silence?
 

i dont really understand what the silence period is...can you not talk to anyone or what? thanks so much!

silence is that period of time when sorority member are not supposed to hold conversations with potential new members.

ooo thanks! haha someone told me that you couldnt talk to anyone at all so i was confused!

They might have been operating under the "better safe than sorry" principle if the person you talked to was in a sorority and you didn't know it. But even if you as a rushee (I'm assuming you're a rushee) would talk to someone in a sorority, nothing happens to you - it's up to the sorority member to enforce the silence period and just let you know she's a sister.

So if people seem standoffish or snobbish for a day, don't take it personally! :)

At bama on pref night, "strict silence" is enforced meaing no one is allowed to talk at all between parties or on the way to sign pref cards. PNMs can not talk to each other and are not even supposed to talk to their rho chis unless they have a question...no chit chat. No one is allowed to talk until after pref cards are signed and then PNMs are still not allowed to talk to sorority women. This year bid day was on a Sunday and bids were distributed at 5pm. The PNMs were only allowed to leave their rooms on Sunday from 10-2 for church.

Wow! I'm Jewish and I think I'd still go to church in that case just to get some human interaction!

Serious question; not trying to be snarky -- what pupose does this serve?

um, dirty rush repellant??

Yep. Also, I think it keeps the sorority women out of potentially sticky situations...such as a PNM coming up to them and asking if they got a bid. And, in Bama's case, it keeps final tent-talk down.

Normal silence serves the purposes above. Crazy restrictive silence just breeds resentment among non-Greeks because their Greek friends can't talk to them or because it's seen as snobbery when they're unaware it's a rule.

You mean Dirty Rush Repellant Batspray?

Thanks everyone.

I'm sure Batman has a can of that on his utility belt!:D

It only applies to women participating in recruitment and current sorority women. Sorority women can talk to other sorority women and anyone can talk to anyone else outside of the sorority system. And like I said earlier, this only applies on Pref night so from the time the girls arrive on sorority row until after they have signed their pref cards.

At least they can go to church and pray they get their #1 choice.

Do I hear an amen?

Do I hear thunder, and a bolt of lightning coming my way???

Seriously, I think it's nice that they let them go to church. I wish they wouldn't have bid day on Sunday, though. When mine went through, it wasn't so late in the day, and it was a weekday.

Vulcan mindmeld with daughter: NO I didn't say too much. And get out of my head.

I understand maintaining the silence until the pref cards are signed, but why the strict silence after that? Suppose dirty rushing is attempted...the card is already signed, sealed, and delivered. As long as there was a rule that the card cannot be changed once it is submitted, I don't see the danger.
________
ROLL A JOINT

at my college pnms could not talk from the time they got their invites to pref parties til you found out if you got a bid. we could talk to actives at events but had to be completely silent on the rides between parties and after we filled out bid cards. we were stuck in a room watching sorority life all day (i think that was a coincidence...we all thought it was kinda funny though!) i understand why we couldnt talk before we filled out bid cards though. they didnt want us to influence each others decisions by saying stuff after parties. no idea why we couldnt talk once we did our bid cards though. thats something ill never understand!

Pre-Hazing?;):D

I've been out of college for 5 years, so things have changed alot, but please tell me that Pan-Hellenics don't actually expect a PNM not to talk to an active (in vice versa) if they have a class together? Especially when some school recruitments are like two weekends long. :confused: