city, when I am writing recs, I send the completed rec packages (recommendation form, 3 pictures - head shot, 3/4, and full, resume, and 3 supporting letters) to the local rush representative of our sorority alumni chapter. A committee then goes through all of them to see if they are complete and correct, so it is sisters (but alumni) who are reading the recs, but recs are not sent directly to the chapter.

All of the girls going through rush go to an informational meeting in the spring where they are told of the process and what they need to provide to the rec writers and when the deadlines are.

I'm not sure why it is done this way, but it has been this way since before me and I went through rush in the early 80's.

This is how we do it in Texas--- the women register with their Alum Pan, secure sponsors on their own and get their sponsors to write them recs and letters of support.

The sponsors send their recs and letters to their alumnae association's Recruitment Chair. The Chair bundles the recs for each university and sends them to the chapters there.

I think this is also a way for the Alumnae Pan and Associations to keep tabs on who was going to what schools/where they pledged. They have a master list of the hometown girls and where they joined each year.

I can use my school as an example. Mail can be received through the Dean's Office/Greek Life and be forwarded on, but almost of the chapters have a PO Box through the USPS and that information is publicly posted on the Greek Life page. I know for my chapter, we have an alumna or the house director pick up mail from the PO Box. The issue of recs is really only used in regard to sororities, and I think the way it is worded is not for actual members to send recs, but for nonmembers writing letters. Here it is word for word cut and pasted:

Do I need Letters of Reference for Recruitment?
No. Letters of References or Recommendations are not required to participate in recruitment and you do not need a letter for each chapter. Alumni Sorority members often offer to write letters for friends and family memebers. These letters serve as a personal introduction of the young woman to the sorority. The letters are designed to give the sorority added personal information, but does not serve as an advantage when particiapting in recruitment. If family friends, emplyers, or family members offer to write you a letter, please have them mail it to the Office of the Dean of Students. All letters will be passed on to the sorority recruitment chair. Again you do not need to have letters to participate in recruitment.

To contrast, my next nearest school, Wazzu, has a page with a woman's name, sorority, and what I assume is her home mailing address. Wazzu is on the east side of Washington State, so most of these women live on the west side (Seattle area) so I can only imagine that a rec is sitting in Bellevue, and the member is already back in Pullman.

I kind of like the way it is handled by Alumnae Panhellenics. The problem I can see is if we did have one, it would be in Boise for Idaho, and with an Alumnae Panhellenic in Spokane it would be closer in distance, and great for Wazzu, but not so much for us.

After reading that, I would say double hell no. It almost sounds like they're discouraging recs - how do they know what is an advantage in rush? - and they want to keep tabs on who's sending them. That is absolutely none of the school's business.

I am thinking since we are a land grant and agricultural school, that perhaps this is for Frannie FFA who may live in a town with no stop light, doesn't know women in sororities, and her principal or 4-H leader is writing on her behalf. I really don't think this is aimed at the Boise kids, but more for the rural areas and trying to get people who may be the first to go to college, let alone Greek in their family to feel at ease or be interested. To be honest though, I do know women who had no idea about recruitment, have no sorority connections, and did just fine (and by fine I mean they maximized their options, and didn't put on someone's facebook wall "Fabio Fratty told me I need to be an XYZ and so did other people and I will be nothing else!!!").

I am giggling at one school's page with clothing suggestions. Denim shorts and overalls were listed, and the vision I have is probably not the one they are attempting to project. I see the striped Osh Kosh engineer overalls, and long jorts with maybe cargo pockets or a hammer loop. Sadly there are no visual examples.

I understand that they don't want women to feel obligated to get them but that IMO goes too far the other way - like they're a bad thing. I just looked at Penn State's site (speaking of land grant) and they say recs are not a requirement, but are always welcomed. Incidentally, they mentioned denim shorts too :p

It always astonishes me how much Greek Life offices do that will actually hurt PNMs. The rec thing is one of them.

At my school, we don't use recs. I could only imagine someone who's dying to get into the most competitive chapter even thinking about it. So naturally, as a Panhellenic we don't have to deal with them.
I most certainly am sorry to hear how poorly you guys feel about college panhellenics. As a current secretary who is in the middle of the pre-recruitment process, I assure you that we are more than capable of being discreet and handle the objectives of our council in an unbiased manner. I deal with names, numbers, and personal info on a regular basis and my only goal is to help these women find the sorority that is best for them. Not to get them to join mine or to be a snoop or to ruin some other chapters. We are on disaffiliation right now and I barely contact my sisters as it is. I'm not disagreeing or agreeing with your positions. But I am going to ask you to have more faith in your campus panhellenics. If you don't have any faith in those who organize and run your recruitment and who are upholding the laws of the NPC, then what the heck is the point of the NPC or the recruitment to begin with. And if you can't trust them, then question the elections/officers!

I follow Gamma Phi Beta instructions and send them to the person they list to receive them.

The stuff that I was referring to seems to stay the same year in and year out, so while the members of panhellenic change, the issues don't.

I tend to think that it's the greek life staff rather than the panhellenic officers that are responsible for the things I mean. They seem to present information like the want it to be rather than as it actually is.

Some groups must have recommendations to pledge members. It's is possible that your campus doesn't have any of these groups. And it may not be a big thing to have them from hometown alumnae, but you can't really be 100% sure that no GLO is using them. (I know that you know what you are talking about; I'm not second guessing that you don't see them coming through panhellenic or your sorority.)

ETA: I also don't mean that the Greek Life staff or panhellenic does anything intentionally, but if you downplay recs at a campus where they are needed, you are basically messing up the girls who are completely unfamiliar with greek life.

