Southeastern Conference 2007 & 2008 Recruitment
 

http://www.geocities.com/ncukalumniclub/sec-flags.gif

With the SEC starting recruitment tomorrow, time for the 2007 & 2008 generic SEC rush thread.

Date order
 

thanks to irishpipes for the information

Auburn
Tuesday, August 7th to Monday, August 13th

Georgia
Saturday, August 11th to Thursday, August 16th

Kentucky
Sunday, August 12th to Friday, August 17th

Mississippi State
Monday, August 13th to Saturday, 18th

Alabama
Monday, August 13th to Sunday, August 19th

Tennessee
Saturday, August 18th to Sunday, August 26th

Florida
Saturday, August 18th to Monday, August 27th

Louisiana State
Sunday, August 19th to Sunday, August 26th

South Carolina
Sunday, August 19th to Sunday, 26th

Arkansas
Thursday, September 6th to Monday, September 17th

Mississippi
Sunday, September 23rd to Sunday, September 30th

Vanderbilt
Monday, January 7th to Sunday, January 13th

Alphabetical order by university
 

thanks to irishpipes for the information

Alabama
Monday, August 13th to Sunday, August 19th

Arkansas
Thursday, September 6th to Monday, September 17th

Auburn
Tuesday, August 7th to Monday, August 13th

Florida
Saturday, August 18th to Monday, August 27th

Georgia
Saturday, August 11th to Thursday, August 16th

Kentucky
Sunday, August 12th to Friday, August 17th

Louisiana State
Sunday, August 19th to Sunday, August 26th

Mississippi
Sunday, September 23rd to Sunday, September 30th

Mississippi State
Monday, August 13th to Saturday, 18th

South Carolina
Sunday, August 19th to Sunday, 26th

Tennessee
Saturday, August 18th to Sunday, August 26th

Vanderbilt
Monday, January 7th to Sunday, January 13th

Work Week is in Full Swing at UGA!
 

I was driving down Milledge this morning and had to brake for sorority members. Evidently the Delta Zetas ran across the street to Phi Mu and did a cheer? dropped off cookies? something? and I drove by just as the DZs were running back. I got so nostalgic for the days of choreographed welcome songs.

My son (almost 7) was in the car with me, and told me that all those big houses were were party houses. I thought that was cute.

In other news, the Athens paper reported today that Delta Phi Epsilon is planning to temporarily disband, and sell their house back to the university. If true, that's so sad.

http://onlineathens.com/stories/0809...70809037.shtml

:( My heart goes out to those girls.

Kentucky
 

A friend who is helping with her chapter at UK said they are expecting about the same number of PNMs as last year. As I recall quota was around the mid 50s last year, so that should be at least 660 or so. And if you factor in those who might be released and/or drop out, then it should be more.

Auburn

Is this the current (fall 2007) bid list for Auburn? I haven’t tried to use / rearrange it and calculate the numbers for the chapters:

https://fp.auburn.edu/greek/bidlist.htm

It’s part of the panhellenic web site:

https://fp.auburn.edu/greek/phmain.htm

Yes, it's the current list and irishpipes did the calculations in an Auburn recruitment thread. Sorry but the name escapes me at the moment.

Auburn numbers are here.

The University of Kentucky
 

This article says 900 was anticipated. If no one is released or drop outs, quota would be 75.

And congratulations to UK's panhellenic for two NPC awards!
===
Sorority Recruitment Begins

Media Contact: Gail Hairston
LEXINGTON, Ky. (Aug. 13, 2007) − Recruitment began Saturday, Aug. 11, for University of Kentucky sororities.

During Spirit Week, the week before recruitment, representatives announced the receipt of two awards from the National Panhellenic Council for risk management and a recruitment booklet.

Dorothy Edwards, director of the Violence Intervention and Prevention Center, will speak about safety awareness on Tuesday, Aug. 14. On Aug. 15 communications professor Alan Desantis will give tips about what college professors expect from their students and what students, in turn, can expect from their professors.

