Univ. of Southern California Begins Recruitment
 

Recruitment has started at the Univ. of Southern California. There are now ten GLOs at SC who are participating. I was told that 802 women have signed up at Panhellenic. It was a larger number than expected at this private university. Last fall all groups made quota.

The recruitment events are scheduled on two weekends. Parties were held Sunday and Monday and will conclude next weekend with Bid Day on Sunday. :)

And it must be all air conditioners Go! Yesterday it was 109 here at 10 am :eek:, with some rolling blackouts in Orange County!

FIGHT ON TROJAN WOMEN!

Good luck to all the pnm's. Rush out west tends not to be as competitive - except at USC. Glad I have a breather:D

Do we have any PNMs out there for USC? I can't wait to hear some recruitment stories!

Today at SC recruitment resumes. House tours will begin at 3:15 to 10:00 p.m. Potential new members may visit up to 6 chapters out of the 10 participating.

I know of two young ladies from our hs who are rushing. I did one of their rec's. They are as different as can be - one very sporty, cute and fun, the other, majorly into theatre, pretty, extremely smart, but also a GREAT personality.

It will be interesting to see how they end up. I probably won't get any details, but I will pass along how they do:)

I can't wait to hear how your two young ladies do Srmom. I hope everything goes well for them. What an exhausting day today will be! But at least the weather has cooled down here significantly! :rolleyes:

Southern California had preference this morning. Bids will be extended this evening. I have a Panhellenic unconfirmed quota number much higher than last year.

Good luck wishes to the newest GLO at SC, Sigma Delta Tau.

what is quota?

As soon as it is confirmed I will post the quota. It is significantly higher than last year.

I think today is bid day! I'm so excited/nervous. I have friends in Alpha Phi, ADPi and AXO at USC and another friend who's going though. I can't wait to hear how they did/where they wound up!

The girls pick up their bids at 8:00 PT. Bid Night is from 8:00 until 11:00 PT.

My friend who is rushing visited Pi Phi and G-Phi last night. I hope she gets what she wants! She also just texted me that the chapters were 2 hours late turning in bid lists, so the bid night festivities might be a little late...

I don't have any information about the numbers, but I do know my friend is a Gamma Phi Beta! So that's very exciting

Congratulatiions to your friend - and Gamma Phi!

Chapters were super late with bidlists...but there have been rumors floating around of pledge classes at two houses reaching the number 77. Right now the girls are all at the chapter houses...the decorations are insane (with Theta's ferris wheel taking the cake). The girls ran down the row to get to their houses with hundreds of fraternity members making tunnels for them to run through. Everybody looked really excited although rumors are floating around that there is at least one chapter where a majority of their pledge class did not show up to bid night which may be a result of the higher than normal numbers. When I hear concrete numbers I can let people know.

Thanks - can't wait to hear how we did (fingers crossed!)

Can anyone get pictures of the decorations? I am dying to see the ferris wheel.

the pledge class didn't show up? How could that happen? Can you say which chapter?

Bid Night was late. The early report from a very tired and happy alumna was Tri-Delta took 67 new members. Their theme was "Carnival", but I have no photos at this time since my friend forgot her camera! She indicated the preparations for the theme were elaborate, but I have no details yet. One of the new members is the daughter of Mark Hammill of Luke Skywalker fame. George Lucas is an alumnus of SC.

Our chapter house is at the other end of the row from Theta. We are near Sigma Chi, Kappa and ADPi.

Teeroze,
SC is a private university where there is a strong feeling of family. Many pnms are third or fourth generation Trojans. Unfortunately, some of these women decide quite young which group they wish to join. When the bid is extended and it is not the "one" desired a pnm will drop.
Our chapter is 86 years old. There are sometimes more direct legacies who "rush" than places in the new member class.

But how can it happen that two chapters get 77 new pledges, and another chapter only gets a few? I thought there were safeguards in place to keep that from happening. Can anyone guess as to which chapters took the high number of pledges?

I do love some "frills!" :D

There are limits. Right now I am wondering if that is a rumor. Last year every house took quota. My contact did not indicate any house took 77 new members, but she was so tired I did not hear many details.

As far as I know all the chapters at SC have over a hundred members.

Congrats to your friend and the Beta Alpha chapter of Gamma Phi Beta!

Thanks Football Fan -
The same will probably happen this year, with each house taking quota.

I wonder which end of the row they started running from...jwsteele?

SC Update
 

Teeroze,
An alumna wrote she understands that all chapters made quota except one. A chapter was only one under quota. She believes it is a rumor that two houses took 77 girls.
Her understanding is that quota ended up being 62, much lower than originally thought. My guess is that when the preference cut was made to two chapters from four pnms dropped out.
Fan

so quota was 62, and tri-delts took 67...quota +5...wow, that's great!