I also know of some cases where the Rho Chis apparently didn't know what they were doing, and/or there was terrible communication in the Greek Life office. One absolutely precious girl got very sick (going to the hospital sick) the day of prefs (she was scheduled to pref three excellent groups). Despite letting her Rho Chi know what was going on and being at a campus with quota additions, they treated her as if she intentionally withdrew. They didn't even attempt to match her or to explain to the GLOs she was scheduled to pref what has happened. (And who can say for sure, but I've heard that some groups have their bid lists done before prefs, so it's likely that especially with quota additions, she should have gotten a bid.)

As a former Pan officer and having done office hours in the Pan office... I can tell you there is a lot of human error that takes place.

Back in the day, the applications for recruitment were hard copy... none of this new-fangled online stuff. Panhellenic verfied GPA's and SAT scores before making copies of the applications and passing them on to the chapters.

On the application, PNMs were asked to list any sorority affiliations within their families.

If someone listed she was an ABC legacy, the PX's blacked that part out when distributing it to the rest of the chapters. What happened many times is that ABC would get the wrong copy, and ZYX might get the copy intended for ABC-- hence, ABC was unaware of the PNM having an ABC family member and ZYX was. Useless info for ZYX, potentially useful for ABC.

I don't think there is any intentional malice on the part of the Office of Greek Life, or the Panhellenic Officers, but well... s**t happens.

ETA: Another thing that happens... sometimes the PX's are not taught all of the rules of recruitment. I remember a girl who was late for her first party during Round 1. The PX's should have let her into the party, but they assumed since the party had started that she had to sit out. She was cut from that chapter automatically for being a no-show.

I'm sorry, but there is NWIH I'd send anything regarding my sorority to a "dean of students" (not even a dean of Greek Life or student activities) and expect it to get there or stay private. That has nothing to do with college or alumnae panhellenic, nor did my coments.

I don't think anyone has said that they think Annie Alpha is going to open recs and get secret information, rather that some of the things on that rec form are private. I don't know what other groups' rec forms look like, so if they say there's things on there they don't want nonsisters to see, I believe them.

What if by some chance, you were going to No-rec someone? Would you want someone from the Greek Office or Panhellenic to see that? How would you feel if you were Delta Donna and working in the Panhell office, you were sorting mail and happened to see the No-rec for Polly PNM for another group, then she joined your group? I know that's an unlikely situation, but still... I can't imagine something that seems that confidential being sent to a Greek office...

Now there's no way to be sure that the envelop wouldn't be opened, but you can send stuff in an internal envelop addressed to the chapter, so unless the Greek Life office or the Dean's Office wanted to deliberately open someone else's mail, no one could actually read the rec.

You could sign over the seal of the envelope (either the external one or an internal one) then at least the chapter would know if it had been opened. (Might deter others from opening it)

Good idea. That's often what colleges tell teachers to do when they want an application sent recs and all together, but don't necessarily want the teacher to feel like the kid has to read the rec.

the more middle men(women) something has to go thru, the more likely it will get lost, misplaced, destroyed, etc. have your friends send the recs. directly to the appropriate person.

I agree this is the best way.
Even if the school doesn't publicize the contact info, the GLO website will often have chapter contacts.

If for some reason that campus says to send it through the GL office, I might even make a copy to send to the chapter too, just in case.

(I don't think you have to be afraid that GL office will do something intentionally bad or unethical though.)

Whoa, slow down, you're taking this personally. I never said I didn't have faith or trust campus panhellenics. I was pointing out that if one doesn't send their rec to their own sister or chapter, that there is more likely a possibility of someone who is not a member seeing what many of us believe is membership selection, or as someone else said, it getting lost. I know in my office that there is one person who handles mail distribution, and unless it is marked "personal" or "confidential" it is open and sorted before it gets to that person. Maybe there is a non-greek student working in the office because every office is different, the point is, if it isn't sent directly to the org and in care of someone else, there is a potential it won't be private anymore.

I got to thinking, and we have the technology to avoid these issues all together. I remember when I took an online class we used a program called Blackboard/WebCT and there was a feature called "digital dropbox" for turning in assignments. Why not have electronic submissions for forms?

For example, you'd log into your members or sisters only side of your orgs. webpage, and then click on the rec form. You'd be able to fill in the information, select which school or schools to submit it to, and then you'd be done. This way each school could log in and receive their recs, and if an update was needed (say you wrote it in August, and recruitment is in January, you could add more information, or even better for COR events that aren't at set times), it could be reflected as an update. Also a rec could be submitted the day before, and postage and the mail wouldn't be an issue. Obviously there would still be a need for hand written recs, but any personal letters or resumes could be uploaded via MS Word as an attachment, and digital pictures could be attached as well.

Furthermore, having this through the official website with a log in, assures the rec writer is a sister and depending on the group, in good standing. I know on GC it has been mentioned that a legacy rec has been written and the woman wasn't even a member. Having recs filtered through a password system could help with that, and as a rec writer your information could "flood" into the form, thereby saving more time. Lastly, after bid day a member could go into the system and have notice sent to the alumna that "yes she is a new member" or "no, she joined XYZ" which could speed notification as well.

I personally think that the idea of sending them electronically is a great idea! (and wonder why it hasn't been thought of sooner...) In addition to the other reasons why it could work well, there would be no doubt that the chapter received it as it would be logged into the system - additional comfort that the recommendation has been received and read for alumnae who take the time to write them. It could also take some of the pressure off the chapter to notify rec writers after recruitment (especially larger schools - I can only imagine how long it takes to write the 800 thank you notes with the results of PNMs...)

I think this idea would be great!
It could also allow chapters to ask for recs on certain girls if they hadn't gotten one yet.

Brilliant!