All young women taking part in recruitment donated school supplies to children in the Fayette County School District and a school in Jamaica.

Panhellenic equipped each young woman with "The Doctor’s Complete College Girls’ Health Guide" by Dr. Jennifer Wider. National Panhellenic Council recommended the book to each potential new member to promote healthy bodies and strong self images. In addition, each student received the Academic Handbook to help ease the transition from high school to college.

Panhellenic anticipated the participation of about 900 girls in formal recruitment.

Quota at UK last year was 57, so I can't imagine it being at 75 this year! How exciting for everyone! :)

You are correct. My chapter (Psi) has closed and the house did get sold to the University.:( Thankfully, the University has given us an invitation to come back on campus in a few years. It's sad to see my chapter closed, but I know it's for the best at the time being. I wish the other chapters at UGA the best of luck tomorrow when they get their new members!!!:)

The University of Kentucky
 

Preference parties (up to three) are happening now (Noon to 4:30 p.m. ET) with Bid day events starting tomorrow at 2 p.m. ET.

Go Cats!

That would be amazing! However, my understanding is that last year, over 900 signed up. Yet quota was lower because of the number of women who withdrew or were released prior to the preference round.

FYI: UK's IFC Fall Rush starts next Monday!

Ole Miss sororities began "Spirit Workshops" (aka Recruitment Workshops) this past Monday. So far there are about 625 PNMs signed up for recruitment. They have until September 7, 2007 to register. Water Parties (a new round that was added last year) are August 26, 2007. This is a true no frills round and no decorations, flowers, etc are allowed. Panhellenic gives the current chapter members of each house shirts to wear. It's pretty much an open house with water to drink! I figure there will be about 250-300 more PNMs to sign up for recruitment. Things are going well and I know there is a great group of PNMs this year going through recruitment!

The University of Kentucky Bid Day Events are today at 2:00 p.m. ET.

Best of luck to all the UK Kittens.

Where do the girls go if the chapter is disbanding? Do they bid for other sororities?

If one is a member of one NPC group, she cannot pledge another NPC group.

I'm sure that DPhiE has an alumnae group in the Athens area for these women. Is that right, Tammy?

Last weekend I was talking to the Vice Chancellor/Dean of Students at Arkansas. This is the first year they are deferring formal recruitment until September (the 2 weekends after Labor Day). He said the change was made because too many girls didn't get the chapters they wanted during recruitment and dropped out of school, so they were losing too many students. We hear about that kind of thing here on GC, but I admit it was strange to hear it coming from an administrator like that. I personally don't like the new schedule, but we'll see how it goes.

Alabama did this for the first time in 2001, when my oldest went through and I thought it was ridiculous. The reason given was that it would promote racial diversity in the traditionally white sororities. Now that is a valid reason but I never understood how delaying rush would bring it about! They did it again the next year in 2003 a new president came in and put it back to the week before classes started, which, in my then humble opinion, was when rush was SUPPOSED to be anyway.

Well, Ole Miss has a delayed rush, reason being that girls who don't get what they want would drop out otherwise, and for some reason pertaining to the football schedule rush was delayed until the 2nd week of October last year.....after experiencing a TRULY delayed rush I have changed my mind. The 7 weeks she had to get settled, make friends in her dorm, meet some sorority girls, plus living with the notion that she had to be on her very best behavior ;) turned out to be very good for her. We were dissecting Alabama's rush last night (some of our local girls are not very happy, both pnms and actives) and she made the comment that delayed recruitment made so much more sense. This year rush is the end of September and I find myself thinking that waiting another couple of weeks might be a good thing!

Just my 2 cents.

Delayed Rush
 

SECMom, I agree! My daughter was disappointed that Rush did not take place before Homecoming last year but I think it was a good thing to experience some of the college experience before pledging. I also wondered if it wasn't better for those (few) girls who arrive at Ole Miss having not sent (m)any recs - those few weeks give them opportunity to learn more about Rush and get 'things' together. (Of course, the hard part was the fact that they have to juggle classes while rushing... but they seem to handle it fine.)
In the long term, those few weeks are minimal.