Sorry about the 77 statistic...that came from a girl in one of the two sororities that supposedly made that number but she was wrong about her own numbers...they actually made 69 (which is still huge compared to usual). The numbers I have heard (granted, from sorority women as opposed to "official numbers" so they might not be completely accurate) are as follows:

Theta - 69
Delta Gamma - 69
Alpha Delta Pi - 70 (supposedly the largest)
Tri-Delt - 67

The situation with the low pledge class was that they made quota from women who preffed them second ending up on their final bid list. However, when the women saw that they got their second choice they decided not to pledge the group. My guess is that there was some pressuring of PNMs to not suicide and they did so thinking they were going to get their first choice. Who knows, I won't reveal which chapter but I am sure they are handling it quietly and are going to start COB soon. I am sure they will do fine in the end.

The ferris wheel was pretty insane, it wasn't huge but I will try to get pictures from my friends in Theta. Sometimes with the over-the-top frills, multiple generation in-house legacies and sundresses starting Round #1 (not to mention a rabid allegiance to our football team) I feel like USC should be an honorary SEC conference member...but then again, that would be unfair to SEC sports teams.

Oh, and to answer teeroze's question, there is a small low-traffic street that splits the row in half...this street is connected to a super-long pedestrian walkway nicknamed "Trousdale" that starts on campus and leads from one end of campus to the other, then to student apartments/religious centers, and then the row. The girls ran from the middle of campus, past the apartments and then down the tunnel of fraternity members on the smaller street before heading off to either the right or left.

amycat needs to be on this thread!!

I heard Kappa had big numbers too...

The Row: sounds like they have alot of fun there...

From The Daily Trojan
 

Panhellenic new member count highest since 1985

Nearly every house reached council's minimum goal for new member class.

Hannah Kim
Issue date: 9/11/07 Section: News

It's been a long wait for potential new members of the Panhellenic Council sororities this year.

This fall, the Greek council's traditional weeklong recruitment period was spread out over two weekend sessions. On Sunday night, some potential new members waited hours to receive their bid cards.

But nothing hindered the loud cheers as recruits, clutching their cards, rushed from Topping Student Center to Tommy Trojan and then on The Row on Sunday evening to celebrate with their new sorority sisters.

Sorority membership continued to climb this year, with Panhellenic reporting its highest participation and bid rates since 1985, said Debbie Liu, vice president of recruitment.

This fall, 836 potential new members registered for recruitment and, 606 bids were extended from sororities, Liu said.

Liu said she could not be more pleased with the results of this year's recruitment process.

"I love that so many more women were willing to accept bid cards," she said of the increased numbers.

Liu also complimented the quality of the new members.

"[USC's] incoming classes are becoming stronger academically and in terms of involvement, and our new member classes reflect that," she said. "They really do have it all."

Nearly all the houses reached the Panhellenic-wide quota of adding at least 62 new members, Liu said. The quota is the minimum new member goal for each house, based on recruitment registration figures. Eight of the nine chapters met the goal, with five reaching 99. The previous year's quota for new members per house was 56.

A new recruitment schedule seemed to help many potential new members.

Reaghan Gittin, a potential new member and a sophomore majoring in psychology, said that the rush changes had great advantages.

"Having it in two weeks gives you a break," she said. "It's nice and it gets the job done."

When asked about the possibility that dirty rushing - the attempt to sway which house potential new members choose - occurred throughout the extended rush period, Liu said recruitment rule infractions were minimized because of informational presentations by the PHC judicial board explaining the rules to each chapter before recruitment began.

"We didn't have any significant problems with it this year," Liu said.

The judicial process has not been completed, but she said she does not expect any harsh disciplinary actions.

Though excited to join the sorority houses, some potential new members said they were simply happy to be done with the recruitment process.

"It's been a long two weeks," said sophomore Elizabeth Trawick.

Does anyone know if SDT is going to acquire a house and start participating in Formal Recruitment with the rest of the Panhellenic members?

Am I the only one confused by this entire statement? Quota is the maximum goal, not minimum....and did five sororities actually get 99 new members when quota was 62?? That does not sound right. Should quota have been higher? Maybe 99 is the total. :confused:

"Nearly all the houses reached the Panhellenic-wide quota of adding at least 62 new members, Liu said. The quota is the minimum new member goal for each house, based on recruitment registration figures. Eight of the nine chapters met the goal, with five reaching 99. The previous year's quota for new members per house was 56."

Smiley,
That has to be a typing error. House totals are probably around or close to 200. (I will try and find that out.) I imagine that she meant to type 69. Quota was 62. As far as I was told Sigma Delta Tau participated in formal rush. I never recall this many quota additions.
Keep in mind that 836 is a very large number of pnms as the SC freshman class is only around 2760. This year they had over 36,000 applicants for those places.

Do you mean Sigma Delta Tau?

A Ferris Wheel? Wow... just, wow!

Congratulations to all USC chapters on a Recruitment well done!

So sorry.....I did mean Sigma Delta Tau. I checked the Panhellenic site at SC and they are now a member of the Panhellenic Council at SC along with the other nine NPC chapters.
.......sincere apologies to the ladies of Sigma Delta Tau.

In the USC Greek Life magazine, they are quoted as being unhoused, Jewish oriented and don't participate in Formal Recruitment. I just wondered if it was because they were unhoused or if that was a conscious decision, regardless of housing. I was just curious.