A Southern Mom

I went through rush at Ole Miss the last year it was before school. It was easier because you could focus on classes more after rush was over. However, I think everyone seems to like it 6-8 weeks into the school year. They usually plan it during an away game. Last year was during mid-terms and it was tough for actives and PNMs. This year the schedule is much better! This Sunday is Water Parties, a new round implemented last year.

ETA: The retention rate has improved as well and some girls who might not have been as open minded to all houses, are realizing that all 9 sororities at Ole Miss are very good!

The University of Kentucky's IFC rush started today.

I'm sure numbers are kept regarding how many men signed up formally. And the number of men who receive a bid(s). And of course the number of accepted bids. However, unless or things have changed, it is difficult to get a true feel on the number of men actually rushing at UK. As I understand it, you don't have to sign up before hand to rush. And you can attend events for only one fraternity.

Hey TSteven... why do the frats think that need to rush out of sorority houses? Or at least the front yards? Just wondering if you knew.

UK AGD's did excellent... 58 NMs with 57 being quota!

Thanks for the compliment SECDomination!

Speaking of numbers and UF . . . we began the week with 1,216 women and before first preferencing last night, were down to 1150. Our numbers over the last three years have been diminishing. I fear that the harder is becomes to get into this school, the smaller our Greek community will be. I hope the remaining girls stay throughout the week, otherwise we're looking at the smallest pledge classes in a long time.

Congratulations to Alpha Gamma Delta on an excellent job! Interesting that quota was the same as last year. I had heard that quota would be around the same. But for it to be exact number, well that is kind of eerie.

Regarding IFC Rush. For those who may not know, some of UK's fraternities rush out of the sorority houses during formal rush week. These chapters are either un-housed (no official chapter house, dorm floor), or their house is not near main campus - i.e. freshmen dorms. The particular sorority most often does not help with any of the rushing. While they might attend (and that can be good PR for the fraternity), they aren't hosting the event.

The reason (bottom line) is to help even the playing field - as it were - for those chapters not near campus or un-housed. As such, both location and cost come into play.

Location. There isn't a formal IFC rush structure that requires a rushee to attend an event (open house) at each chapter. Rushees are more likely to attend a party that is "right there" on (near) campus. Thus the chapters on or near campus (i.e. walking distance from the freshman dorms) are the ones that are at an advantage for a more productive rush. Rushing out of a sorority house allows the un-housed or away from campus chapters to have an "on campus" base.

Cost. IFC requires all formal rush events to be held at an approved venue (campus facility or a third party venue) between 7 p.m. to 11 p.m. during rush week. Three or four days at a third party venues is quite expensive thus the chapters opt for something on campus. Rushing out of a sorority house (tent in yard) is better than something at the Student Center. Plus the cost to have an event at a sorority house is minimal. For the most part, there isn't a charge for use of the sorority house. The fraternity pays for clean up and I've heard that some make donations (cash, volunteer hours) to the sorority's philanthropy. Plus the sororities get good PR for helping out too.

And for what it is worth, those chapters that do have an off campus house often hold events at their house later on during the week. And they give tours of the house during the week.

From what I've observed, it seems like each fraternity - and the whole IFC system - has some sort of a cycle where pledge numbers (acceptance of bids) are up for a few years. My guess is that the up years can be attributed to more bids being accepted by men who might not normally do so. As such, the issue becomes *why* more bids are accepted in some years and not every year.

My guess it is some sort of combination of the following.

Rushee perspective

Even when they like a chapter or the idea of being Greek, there are always rushees that are uncertain about joining a fraternity. But once they hear or see other men accepting bids, they might decide to do so as well. Thus a kind of snowball affect takes place where uncommitted rushees realize joining is something they really do want to do and do so. Then more rushees see more men joining and they decide to join. Percentage of bid acceptance is up thus numbers are up.

Chapter perspective

Some years, it only takes a few chapters to have a great rush. Or they need to have a good rush number wise. And they do it. In any case, other chapters see how well these chapters are doing and they ramp up their recruitment. Which in turn may translate more men being seriously being rushed (personal invites to more events etc.) which can lead to more men accepting a bid. Ideally, this should be the norm, but not all chapters do this every year. Thus the spike in numbers that year(s).

Football Saturdays are a blast during Keeneland Race Track's fall (October) racing schedule. World class horse racing during the day with football at night. Going to both is fondly called the "Daily Double". A lot of fraternities tailgate first at the track then later at Commonwealth. So if you come for the UK/UF game (October 20th), try to work in a day or two at the track. And if the football game is moved to Saturday day, then the tailgating takes place on Friday. Actually, as I understand it, every Friday is tailgating at Keeneland.

And yes, the SEC Eastern Division is going to be a tough - again. The irony is that UK should be much better than last season, yet our schedule is a killer. Unless we pull off an upset or two, I feel we will be fortunate if we win six games this season.

GO CATS!

Kentucky Panhellenic Recruitment
 

Does anyone have general results? I haven't seen a breakdown listing all the chapters this year. Did the increase in chapter total change things?

Congratulations to all panhellenic and IFC new members!!!

http://www.galen-frysinger.ws/us/keeneland02.jpg

The Social Lawn at Kenneland

http://akamai.edeal.com/images/catal...5133539med.jpg http://akamai.edeal.com/images/catal...img5133630.jpg
And don't forget your Vineyard Vines Custom Keeneland/UKTie

Finally, a tie that combines two of Kentucky's favorite passions - horses and UK! Wear this handsome tie featuring a horseshoe intertwined with a "K" on a Kentucky blue field and you'll boast your true blue pride in style. Created exclusively for Keeneland by Vineyard Vines, this tie is handmade of 100% imported silk and double-lined throughout.

Kentucky Panhellenic Recruitment
 

How the heck did I miss this?

I heard that quota was either 56 or 57. Listed below are the numbers that have been posted by Greek Chat members in their forums.

I did hear some general comments but have yet to see anything official. As such, I prefer not to post *hearsay*. I have a few friends back in Lexington that are somewhat active with their chapters so I'm hoping to hear from them soon with official numbers. However, it may take a while. One is currently on vacation while the other, well, let's just say she can be as slow as molasses on a frosty winter morning when it comes to replying to emails. There are a few other UK folk here of Greek Chat. Hopefully, they will be able to report something soon.

AGD - 58
ADP
AOP
DG - 62
DDD
DZ - 60
KAQ
KD
KKG
PBF
SK - 45
CW

FYI: IFC bids could be extend starting today at 9 a.m. I am not sure if the rushees have to wait until tomorrow to accept or if they could accept today.

Sigma Kappa took in 45 wonderful new ladies. :)

Water Parties are this Sunday, August 26, 2007 at Ole Miss. The parties begin at 2 P.M. They are just an open house style party with no decorations at all, no nothing. Both the PNMs and Actives wear a shirt that Panhellenic has designated for them. The parties go by quick. It's basically a way for PNMs to see each house and maybe meet a new active or two. Then on September 26, 2007, the first round of philanthropy parties begin.

ETA: I heard there are about 780 PNMs registered so far. They have until Sept. 7, 2007 to register....

With the registration deadline after the Water Parties this Sunday, I'm guessing the first round (philanthropy) parties are open and not invite?

Yes the first round is open. They do break the PNMs into groups but no names are called out or anything like when the actives run out to pick them up to bring them inside. If a PNM has not signed up yet and didn't attend this round today, they are not penalized. It's basically just a way for the PNMs to see each house without decorations and stuff!

In the end, quota was 55 at UF.

I thought it was pretty interesting that at the University of Arkansas, they are now providing PNMs with 3 recruitment t-shirts - one to wear each round. The PNM only wears her own outfit for prefs.

Great! More money to spend on jewelry....